Your Human and You

by MadMaxtheBlack

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Original Character, Princess Celestia, Sex, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Discord, Gore, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 680921

A twisted take on HiE stories

For Equus, humans have always been viewed as animals, creatures that could neither think nor reason. That's the way it has been since humans were first discovered nearly a thousand years ago. All that changes for Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned princess of Equestria, when she finds out that her human is as intelligent as she is.

Max, a human from Earth, finds himself stuck in a world where ponies rule and humans are treated as pets. Now, with the help of his "owner", he must adapt and learn his place in this new world. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

However, something unseen is lurking in the background, pulling strings, and a darkness stirs deep beneath Canterlot.

...and what dark secrets do the humans of Equestria hold?

Also contains the side story, Interlude: Sunbutt, staring here: Part One

Editing by: Malefactory, Captain Croissandwich, Tired Old Man, Exanime32, Katherine Kerensky, Aussie Hard-Dick, Holy Macintosh, and others!

Dramatic Reading by Night Scribe: here
Dramatic Reading by DT the Lost Water Spirit: here
Dramatic Reading by Daniel Scratch Animations: here
Review by Robinofdeed: here
Deviantart Fan Art Group: here
YouTube Review: here

Published 2013-06-21 01:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2019-02-28 06:39:31 UTC

Chapter 2: Breaching Hell

Bright sunlight blinded me as I stepped out of the compartment and into the harsh daylight. Raising my bound hands to cover my eyes, I blinked as they tried to readjust to the sudden change in brightness. As my vision slowly returned, I glanced around at my surroundings. I felt my jaw drop at what I saw.

We had long since left the desert behind; there was no sign of sand anywhere at all. Instead, we were now surrounded by tall, white buildings. They loomed over us like colossal stone giants. Marble walls gleamed in sunlight, dazzling the eye. In the distance, a large mountain took up most of the remaining skyline, towering over the city. It was a breathtaking sight, and I had only been there for a few seconds.

As I tore my gaze away from the white citadel before me, I suddenly became aware of the hundred or so small horses swarming around the train station, going about their lives. This world was like some sort of little kid’s cartoon show brought to life, but without most of the cartoonish qualities I'd expect. The horses' coats seemed to be every color of the rainbow, but their colors seemed to fit them well, almost as if that was how it was naturally supposed to be. It still hurt my eyes, though. None of the colorful horses paid us any attention as they went about their daily tasks. Apparently humans showing up en masse was a pretty common occurrence.

As I continued to stare at the sea of multicolored horses, the red unicorn stallion turned to one of his companions behind me.

“Why are all these ponies here at the station?” he hissed, his blue eyes narrowing. “I thought they were supposed to clear the area for us!” His companion just shrugged her shoulders, then proceeded to start herding our group forward.

As we hurried through the streets, the crowd of ponies slowly spread in front of us, clearing a path. As we passed, most simply turned their noses up in disgust. They would whisper to one another as they watched us with haughty expressions. Some snickered as we passed, sticking out their hooves to trip random humans. Others even threw pieces of fruit. I noticed that the majority of the ponies taunting us wore what appeared to be very expensive-looking clothing. Not every pony did, but there were enough for it to be noticeable.

My brow furrowed in confusion as I spied a unicorn in a tuxedo watching the pack with a small smirk. Why are only some of them wearing clothing? Is it an optional thing? As I passed by another pony wearing a particularly fancy dress, another thought popped into my head. Might it have something to do with wealth? I went with that theory, seeing as the city itself seemed to be more of a high class-like environment.

Not all ponies treated us in such a deplorable manner. Some just stood to the side as we passed, shooting us looks of pity as we passed. One mare, a pale pegasus, shouted something at one of the ponies herding us, a look of anger on her face. The unicorn she insulted just snarled at her before giving the human in front of him a jab with their taser. The ponies that seemed sympathetic towards us were ones that didn’t have any articles of clothing on. Some of them seemed out of place too, like they were just visiting the city.

Tearing my gaze away from another sneering face, I instead took time to try and study the city as it flashed by. Hopefully I would have a chance to escape, and I would do better if I had an inkling of where to go. My head felt like it was going to fall off my neck as I swiveled it around, trying to take in every little detail possible. Back on Earth, I had been to New York City for a high school trip with our orchestra. At the time of the trip, I had thought that the huge city was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen. I grew up in a small town, so the skyscrapers blew my mind with their sheer size. Now, however, the city I was in blew that all out of the water. It was perfect in almost every way, from the buildings, to the décor. This white metropolis made New York City look like Detroit at its worst.

I was dimly aware of Sunny hovering nearby, giggling at me as I looked around at the city. I didn’t really care however, I was too busy admiring the incredible buildings around me.

“Downtown is going to be packed this time of day,” one of the unicorns shouted above the noise. The red unicorn, who appeared to be the leader of the group, nodded. Glancing around, he motioned for Pearl and Rose to take the lead.

“Divert them down past the palace,” he growled. “We’ll move around and head towards the market that way.” After several jabs and shocks from the tasers, we were soon hustling down one of the side streets. The humans pushed and shoved each other in the tight space, only kept moving by the threat of pain. Any human that was foolish enough to fall behind was immediately zapped by the following unicorns. Sunny continued to hover over the crowd, keeping a close eye on the humans. However, she seemed to be favoring the area around me. Someone’s playing favorites, I sung in my head. I didn’t know why she was so taken with me, but I was glad that she cared enough about me to want to keep an eye on me. It meant that there was at least one creature here who cared if I was alright.

After an abrupt turn, we continued down another side street, thundering along like a herd of cattle. We passed through several more side streets before we emerged into the open, sunlight streaming down upon us. As my eyes adjusted quickly, I immediately saw that we had emerged just outside of the palace. Large white walls seemed to glow with their own light, even in the noonday sun. Large ivory towers, emblazoned with gold, soared into the sky. I could even see a semi-hidden garden just around the far corner of the castle. The whole sight was magnificent.

I didn’t get long to gape at the view, as the unicorns forced us onwards. We hurried along the outer perimeter of the palace’s fence. Compared to the crowded streets we were previously on, the road in front of the palace was relatively empty. Only a few guards were patrolling the outer perimeter, their golden armor shining in the sunlight. The unicorns in our group kept casting nervous glances at the guards as we neared. I could see Rose muttering to herself under her breath. None of the ponies looked happy to be this close to the palace.

“It’s not ideal,” the red stallion muttered, discreetly glaring at the guards. “Let’s just get to the market before I regret this decision.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult,” Pearl said, eyes never leaving the guards. “From here it’s a straight shot to the marketplace.” We continued along the fence line in near silence, the only sound being that of a human occasionally grunting in pain when a unicorn nudged them back into the herd. None of the ponies spoke, each keeping their heads down. Soon the main gate of the palace came into sight. It held to the same theme as the rest of the palace: big, and golden. It was also guarded by a handful of armored ponies; some on the ground, some in the air. Each of the ponies herding us grew tense as they neared the gate. The guards, for the most part, just watched us with an emotionless glare, looking for any indication that we were a threat.

We had just reached the main gate when a chorus of loud trumpets sounded, causing most of the humans to flinch. The red stallion swore under his breath, gritting his teeth in anger.

“Of all the accursed luck,” he growled. “We had to run into her.” The unicorns started to try and move the pack of humans off of the main road, out of the way of the main gates. Unfortunately, in the resulting confusion, our group was split in two. Half of the humans and unicorns moved to one side of the gate, while the other half stayed on the other side. Even in the commotion, Sunny was never more than a few feet away from me, trying to herd humans from her position in the air. As the humans jostled against one another, I was pushed forward to the front of the group. My new position gave me a clear view of the main road. The trumpets sounded again, this time closer.

“Get them on their knees!” Pearl hissed, her horn lighting up. The other unicorns followed suit and, as one, they pushed every human to their knees. Soon, all of us were kneeling at the edge of the road. Some of the humans didn’t like the sudden force upon them, and they began to struggle against the magic. A quick zap from a prod quickly put an end to any resistance.

I just knelt there, staring at the ground, trying to ignore the immense pressure now pushing down on me. It felt like an invisible person was draped across my shoulders, holding me down. As I tried to ease some of the pressure off of my body, the main gates slowly swung open. I kept my gaze down, even as two armed ponies walked past me, their armor clanking as they marched. A shadow passed over me as something large moved silently past. Suddenly, I felt a shiver run through my body. My throat tightened, and the burning sensation returned for just a split second before fading. I suddenly felt cold, even though it was a warm summer day.

Someone is walking over my grave, I thought, shivering again. I heard a small gasp, and the sound of hooves came to a sudden stop. After several tense seconds of silence, the hoofsteps picked up again, but instead of getting softer, they were getting louder. The shadow fell over me, and I tensed slightly as a pair of large, gold clad hooves entered my vision. Oh shit. I gulped, sweat forming on my brow as I stared down at the hooves. Slowly, I raised my head and looked up at the pony in front of me. My breath caught in my throat at the sight.

She was taller than any pony I had yet seen, standing nearly six feet in height. The horn on her head added another foot to her height, easily. Her coat was a stunning white; the purest I had ever seen. Massive wings extended from her sides, her long feathers glowing softly in the sunlight. Her mane, composed of mix of blue, green, purple and pink, flowed impossibly in a non-existent breeze. A golden tiara rested on her head, glinting in the sunlight. Part of her glorious mane fell across her face, covering one of her magenta eyes. Her eye had an inner light to them, and seemed to almost radiate kindness and peace. They held intelligence too, as well as a hidden fatigue, almost as if she had seen many, many years in her lifetime. Everything about her appearance just screamed ruler to me.

Despite her gentle disposition, power seemed to flow from her. I could feel it radiating from her, almost like a static charge, the hair on my arms standing on end. The very air thrummed with her presence. I felt that, if she wanted to, she could end my life with little to no trouble. A little voice in the back of my head was whispering that she would do just that if I angered her. The very thought chilled my bones.

I’m not sure when my mouth fell open, but I became aware of it when some drool fell onto my bound hands. Blinking, I pushed aside the fear growing in the back of my mind. I snapped my jaw shut, blushing at such uncouth behavior. I don’t think she noticed, or if she did, she just didn’t care.

“Now, what do we have here?” she asked, talking more to herself than anyone else. Her voice was soft and motherly, calming my nerves and creating a sense of peace in the air. It had a light, musical note to the tone, almost as if she was about to sing. She continued to stare at me for several more seconds before turning to the unicorn beside me. The red stallion tensed as her gaze fell upon him.

“Are these humans headed to the market?” she asked, never raising her voice. At the sound of her voice, Red seemed to bow lower, if that was even possible.

“Yes, your majesty,” he said, never lifting his head. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to stab his horn into the ground. Sweat dripped from his brow, and his body seemed to quiver slightly. On the other side of the road, Rose and Pearl shifted on their hooves, obviously uncomfortable. The monarch hummed quietly to herself as she returned her attention to me. Her magenta eyes drifted slowly over my body, taking in every detail. I squirmed a little under her intense gaze. After several tense seconds she spoke again.

“Is this one spoken for?” she asked, waving a golden hoof in my direction. I flinched back as she moved, the little voice in my head telling me to make a run for it. Unfortunately, the pressure of Red’s magic kept me still, otherwise I would have attempted it.

“N-no, your majesty,” Red replied, raising his head slightly to finally gaze up at her. “Our scout found him wandering around out in the desert about two weeks ago. She rescued him, and we transported him here. Nopony has yet to claim him, nor has anypony made an offer as of yet.” His black tail twitched slightly as he talked. The monarch continued to stare down at me, her gaze only intensifying. Suddenly, a spark of light flashed across her eyes, and a look of comprehension slowly spread across her face.

“So, it was you who I saw struggling out in the wastelands,” she whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. I had no clue what she was talking about, so I figured she was simply thinking out loud. Slowly, she leaned down, tilting her head to the side slightly. “It would seem that you have a higher purpose here, but what it is I do not truly know.”

“Y-your majesty?” Red stammered, trying to keep his voice steady. He looked about as confused as I felt. The monarch blinked once, before leaning back and snorting softly.

“Sorry,” she said, still looking at me. “Just the ramblings of an aging princess.” Returning her gaze to Red, she smiled down at him. Her next statement caught everyone off guard. “If none have shown any interest in him, then I shall be the first.”

The princess of the land is interested in me? What’s going on? I thought, staring up at her in amazement. Why the hell is she interested in me? Red just stood beside me, gazing up at his ruler, mouth agape.

“Y-your majesty?” he asked, his ear twitching. His normally steely voice sounded almost tentative. The princess just smiled down at him.

“I said that I shall be the first to show an interest in him, my little pony,” she repeated, her voice still calm and gentle. “How much is the asking price?”

“We haven’t had him appraised yet,” Red said, swallowing heavily. He seemed to be calming down slightly, though. He must have thought the princess showing interest in me was a good sign somehow. “We were hoping to have him reviewed at the marketplace today.”

“I see,” the princess hummed, turning her gaze back to me. “I guess I’ll just have to make an uneducated offer then.” She chewed on her lip as she sized me up again, her enchanting and power-filled eyes feeling like they were scanning my very soul. Finally, she spoke again.

“How does one-and-a-quarter million bits sound?” I wasn’t exactly sure how much a bit was worth, but by the reaction of the unicorns in the group I’d say that it was quite a lot. Sunny practically fell out of the sky. They all stared at the princess with their bottom jaws on the ground. After several seconds, Red’s brain finally caught up with the situation.

“One-and-a-quarter m-million b-b-bits?” the poor stallion stammered out, gazing at the princess with an expression I just couldn’t place. “A-are you s-serious, your majesty?” The princess looked down at him, a look of innocence on her face.

“What, do you think that that is not enough?” she asked, a small smile slowly spreading across her face. “Very well then, how does two million sound?” Do I smell a troll here? I was starting to like this pony a little more. The feeling of power still radiating from her still made me wary. But maybe, a stronger voice in my head reasoned, she wasn’t all that bad.

“Two million?!” Red looked like he was going to faint. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that he had never even imagined that amount of money before. Now it was being offered to him, for just a simple human. Even though his face was slightly pale, I could see his mind racing as he glanced between me and the princess. His cold eyes narrowed as he thought. Finally, he shook his head, clearing the cobwebs from his brain. Standing up straighter, he turned to the princess, a smirk on his face.

“I do believe that you have yourself a deal,” he said, his voice back to its normal tone. He then seemed to remember who he was talking to. “Your majesty,” he quickly added on.

“It’s settled then,” the princess said cheerfully. “Two million bits for the human.” She turned her head and nodded to one of her guards. The armored unicorn stepped forward and passed a slip of paper to Red. He grabbed it in his magic, his grin growing slowly wider.

“Just take that to the Royal Treasury and they’ll provide you with the bits,” the guard said, his voice gruff and firm. With that, he returned to his previous position behind the princess, his face still expressionless. Rose and Pearl just stared at the slip of paper in Red’s grasp, their mouths still hanging open. I think that they might have been broken.

“Does he happen to have a handler?” the princess asked, glancing at the other stunned unicorns in the group. All of them froze instantly, their bodies tensing. The smile that had been present on Red’s face vanished instantly. He looked up at the princess with a fearful expression. She didn’t notice, however, as she was still looking around at the surrounding ponies.

“I believe that w-would be me, your highness,” Sunny finally said quietly, her voice trembling as she flapped her wings nervously. All the unicorns relaxed as she spoke up. Rose gave a sigh of relief as her sister seemed to sag slightly in place. The princess took no notice of these reactions. Instead, she just nodded up to Sunny, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Very good,” she said. “Collar him then, if you would be so kind, and then follow me please.” Turning, the princess began to head back towards the gates she had just exited minutes ago. Red’s magic lifted from my back and Sunny landed softly beside me, a collar clasped in her hooves. Wait... where did she get the collar? I blinked at her, my mind trying to process where exactly the collar had come from.

“It’s alright boy,” she cooed, obviously trying to keep me calm. “Everything’s gonna be just fine." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as she slipped the collar over my head. She tightened it quickly, just leaving enough room so that it didn’t strangle me. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it wasn’t loose enough to come off easily on its own. Clipping a leash to the collar, she gave it a gentle tug before flying after the princess. With no other choice in the matter, I rose to my feet and followed after the two mares.

As I passed through the gateway, one of the guards, a white pegasus mare with a blue mane, stepped forward. Her yellow eyes narrowed slightly as she gazed into mine. She snorted before turning towards the princess who was still walking down the path. As she turned, I caught a glimpse of three feathers on her flank. It looked like they were made of steel.

“Princess,” she said, calling after the retreating monarch. “What about your meeting with the mayor of Manehattan?” The princess turned her head to glance back at the guard, her pace never halting as she continued to head towards the palace.

“Send him my sincerest apologies if you could, Captain Tempest,” she called back, a small smile once again present on her face. “I’m afraid that I’ll have to reschedule our meeting. Something important has just come up that requires my attention." Captain Tempest nodded once, her mane falling into her eyes.

“It shall be done,” she said, brushing aside the strands with a hoof. Turning, her wings snapped open and she took to the air. Hovering for several seconds, she suddenly shot off towards the city, a blur of gold and white against the clear blue sky. I watched her go until I felt a tug on the collar again. Turning, I followed Sunny as we trailed behind the princess.

As we neared the massive doors that led into the castle, I glanced up at the white battlements that loomed over us. Armored unicorns gazed down at the lawn, watching for any signs of danger. I felt a lump rising in my throat as the shadow of the massive palace fell upon me. I wasn’t entirely sure what just happened exactly, but hopefully my luck was starting to turn around.

Hopefully...

Chapter 3: Questions and Answers, part 1

Chapter 3: Questions and Answers, part 1

The sound of hooves and muffled footsteps were the only sounds that echoed around the large hallways of the palace. I caught a glimpse of one or two maids down a couple of the side passages, but for the most part it was just me, Sunny and the princess. We walked in silence for several minutes. The princess seemed to be deep in thought, occasionally chewing on her bottom lip as she glanced back at me. Something about me was clearly bothering her, and from the way I shivered whenever she looked at me, I’d say that the feeling was mutual. Just being near this being was causing me to sweat and my heart to beat faster. I didn’t like it, not one bit.

Sunny was clearly very uncomfortable, but for a different reason entirely. Her body was tense and it looked like she was trying to keep her posture perfect. I don’t think she was used to being in the presence of royalty, so she didn’t know exactly how to act. Her wings quivered slightly at her sides, and she looked ready to bolt. Truth be told, if she made a run for it, I would probably be right behind her.

The three of us continued in this uncomfortable silence for several more minutes until the princess suddenly stopped. Sunny wasn’t paying attention and walked into her back leg. She squeaked at the impact, backpedaling wildly as a stream of apologies issued from her mouth. The monarch just looked back at Sunny, blinking as if she had only just realized that she was there.

“I’m sorry, my little pony,” she said, smiling down at Sunny. “It seems I was lost in thought.” Looking back up at me, she tongued the inside of her cheek for a moment before shaking her head.

“Th-th-that’s quite alright, your m-majesty,” Sunny stuttered, avoiding the princess’ eyes. Instead she seemed to become fascinated with one of the paintings on the wall: a lovely scene of the moon rising above a calm lake in the mountains.

“I actually have some questions regarding this human,” the princess continued, keeping her voice calm and gentle. “That is, if you don’t mind answering, Miss…?” Sunny blinked up at the princess for several seconds before she realized that the monarch had asked her a question.

“S-Sunny Breeze, your majesty,” the pegasus replied quickly, her voice squeaking slightly. “And I’ll try my best to answer any questions you may have.”

“Please, call me Celestia, Ms. Breeze,” the princess said, laughing softly. Sunny gawked up at Celestia, blinking stupidly at her. I think the request broke her. Princess Celestia seemed to realize this as well, as her smile grew slightly wider as she stared at Sunny, giggling at her stunned face.

Turning slowly, Celestia continued down the hallway, leaving Sunny and me behind.

“You said that you are his handler, correct?” she called back over her shoulder. Shaking her head, Sunny snapped herself out of her daze. Trotting quickly after the princess, she pulled me along with her. I stumbled slightly, my balance off due to my hands still being bound. Catching up with Celestia, Sunny trotted next to her.

“Well, technically he doesn’t exactly have a handler,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Celestia glanced at her sideways with a raised eyebrow, causing Sunny to gulp loudly. “B-but, I am the one who took care of him the most during his transportation, so I’m the one that knows him best.” She was extremely nervous; she was practically wilting under Celestia’s gaze, even though the princess didn't show any sign of anger. She was shivering slightly as she walked, and I felt my heart go out to her. She was clearly out of her comfort zone, and out of her element, both of which I could relate to at the moment.

Taking a chance, I decided to ignore my own discomfort, and try and help her calm down. Walking up behind her, I proceeded to gently, yet firmly, bump her flank with my knee. She yelped and jumped slightly at the touch. Glancing back at me, she immediately seemed to relax as her eyes locked with mine. She smiled at me and turned to nuzzle my bound hands. I could feel and see her beginning to relax. I wasn’t completely sure why my presence was enough to calm her, but at least my gamble had paid off. She was more at ease, and because of that I felt a little less stressed. My god, I’m starting to care for these ponies now, aren’t I?

Sunny stopped nuzzling my hands, but continued to smile up at me. I would have smiled back, but my lips were still heavily chapped from the very little water I received on the train, and I didn’t want to reopen old wounds. Having completed my task, I returned my attention towards Celestia, only to find her watching us with a smile on her face. Looking back, Sunny saw this as well. Her face immediately went bright red and she ducked her head in embarrassment.

“You seem to have formed quite an impressive bond with him in the two weeks you’ve spent together,” Celestia commented, her eyes sparkling with mirth. Sunny sputtered, her face turning even redder. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no words came out. Her brain was too busy trying to figure out what to say. Celestia giggled (yes, giggled) at Sunny’s expense, her musical laugh filling the hallway we stood in.

“Despite the fact that most ponies tend to believe that humans are more of an aggressive species, with good reason I might add, they tend to also have tender moments,” Celestia continued, beginning to walk again. Sunny and I followed silently behind her. “I have no doubt that the human here noticed you seemed overly stressed, which was obviously causing him stress as well.” Glancing down at Sunny, she smiled warmly at her. “You may relax in my presence, Ms. Breeze. You are not in any form of trouble.” Sunny nodded, her cheeks still slightly rosy, but a small smile was now present on her face.

As they talked, I glanced around the hallway, searching for a possible escape. Alright, enough playing around. I need to find a way out of here. Looking down one of the side passages, I frowned slightly when I caught sight of a pair of guards patrolling it. The next passage held the same results. I mentally swore as I walked behind Sunny. I should have made a run for it back in the city. There’s no way I can escape from the palace with all these guards here. I grumbled silently as we continued down the corridor. We reached the end of the hallway and the princess headed to the right, down yet another passageway. Sunny and I followed close behind her.

“As I said earlier, I do have some questions I would like answered about this particular human,” the princess said, her voice gentle as she glanced back at us. “Please answer to the best of your ability, but do not worry if you don’t know the answer.”

“Of course, your majesty,” Sunny replied, her voice stronger than before.

“Do you know if this human has had any previous owners?” Celestia tilted her head to the side, regarding us with a curious look. It kind of reminded me of a dog, in some weird way.

“There was no indication of any previous owners when we found him in the desert,” Sunny said. She blinked suddenly as she apparently remembered something. “Actually, there was a mark on his clothing that we couldn’t identify.”

“And what mark was that, exactly?” the princess asked.

“It was a golden ‘M’ sewn onto his clothing,” Sunny replied. “We ran it through our records, but we couldn’t find any pony associated with it in any way.”

“A golden ‘M’?” The princess was silent for a brief moment, scratching her chin with the tip of one of her wings. Finally, she returned her attention to Sunny. “Could it be possible that the mark might be associated with something in a foreign land?”

“It might,” Sunny conceded, chewing on her lip as she glanced to the side. “However, if that was the case, we have no idea how he ended up alone in the desert. We believe that if it did stand for something, it would be local, not foreign.” As the two of them talked, I walked silently behind them. A golden ‘M’ on my clothing? She must mean that McDonald’s logo on my shirt and visor. I chuckled quietly to myself at that. Yeah, they owned me alright. The princess hummed to herself as she thought, her eyes gazing at the ceiling high above us.

“Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any ponies, or herds, associated with a golden ‘M’. There’s the Golden Hoof herd, but their mark is two golden hooves side by side, but other than that I do not know,” she said, still looking up at the ceiling. “And I do not believe that any other species own humans. After the Changeling invasion, we know that humans don’t like being in close proximity to Changelings, disguised or otherwise. As for the griffons, they tend to eat humans on occasion, but there aren’t any griffon nests anywhere near the desert.” My heart jumped at that news. Griffons? They have griffons here? And they eat humans?!

Note to self: avoid griffons at all costs! When I tuned back into the conversation, the two mares had already moved on to the next topic.

“Since you don’t know if he does, or does not, have a previous owner you wouldn’t happen to know if he has a name, would you?” Celestia asked, her gaze fixing itself back upon me and Sunny.

“We aren’t entirely sure,” Sunny began, “but he had a weird tag attached to his clothing that bore the same golden ‘M’, as well as the name ‘Max’.” I raised my eyebrows at that. She must be talking about my name tag. Apparently, they write in English here as well. What are the odds? I blinked as I suddenly thought of something. Wait, if she knew my name this entire time, why did she never once call me by it?

“I’ve been avoiding using that name around him, just in case his next owner decides they want to call him something else,” Sunny said to the princess. I resisted the urge to facepalm. Uncanny timing as usual. Celestia studied me closely for several seconds, her magenta eyes slowly scanning my body as she processed the news. Smiling, she nodded once before looking back at Sunny.

“Max it is then,” she proclaimed happily. “I think it suits him rather well, don’t you?”

Really? Cause everyone back home kept telling me that I looked like a Tom or a Blake. Hell, I even had a guy insist that my name was Sam.

“Your majesty?” Sunny asked, tilting her head to the side, confused.

“I like it. It’s a good, strong name, and it also means ‘the greatest’ in Ancient Equestrian,” Celestia said, a knowing smirk adorning her face. “Rather fitting for a creature who survived alone in the desert for an unknown period of time.” It was one day, lady. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Although, I was thrown off by the Ancient Equestrian comment. You see, Max meant ‘the greatest’ in Latin as well. I wonder just how many similarities our two cultures have.

“Max. Max. Max. Max.” The princess trotted along happily, rolling my name around in her mouth for a little bit. Sunny just walked beside the monarch, trying to hold back her laughter. I, on the other hand, had had enough. Glancing ahead of us, I spied a side passage fast approaching. Deciding that it was time to ditch this party and make a run for it, I reached up with my bound hands and began to fiddle with my collar. I managed to get the leash off of the collar when the two mares were distracted. Careful not to alert them to my intent, I walked quietly along behind them until we were level with the passage. Taking a deep breath, I turned and shot off down the passage, silently cheering that my plan had worked. Unfortunately, I started celebrating too soon.

I had made it a dozen or so steps when I suddenly found myself surrounded by a golden energy. I let out a loud yelp when as I was immediately lifted into the air. I grumbled to myself as I slowly floated down the hall, back the way I came. As I floated, I slowly began to spin until I found myself upside down. I shot a glare at the princess, whose horn was glowing as she used her magic. She had a smile on her face, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Sunny just stood there, her eyes darting back and forth between me and the princess, a nervous look on her face.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Celestia asked, chuckling softly as I floated in the air. We were practically nose to nose, and I could smell her breath. It was, oddly enough, not unpleasant, like a mixture of vanilla and bananas.

“And how old is this little troublemaker?” she asked, using her magic to make me spin in small circles as she looked at Sunny.

“W-we’re not entirely sure of that either,” Sunny said, trying hard not to laugh at my predicament. She seemed relieved that the princess didn’t get upset about my escape attempt. I, however, was starting to get nauseous as I continued to spin through the air. “By the look of his body, as well as other indicators, we estimated that he is getting on in his years, but he has shown no signs of tiring or joint pain. He also has shown that he has an abundance of energy as well, so we can’t effectively pinpoint his age.” ‘Abundance of energy’? How’d you figure that one out? I thought as the princess returned me to an upright position. I’ve been in a cage that was two sizes too small for the past two weeks!

“If you had to hazard a guess, how old would you say he is?” Celestia asked, slowly lowering me back to my feet. Sunny sighed as she looked me up and down. She licked her lips as she thought, her ears twitching slightly.

“I’d guess he is about nine years old, maybe ten,” she finally said, earning a nod from the princess. I shot her an incredulous look. Nine? Lady, I’m twenty years old, thank you very much! I thought you worked with humans for a living! I blinked as a sudden sinking feeling entered the pit of my stomach. What is the average lifespan of a human here? Will that affect me in any way?

“Does he have any illnesses or afflictions that could indicate his age more accurately?” Celestia asked, frowning slightly.

“We haven’t found anything yet,” Sunny said, a smile touching her lips slightly as she gazed over at me lovingly. “He currently has a clean bill of health. He’s perfectly fine.”

“No tumors? No cataracts?” The princess’s eyebrows rose as she spoke, disbelief evident in her voice. “No arthritis?”

“Nope, he is one of the healthiest humans I have ever seen, aside from the sunburns from the desert,” Sunny said, a small hint of pride in her voice. Healthy? I worked at McDonald’s and got free crew meals. I sat on my ass on my couch and played video games all night. The healthiest person I am not. Silence fell again as the princess thought up more questions. I hoped that the questioning wouldn’t take much longer; I was in a rather foul mood because of my failed 'escape attempt', if you could even call it that. Also, as much as I enjoyed being talked about like I wasn’t actually there, my feet were beginning to hurt walking on the hard marble floors. As we passed by a window that had a beautiful view of the white city below, I saw that there was a roof several meters below the window ledge. I half contemplated what they would do if I flung myself through the window. They both had wings, but would they react in time to stop me from scrambling across the rooftop to freedom? As I thought about it some more, I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk. I grudgingly accepted that I would have to put up with this bullshit for a little while longer.

The princess blinked suddenly, a spark flashing in her eyes as a mischievous smile slowly spread across her face. In a voice that could almost be mistaken for sultry, the princess leaned down until she was eye to eye with Sunny. “How is his muscle structure?” Sunny’s face went incredibly red as she began to cough, choking on some of her own spit that she inhaled. Her wings locked up instantly, spreading from her sides to stand stiffly at attention. I snorted loudly at this, causing the princess to look at me curiously. She didn’t look at me long before returning her attention to Sunny with a look of faux concern before a small smile playing across her face.

“My dear, is everything okay?” Celestia asked, rubbing Sunny’s back as the smaller mare coughed loudly.This princess is a troll! I didn’t know how she knew about that entire conversation, but it took all of my willpower to keep a straight face. Sunny, on the other hand, looked half embarrassed and half terrified as she continued to try and clear her airway. She continued sputtering for several more seconds as she stumbled along.

“W-well, he is c-certainly more m-muscular than most other humans we've f-found,” she choked out, finally getting her voice back. Her face was still red, but she seemed to regain control over her wings as she rose shakily into the air. Once airborne, she seemed to calm down immensely. I blinked as I registered what she had just said. But... I barely have any muscles to begin with, I thought as I glanced down at my naked frame. Maybe my legs, but that was because I walked a lot back home, but not enough to be noticeable by any means. As I silently examined my body for whatever muscle she was talking about, Celestia spoke up.

“While I have you nice and flustered,” she said, the smirk still on her face, “has he been neutered yet?” Looking up at the princess, then back down at my junk, I wrinkled my face at the stupidity of the question. It’s all just hanging out there for the whole world to see. I’m pretty sure you could answer that one for yourself.

“No, he hasn’t been neutered yet,” Sunny answered, shaking her head. She hovered beside the princess, her wings flapping at a languid pace. And my huevos and I plan on keeping it that way, thank you very much!

“But it’s still an option, if you would like,” she continued, shooting the princess a questioning look. I stumbled slightly, a panicked look flashing across my face. Aw, HELL no! NO! Nononononononononono! NOOOOOOO! Suddenly, that jump through the window was sounding like a much better option. I was of the mindset that I would like to keep everything I was born with, no matter what. The Universe wouldn’t be so cruel as to deny me that, would it?

“No, that will be quite unnecessary,” Celestia said, shaking her head quickly. I breathed an audible sigh of relief, my pounding heart slowly returning to normal. The two mares glanced back at me, a surprised look on their faces. I stared back at them, a blank expression on my face as I tilted my head to the side, confused at the sudden attention. When I realized what I had done, I felt my heart flutter slightly. I realized that this could be a perfect opportunity to try and communicate! I was just beginning to think of what would work best when a second voice echoed through my head, warning me against it.

I frowned slightly, confused at that sudden thought. Why the hell wouldn’t I try to let them know I could understand them? The memory of feeling the power radiating from the princess when we first met flashed across my mind, causing me to shiver slightly.

Just imagine what she could do to you if she wanted to, the second, smaller voice whispered. She could blast you into oblivion, and no one here would bat an eye at it. As I stood there, arguing silently with myself, the two mares continued to stare back at me for several more seconds before returning to their conversation. I groaned softly as they turned their attention away from me, and we continued walking down the hall. Great, there goes that chance out the window.

Better safe than sorry, though. I’ll work on escaping later.

"Has he been branded at all?” The princess' voice snapped me back to reality. Glancing up, I wrinkled my face at her again, rolling my eyes. That is another question you could answer yourself if you only looked.

“No, he hasn’t been marked,” Sunny replied. The princess’s face hardened at the word ‘marked’, her expression souring. Sunny noticed this, and her ears splayed backwards. Smiling nervously at the princess, she chuckled lightly. “I take it by your reaction that you do not want him branded, your majesty?” Celestia immediately shook her head, quickly putting my mind at ease.

“No.” Her voice took on an icy tone for the first time since they had started talking. “I can not, for the life of me, understand the obsession with burning one’s cutie mark into the flesh of one’s human.” Despite my joy for finding out that I would not have to be put through that horrific ordeal, I still frowned slightly at the strange word.Cutie mark? What’s a cutie mark? My eyes drifted to Sunny’s flank, which was hovering perfectly at eye level for me, and the odd picture located on it. Looking over at the princess, I saw that she too had a symbol on her ass. Celestia’s was a massive sun, standing out perfectly against her white coat. Could those tattoos be these ‘cutie marks’? Are they artificial, or a naturally occurring thing? And what could they possibly stand for? The amount of questions I had could fill a large paperback book.

“Just one more quick question before I take Max here off your hooves.” I glanced up and realized that we were nearing the end of the hallway. A massive pair of double doors faced us, two guards positioned on either side, stony faced and motionless. It appeared that we had reached the end of the line.

“In all of your observations of this human,” Celestia began, staring at Sunny with an intense, calculating gaze, “would you say that he is well behaved and not a threat to anypony?”

“For the most part,” Sunny replied, meeting the princess’s gaze with her own. Her body was starting to tense up again, her wings quivering nervously as she flapped. Heh, you should talk to my mother. The stories she could tell…

“Please elaborate,” the princess said, not unkindly. Her gaze never faltered as she continued to study Sunny’s expression closely. Sunny closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Opening her eyes again, she stared at a point just above the princess’s head as she began to speak.

“Well, we first noticed that he behaved rather differently than most humans when we first found him. Usually, when they wander around lost, humans tend to walk in circles. However, the tracks around him indicated that he was walking in a relatively straight line, with a couple of loopbacks. Also, while most humans will throw themselves against the bars of their cages—” The princess’s ear twitched. “—he seemed content to just sit there and go along for the ride.

“There is also the case of biting. While most humans will attempt to bite their handlers when they are scared or threatened, Max here never showed any signs of aggression. He was hesitant at some points, but he never lashed out at anypony while we were working with him.”

You didn’t really give me much of a chance to, but I digress.

“All-in-all, I have to say that he is, without a doubt, one of the most docile humans I have ever had the privilege of working with.” Sunny was out of breath from her little speech, and she panted slightly as she looked at the princess, waiting for her reaction.

Celestia just stood there, nodding her head slightly as she gazed off into the distance, clearly deep in thought. Every so often, her wings twitched by her sides. The long pause seemed to make Sunny nervous, and she bit her lip again while she waited. I just looked at her, eyebrows raised. Seriously, what is with all the lip biting? Sunny’s wings seemed to tense up more, and she slowly floated down to the floor. I don’t know why she’s so tense. It’s not like the princess’s decision affects her as much as it does me.

Finally, after several long moments, the princess’s face broke out into a large smile.

“I thank you for giving me such an honest answer,” she said, looking down at Sunny with such warmth and care that she couldn’t help but smile as well, her body relaxing noticeably. It kind of reminded me of a mother praising a child for a job well done. “And I also thank you for answering my questions truthfully and to the best of your abilities. Now, without further ado, I shall take Max off of your hooves.” The smile immediately left Sunny’s face and she glanced down at the leash in her hooves, fumbling with it slightly. She looked back up and reluctantly held the leash out for the princess. As Celestia took the leash in her magic (I still couldn’t get enough of that, as long as it wasn’t not being used on me. Magic. Real life magic!) Sunny spoke very quietly.

“Please make sure to treat him well.” Celestia smiled gently, nodding her head slightly.

“Don’t worry, my little pony. I know he will be treated with great care.” The princess then looked at her guards who immediately moved to open the double doors. Up until that point, I had seriously thought that they might be statues; they hadn’t moved an inch since we arrived. As Celestia turned to leave, Sunny called after her.

“We ask that you contact us with information about where he will be staying. We like to check up on our humans and make sure that they are being treated properly.” The princess glanced back at Sunny and smiled once last time.

“I’ll be sure to send you the address the minute he gets settled in.” With that, she turned and walked through the open doors, tugging gently on the leash so I would follow. I headed through the doors myself and the guards began to close them behind us. I chanced a quick look behind me at Sunny Breeze. Just before the doors closed completely, I caught a glimpse of her face.

She was smiling sadly, her violet eyes gazing right at me. As I watched, a single tear rolled down her cheek and fell to the floor.

Then the doors closed, and she was gone.

Chapter 4: Special Delivery, First Class

Tearing my gaze from the doors that Sunny just disappeared behind, I looked around. The room we had entered was enormous, with the ceiling towering high above us. You could probably fit my entire house in here, and there would still be plenty of room to spare. Large marble pillars, as thick as trees, lined the room, acting as structural supports for the ceiling high above. Banners hung from the ceiling and clung to the pillars. Some were red and depicted a large golden sun, while others were dark blue and emblazoned with a crescent moon. Large windows adorned the sides of the room, allowing massive amounts of sunlight to stream in. Glancing out one of the windows, I saw that it appeared to be getting late; the sun hung low in the sky.

I was so entranced by the room that I failed to realize that the princess was moving. I was quickly reminded by a gentle tug on the collar and a soft chuckle.

“Come along, little one. We need to get you cleaned up a little before we introduce you to your new owner,” Celestia said, giving the leash another gentle tug, prompting me to stumble along after her. I scrunched up my face at her words.

New owner? I thought she bought me for herself? This new development wasn’t sitting well with me. If I’m not for the princess, who is she sending me to? I frowned slightly before shaking my head.

I don’t know why I’m fretting over this, I thought as the little voice in my head gave a silent cheer. I’m just going to be breaking free when I get there. As I mused silently to myself, we continued across the room. The princess clip-clopped along while I pat-a-patted behind her. As we walked, she hummed a little tune to herself, her head weaving gently side to side. Her mane and tail continued to flow eerily behind her, unaffected by the movement of her head and body.

Nearing the far side of the room, my eyes happened to land upon a large, golden throne. It was stood nearly twice as tall as Celestia; golden steps, covered in red velvet carpeting that stretched back to the end of the hall, which led up to a large cushion. There were small fountains on either side of the throne, with gently murmuring water, creating a calming effect. Two white, unicorn guards, clad in golden armor bearing the mark of the sun, stood on either side of the empty throne, eyeing us (mostly me) as we walked past. I swallowed nervously, trying not to meet their eyes.

Skirting around the ceremonial chair, the princess headed towards a small door hidden in the shadow of the throne. Opening it with her hoof, she ushered me through with a gentle push with her magic before following and closing the door behind her with a soft snap.

The hallway I found myself in was smaller than the ones before it. If I reached my hands above my head, my fingertips would probably touch the ceiling. The walls were narrower, barely enough room for Celestia and me to stand side by side. The whole place had a different feel from the rest of the palace, as if we had entered a different building. The whole thing felt extremely homey. The floors were carpeted, something I noticed with relief. The hard marble floors were a nice touch, and while the ponies with their hooves probably didn’t mind it, they were killer on bare feet.

The hallway was lit by dim torches, the flames flickering inside of frosted glass containers that were attached to the walls. Swirling patterns adorned the glass, the light dancing hypnotically across the rippled surface. I could feel myself slowly relaxing in this place. It felt safe; it felt like home.

This must be the living quarters of the palace, I thought as I looked around the hallway with a calm expression. I suppressed a yawn as I waited for Sunny Breeze to take the lead—

My eyes widened and my heart rate immediately shot up, the calm that the new environment brought me completely destroyed by the simple thought.

Sunny’s not here.

My body tensed up as my heart pounded in my chest. Sunny wasn’t with me anymore. The one constant in this weird new life, the one creature who actually cared for me, was no longer present. I was now completely alone with a mare that I barely knew, and my only real “friend” for the past two weeks was gone. My breaths came in quick gasps as my pupils dilated, my eyes darting back and forth.

I should have tried harder to escape earlier. The little voice in my head was screaming at me, cursing me for my stupidity. I was alone; I was defenseless. When I was with Sunny, I had felt confident and safe. In that short amount of time I had been with her, I had learned to trust her. I knew from our many one-sided conversations that she would never hurt me. Celestia, however, I wasn’t too sure about.

She seemed nice at first glance, and the way she talked with Sunny and composed herself kind of reminded me of a mother. But she also radiated a huge amount of power, and was high enough up there that she could do whatever she wanted. Of course, she hadn’t given me any reason to distrust her yet, but that could change quickly. What if the kindness was just a ruse, and she was really a cruel bitch who enjoyed tormenting other creatures? What if she was abusive? What if she—

“Come on, little one,” Celestia murmured softly, snapping me out of my impending panic attack. She nudged me gently with her nose, a soft smile on her face as she looked into my panicking eyes, concerning radiating from her gaze. “Everything's alright. You’re safe here.” Her voice held the same tone one would use when trying not to spook a frightened animal. I felt a shiver run up my back as her nose touched my bare skin, but I slowly began to relax again.

I may not have known if I could trust her yet, but that simple act showed me that she actually cared somewhat for me, and didn’t want me to be scared. Shoving aside my fears and doubts, I decided to go out on a limb and lend her some of my trust. I’m pretty sure I had an abundant supply, given that I wasn’t just throwing it about freely. Plus, I didn’t think running right this instant would be a good thing. She could always catch me with her magic. Plus, she could probably run faster than me, and she did have a foot-long spear coming out of her forehead. I would rather like to avoid becoming a human-on-a-stick. I decided to give this situation a chance before freaking out completely.

Swallowing my nervousness, I turned and followed her down the hall, the carpet muffling my footsteps, as well as her hooves. Glancing back at the door leading to the throne room, I let one last trickle of doubt drift through my mind. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite the fact that my hands were bound, I was completely naked, and a collar was placed snugly around my neck, I was still able to appreciate the majesty of the living quarters.

As we walked down the hallway, we passed by many doors. Most of them were shut, closed tight to prevent snooping, while others were left open just a crack. These doors were few and far between, but when we happened to pass one, I couldn’t help but sneak a peek inside. What I saw told of luxury.

I saw a study. A desk covered with scrolls and quills, books and logs. Pictures of ponies decorated the wall. I’d have to assume that they meant something to the person… er, pony, that owned the study. I eyed the piles of scrolls with some interest. I wonder if I could get my hands on one of those. I quickly tried heading into the room, but was stopped by a firm, but gentle tug on the leash.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Celestia cooed, laughter dancing in her eyes. “No running off again.” As the princess led me further down the hallway, I glanced back at the study door, mentally noting where it was in case I found myself free anytime soon.

“I can see that we’re going to have to keep an eye on you,” Celestia said as we walked. “You’re quite the little explorer, aren’t you?” I ignored her, instead choosing to return to studying the passing rooms.

The next door I looked into was a large library filled with a massive amount of books. It was, if my quick look was anything to go by, a two-story tall room with nothing but books. The walls were lined with bookshelves, each one filled with big books, small books, colorful books, and books that seemed to glow faintly. A large fireplace adorned one of the walls, a fire crackling merrily away, inviting anyone who saw it to come and bask in its comfort. A yellow unicorn mare in a maid’s outfit was dusting one of the shelves. She gave us a quick glance as we passed the door, before returning to her work.

My gaze slowly drifted to the other side of the hall. Through an open door I could see a bathroom. Actually, it would probably be more appropriate to call it a spa, because the room was loaded! It had a massive tub, large enough for a horse to bathe in and still have room. I smirked as I cast a quick glance at the princess before returning to the bathroom. A small waterfall ran down the far wall, cascading gently into a small spring. Two hot tubs rested on either side of the waterfall. They appeared to have lights in them, as the water in one had a red hue, while its sister had a blue one.

There was a smaller pool in one of the corners, chunks of ice floating in the water as mist wafted into the air. In another corner was a small platform that looked like it was meant for a musician to play music for the occupants. Candles were everywhere, as well as soaps, shampoos, and scented oils. As I passed by the room, I shook my head and laughed silently to myself. Yep, definitely a spa. It seems that someone is a bit spoiled, I thought, eyeing the princess in amusement.

The next couple of doors were all closed, denying me any sightseeing. Sighing, I leaned slightly and glanced ahead of the princess. I felt a shiver run up my spine as I spied a door that was different from the rest. It was bigger than the others, and made of a dark wood that appeared almost black. A large crescent moon was etched onto the door, silver trimming running along the edges. As we passed by it, I could hear what sounded like grumbling coming for the other side, as well as movement. Whoever it was, they were either really tired, or just getting up. Goosebumps broke out across my skin as we neared the door, and wouldn't leave until we were several feet past it.

Several doors later, we passed by what seemed to be a lounge. As we neared, I caught sight of movement from with the room, and I caught sight of another life form. Unfortunately, he caught sight of us as well.

“Auntie Celestia!” the new pony called out as we walked pass the open door. The sound of his voice sent caused my hair to stand on end and made my toes curl. In front of me, I could see Celestia tense up slightly. Oh, I can tell I’m not going to like this, I thought as the princess turned to greet the pony. He was a white unicorn with a golden mane, and appeared to have a compass rose upon his ass. An unknown sixth sense of mine was screaming at me that he was probably going to be a tough pony to get along with. That, and the fact that he had a smug ass grin on his face.

“Blueblood, how are you this fine evening?” Celestia asked, smiling thinly. It was clear by her expression that she did not want to be talking to this guy.

Oh great, she doesn’t like him either. That can’t be a good sign.

"'How am I this fine evening'? I had a horrible day! Day court was terrible! I had to sit there for nearly fifteen minutes listening to some old hag go on about needing funding for some orphanage or something. It was terribly boring and I couldn’t believe that the guards actually let her in the palace. She should have been thrown out the minute she set hoof on the grounds. And another thing…”

The new pony, Blueblood, continued to prattle on about his day. As he whined and complained about completely stupid and menial things, I chanced a glance at Celestia. Her eye seemed to have developed a nasty twitch.

“...and for lunch I asked the chefs to prepare me a proper meal, not that disgusting slop that they usually make. But not only did they take over twenty minutes to make something, but it wasn’t of a high enough quality. What do they think I am, a peasant? I can only eat foods that are of the cream of the crop!”

Strange. Whatever the princess seems to have, it must be contagious because now my eye began to twitch as well. What in the name of hell was this guy's problem? In all my life, I have never met anyone who was such a pompous, arrogant asshole. I didn’t think I could take much more of his ego-centrism without screaming. Luckily, Celestia seemed to think the same thing.

“Nephew, as much as I would love to hear about the hardships of your day, I’m currently in the middle of something.” Draping a large wing over me, she pulled me close to her side. Whether she was shielding me, or using me as a shield, I didn’t know, but the action seemed to work as Blueblood shut up immediately. However, he got a hungry, predatory look in his eyes as he stared at me.

Why do I suddenly feel like a piece of meat? His gaze slowly went down my entire body before heading back up to my face. I shivered slightly as he licked his lips. I would say that he was undressing me with his eyes, but as I was already naked, that wasn’t necessary. I could hear the little voice in my head laughing uproariously.Who’s side are you on anyways, you bastard? The more he eyed me, the more uncomfortable I became.

“Oh, Auntie Celestia. Where did you find this fine specimen?” he asked, drool practically dripping from his mouth. “This wouldn’t happen to be for me, would it?” As a lecherous smile slowly spread across his face, I huddled down deeper into the feathery blanket that was Celestia’s wing.

Find my happy place! Find my happy place! Find my happy place! As I shivered against Celestia’s sides, she tightened her wings around me.

“No, Blueblood. He is actually meant for my protege, Twilight Sparkle, as a kind of gift for her recent achievement.” Blueblood’s expression soured at this, a dark look passing over his face. I, on the other hand, was dancing inside.

Thank Jesus! I don’t know who Twilight Sparkle is, but she has to be better than this creep!

“Such a pity,” Blueblood said, sounding slightly annoyed. “He really is a fine looking human.” Blueblood’s eyes did another once-over on my body, and, again, he licked his lips longingly.

An adult! I need an adult! As though hearing my silent pleas, Celestia slowly began to inch her way around Blueblood, keeping me held tight in her wings.

“He is not for you, Blueblood,” she said coldly, never taking her eyes off of him. “I’m very lenient when it comes to you and your humans, but this one is off limits. Do you hear me? He is not yours!” With that, the princess spun around, taking me with her, and began to walk very quickly down the hallway. As we walked, I could still feel Blueblood’s eyes upon me. I shivered again, trying to get rid of the awful feeling. I guess I was right: I didn’t like that at all.

I’m going to need a long, cold shower after that…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of our journey went without incident. Reaching the last door in the hall, I looked up and saw that it was a large, golden door bearing the etching of a shining sun. Opening the door, Celestia slipped us both inside, keeping her wing wrapped around me until the door was closed tight behind us.

Still trying to forget the image of Blueblood looking at me lustily, I was just dimly aware of my surroundings. The room was large and circular in shape. There was a desk next to a fireplace, scrolls and books scattered over its surface. A large, four-poster bed rested underneath a picture of a blood red sunrise. A medium-sized bookshelf stood against the wall, packed full of tomes of different sizes. A large, golden cage rested on the top of it. The cage’s door was open and it was empty except for several gold and red feathers that rested on the bottom of the cage. A pair of double doors lead out to a large balcony, which held a telescope. Cushions littered the floor, and upon entering the room, the princess immediately flung herself upon on them, leaving me standing with the leash dangling against my body, still attached to my collar.

“I swear, if it weren’t for the fact that he’s family, I’d… I’d…” Celestia muttered under her breath as she removed her crown and levitated it over to one of the tables by the bed. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths, all the while talking to herself.

“Love and tolerance Tia, love and tolerance.” As she continued to murmur gently to herself, I eyed the desk, and more importantly, the scrolls upon said desk. Slowly, as to not alert Celestia, I began to make my way towards the desk. Picking up one of the scrolls, I glanced back at her before unrolling it and glancing at it’s contents.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned a great lesson about family, which, if you think about it, is the first group of friends you ever meet. Turns out that when you're with folks you care about, you don't have to do much to make that time memorable. Even the simplest of activities can take on a whole lotta meanin'! And you'll find that you'll remember the who long after you've forgotten the what.

Your humble subject,

Applejack

I finished reading the 'letter' and snorted once before tossing it back onto the desk. I began rooting through the desk, searching for a blank piece of paper. Picking up another scroll, I unrolled it, eyeing the contents.

To: Princess Celestia

From: Battlemage, Major Ebony Rose
Re: Energy Source

It has come to my attention that there appears to be something buried underneath the Lonely Mountain that is emitting a high magical field. The object began to flare up several days ago. We have successfully pinpointed the surface location of the object, but request the use of humans for digging to the source…

Not bothering to finish the message, I tossed it back onto the pile before returning to my search. Grabbing another scroll, I unrolled it and a smile immediately spread across my face when I saw that it was blank. I had just started to look for something to write with when the paper was ripped from my grasp. I yelped as I was suddenly lifted up into the air and away from the desk.

“I can’t take my eyes off of you, can I?” Celestia said as I floated over to her. I growled slightly as I was denied what I had been trying to get my hands on.

“Relax,” she said as she placed me upon one of the cushions. “There is no need to get upset.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as she tried to comfort me. Celestia just looked at me for several seconds, seemingly to just study my face with a curious expression.

“I know you can’t understand me,” she began, a soft smile on her lips. I grunted once, shifting slightly on the cushion. Lady, if you only knew. “but I would like to apologize for what just occurred. Prince Blueblood, my insufferable nephew, tends to be a little self-centered. He believes that everything is for his pleasure, including humans.”

Yeah, he kinda gave me that impression already. The princess sighed heavily and massaged her temples with her hooves. Looking up at the ceiling, she began to remove the gold chest plate from around her neck before speaking,

“If it weren’t for the fact that he is family, I wouldn’t be so willing to turn a blind eye. What he does to humans is just so... wrong. It’s... it’s... well, none of them complain yet, right?" She chuckled darkly at her unamusing joke. I shifted nervously on the cushion.

Why is she telling me all of this? Does she really think I can’t understand her, or does she have some kind of clue? Glancing back at the desk, I sighed. If only I still had that bloody paper. Turning back to the princess, I saw that she was looking at me intently, her eyes studying me closely with interest.

“Strange,” she muttered, tilting her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. “It’s almost like you can… no, that’s impossible.” Her words trailed off as she continued to stare at me. Slowly, she rose to her hooves and approached me, her eyes never leaving mine. The intensity of her gaze was intimidating, and I could practically feel myself beginning to sweat.

“I have lived a long life. More so than any other pony can possibly claim. I have watched as hundreds upon thousands of humans have passed by the palace, heading to the market. I have watched as they were sold, auctioned, bartered, and haggled for. Not a single one has ever managed to catch my eye before, but then you show up.” She slowly began to circle me, talking softly. It was more like she was thinking out loud than actually talking to me.

This is similar to a shark circling a seal, the voice in my head chimed in. I swallowed thickly as I slowly began to regret trusting her.

“There’s something special about you...” she began, before rubbing the tip of her nose against my shoulder as she passed. A tingling sensation ran through my body at the soft touch; it felt like an electric current had passed from her to me. She snorted, moving her head away from me. I could tell by her face that she had felt something as well.

“Hm, interesting. I wasn’t expecting that,” she said, staring at me with her head cocked to the side. “You felt it too, didn’t you?” She moved to stand in front of me, her wings fluttering gently at her sides. “That shiver that went down your spine when we first met? That coldness that bit into your skin when we touched? You have a certain energy about you, one that I cannot place. It’s like nothing I have ever felt before, yet so familiar. It drew me to you out by the main gate.” Her face drew closer to mine, her muzzle practically touching my nose.

“I first felt the energy several weeks ago out in the desert. I thought that perhaps the Changelings were up to something, but when I scried the area I found only you. You, alone and lost in the desert, struggling to survive. I’m not sure what gods or fates may have brought you here to me, but this cannot just be coincidence.” I wasn’t entirely sure I understood what she was muttering under her breath, but I was decided that I should probably take advantage of our close proximity.

Now’s my chance to try something risky, I thought, eyeing the princess cautiously. I needed to act quickly, but with caution. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to attack her. The little voice in my head was screaming that what I was about to do was a bad idea.

“Oh, who am I kidding?” she snorted, laughing to herself as she leaned back. “You can’t understand a word I’m saying!” Gritting my teeth, I made up my mind.

It’s now or never!

I brought up my hands and began to try and mime something that could be understood. I mimed writing on something, trying to get my point across. My frustration grew at the confused look on her face. I repeated the action, a growl escaping my mouth. At that, Celestia reared back, shocked.

YES! I silently cheered, already patting myself on the back. We’re making progress now—

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, my little human,” she said, hurriedly backing further away from me.

Or she takes it the wrong way, I thought, my eyes widening slightly in horror. Not good, not good, not good. Where’s paper when you need it?! Before I could even stand up, Celestia wrapped a bell that rested on her desk in her magic and gave it a loud ring. Instantly three servants came out of the woodwork. A pegasus, a unicorn, and a pony that had neither a horn or wings. Where the hell were they hiding?

“Please take this human and have him cleaned up immediately. He is a gift to my student, and must be made presentable before we send him off,” the princess said, earning a bow from all three.

Presentable? I hadn’t really stopped to think about it, but now that it was pointed out, I realized something quite horrifying. I reeked. Badly. Damn, how did I not notice this sooner? I smell like something that crawled into a sewer and died. I was actually impressed that the princess could even be in the same room as me, let alone as close as she had been, without retching.

Wait, no… I’m getting distracted! I still have a chance to—

Before I could act, a blinding flash of white light filled my senses, blinding me. When I could finally see again, I found myself in the large spa/bathing room that I saw earlier.

—communicate with… her. Shit. Well, there goes that well thought out plan out the window. And just like that, I was back at square one. I stood there, staring dumbly at the space where the princess’s head had been a split second earlier. My one chance at freedom and understanding, and it had just been ripped away from me. Needless to say, I was more depressed than a zombie at a blonde convention. How hard is it to show a fucking pony that I’m intelligent?!

As I sat there, sulking, I barely noticed as the unicorn mare gently removed my collar. She left my hands tied, though. Lifting me into the air with her magic, she deposited me into a large pool of water. I sneezed loudly when water got in my nose, causing one of the mares, the pegasus, to giggle. They tentatively began to scrub me with the various soaps and shampoos that were scattered around the perimeter of the pool of water. They used large brushes, as well as their hooves, to scrub the dirt off of my flesh.

The pegasus hovered by my shoulders, massaging my scalp with her hooves as she gently worked the suds into my hair. The other two worked on the rest of my body, starting at my shoulders and slowly working their way down. I silently allowed them to work, wincing slightly whenever they hit a tender spot or were too rough. I was dimly aware that they were talking to each other as they worked. I couldn’t overhear what was being said, however, as I was too busy trying to figure out my next move.

I did notice, however, when one of the mares got a little too bold for my liking. A soapy hoof on a rather intimate area of my body immediately snapped me back to reality. Automatically, I jerked away from the contact, causing all of them to gasp at my sudden movement.

“Oops, he didn’t seem to like that,” the offending mare, the pony with no horn or wings said, hoof still outstretched.

“He mustn’t have had much interaction of that sort before,” the unicorn said, her hooves still on my back. “Maybe he wasn’t a breeding human?”

“What? With his good looks and how healthy he is? They had to be using him for breeding. Anything else is just a waste!” the pegasus said, a smirk slowly spreading across her face as her wings twitched by her side. I felt a blush slowly spread across my face.

Why the hell do they find me so damn attractive? We’re two completely different species! I prayed that it was an 'isn’t-my-dog-the-cutest-one-you’ve-ever-seen' kind of attraction, and not... well, hopefully it was the first way.

“Maybe he’s young enough that they weren’t able to use him yet,” the unicorn said, continuing to wash my back, her hooves working the soap in with little circling motions.

“I don’t know,” the pegasus said as she washed her hooves off. “He looks old enough to have been in use for several years.” I tried in vain to sink deeper into the pool. I was not enjoying this conversation at all.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” the normal pony said as she pulled herself out of the pool and shook of the excess water in her coat. Turning to look down at me, she smiled. “Alright, I’d say that he’s pretty much clean now. Just get him out of the water, dry him off, and polish his teeth and he should be good to go!” The unicorn nodded, her horn lighting up as she stepped off my back. I found myself trapped once again in her magical grasp. She lifted me out of the water and I simply hung limply in the air, dripping water onto the tiled floor, as she levitated me over to a towel waiting on the floor. Placing me on the towel gingerly, the glow around her horn grew brighter. My entire body instantly felt like it had been plunged into a furnace; I was dry in a manner of seconds.

After drying me off, the unicorn slowly advanced towards me, a small brush hovering by her head. I felt something grasp my jaw and force it open. I struggled slightly against the force, but I was ineffective against it. She moved the brush closer to my now exposed teeth and I realized what she was up to. Realizing that I was no immediate danger unless she tried to make me deep-throat the toothbrush, I relaxed. She began to gently, yet firmly, brush my teeth.

The feeling, it was indescribable. Now, I wasn’t that big into dental health back home. I brushed my teeth once a day, that was it. I never flossed, and I rarely used mouthwash. I went to the dentist every six months, and had to experience the horror of braces for nearly five years. But after two weeks of not being able to brush my teeth, the feeling of the bristles scrubbing away the buildup of plaque was heavenly.

After several minutes of this bliss, the brush was removed from my mouth and the unicorn smiled to herself.

“There we go. All done!” She turned to the others and nodded her head as the brush vanished into thin air. “He’s all set and ready to go.” They both nodded to her, and the pegasus flew out of the room and back down the hall. I had a second to wonder where she went before I was surrounded again by a blinding flash of white light.

As spots danced in front of my eyes, I realized I was back in the princess’s room. She was still there, of course. Resting on her bed with her legs tucked underneath her body, she smiled at me as I slowly regained my senses. After my vision stopped dancing, I glanced around the room.

There was a new addition to the room since had last been in it. A large crate with small holes cut in the sides. Oh… I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Glancing back towards the princess, I noticed that she seemed to be putting the finishing touches to a letter. Floating the quill back to her desk, she rolled up the scroll, stood from the bed, and approached us, tucking the letter under her wing as she did so.

“Alright. Everything has been prepared and the details have been taken care of,” Celestia said, nodding to the three ponies with me. “Let’s get him nice and comfortable for his journey.” I was immediately lifted and unceremoniously dropped into the open crate. They appeared to be trying to be gentle, as I wasn’t shoved in head first this time, and there were blankets lining the bottom of the crate.

The lid was secured before I could react and near darkness fell over me. I could hear movement from outside, but I could barely see anything through the holes. As I sat in the gloom, I could feel my heart rate slowly beginning to rise. I’m not claustrophobic, but I was getting very uncomfortable with being shoved into small spaces.

“—blankets I can understand, but why the crate? Wouldn’t it be easier to get a cage your majesty?” I had trouble hearing the conversation going on outside, each voice muffled to the point where I could just barely make out the words spoken.

“No. I simply despise that some of my ponies see fit to put humans into those metal contraptions like they are some kind of criminal. A crate, while not exactly the best traveling condition, will do fine for what I have planned.” Even muffled, I could still hear the coldness in the princess’s voice at the mention of cages.

Nice to know that she actually does care, I thought half sarcastically, half relieved. I did not want to be placed in one of those things for any reason. If I didn’t see another cage for as long as I lived, it would be too soon.

"Should I send for Captain Tempest, your majesty? We can have her take him down to the transportation center,” another voice piped up. The pegasus mare, if I remember correctly.

“That won’t be necessary. I would like this particular package to arrive as soon as possible. A special delivery, if you will, and what better mode of transportation than a first class trip via magic!”

...what?

“So, with everything taken care of, I shall send him off immediately. I have to go meet with my sister so that I can lower the sun for her moon.”

...WHAT? What the fuck is she talking about? She thinks that she needs to lower the sun? How stupid can you—

A blinding green light shone through the many holes, creating an eerie effect in the darkness of the crate. I half expect a little gray alien to appear in the crate with me. I was suddenly gripped by a strong pulling and pushing sensation. My body, as well as the crate, seemed to be forced through a tight space. It was a horrible sensation; being squeezed through a hole that was too small for my body, in complete darkness, isn’t as fun as you would think. I was unable to move, breathe, or even scream. My body seemed to become impossibly small, but impossibly large at the same time. I felt like I was going to toss my cookies right then and there.

Suddenly, there was another flash of green, followed by what sounded like a large… burp? The crate immediately returned to normal and fell through the air before hitting a hard surface, causing me to hit my head on one of the sides as it tumbled. I groaned as I felt my head begin to pound, my brain trying to escape from the confines of my skull. The sensation didn’t help my nausea. That entire trip was not going to be added to my list of fun things to do, I’ll tell you that much. Once was enough for me, and even that might have been too much.

As I lay there, trying to keep myself from emptying what little contents my stomach had all over myself, I became aware of movement and voices outside of the crate.

“Dang, Spike, what the hay did you eat?” a raspy voice asked with a laugh.

“It’s from Princess Celestia! She even sent a letter with it,” another voice said, sounding excited. “I wonder what she would be sending me this late in the day though…”

“Well, let’s crack this bad boy open and find out!” the first voice said from somewhere above me. The lid became wrapped in a pink aura.

Welp… Ci risiamo, I thought, bracing myself.

The lid was ripped off, and light shone in, blinding me. Maybe I should invest in some sunglasses soon.

I heard several gasps above me and I was lifted up and out of the crate, and into the unknown.

Chapter 5: Crepuscolo e Incubi Eterni

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

You know, you’d think I’d probably be used to this kinda thing by now, I mused silently to myself as I dangled upside down in the air, a purple unicorn prodding me gently in the side while I spun in slow circles. Her violet eyes studied me curiously, her head tilted to the side in a cute manner as she watched me spin.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

Nearby, a light blue pegasus hovered in the air, her wings flapping lazily. Her mane and tail were a gorgeous rainbow hue, each color blending into the next. Her eyes watched me with suspicion, her front legs crossed in front of her chest. You know, the range of flexibility these ponies have never ceases to amaze me.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

A small purple and green lizard stared up at me, its mouth agape. Its eyes were as wide as saucers, a look of wonder on its face. Or was it fear? Confusion? I couldn’t tell. I didn’t have much time to study his expression before I spun around again and my back was to it.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

Okay...this is getting old rather quickly. I would swat at the little, annoying purple pony, but my hands were still bound by rope. I was surprised that my wrists weren’t rubbed raw yet, with how long I had the ropes around my wrists. Instead, I took to glaring at the unicorn every time I spun in her direction. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

This process went on for a few more seconds; the unicorn poking me, the pegasus glaring at me in suspicion, and the purple lizard just standing there, gaping up at me. I was forced to hang there, spinning slowly, and take it.

Finally, the poking stopped, and the unicorn put her hoof back down on the ground. She leaned back, tilting her head the other way as she continued to stare up at me. The pegasus blew part of her rainbow mane out of her eyes before zipping over to her friend’s side. At least, I’m assuming they were friends.

“Why the buck would Princess Celestia send you a human?” she asked, her eyes still boring into me, although it wasn’t as icy as before.

"I don’t know,” the unicorn said, her face scrunching up in confusion. If the situation was different, I might actually find it a little cute. “Maybe her letter will explain more.” Her horn glowed brighter as a scroll with a golden seal rose up in front of her. With me still dangling upside down like a piñata, she broke the seal, unrolled the parchment and began to read.

As her eyes darted across the page, taking in what was written there, I took the time to study my new environment. The new room I found myself in was completely circular in shape, although some parts of the walls jutted out creating corners and edges. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made out of wood. Some parts of the walls had what appeared to be bookshelves carved out of them. There were also regular bookshelves placed in one part of the room. Hundreds of books filled every nook and cranny. It reminded me of a library.

A staircase ran along the wall, heading up to a second floor balcony that had more bookshelves carved into the walls. There were also doors positioned all along the balcony as well, indicating that there were more rooms that were hidden from view. Another staircase ascended further up, meaning that there were even more floors above what I could see. The place looked weird, almost like the entire structure was carved out of the same piece of wood. As I spun around again, I caught sight of a tree branch outside of one of the window. Only, it wasn’t pointing towards the window, but away from it. It was almost as if…

My eyes widened as realization finally hit me. I glanced around quickly again, confirming my suspicions. This entire place is inside of a tree! We’re in a carved-out tree! The tree in question must have been huge; the entire place was about the same size as an average house back home.

Either that, or it was bigger on the inside.

I was broken out of my stunned stupor by the sound of the unicorn clearing her throat. My back was currently towards her, so I couldn’t see her expression, but I could still hear her when she spoke.

“Apparently, this human caught Princess Celestia’s eye, and she thought that it would make a fine gift for me. She said to think of it as…” There was a slight pause, followed by a rustling noise. As I spun to look at her, I saw that she was looking back at the letter. “..to think of it as a belated gift for my ascension to the position of Princess.” I shot her an incredulous look before my body turned again and she was lost from view. This annoying pony, who had just spent the last fifteen minutes poking me in the side was a princess?! You have got to be shitting me! What do they do, give out the position to anyone they like?

“His name, as indicated by the handler she purchased him from, is Max, although I may change that if I want. They don’t know his actual age, but he appears to be in fine health,” she continued, her eyes slowly moving down the scroll as she took in each detail. As I turned to face the pegasus, I saw that she was floating lazily on her back, a bored look on her face. “He hasn’t shown any sign of aggression, and has actually shown signs of compassion towards his handler.” She went to put the letter down, but stopped when something else on it caught her eye.

“Oh, it also says that he may be somewhat of an escape artist,” she said. This caused the pegasus to perk up slightly. Flipping around in the air, she hovered over to the unicorn and looked over her shoulder.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

“Apparently he tried to escape from the princess several times,” the unicorn replied.

“That’s kinda funny, actually,” the pegasus said, a smirk spreading across her face. It disappeared, however, when she shot me an inquisitive look. “Why does the princess think you need a human, though?”

“It says here that she believes it will test my skills at dealing with stress, as well as less intelligent creatures.”

“So, the human is supposed to be some kind of test?” The pegasus seemed to have said some sort of keyword, for the unicorn instantly tensed up. Her pupils seemed to shrink in size and her ears stood up straight. Her right eye seemed to develop a nasty twitch and a look of pure apprehension began to spread across her face. Upon seeing this, the pegasus backpedaled quickly. “Relax, Twilight. I doubt it’s something as serious as that. The princess wouldn’t do that to you,” she said, waving her hooves frantically in front of her. The unicorn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and seemed to calm down, if only slightly. She still seemed kind of tense, however. She must hold Princess Celestia’s opinion in high regards.

“You’re right, Rainbow,” the newly named Twilight said, her voice shaking slightly. She took another deep breath, breathing out slowly. “She did say he was just a gift, after all.”

“So, this thing is going to be living with us now?” the lizard asked, looking up at Twilight in fear. My eye twitched slightly when he called me a ‘thing’. Great, I thought, rolling my eyes when my back was to the trio. Not only can lizard-boy talk, but he apparently doesn’t like humans that much.

“It looks that way, Spike,” Twilight replied. Spike glanced between me and Twilight, horrified. “Oh, don’t look like that, Spike,” Twilight chided softly after seeing his fearful expression. “It’s not like he’s going to eat you.” Despite Twilight’s best attempts to ease the situation, Spike continued to look fearfully at me. Twilight sighed heavily.

“I'll tell you what,” she said as she nuzzled the side of Spike’s head. “You run into the kitchen and grab yourself a bowl of ice cream from the freezer, then head up to bed. I’ll be right behind you shortly.” The lizard’s face lit up instantly and he scampered across the room towards a door that I assumed led to the kitchen. He was pretty eager to get out of the same room as me.

I watched him go with a little sadness in my heart. Not because he didn’t like me; I couldn't care less what the little talking lizard thought about me. No, it was the nuzzle that Twilight had given to him before he left. It had reminded me of the way Sunny had nuzzled my head back at the palace. It had only been a couple of hours ago, but it felt like a lifetime right now.

Spike emerged from the other room, a small bowl clasped in his claws. Quickly hurrying up the stairs, he shot one last glance down at me. I rotated enough to look him directly in the eye before he disappeared from view. All I could see in his eyes, was fear.

Well, at least I won’t have to worry about him, I mused, slowly turning so my back was once more towards the stairs. If he was scared of me, it was likely that he would try to avoid me as much as possible. After the lizard—I mean Spike—had disappeared up the stairs, the two mares began to talk again. The pegasus, revealed to be named Rainbow, flew up to me and began to circle with me, matching my speed. Her eyes roamed my body as she took in everything.

Yes, I do mean everything. I could feel her eyes lingering on a certain part of my body for a bit longer than totally necessary. A small blush slowly spread across her face, her eyes narrowing slightly as a smirk formed on her face.

“You know,” she said slowly, her eyes still locked on her target. “The princess knows how much you tend to overwork yourself, and she must know how much stress you’ve been under lately. Maybe she sent him as a way to help you relieve some of that stress, if you know what I mean,” she grinned, turning to the unicorn and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Twilight’s face light up bright red, with a pair of lavender wings popping out from her sides. My eyebrows shot up at that, a blush of my own on my face.

Both wings and a horn? She’s just like Celestia, I thought as my body slowly rotated enough to give me a better look. Apparently she is a princess. Twilight sputtered, staring up at Rainbow with horror and embarrassment.

“R-Rainbow Dash! Th-that... that’s just... n-no! Just no…” she stammered, her eyes wide, her blush intensifying. Rainbow Dash just hovered in the air, laughing her ass off. How she was still in the air while laughing like that mystified me. I had to give her props though, it was pretty funny, even if it was initially at my own expense. If this was under any other circumstances, I would probably get along well with this perverted prankster, but as it was, I really didn’t like the position I was in.

“Geez, Twilight,” Rainbow gasped, finally getting her laughter under control. “That was too easy!” Before Twilight could respond, the pegasus zipped over to a window. Opening it, she waved to Twilight as she zoomed off into the growing dark, shouting back over her shoulder, “Okay, Twi. It’s been fun, but I’m really exhausted from today’s adventure, and I have to get up early tomorrow for weather duty, so I’m gonna go catch some z’s! See ya later!” With that, she was gone in a flash of rainbow, leaving just me and Twilight to ourselves.

Silence filled the room as both of us just stared at each other. Both of our faces were red; hers from embarrassment, mine from both embarrassment and from the blood slowly rushing to my head as I hung there, upside down. Our staring match finally ended when Twilight yawned, and I spun around again.

"Ugh, Dash was right. Dealing with basilisks is tiring work. I should really head to bed as well.” Looking me over one last time, she slowly began to lower me to the floor. “Let’s get you settled in first for right now, and I’ll deal with this tomorrow.” Released from her magic, I collapsed unceremoniously onto the ground. As I sat up, I became aware that Twilight had taken a hold of the leash attached to my collar. "Let’s find a place to tie you up for the night,” she said to me, trying to stifle another yawn. I did nothing but sit there, unwilling to move. It really didn’t matter to me what she did, or where she put me; I already had a plan.

It doesn’t matter where you stick me, the first chance I get I’m taking this collar off and making a run for it. No point in sticking around here longer than I have to.

“Oh, but first, let’s get your new collar on!” My body tensed at her words, my heart skipping a beat.

New... collar? I watched as Twilight shifted around in the crate for a second before pulling out a collar. I blinked in surprise. I didn’t even know that was in there.

The first collar was immediately removed from around my neck with a flash of magic, only to be replaced by a new, more comfortable collar. Unlike the first one that Sunny had put on me, which was nothing more than metal and leather, this new one was made of a sturdy plastic material that had a comfortable fleece lining. The plastic part was the same color as Twilight’s coat, maybe a bit darker. It had a golden tag attached to it, but I couldn’t read what was etched onto the surface.

I didn’t really care, however; a collar’s a collar either way. Once Twilight went to bed, it was coming off and I was running for it.

Twilight latched the leash onto the new collar and smiled, satisfied with her work.

“There, that looks lovely,” she said as she began to lead me towards one of the nearby doors. As it opened, I saw what looked like a flight of stairs descending into the dark depths of the earth.

Great, she’s shoving me into the basement, I thought, trying to suppress a snort of annoyance.

We headed down the steps and I found myself in another circular room, this one filled with odd machines, boxes of books and papers, and other odd knick-knacks. A tarp covered something large along the far wall, dust slowly collecting on the blue surface. There were no windows down here; the only light was coming from a flickering bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling. There was what appeared to be a closet carved into the wall, filled with various cleaning supplies. The whole place felt cramped.

Leading me to a clearing on the floor, Twilight hooked my leash onto the wall. Pulling some dusty blankets out of a nearby box, she shook them out before arranging them on the floor near me. I sneezed several times as the dust cloud floated in front of me. When she finished, she turned to look at me. Her eyes fell upon my bound hands and a small frown flashed across her face. Screwing up her face in concentration, her horn began to glow brightly. There was a flash of light, and the ropes around my wrists fell to the floor. I just stared down at my now free arms, flexing my fingers. They had been bound since I was first picked up in the desert. They had been on so long that it now felt weird to finally have my arms free again.

Satisfied with her work, Twilight headed back up the stairs, talking to herself as she walked.

“That should be good enough for now. We’ll take care of everything else tomorrow.” Yawning, she reached the top of the stairs, turned off the light, and closed the door behind her as she left, plunging me into total darkness.

I stood there, rubbing my wrists, unable to see. Much to my discomfort, it seemed my wrists didn’t get away unscathed. They were sore and felt raw. Pain flared up whenever my hand ran over a particularly tender spot. I continued to massage my wrists as I waited there in the dark for my eyes to adjust. I'll give them a little bit to fall asleep before I make my escape.

After waiting for what felt like twenty minutes, I finally moved. Reaching up to my neck, I gingerly felt around the collar, searching for the latch. My fingers found nothing but smooth plastic. The was no latch anywhere on the collar. I ran my hands all along the collar for a second and third time, searching for some way to remove it. There was nothing there. How the hell did she get it on me? I thought as I tugged fruitlessly at the collar. It was too small to slip up over my head, and there was no buckle to unclasp.

I’m beginning to hate magic! I snarled in disgust, pulling on the collar with all my might. It didn't’ budge and all I managed to do was dig the plastic into the back of my neck. Giving up on getting the collar off, I instead turned my attention to the leash. Running my hand around the collar again, I found where the leash and the collar met. Fiddling around with my fingers, I attempted to remove the leash from the collar itself. However, there was nothing there for me to play with; the leash appeared to be magically connected to the collar.

Groaning, I then moved my hand up the leash, following the rope to where it was attached to the wall. If the collar wouldn’t come off, and the leash couldn’t be removed from the collar, then I would just have to take it all with me. My hand eventually hit the wall and I froze.

Th-this can’t be happening. The leash seemed to blend flawlessly into the wall of the basement. There was no latch, nail or screw it was attached to. Hell, there wasn’t even a knot to untie. It was like the leash was originally part of the wall itself.

This can’t be happening! Panic began to grip me as I realized with a sinking feeling that I was stuck. There was no way for me to get free. If I couldn’t get the collar or leash off, there was no way that I could make an escape. I was now stuck here, in this basement, inside of this bloody tree, with a goddamn talking pony. There was no way I was leaving without Twilight’s help.

I groaned and slammed my back against the wall. Sliding to the floor, I rested my head on my knees, wrapping my arms around my legs. I just couldn’t take it anymore, and I broke down and cried.

Alone, in the darkness of the basement, I slowly cried myself to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was back home, on Earth. I was back home, safe and sound in my house. No ponies or collars or leashes or cages or magic. Everything was as it should be; normal and mundane. I was happy; I was content.

Surrounded by my friends and family in my basement, I smiled and laughed as we told jokes and stories to each other. We enjoyed each others' company as we ate and drank, not a care in the world.

Nothing could possibly ruin this moment, I thought as I raised a plastic cup to my mouth, a large smile on my face. I had just taken a sip when there came a knocking on the front door. Placing the cup onto the coffee table, I stood from the couch and walked up the stairs to the door. I opened it, a smile on my face as I prepared to greet whoever was behind it. I blinked in surprise, however, when I saw that no one was there.

Only the howling Dark.

With a wordless howl, the Darkness burst through the doorway, tearing at my clothes and limbs, grabbing my arms and legs as it attempted to pull me out of my home, my safe haven. I struggled desperately, grabbing the door frame as I fought for my life. I heard my friends’ screams and shouts as they rushed to my aid. Grabbing me, they attempted to pull me back into the safety of the house.

The Darkness didn’t like this turn of events.

A piercing scream rent the air as the Darkness lashed out, striking my friends down. It immediately set upon them, tearing their skin off as one would do to clothing. Their blood curdling screams filled my ears as I watched in horror. The Darkness continued to claw at their bodies, tearing them to pieces before my very eyes.

Not satisfied with simply tearing them limb from limb, the Darkness continued to manipulate my friend’s bodies. Slowly, it began to piece them back together, only they didn’t look remotely human anymore.

They were being reassembled as ponies! I cried in terror as I watched them being transformed into those gruesome things; there was nothing I could do to help.

The Darkness finally released them, but the damage was already done. My once human friends were now ponies. Their bodies looked demonic, skinless and bloody. Bones jutted from their bodies at odd angles. Blood oozed from their sightless eyes, red streaks spreading down their cheeks. Turning towards me, they glared at me with a hungry look, hatred on their faces. As they slowly advanced towards me, so too did the Darkness.

I tried to get to my feet and run, but my legs were not responding. I was frozen in place, almost as if I had been turned to stone. Unable to run, unable to defend myself, I simply stood there and wept. Crouching down, the demonic ponies launched themselves at me, howling like wolves. I screamed as their teeth sunk into my flesh. I fell backwards into the waiting ocean of Darkness.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. I was trapped in the Darkness, surrounded by the screams of thousands of tortured souls. I was dying, and there was nothing I, nor anyone else, could do about it.

As my life slowly left my body, a voice whispered in my ear. It sounded tired and weak, as if it had lived a great many years.

“Please… help… them…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I lurched awake, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down my face. Sitting up quickly, I tossed the dusty blankets off of me, my eyes darting around the room. It was still dark, but I could just make out the surrounding objects.

I was still in Twilight’s cluttered basement. There was no Darkness, no tortured souls, no ponies. Okay, no demonic ponies. It was just a nightmare.

I swallowed, running my hand though my medium-length hair, trying to calm my thundering heart. Wiping sweat from my brow, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I sat there in the dark, the sound of hooves reached my ears. They grew louder, and the basement door was flung open, light cascading down upon me. Shielding my eyes with my hand, I squinted up towards the door, cursing whoever it was that brought the light. Twilight appeared, humming happily to herself as she trotted down the stairs. Reaching the bottom, she hurried over to me, a smile plastered on her face. Great, she’s one of those people. Fucking early birds…

“Good morning, Max! Did you sleep well?” she asked, her horn lighting up as she removed the leash from the wall. It came out of the wall with a soft slurping noise, as if the wall itself was made out of a liquid.

“Ready for some breakfast?” she asked, her voice still annoyingly chipper. I lowered my head and just sat there, my eyes closed tight. Unlike "Ms. Happy Pants" here, I was not a morning person. I detested mornings with a fiery passion. I preferred the nighttime. The stars, the cool gentle caress of a nighttime breeze, the fireflies floating by lazily. Nighttime was the best.

I groaned as Twilight started to tug on the leash, trying to convince me to move. She wanted me to start my day; I just wanted her to leave so I could go back to sleep. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was going to be an option.

The tugging persisted until I finally stood up. My eyes still closed tight, fighting off the barrage of light coming from the open basement door. I followed Twilight up the stairs, using her tugs on the leash to guide me along. I stumbled several times, but was able to get up the stairs without falling flat on my face.

I didn’t open my eyes again until we were in the kitchen. Squinting out of one eye, I glanced around the room. Spike was already sitting at the table, a large bowl of cereal in front of him. When I entered, he looked over at me with a fearful expression on his face. I ignored him and the table completely. Instead, I made my way to a corner and collapsed into it, my back wedged into the corner.

I had just started to drift off once more when I was interrupted by a light tapping on the side of my leg. Growling softly, I cracked open an eye and glanced down. A bowl of diced apples floated beside me, encased in a pink aura. Every couple of seconds it would bump against my leg. I stared at it for a moment, not having the motivation to reach out a grab it. The tapping increased in both tempo and force, as apparently Twilight became more and more frustrated. I chanced a quick glance over in her direction and saw her eating her own breakfast, looking at me with an annoyed expression on her face.

Eventually, a loud growl emanated from my stomach, causing both Twilight and Spike to flinch. With that, I reach out and snatched the bowl out of her magic. I slowly began to eat, not really tasting the apples as my mind was still hazy in my half-asleep state. As my jaw worked on auto-pilot, I stared blankly into space, trying to get my brain working. With my escape attempt last night foiled by the goddamn magic collar and leash, I was having to rework my plans. Hopefully there would be more chances to escape later on today.

I froze, a piece of apple halfway to my mouth, my face scrunched up slightly in confusion. Why the hell am I so hellbent on escaping? Shouldn’t I be working on showing them I’m intelligent?

Because, whispered the voice in the back of my head, you don’t know what they’d do to you if they found out what you are. They might just deem it in everyone’s best interest to have you killed.

Please, I thought, popping another slice of apple into my mouth. If the government got a hold of something unknown, especially a possible alien, they would do everything in their power to protect and study it. They would want to keep it alive! If I offer to help them, they’ll probably help me as well. That’s how it works.

Maybe back home, the voice countered. But in case you haven’t noticed yet, we aren’t exactly on Earth anymore. We don’t know what these ponies do to the unknown.

They seem fairly nice, I argued weakly, chewing slowly. This seemed to make the voice laugh.

Remember those two weeks of hell?

I sat there, chewing my food as I silently argued with myself. The more I tried to push for revealing myself, the more my inner voice countered. When it finally mentioned that the best way they could possibly study me efficiently was via a lobotomy, I decided that I should probably play stupid a little while longer.

As I continued eating, I became dimly aware of Twilight talking to Spike.

“So, I was thinking about taking him around and showing him to our friends. Dash has already seen him, but the others left before he arrived.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Spike asked, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “You don’t know how he’s going to act in public. He might freak out around everypony.”

“Nonsense, Spike,” Twilight said, waving a hoof in the air. “The princess wouldn’t have sent him to me if he was dangerous.”

“Alright,” Spike grumbled, shooting me quick glance. He swallowed his mouthful of food as he continued to stare at me. I just ignored him. “But I don’t have to come, do I?”

“You don’t have to if you don't want to,” Twilight said, nuzzling the lizard, a wing draped over his shoulder. He visibly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, Twi. I don’t want to be around it more than I have to.” I flinched slightly, stopping mid-bite to glare at the lizard. I’m not an it or a thing. Sighing, I returned my attention to the bowl of apple slices in my grasp, now only half listening to the conversation. I knew that Spike was scared of me. For whatever reason, I didn’t know, and didn’t particularly care, but maybe I could use that to my advantage. In the event that I tried something, I doubt he would be much trouble. That means that I just need to escape Twilight and I will be in the clear. I didn’t know where I would go if I got free, but anywhere was probably better than here.

“I’ll have to stop by the human store and pick up some supplies as well. He’ll be needing a bed, some food, some health care items, and maybe even some toys to play with.” I nearly choke on a piece of apple at that. Toys? What the hell kind of toys could there possibly be for a human? A ball? Frisbee? Maybe a feather on a string?!

As I sat there, coughing and sputtering, Twilight and Spike glanced over at me with curious expressions. Once I recovered, I glared at them with a look that said ‘What?’. They both returned to their breakfasts, but not before Twilight shot me one last look, this one with a trace of concern in it.

Silence fell over the kitchen as we continued to eat. Twilight finished her breakfast and moved the dishes to the sink. Pulling my now empty bowl out of my hands, she placed it with her dishes before turning back to Spike, who was still eating.

“Okay, Spike. You’re in charge around the library while I’m gone. Keep everything clean and tidy and I’ll have a special surprise for you later.” Spike’s eyes lit up like diamonds, and his tail began to wag. Snapping a quick salute, he immediately scarfed down the rest of his food, jumped down from the table, threw his bowl into the sink, and ran out of the kitchen. Twilight giggled to herself, her hoof pressed against her muzzle as she watched him. I just watched with a bored expression on my face. Why do I get the feeling I might not be the only pet here? I mused as I watched Spike rush past me.

A gentle tug on the leash drew my attention back to Twilight. She smiled down at me, a little bit of nervousness showing through.

“Alright,” she said, tugging on the leash again in an attempt to get me to stand. “Let’s go introduce you to the rest of the gang.” Sighing to myself, I slowly rose to my feet and stretched, my back cracking as I reached upwards. My fingertips brushed the ceiling. Even though ponies ran this place, it was still human-friendly, and for that I was thankful. I don’t think my back would survive long if I had to crouch all the time.

Sighing again, I followed Twilight into the main room. She quickly gathered up a bag of coins and a long list of items. Depositing both into what looked like a pair of saddlebags, she strapped said bags across her back and headed for the door. A tug on the leash prompted me to follow after her. Glancing back behind me, I spied a clock hanging on the far wall. The face informed me that it was only 7:30 in the morning.

I closed my eyes and groaned softly. I hated mornings. I could already tell this was going to be a long day. Reluctantly, I turned and followed Twilight out of her home, and into the blinding morning light.

Chapter 6: Welcome to Ponyville

She lives in a library. Her home—a tree—is actually a library. We were standing just outside of Twilight’s home. She was quickly reading through her list she had brought with her, trying to figure out what to do first. I was busy studying the sign above the door that read “Golden Oaks Library”.

I tilted my head to the side slightly, never taking my eyes off of the sign. This mare either really likes books, or was so poor that she had to live in a public building. With her being a princess, I’d most likely go with the first option.

“Alright,” Twilight finally said, rolling up the scroll and storing it in her saddlebags. “Let’s head out!” With a tug on the leash, she began to make her way off into town.

And what a town it was. Colorful houses everywhere, each one with some crazy design. There was a bowling alley with large pins and bowling balls decorating the outside. This building made my head hurt. How could a race of ponies with no fingers possibly bowl?

There was a shop that was shaped like a purple and yellow checkered jester’s hat. The sign above the door clearly labeled it as a joke shop. How fitting, actually. It was like this world was one giant pun.

There was even a store that was called the Quills and Sofas shop that sold, surprisingly enough, sofas and quills! Seriously? Who thought up that combo for a shop? Those two things aren’t even related to each other in the slightest!

After we passed by a building that resembled a large gingerbread house, I gave up on trying to figure this town out. Instead I just concentrated on the ground, following behind Twilight as she weaved her way through the small crowd of ponies. Most of them didn’t even spare us a passing glance, and the ones who did simply waved at Twilight and kept going about their business.

“I just need to make a quick stop at the bookstore before we do anything else,” Twilight said to herself. I glanced up and saw that we were headed towards a store whose sign was a book hanging from its spine. I tried not to roll my eyes.

Why the hell does she need to go to a bookstore? She lives in a library for Christ’s sake! Of course I couldn’t voice my opinion, so I was forced to follow her as she headed up to the door. Pushing the door open with her hoof, she quickly slipped in with me following close behind.

It was a dimly lit store; just enough light to see by, but not enough to be obnoxious. The store itself smelled of books. Beside me Twilight inhaled deeply, a small smile on her face. I knew how she felt. I loved the smell of books as well.

Slowly making our way through the rows of bookshelves, we headed towards the back of the store. Twilight browsed through the shelves, stopping every now and then if a certain book caught her eye. I simply glanced around the room. As the shelves were designed for ponies, they were only about four feet tall, seeing as the average height of a pony, after ‘researching’ the subject, is around three and a half feet. This meant that I could easily look over the top of the shelves with no trouble at all.

Finally reaching the back, Twilight approached the brown-coated pony behind the counter. He looked up and smiled at her, ignoring me completely. I guess ponies aren’t as strict on their ‘no pets allowed’ rule.

“Good morning, Miss Sparkle. How are you on this fine day?” the stallion asked, closing the book he had been reading.

“Good morning, Barnes. I’m doing quite well actually, all things considered,” Twilight replied, returning the smile.

“Yes, I heard about the problem with the basilisk. Is everypony alright?” Barnes asked, concern showing on his face. Twilight simply giggled and waved her hoof in the air.

“Oh yes, everypony is just fine. The only injury we had was Applejack, and that was just a sprained ankle from when she tripped over the creature’s tail.” Barnes visibly relaxed at the news.

“Oh good, I’d hate to think of any of you girls getting hurt dealing with that horrid beast.”

“It was no trouble at all, Barnes,” Twilight said, shaking her head, smile still on her face. “We were simply doing our job.” As they continued making small talk, I studied the stallion before me. His coat was light brown, almost tan, and his mane was a darker shade of brown. He had neither a horn, nor wings, so I guessed he was just a normal pony. A pair of glasses rested on his nose, framing his dark blue eyes. There was a picture of a stack of books on his ass.

Heh… his name is Barnes and he works in a bookstore, I snickered to myself. All he needs is a partner whose name is—

“So Barnes, how’s your brother Noble doing? I haven’t seen him running the store in a while.”

I think I’m going to cry.

Eventually the two of them seemed to get tired of talk, as Barnes finally leaned across the counter towards Twilight.

“Now, Miss Sparkle, I know you didn’t come in here just to talk to an old stallion. What brings you into my humble shop?”

“Oh stop it Barnes, you aren’t that old!” Twilight said, fishing around in her saddlebags with a hoof. “As for why I’m here, there is a book I am looking for that doesn’t appear to be in my library, and I was hoping you had it.” Barnes leaned back in surprise.

“A book that Twilight Sparkle doesn’t have?! Deary me, I never thought I’d see the day!” he said in mock surprise. “What exactly is the name of this elusive book?” Twilight pulled out her scroll and glanced at the contents.

“It’s Your Human and You, by Dr. Mac Guffin.”

“Ah, looking for some tips on owning your own human are we?” Barnes eyes lit up instantly and he finally glanced in my direction. “How long have you had this fine specimen?”

“I received him last night as a sort of gift from Princess Celestia. I’ve never had a human before, and don’t know much about them, so I was hoping to find a book that could point me in the right direction.” Twilight rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Barnes just chuckled at this.

“Well, I do believe that I may have some copies in the back,” he said, turning and heading towards a door just behind the counter. “One moment please.” With that he disappeared behind the door, leaving me and Twilight by ourselves. We sat in silence as sounds of shuffling came from the backroom. Twilight’s eyes flicked up to mine, and she smiled nervously. I simply cocked my head to the side, my face expressionless.

Finally Barnes returned, carrying a large book in his mouth. Placing it gently on the counter, he pushed it towards Twilight with a hoof.

“There you are,” he said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “It was a bit tricky to find. Nopony has asked for it in a long time.” The book was enormous; easily the size of a dictionary. The cover was midnight black, with silver trim running around the borders of the book. On the front cover there was a white outline of a human being. Above that was the title Your Human and You written in gold, cursive writing.

This isn’t a guide book. It’s a tome! Twilight simply glanced over the cover before nodding her head.

“This looks about right. How much do I owe you?” She pulled the bag of coins out of her saddlebags, looking at Barnes expectantly. Rubbing his chin with his hoof, Barnes thought for a moment, calculating numbers in his head.

“Hmmm, let’s see. This isn’t a rare book like you usually enjoy, however not many ponies are asking for it. I only have three copies left, so...” Looking at Twilight, he chewed on the inside of his cheek for several seconds. Finally he nodded his head smiling.

“For you, it’ll be fifty bits.” Counting out the correct number of gold coins, Twilight slid them over the counter. Barnes stowed the bits in a drawer on the other side of the counter as Twilight took the book in her magic.

“Thanks Barnes, it was a pleasure doing business with you!” Twilight began to make her way towards the front of the store, her nose already buried in her new book.

“Any time, Miss Sparkle. You are always welcome here!” Waving over her shoulder at Barnes, Twilight proceeded to leave the store, pulling me behind her.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was fairly impressed. Twilight was able to navigate her way through the crowded streets without hitting another pony, while her new book hovered inches from her face. It was like watching texters back home when they walked down the street, their eyes glued to their phones.

With her eyes glued to the pages, Twilight read at an abnormally fast pace. I couldn’t tell if she was skimming, or if she was indeed reading each word. She was getting something from it, however. She had only had the thing for five minutes and she had already learned enough from the book to determine our next stop of the day.

“After all, it says here that since humans don’t have a lot of hair covering their bodies, they tend to get colder at lower temperatures faster than ponies would. So we’ll nip that in the bud right away and pay my good friend Rarity a visit!” I couldn’t tell if she was talking to me or the book.

After a few more minutes of silent reading and walking, Twilight snapped the book closed and slid it under her wing. Making her way through the crowd, she headed towards a large building at the end of the street.

It looked like someone had based a building on a carousel ride. It was a tall building, at least three stories high, and colored with blues and purples of every hue. Large windows adorned the front of the building, showcasing pony mannequins with a variety of dresses covering them. As we neared the door, I noticed a small sign hanging over the door. Narrowing my eyes, I attempted to make out what it said. Finally getting close enough to read it, I groaned softly and rolled my eyes.

The Carousel Boutique. The puns here are going to kill me. Twilight didn’t seem to notice my actions, as she just continued up to the door and knocked. There was a brief moment of silence following her knock before we heard movement on the other side.

“Just a minute,” a sing-song voice called out. More silence followed by the sound of hooves. The door was then surrounded by a light blue aura and swung open.

Standing on the other side was a very white, and very pristine, unicorn mare. Her indigo mane cascaded down her neck, curling and twisting in an almost impossible manner. Her blue eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at Twilight.

“Twilight darling, what brings you to my store this fine day?” she said, hugging Twilight tightly.

“Hello Rarity,” Twilight said, returning the hug. “I was actually hoping you could help me with a little problem.” Rarity let go of Twilight and cocked her head.

“Certainly dear, I’d be more than happy to help. Whatever is the matter?”

“I need some clothes made for my human here,” Twilight said, waving her hoof at me. Rarity looked at me as if she was only just now noticing that I was standing there. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly. She stayed that way for several seconds, staring up at me. Then she screamed.

Now, when I say screamed, I don’t mean like a little girl type of scream. I’m talking about a bloodcurdling, glass shattering, 'oh-my-god-someone-is-getting-murdered' kind of scream. That kind of scream that leaves you and everyone else around you temporarily deaf for several minutes afterward.

The scream continued for several minutes, drawing the attention of most of the passing ponies, before she finally ran out of air. Gasping and clasping her hoof to her chest, Rarity continued to stare at me in horror, mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

“Twilight, why in the name of Celestia do you have that, that thing with you?!” Rarity said shrilly, her voice finally returning to her.

“Actually Rarity,” Twilight said, wincing as she rubbed a hoof in her ear. “It was Princess Celestia that sent him to me.”

“What could possibly possess her to do that?” Rarity’s eyes never left me, as if she was afraid that the minute she looked away from me I’d attack her. I noticed that she was shivering slightly.

Is she afraid of me?

“She said that it was a belated gift for becoming a princess. She also said something about him teaching me about dealing with stress.” Rarity seemed to accept that reluctantly. Licking her lips, she turned back to Twilight.

“And you want me to do what again?”

“I need some clothes made for him,” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly.

“Why?” The bluntness of the statement seemed to catch Twilight off guard.

“B-because he needs help to stay warm?” It was more of a question than an actual answer. Rarity’s eyes narrowed, glancing between Twilight and me. I didn’t need to be an expert in pony expressions to know she didn’t want to. Twilight apparently got the same idea, as she moved to stand next in front of Rarity.

“Please Rarity,” she pouted, bottom lip trembling slightly. “Do this for me, then you won’t have to deal with him anymore.” Chewing on her bottom lip, Rarity’s eyes continued to dart from Twilight to me and back. It didn’t really matter to me. I’d been naked for the past two weeks straight. I had gotten over my embarrassment of being in the nude, as long as no pony tried to ‘study’ me too closely.

Twilight, however, seemed to deem it necessary for me to have clothes. She sat there, staring at Rarity with big, puppy dog eyes, her bottom lip trembling ever so slightly.

“Fine dear,” Rarity eventually sighed. “Let’s just do this as quickly as possible.” Grabbing a tape measure from the other side of the door, Rarity approached me slowly, her legs still trembling slightly. Twilight seemed to be on edge as well, shuffling from hoof to hoof. Not wanting to end up getting hurt by a scared mare, I remained as still as possible. I may be bigger than them, but a hoof in a very uncomfortable place was something I wanted to avoid.

Moving quickly, Rarity first measured across my hips, then from my hips to my ankles. Moving to my shoulders, she measured their width, then from my shoulder to my hip. Even though the tape measure was clasped in her magic, she seemed to be avoiding touching me with it, as though I was diseased.

Apparently pleased with those few measurements, Rarity quickly backed away from me.

“Alright, that should do it,” she said, turning towards Twilight. “Now, if you’d follow me, I’ll see what I can whip up.” She walked back inside, Twilight and I following behind. We were just about to enter when Rarity glanced over her shoulder.

“That thing can wait outside.” Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but the look Rarity shot her seemed to be enough. Pulling at the leash, Twilight walked me over to a bench located beside the building. Pushing the leash against the side of the building, she fused it with the siding. She then returned to the door. Before she entered Twilight shot me one more worried glance before entering the shop and shutting the door, leaving me outside.

I grasped the leash and gave it an experimental pull, and confirmed that it wasn’t going to budge. Sighing, I glanced around. The passing ponies ignored me completely, not even glancing in my direction. Convinced that I wasn’t going to be able to run off, I sat on the bench and rested my head against the side of the building. I closed my eyes and sat there, simply content to listen to the sounds of the world around me. As I sat there, resting, a single thought crossed my mind.

How did it come to this?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I had been sitting there by myself for awhile before sounds of a nearby commotion grabbed my attention. Cracking my eyes open, I glanced around for the source of the sound. Across the street I spied several ponies in golden armor approaching one of the buildings. Knocking on the door, it was answered by a pony with a pale yellow coat and a bouncy mane that was a combination of purple and pink.

One of the guards waved a piece of paper in her face before they barged into the house. Several minutes later they emerged again, pulling a mint green unicorn with them. She was shackled and struggling violently. She had a strange, sheath-like object over her horn. I couldn’t make out what she was yelling, but she was giving them an earful.

They gagged her with some cloth before pushing her into a sitting position against the house. One of the guards gave a whistle and a large cart rolled into view, pulled by more guards. I sat up straighter as I got a good look at the cart. It was basically a large cage with wheels.

This just got a little more interesting. Several ponies seemed to agree with me, as a small crowd began to gather in front of the house. The guards formed a perimeter around the front of the house, pushing back the curious ponies. The large cage was opened, and a few of the guards entered the house again.

A minute later one of the guards exited, a human trailing behind him. He led it to the cage before pushing it inside. Another human followed the first, then another. I started to count each human that emerged from the house.

One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight. They continued to come, one human after another, males and females alike.

twenty three… twenty four… twenty five… twenty six… twenty seven... twenty eight. They started to come in twos and threes. I was beginning to have trouble counting all of them before they were shoved into the cage.

thirty eight… forty three… forty five… forty nine… fifty four. The cage was beginning to look cramped, humans pushing against one another as more and more of them were pushed in.

sixty three… sixty eight… seventy two… seventy six… eighty one. Finally the waves of humans began to die down, until the guard shoved one last straggler into the cage and slammed the door. That cart-cage was packed. Arms and legs stuck out through the cage bars as the human pushed against one another. I had a rough final count of ninety eight. They had pulled ninety eight humans out of that one house.

The cart rolled off, disappearing around the corner of the street. The guards were now talking to the pony that had opened the door, occasionally pointing to the mint green unicorn still squirming on the ground. The pale yellow pony seemed to be on the verge of tears. The guards continued to talk, and the pony began to nod.

I was so entranced by the scene before me that I jumped as the door beside me opened and Twilight walked out.

“Thanks again, Rarity. I really appreciate this.” Twilight turned to me, a small package held in her magic. She looked a little worn out, a small frown on her face. Approaching me, she slipped the package into her saddlebags. Grasping the leash in her magic, Twilight pulled it out of the building.

Rarity stuck her head out of the door, glancing at Twilight. Her mane was slightly disheveled now.

“Any time, dear, just… just please keep that thing as far away from me as possible.” Pulling her head back inside, she slammed the door and flipped the sign in the window from open to closed. Twilight stared at the door for several seconds, shaking her head, before turning and walking away. A quick pull on the leash and I was off behind her.

“That didn’t go as I expected,” she muttered, head hung low. “I didn’t know Rarity felt that strongly about humans.” We walked in silence, heading in the opposite direction of the human-filled cart.

As we walked, I began to notice that the buildings were beginning to be more spaced out. We were leaving the town. The path turned from cobblestone to dirt as we headed towards a nearby forest.

Where are we heading? We walked a little bit further before a structure appeared in the distance. I almost didn’t see it as it practically blended in with the surrounding area.

It looked like someone had built a small cottage at the top of a small hill. A small creek ran in front of the cottage, murmuring gently. A bridge crossed the creek, connecting one side of the path to its counterpart on the other side. Birdhouses hung from every possible position around the house, as well as bird feeders. Whoever lived here appeared to be an animal lover.

Hopefully that love extends to humans as well. Twilight stopped just on the other side of the creek. I stood right behind her, waiting.

“I hope Fluttershy’s home,” Twilight sighed, staring at the cottage. “I need some cheering up after that talk with Rarity.” We proceed to head across the bridge and up to the door. Twilight rapped on the wood with her hoof. A small ‘eep’ came from the other side followed by a fluttering sound. With a click, the door swung open slowly and a pony stuck its head out of the door.

“Oh, h-hello Twilight,” the mare said, her voice barely above a whisper. She opened the door wider and stepped out. Her coat was a lovely yellow color, wings clasped at her side. Her face was partially hidden behind a large, fluffy pink mane.

Oh. My. God. She’s adorable!!!!

“Hi Fluttershy, do you have a second?” Twilight said, forcing a smile on her face.

“Of course. What do you need?” My heart nearly burst when Fluttershy tilted her head to the side.

“Could you possibly take a look at my human for me?” Fluttershy glanced over at me quickly before turning back over to Twilight.

“I’m not a human expert, but I’d be happy to give him a quick checkup,” she said, a small smile on her face. Turning around, she fluttered trotted back into her house. Twilight followed, leading me behind her.

The interior of the cottage was apparently built for creatures bigger than humans. The ceiling was high, looming several feet above my head. Despite the high ceiling, it was a homely little house, where one could live comfortably. There was evidence of animals littered across the floor. A few feathers here, a couple of tufts of fur there. The entire place had a calming air to it.

Taking the leash from Twilight, Fluttershy led me over to a small couch and sat me down with a gentle push of her hoof. Opening her wings, she fluttered up and hovered in front of me.

“Well, aren’t you a nice looking human?” she crooned, looking at me with her big, cyan eyes. Clasping my head in her hooves, she tilted it first to the left then to the right, studying my features, humming softly as she worked. Placing a hoof on my chin, she pushed down, forcing my mouth open. Leaning in slightly, she studied my teeth.

“His teeth appear to be in excellent condition. Most humans have yellowing teeth, but his are more of a whitish hue,” she said, leaning back and releasing my jaw. She slowly moved down my body, studying and prodding as she went.

When she reached my ribs she paused, frowning slightly. She prodded my side with her hoof, causing me to squirm slightly. She prodded me again and I fought the urge to laugh. I was ticklish, and her soft pokes were hitting the right spots.

“He appears to be slightly malnourished,” she finally said, glancing back at Twilight who perked up. She stood up and walked over to the hovering pegasus, leaning in to get a better look.

“You should barely be able to see his ribs, but as you can see,” Fluttershy said, rubbing a hoof across my exposed ribs, “his ribs are more pronounced.” She continued to rub the hoof across my ribs, a small frown on her face as she continued to study me. The motion was actually nice, and was quite soothing.

“He wasn’t fed properly.” Turning to Twilight, she left her hoof on my chest.

“Where did you get him from?”

“Princess Celestia sent him to me last night. She said that she found him in a group of humans that some traders were taking to market at Canterlot,” Twilight said, tilting her head slightly. “Why?”

“Whoever was taking care of him wasn’t doing it properly. He’s clearly been underfed. They weren’t giving him the proper amount of food on a daily basis.” Fluttershy took her hoof and grabbed my hand with it. I felt her hoof grip my hand; it reminded me of a suction cup. Lifting my hand up for Twilight to see, she pointed at my wrist with her free hoof. The skin around my wrists were still red, raw from the rope bindings that I had worn for the past two weeks.

“You can also see where his wrists have been bound.”

“He had ropes around his wrists when he arrived at the library last night, but I removed them before I went to bed.” Twilight stared at my wrists, a strange expression on her face. “It’s possible the princess had them bound before she sent him, just to make sure he didn’t freak out and attack me.” Fluttershy shook her head, releasing my hand.

“No,” she said staring off in distance, almost in a trance. “It would have taken longer than that for his wrists to get in that state. His wrists would have to have been bound for over a week.” Twilight studied Fluttershy with a hard look, sucking lightly on her cheek.

“Are you suggesting that the traders the princess ran into were treating their humans poorly?” Twilight finally asked, her voice calm.

“I-it’s possible, yes,” Fluttershy replied, snapping out of her trance. The two mares were silent for a while, both lost in thought.

“I’ll write to the princess when I get back home. Hopefully she will be able to shed some light on the situation,” Twilight finally said. Fluttershy nodded in agreement. Returning her attention back to me, she continued her examination.

For someone who claims not to be a human expert, she picked up on those signs fairly quickly, I mused as she worked down my body again.

“He seems to be rather muscular,” she said, slowly running a hoof over my abs. “He’s not the most muscular human I’ve seen; those belong to Applejack. He is rather fit though, considering his malnourished state.” She continued moving down, her hooves dancing across my skin as she worked.

Okay… we’re getting a little too low there. Unable to voice my complaints, I was forced to sit there and wait as she moved down to my groin. Spreading my legs slightly with her hoof, she leaned in slightly before gasping and jerking up quickly.

“O-oh… oh my,” she stammered, her face growing red. Her wings seemed to lock up and she landed on the floor with a soft thump. Twilight looked at the pegasus curiously, tilting her head to the side.

“What’s the matter?” Twilight asked, inching closer to the flustered mare. “Fluttershy?” Fluttershy looked at Twilight, her face crimson. She tried in vain to hide behind her mane, clearly embarrassed.

What did you expect when you went looking down there?

“Um,” Fluttershy squeaked, turning redder, if that was even possible. “He... he h-has an impressively sized...” She trailed off at the end. Twilight just looked more confused.

Come on! Does she have to paint you a picture?! Fluttershy refused to meet Twilight’s eye, instead watching her hoof as she drew circles on the floor.

“Could you repeat that?” Twilight asked, leaning in closer.

“H-his m-m-member is l-larger than most h-humans,” Fluttershy managed to say, refusing to look up. Twilight’s face immediately lit up as well, wings snapping out.

The wing-thing must have something to do with arousal... I was now sitting there, glancing between the two flustered mares, each one unable to look at the other.

Twilight was the first to recover. Finally glancing at Fluttershy, she cleared her throat.

“An-anything else?”

“N-nope. H-he appears to be in good health, except for being slightly underweight and having injuries on his wrists.” Fluttershy gave me a final look-over, avoiding my crotch. “I’d just make sure you are keeping him well fed and hydrated, as well as give him plenty of space to wander freely.” Landing, Fluttershy shuffled backwards slightly, picking the end of the leash up in her mouth. Twilight approached, taking the leash in her magic.

“Thanks Fluttershy,” she said, smiling at the timid pegasus. “I really appreciate your help.”

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy said softly, smiling back. “Just make sure to take good care of him. He’s such a lovely looking human after all.” The pair hugged before Twilight lead me out the door. Fluttershy stood in the doorway, waving at us as we walked away.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the afternoon was spent going to various shops across town. At some I was allowed inside, while at others I was forced to wait outside. We stopped by a store that was called HumanSmart. I had to resist the urge to smash my head against the building at that.

Twilight bought a bed that looked very similar to a large dog bed from back home. Along with the bed she bought a couple of blankets. She also bought two bowls, which I’m assuming were meant for water and food.

There’s no way in hell I’m crouching on the floor to drink.

She also bought some toys, much to my horror. They were similar to dog toys back home, except that they weren’t themed for dogs. There were balls, some knotted ropes, frisbees, and some squeaky toys. I think I died a little inside as she bought them.

We hit a few more shops after that, including a astronomy store that made it clear that there were NO HUMANS ALLOWED!!! I was forced to wait outside for nearly an hour as Twilight drooled over the telescopes.

It was during these periods, when I was left outside by myself, that I tried to memorize the town as best as I could. If I ever managed to get away from Twilight I wanted a clear escape route.

After Twilight finally emerged from the astronomy store, we continued our store hopping, each one as strange as the last.

It was at one particular shop, the one shaped like a gingerbread house, that I spied a large sign with the words ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ emblazoned on it in large, golden letters.

At least I now have a name to go with this crazy town. Ponyville, another punny name. Or is it pony name? A punny pony name? I was still musing over that when Twilight emerged and retrieved me, leading me to the next store. I didn’t even taste the food she had bought for me inside

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

We arrived back at the library just as the sun was going down. Entering the building, I sat down on the floor, rubbing my feet. Twilight latched my leash to the wall, then proceeded to empty her saddlebags. Carrying the objects she just bought to their appropriate places, she hummed to herself. After placing my new ‘bed’ on the ground near the wall the leash was attached to, she entered the kitchen.

Glancing around lazily, I noticed a small desk in the corner of the room. I perked up as I noticed what was on it.

Scrolls, ink and quills!!! I immediately stood up and made for the desk. I had just about reached it when my neck snapped back, the collar choking me. Glancing behind me in confusion, I groaned at the sight behind me.

I had reached the end of my leash. Grabbing it, I pulled it taut, trying to get a couple more inches of it out of the wall, but to no avail.

Turning back to the desk, I reached an arm out, grasping for the material. It was just out of my reach. Straining, I tried harder and harder to reach my intended target. My fingertips had just brushed against the scroll when a shout behind me startled me. Something tugged on the leash, causing me to fall backwards on my ass.

Looking around, I was confronted by an angry Twilight.

“No, those are not yours!” she said sternly. Walking to the desk, she wrapped one of the scrolls in her magic. Smacking me on the back of the head with it, she gathered up the rest of the clutter covering her desk. Quickly storing the material in the shelves above it, well out of my reach, she continued to glare at me as if I had just insulted her in some way. Turning towards me, she pulled out the toys she had bought at the human store and waved them in my face.

“These are yours! You can play with these!” She threw one ball at me, putting a little more force behind it than was necessary. It bounced off my head, falling to the floor in between my legs. Tossing the rest of the toys on the ground, she walked over to where the leash met the wall. Twilight then proceeded to shorten the length of the leash before turning off the lights and heading up the stairs.

“Now, you stay down here and behave. I have a letter to write.” With that, she disappeared upstairs leaving me alone in the dark. I sat there, glaring up at where the mare had disappeared to. She had just crossed the line.

I had been in this goddamn place for two weeks. For two weeks I have been treated like shit, forced into a small cage for too long, barely fed, and forced to watch as other humans were neutered and branded, with the knowledge that there was nothing I could do if they decided that it was my turn. What’s more is the fact that every attempt I had tried at communicating with the ponies had been thwarted by them, albeit the attempts weren’t many.

For two weeks I have had to deal with this bullshit, and I had had enough!

Fine, if they want to treat me like an animal, then I’m going to start acting like one. A sudden pressure in my lower stomach made me realize something. I haven’t had the chance to go to the bathroom yet. From what I saw today, most humans did their business outside. With Twilight now resigning herself to her room for the night, I doubted that she would be letting me out anytime soon. Unable to reach a bathroom, or a nearby window, that left only one option. I wasn’t happy about it, but I’ve seen my dog do it several times, and if I was going to act like an animal, I might as well do it too.

The urge growing, I looked around the dark room. Spotting my prey just within my reach, I smiled. Standing up, I descended upon the poor rug.

This should wake her up in the morning.

Chapter 7: Buyer Beware

“Um, Twilight? When was the last time ya got any sleep?”

“I’m telling you Applejack, I’m not going crazy. I know what I saw!”

"I’m not sayin’ ya are, sugarcube. I’m just sayin’ that perhaps ya didn’t see what ya thought ya saw.”

This is better than daytime television…

“I’m telling you Applejack, he did it right in front of me. Right in front of me! It was plain as day!”

“And I’m tellin’ ya, that it’s impossible. There’s no way in Tartarus ya saw that!”

“And I’m telling you, for the last time, I KNOW what I SAW! I wouldn’t be here otherwise!”

Where’s a tub of over-buttered, over-cooked, over-priced popcorn when you need it?

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling the coarse hay underneath scratching at the soles of my feet. My “owner” and I were currently standing inside of a large barn, which was owned by one of her friends, an orange pony named Applejack. The two mares were having a heated debate at the moment, much to my enjoyment. Especially because it was something I had originally caused...

Did you know that Twilight reads out loud to herself? I learned that little fact quickly when she had sat down to read Your Human and You. She mutters under her breath, but when there are no other sound it’s actually quite loud. At first I thought it was extremely annoying.

That was, until she reached the chapter titled ‘Better Understanding of Your Human’. Did you know that humans from this world apparently can’t smile?

...no? I didn’t know that either. Needless to say, I had put this newfound knowledge to good use the next day, and now there we were, asking Applejack for advice and help.

“I’m telling you Applejack, I was just walking by him and he smiled at me! Just like a pony!” Twilight snorted, stomping her hoof on the ground and sending dust flying into the air.

“Twilight, ya know as well as I that humans can’t smile!”

“And to make matters worse,” she continued with a frustrated growl, mare continuing to ignore her friend, “he’s been doing it non-stop, but only when I’m the only one looking!” It was clear from Applejack’s expression that she was done arguing. Rolling her eyes, the orange pony simply lowered her hat further across her face and turned away from Twilight. She limped slightly, her back left leg bound around the ankle.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I simply don’t have time for this.” She huffed, returning to what she was originally doing when we had first arrived: feeding her humans. There were hundreds of them in the barn, packed into little enclosure-like areas around the walls of the barn. It kind of reminded me of an indoor cattle barn back home.

There were about an equal amount of males and females, each gender placed in separate pens. All the humans were naked, but after dealing with that for about three weeks now, I had become desensitized to it. They shuffled around, eyeing Twilight and me with an animalistic curiosity, grumbling and growling to each other. Have you ever seen a human growl like a monkey and actually mean it? It’s actually quite fitting.

Twilight sighed, defeated, her head hung low and ears splayed backwards. She looked tired, her hair disheveled and bags under her eyes. I took pride in her appearance. It had been hard work, after all.

“I’m sorry AJ. I’m just getting really stressed over this whole ‘owning a human’ thing. I didn’t realize it would be so much work. I don’t know how you manage it,” she said, looking around at all the humans housed in the barn. Applejack chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at Twilight.

“It ain’t all that hard, sugarcube. I barely have tah deal with these humans,” she said, waving a hoof around. “They’re meant for breedin’, so all I have tah do is keep ‘em fed and watered.” Twilight’s eyes widened at this.

“You breed humans?” she asked, looking at Applejack in awe. “I thought you just used them to help around the farm!” Applejack nodded, tossing a couple of more apples into a nearby pen. The humans inside descended upon the fruit like a swarm. The apples were gone in under thirty seconds, core and all.

As they fed, I got a closer look at them. Leaning in slightly, I saw that each human had an apple branded on each side of their hips, the letters ‘SAA’ filling the core of the apple. Seeing as this place was called Sweet Apple Acres, I assumed that the brand indicated that the humans belonged to Applejack. Or at least to her family.

I leaned back and scratched at my 'shirt' Rarity had made, although calling it a shirt was being too generous. It was an old potato sack with holes cut into it, and boy did it itch! My pants weren't any better, looking like she had simply combined parts of a couple of sacks into something that roughly resembled a pair of pants. They weren't the most comfortable things I have ever worn, but at least they protected me from the sun's rays, right?

“We use ‘em for both breedin’ and workin’,” she said, trotting to the next pen. “We just keep the workin’ ones in a separate barn so that they don’t get mixed up.”

“So you breed humans so that they can work on your farm?” Twilight asked, following close behind Applejack. I was pulled along with them, my leash still in Twilight’s magic. As I walked along, I eyed the cowmare.

She breeds humans, as well as uses them for manual labor? I’m not sure how I feel about that. Glancing at the humans around me, I noticed that a lot of them looked to be well fed. At least she was taking care of them.

“Not really. Most humans we breed tend tah go off tah an outside contributor. They pay fer the humans, we breed ‘em.” Applejack replied, flinging more food into a nearby pen. “And as fer ‘em working on the farm, we just mainly use ‘em fer the heavy liftin’. We still collect our apples with good ol’ fashioned pony power.”

“So, any advice you could give me about handling a human?” Twilight asked, her eyes lighting up with hope.

“In my experience, just keep ‘em well fed and comfortable and ya can’t go wrong.” Applejack said, turning towards her friend, wincing slightly as she put weight on her injured hoof. “If he’s happy, then ya’ll be happy too.”

I liked this mare already. She is alright in my book. Twilight frowned slightly, clearly not happy with the answer given.

“And if he continues to give you trouble after that?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Well, Twilight, the best way tah make sure he ain’t causin’ trouble is tah get ‘em neutered.”

I hate this mare. She needs to go die in a hole. Twilight blanched visibly.

“Neutered? Is that the only way?” She looked back at me with… was that pity? Sorrow? I couldn’t tell, but I didn’t really care right then. I was waiting for the answer. I needed to know if I had to fear for my man parts.

Please let me keep my balls, please let me keep my balls, please let me keep my balls.

“When any of these males here gets too worked up, we simply snip ‘em and send ‘em over to help with the labor. Quick, clean and they tend tah calm down fairly quick.” Twilight glanced back at me one last time before shaking her head.

“No, I couldn’t do that to him.” I relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Applejack simply shrugged, returning to her work.

“It doesn’t matter tah me, but just let me know if ya change your mind. I know a pony that can help out.” Reaching the end of the row of pens, Applejack handed Twilight an apple before throwing the remainder into the last pen, causing another feeding frenzy. Twilight floated the apple over to me. I took it and looked at it. It looked like an apple…

“Was there anything else ya need sugarcube? If not, I have tah get back tah work. I need tah get things prepared fer this year's harvest.”

“Are you going to be able to participate this year?” Twilight asked, glancing at Applejack’s injury. I sniffed the apple. It smelled like an apple…

“The doctor said it should be fully healed in two weeks,” Applejack said, smiling at Twilight. “Besides, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I bit into the apple, my eyes widening as I chewed. It tasted nothing like the apples back home, or even the ones Twilight had been feeding me. It was the most delicious, juiciest, and heavenliest apple I had ever tasted. Sadly, I consumed it too quickly, and before I knew it, it was gone.

“Okay, but don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it,” Twilight said, flashing Applejack a quick smile. I looked around for another apple, but sadly couldn’t find any more. The three of us headed towards the barn door, the mares talking quietly about the upcoming harvest. I was content to simply lick my hands clean of the remaining apple juice.

Reaching the barn door, we exited out into the heat of the summer sun. Closing the door behind us with a shove, Applejack turned to Twilight.

“It was a pleasure talking with ya, Twi,” she said, hugging her friend.

“Thanks for listening, AJ,” Twilight said, returning the hug. Releasing each other, Applejack limped off towards the house in the distance, waving back at us as she went.

As Applejack limped away, Twilight turned to look at me. We stared at each other for several seconds, each eyeing the other intently.

Then I smiled, flashing my teeth at her. Her eye twitched and she ground her teeth in frustration. My smile grew and I began to chuckle softly.

That mare had a set of lungs. She could scare away birds for miles with that scream of hers.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It had been nearly a week since I had arrived in the little town of Ponyville, and I decided to make Twilight’s life a living hell.

Why? Because I felt like it. And because if they were going to treat me like an animal, might as well act like one, right?

Anyway, as I said, it’s been a week since Twilight had become my official “owner,” and she was already looking stressed.

The first morning when she had come down and discovered the little “present” I had left for her on the rug was truly memorable. Her expression had been priceless, and I had enjoyed watching her clean it up. Too often it had been me cleaning up after my dog, but now it was someone else’s problem to clean up after me.

I had been having a blast, until she locked me in the basement for the rest of the day to punish me. Two more “accidents” later and I was released from the basement and stuck in the yard. One thing I’ll say for that mare is that she learns quick.

Accidents aside, I went out of my way to frustrate her. When I was finally let back inside the library, I paced back-and-forth. This simple action seemed to drive her insane. Weirdly enough, she seemed quite fine with it when she was the one doing the pacing. She would yell at me to sit down, and I would. For about five minutes, then I would start pacing again.

Once she had left something she had called a “friendship report” laying around when she had visited her friends. Unfortunately for her she had left it just within my reach. Not taking the time to read it, I proceed to shred the scroll into pieces, flinging the tiny pieces of parchment into various corners of the room. I’m pretty sure she had an aneurysm when she had returned, and I got to have another trip to the basement.

There was also the matter of going outside. I would stand by the front door and nudge my head against it—something I had picked up after watching other ponies and their humans—indicating I wanted to go out. Once outside, I would nudge my head against the door again, indicating I wanted to go in. I could get away with repeating this action several times before Twilight would get fed up and either leave me outside, or keep me inside. It was especially fun to do this when she was trying to read.

Another fun time for me was bath time. Twilight had read in Your Human and You that you should bathe your human on a daily basis. Something about keeping our skin healthy or something like that. Needless to say, during these bathing sessions, I managed to empty the tub at least twice each time she bathed me. Even with her magic I was able to get her soaking wet by the end of the bath.

At night I would shuffle around downstairs, making as much noise as possible. As the night progressed I would start banging my fist on the wall and rapping on the windowpanes. Eventually, Twilight would come down to see what I was doing—Spike was still too terrified of me to be alone in the same room as me—and I would start nudging my head against the door. She would let me out and stand there as I wandered around the yard aimlessly. Frustrated, she would pull me back inside and head back upstairs. I would rest for a couple of hours, then start up again.

Needless to say, after a week of this Twilight looked stressed and tired, and I was actually beginning to enjoy myself. This whole 'being-in-another-world' thing might actually work out after all.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

We returned to the library after our meeting with Applejack. Opening the door, Twilight entered and secured my leash to the wall as usual. Sighing, she climbed the stairs, her head hung low. Watching her go, I chewed on the inside of my cheek.

What’s bugging her? I thought as she disappeared upstairs. Oh yeah, me! I smiled at this, then proceed to sit down in my comfy little bed. It wasn’t that big, but my god was it comfortable. Even though I was lying on the floor, I never woke up with any back pains at all.

Leaning against the wall, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. Causing mayhem was tiring work.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was alone in the Darkness. I couldn’t see anything. There was nothing there for me to see anyway. I was absolutely alone.

“I see you… Wanderer...” I whirled around, searching for the source of the voice. Darkness greeted my vision. There was nothing here.

“If.... there is nothing… what is talking?” The voice asked, amused. I started to run. I didn’t care where I was heading, I just had to get away. I ran, but only Darkness was with me. I was trapped in never ending blackness.

“You can’t run from me, Wanderer,” the voice said, growing stronger. My pace increased, though it did little good. I didn’t know what the voice was, or who it belonged to, but I had to get away from it. My heart thudded in my chest, practically ripping itself free of my ribcage.

“...please… help them...” another voice said, this one sounding sad. What the fuck was going on? I continued running until I couldn’t take another step. Crouched over with my hands on my knees, I gasped for air. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was near me. Something was watching. Standing up, I slowly turned myself around and what I saw made my heart stop.

A pair of giant red eyes stared down at me, surrounded by a yellowish glow. The pupils, slitted and demonic, constricted as they focused on me. I felt a scream rise up in my chest as my mind was consumed by those monstrous eyes. Laughter filled my head as I slowly began to fade.

“... I… see… you...”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I woke with a start to the sound of my heart beating in my ears. Looking around, I relaxed as I remembered I was in the library. Leaning back against the wall, I wiped the sweat from my brow.

The sound of hooves on wood drew my attention to the stairs as Twilight descended, her head still hung low. Walking over to her desk, she place a rolled up scroll on it before turning to me.

There was something in the way she looked at me that I didn’t like. It was almost like… regret.

What’s she up to? I wondered as she drew nearer. Reaching me, she checked to make sure the leash was secure to the wall before heading to the door. Opening it, she exited the library and closed the door behind her.

I watched her go. I wasn’t that concerned with where she was headed. She often head over to that one place, 'Sugarcube Corner' was it? She would meet up with her friends there to grab a bite to eat. She had taken me once, deciding that I should stretch my legs after being locked in the basement overnight.

I sat with my back against the wooden wall, wondering what I was going to do to pass the time. I thought about going back to sleep, but after that dream I wasn’t that sleepy anymore. I ran my hand along my leash absentmindedly as I thought. I froze as my fingers brushed over something.

Lifting the leash to my face, I ran an eye over the length of plastic. There, right in the middle of the leash, was a rip. It was so small that I barely noticed it, but it was still there. I felt a smile slowly spread across my face. If there was a tear, then that meant I possibly had a way out.

Standing up, I grabbed the leash in my hands and pulled. It quivered slightly as the material became taut, but it did nothing more. Grunting, I placed a foot against the wall and pulled harder. I saw the tear begin to grow. I was making progress.

Straining with all my might, I placed my other foot against the wall as well and pulled. I was basically standing against the wall, my body parallel to the floor as I strained against the leash. My face turned red as I strained. Finally, with one final tug, the leash snapped and I was free!

I immediately fell, bashing the back of my head against the floor. I simply laid there, staring up at the stars dancing around my vision. Sitting up, I shook my head. The leash dangled from my collar, no longer attached to the wall. After many failed attempts over the past week I was free. Now I could make a run for it. I could get to the forest before Twilight even knew I was gone. Spike wasn’t here; he was off having a sleepover with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, whoever the hell they were. There was no one stopping me from running now!

But first…

I glanced around the library, an evil smile on my face. I was going to leave Twilight a farewell present. Standing up, I began to look around for things to destroy. Twilight’s desk caught my eye, as did the scroll she had placed upon it before leaving.

Still smiling, I headed over to the desk and picked up the scroll. Popping the seal, I unrolled it and held it under a nearby light.

Let’s see what I’m about to destroy. My eyes scan the document in front of me. It was a letter, to Princess Celestia. Oh god, it’s not another one of those stupid ‘friendship reports, is it? Looking closer I noticed that there were teardrops on the scroll, as if she had been crying while writing it. Curiosity getting the better of me, I began to read.

Dear Princess Celestia,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you today concerning the human you have placed in my care. I am not sure the reason you sent him to me, but I’m afraid whatever the reason was, I have failed you.

Ever since he has arrived, he has been causing me nothing but grief. Because of him I have gotten in a fight with my friend Rarity. He is constantly misbehaving, despite everything I have done to stop him and despite your reassurances that he was well behaved. He is causing havoc in the library and Spike is terrified of him, for reasons I don’t know. He is keeping me up at night, and preventing me from getting work done during the day.

I have tried to approach this with patience and an intelligent mind, but I cannot take it anymore. I have tried to treat him with the best care a pony can treat a human with, but he seems to fight me at every turn. I fear that, in the end, he may just be too wild to live peacefully around ponies.

Thus, once Spike returns from his sleepover, I shall be returning him to you to do with what you will. I am sorry to have let you down, but I was not prepared for this.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

I read over the letter several times before lowering it, my smile no longer present on my face. I should be glad, shouldn’t I? After all, that was my plan wasn’t it? To make Twilight so stressed she couldn’t stand it anymore? I should be happy, right? So why wasn’t I?

... because this isn’t me, I realized. Glancing over the letter again, I reread several key sentences.

‘I have tried to treat him with the best care a pony can treat a human with’. I chewed on my lip, rereading that sentence again and again. To a pony, I was a human. To a pony, a human was nothing more than a mindless animal. Twilight wasn’t trying to treat me horrible because I was a human: she was treating me like she was taught to treat a human. It was no different than how we treated cows, horses and other such animals back home.

‘I fear that, in the end, he may just be too wild to live peacefully around ponies’. This statement made me wince slightly. She had called me ‘wild’. I had just been acting like a human, and she had called me wild.

No, I thought, my eyes widening. That was just it though, wasn’t it. I had been acting like a human. I was behaving like the humans that lived here, not like the human I was. I had been acting like a wild human of this world, instead of the intelligent humans of Earth.

This isn’t who I am. Raising my hand to rub my neck, my fingers brushed against the collar. Grasping the cool plastic in my hand, I held onto it as I slowly surveyed the room. My toys littering the room, the bed I slept in, the blankets bunched in the corner. All of it reminded me of my dogs back home. None of it said ‘intelligence’. Instead it clearly said ‘pet’.

A mirror hanging on the wall near the door caught my attention. I walked slowly over to it, dreading what I’d see. Reaching it, I gazed at my reflection. The face that stared back at me was that of a stranger.

When I had first arrived in this world, my appearance had been respectable. My hair neatly taken care of, my face clean-shaven except for the mustache that McDonald’s had allowed me to keep. I was clean, I was respectable, I was a human!

But the thing staring back at me from deep within the mirror was completely alien to me. My brown hair was now shaggy and a complete mess. Weeks without shaving had turned my clean-shaven face into a disaster. A scraggly beard covered most of my face, unkempt and untrimmed. Patches of dirt and grime covered the skin that I could see. I was horrid, I was disgusting, I was an animal.

I gazed into my own brown eyes. What gazed back at me was not something I recognized. They use to be filled with life, with happiness and hope. Hope for the life I had before, after I went to college and earned a degree. After I landed my dream job. After I had grown up.

Now, all that gazed back at me was emptiness and anger. No life was in my eyes anymore, just instinct.

I had gone from the human I used to be, to a human this world knew so well.

... this isn’t me. Tears slowly began to fall down my cheeks as I continued to gaze at my reflection.

When did this all go so wrong? Tearing my gaze away from the accursed mirror, I ran my fingers through my unkempt hair. Eyes darting around the room, I tried to find something, anything, that would help calm me down.

My eyes once again landed on Twilight’s desk. And the stack of papers on it. I walked over to the desk, feeling like I was underwater. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I searched the drawers of the desk until I found a bottle of ink and a quill. Unscrewing the cap, I dipped the quill into the ink. Grabbing a piece of paper, I placed the tip of the quill against the parchment.

I hesitated, just for a second, before finally beginning to write.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The sun had long since set by the time Twilight had returned home. I was content to wait for her, sitting in the dark of the library, alone with my thoughts.

The sound of hooves outside the front door was what alerted me that she was home. Opening the door, I saw her standing there bathed in moonlight. She had the saddest look on her face, and it brought tears to my eyes again, for I knew I was the one who had caused it.

She stepped into the library and closed the door, darkness enveloping us again. Sitting at her desk, perfectly still, I heard her shuffling around and then the sound of a lamp being turned on. A dim light filled the room, bathing everything in a golden glow.

She had her back to me so she didn’t see me right away. I saw her glance at my vacant bed. Her ears perked up immediately and she gasped as her eyes found the tattered bit of leash still sticking out of the wall.

She whirled around, wings flared, as she scanned the room for me. Her eyes found me, and I gazed back at her unblinking. I could see pain and fear well up in her eyes as tears began to form.

“You got loose,” she whimpered, still staring at me. “What in Tartarus did you destroy this time?” I did nothing. I just sat there, staring at the mare whose life I had turned into a living hell for the past week.

Slowly, steadily, I held up the parchment I had written on, showing it to Twilight. Squinting, she slowly approached me, trying to make out the words upon the parchment.

When she was just a few steps away from me she froze. Her eyes widened and her wings flared wider as she read the five words I had written upon that sheet of paper.

+Twilight, we need to talk+

Chapter 9: A Fresh Start

Neither of us got much sleep that night, mostly due to the coffee, even though I had only had barely half a cup. We finally parted ways around four thirty in the morning. Twilight had insisted that I sleep in her bed while she took the couch. She said it was to “make up for the misunderstandings”. I turned her down for the sake of comfort. I didn’t feel right taking her bed from her, and I had been sleeping on the cushion/bed for a week already. Besides, it was kinda comfy. No, we’d work on finding me a better sleeping arrangement later. For now, I was willing to keep using my cushion.

Regardless of how comfy I thought my bedding was, I was unable to relax enough to get any decent sleep. I had given up on getting any sleep around sunrise. Instead, I just waited in the kitchen for Twilight to wake up.

Sitting at the kitchen table with my head in my hands, I stared out the window, absentmindedly watching as the ponies of Ponyville woke up and started their day.

I was first aware of Twilight’s presence when I heard the sound of hooves on the stairs. She walked into the kitchen, looking as bad as I felt. Her hair and feathers were a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes.

It looks like she got about as much sleep as I did, I observed as I watched her walk over and collapse in the chair across the table. She sighed heavily and looked at me.

“G-g-good morning,” she stammered, trying and failing to hold back a massive yawn. I lifted a hand in response, still gazing into space.

“You didn’t get much sleep either, did you?” I shook my head slightly.

“Would you like something to eat?” I nodded, then proceeded to rest my head on the table. I heard Twilight get up and start moving around the kitchen. The sound of pots and pans filled the room as Twilight worked. I kept my head on the table and closed my eyes, dozing slightly.

After about fifteen minutes, I heard the sound of something being placed on the table. Raising my head up slightly, I glance at what it was.

I shot up, my eyes widening. There, placed upon the table, was a stack of steaming hot pancakes, covered completely in maple syrup.

“I figured you might like something other than bits of apples and water,” Twilight said, already working on more pancakes, the spatula grasped in her magic. I nodded, my mouth watering as I gazed at the pancakes like they were a gift from God.

Reaching over and picking up the fork, I dug into the pancakes with gusto. I practically moaned with pleasure at the warm fluffiness. They were delicious. After eating nothing but the apples Twilight had been feeding me all week, the taste of pancakes was heavenly. Twilight giggled at my antics.

“I take it you like them?” she asked, her tired eyes twinkling slightly. I nodded, still attempting to inhale the pancakes as quickly as possible. As I continued to scarf the fluffy wonders down my gullet, Twilight sat down across from me and started on her own pancakes, albeit with more reserve than me.

Breakfast was a silent ordeal, both of us concentrating on our plates. I finished first, leaning back in my chair and patting my stomach with a happy sigh. Twilight gave me a smile as she continued eating.

“So, now that we are actually on the same page, is there anything you need to do today?” Twilight asked, her mouth full of pancake. “I’ve been doing everything I think needs to be done for you, but now that I know I can ask you...” She trailed off, taking another bite of pancake as she waited for my reply. I looked around for a piece of paper and a writing utensil, but couldn’t find one.

Standing up, I shuffled out of the kitchen and into the main room of the library. Grabbing what I needed from Twilight’s desk, I shuffled back into the kitchen just as Twilight was finishing her last few bites. Sitting back down, I scratched out my question on the paper before sliding it across the table to Twilight.

+Do you happen to have a razor?+ Her eyes widened and she choked on the food in her mouth as she inhaled sharply. Coughing and sputtering, she looked at me in horror.

“W-w-why would you n-n-need a razor?!” she shrieked, or at least tried to. It was more of a hacking wheeze, but the terror was still there. I quickly shook my head and waved my hands, trying to calm her down. Grabbing the paper, I hurriedly try and explain myself.

+I was hoping to clean up my face a little.+ Still coughing and thumping her chest with a hoof, Twilight looked up from the paper at me with confusion on her face. I reach up and pull at my scraggly beard for emphasis. Her eyes lit up in understanding. After she finally stopped her coughing fit, Twilight got up and left the room.

While she was gone, I stood up and cleared the table. Placing all the dirty dishes into the sink, I turned the water on and began to clean. I figured that I could at least help out around the house now that Twilight knew I wasn’t just some stupid animal.

I had just finished the last dish and placed it on the counter when Twilight returned, a single blade razor held in her magic. She passed it to me and I grasped it gingerly. I stared down at it, studying the thing. It was like the old straight razors that barbers used to use. I looked at Twilight and raised an eyebrow. She seemed to understand my unasked question, and she lowered her head slightly, refusing to met my eye.

“Don’t ask me why I have it, but it’s what you need, isn’t it?” I nodded once. Heading over to the table, I picked up the quill and paper. Turning to Twilight, I handed my note to her.

+May I use your bathroom?+

“But of course,” Twilight said, a smile spreading across her face. “You don’t have to ask!” Trotting out of the kitchen, she waved at me to follow her. We headed up the stairs to the second floor. Leading me to the bathroom, she opened the door with her magic and ushered me inside.

“Help yourself to anything you may need,” she said as I looked around the large bathroom. I had never seen this room before. The times that Twilight had tried to wash me had been in a small bathroom just off of the main room downstairs. If you wanted to call it a bathroom that is. There wasn’t even a toilet. Twilight had later informed me that the room was originally intended to be used to wash clothes in, but she had tried to change it into a washroom for Spike. This bathroom was by far larger and certainly more comfortable. There was a toilet in one corner, with a large sink and countertop next to it. A large shower/bathtub rested in the opposite corner. The thing was large enough for me to lay down in it comfortably.

“Towels are located under the sink, just shout if you need anything.” I froze, then looked back at her, raising an eyebrow at her choice of words. She stared up at me, confused, before she realized what she had said. Blushing, she slowly backed out of the bathroom.

“I-I mean, just… um, flag me down if you n-need anything,” she stammered. Turning around she dashed down the hallway. Chuckling to myself, I closed the door and walked to the sink. Turning on the water, I studied my face as I waited for the water to heat up.

My cheeks and chin were covered in coarse, scraggly beard that would have made a homeless man jealous. Back home, I used to shave on a daily basis to keep up with the dress code at work. However, after three weeks of being ignored, my face was now covered in thick, coarse hairs.

When the water had finally heated to a decent temperature, I held the razor underneath the stream. After all, a heated blade worked better than a cold one. Bringing the razor up to my face, I pulled my skin taut with my free hand. As the edge of the blade touched my skin, I hesitated for a second. I had never shaved this way before.

I hope I don’t Sweeney Todd myself. Taking a deep breath, I begin to shave. A steady cloud of hair fell from my face as the blade slid across my skin. I had some difficulty getting the hairs on my neck due to the collar. Twilight had insisted that I keep it on for now, as a human wandering around town without a collar, or any other means of identity the owner, could easily be picked up and shipped off to the pound. Not wanting to get separated from the one pony who I had confided my secret in, I had agreed to keep the collar. It wasn’t all that uncomfortable, actually.

I carefully scraped my cheeks and chin clean of all the offensive hairs, but stopped when I got to my upper lip.

I had been the kid that had started to get a dirt 'stache in the fifth grade. By the eighth grade, I could grow a full mustache in a matter of days. My nickname around the middle school, as well as high school, had been ‘Mustache Max’ because I was the only one who could pull it off. At work, they had called me 'Mario' due to my Italian blood, and the fact that I looked just like him in the red uniform. I had had my mustache for over nine years. The mustache had made me who I was.

I stared at my face in the mirror, my face hairless except for the mustache still adorned on my face. I know it was silly, but even after all I had been through, after everything I had seen in this new world, the sight of my mustache made me realize all I had left behind. My friends, my family, my co-workers, my life. It reminded me of everything. It represented who I was.

I stared at the mustache for a few more seconds before I brought the razor up to my lip and slowly began to clear the hairs away. As the hair fell from my face, I remember the good times, and the bad times, of my past life. As I shaved, I remembered my hopes, my dreams, my fantasies. I remembered everything that had made me who I was. And as I cleared the last patch of hair from my lip, I let it all go.

The mustache represented who I once was. Now, it was time to move on and get a fresh start on life.

I stared down into the sink filled with water and hair for several long seconds, before I snorted and proceed to empty the sink. Throwing the razor onto the countertop with a clatter, I gaze at my clean shaven face one last time before turning to the shower, an amused expression on my face.

I get sentimental about the weird shit, I thought as I turned on the water. Stripping down, I tossed the ‘clothes’ Rarity had made for me onto the toilet lid and hopped in the shower.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, drying my hair with a lavender towel. My hair had been medium-length when I had first been thrown into the desert to fight for my life, but now it hung down in front of my eyes. It didn’t really bother me that much, but I should probably ask Twilight if there was some way to get it cleaned up.

I headed down the stairs and found Twilight sitting on the couch, her copy of Your Human and You open in front of her. She looked up as I approached and gave me a quick smile. I raised an eyebrow at her and motioned at the book.

“I was just thinking about how your presence here affects everything we know about humans in general,” she said, looking back down at the book. She closed the book and ran her hoof over the cover, caressing it caringly. She smiled down at it like a mother would a newborn child.

“Back before I first moved to Ponyville, I used to spend all my time studying and reading every book I could get my hooves on. I thought all my problems could be solved simply by reading a book,” she said, picking the large tome up in her hooves. “Even after I moved here and made friends, there were times that I found myself returning to the pages of my books.” She tore her gaze away from the book and looked up at me, a small smile on her face. I tilted my head to the side, confused at where she was going.

“But it would seem that you can’t solve everything just by reading about it; you’ve shown me that.” Grasping the book in her magic, she lifted it out of her hooves and into the air between us.

“It would appear,” she said, shooting me a mischievous glance, “that my book on humans is now completely useless.” With a flick of her head, she sent the massive tome flying through the air. It landed with a large thud in the trash, causing pieces of crumpled up paper to fall on the floor.

Standing up, Twilight stretched and yawned, her tongue poking out of her mouth slightly. It was really quite adorable, and I smiled at the sight.

“I have to go pick Spike up from Applejack’s. You want to come along?” She asked, picking up the two halves of what had once been the leash. A quick flash of magic and the strip of plastic was whole once more.

“I’ll make it worth your while!” she sang as she turned and waved the leash in my face. I chuckled at her silliness and nodded. I pulled my sack-shirt over my head, and Twilight clipped the leash on me before heading to the door. Reaching out a hoof and grasping the doorknob, she turned back and looked up at me.

“This is it,” she said, a large smile slowly spreading across her face. “A fresh start.” Twisting the knob, she thrust open the door and stepped out into the sunlight. The sound of birds chirping and the laughter of ponies filled the air. Clouds drifted lazily through the rich, blue sky. A warm breeze whispered gently as the grass and trees swayed back and forth. It was a perfect day.

As I stepped out into the sun, Twilight smiled up at me. A gentle tug of the leash and she was off. I followed as she called back over her shoulder, “Let’s go write our own book on humans.”

She's not serious… is she?

Chapter 10: Having Fun with Your Human

As the next few weeks went by, the quality of my new life in Equestria increased immensely. Determined to make me feel more comfortable at home, Twilight spent an entire day clearing out the basement of all her old junk and lab equipment. Once the basement was emptied and cleaned, Twilight bought a decent sized bed and stuck it down there. A desk, writing utensils and my own bookshelf soon followed, and by the end of the day I had my own room in the library.

There were some bumps along the way, though. Still fighting off a lifetime of beliefs, there were instances where Twilight would slip back into the old habit of treating me like an animal, but a gentle nudge and a small smile, and she would immediately correct herself and apologize. Multiple times.

I spent most of my free time around home either ‘talking’ with Twilight, or reading the many books around the library. During open hours, when ponies would come and go at random, I would take my books and head down into the basement where I could read without fear of being discovered. Twilight installed a lock on the basement door, however, just in case.

It was an interesting experience the first time we used it, as she had accidentally put it on the outside of the basement door. That meant that when locked, I was unable to remove myself from the basement. It took Twilight several hours to discover her mistake, even with me pounding on the door. She had tears in her eyes as she explained over and over again that it was an accident, and that she didn’t do it on purpose. I was quick to forgive her, but she apparently wanted me to know how sorry she was, so before she switched the lock around she locked herself in the basement and told me to let her out after the same amount of time had passed. After her ‘sentence’ was up, she came out and apologized once more before finally moving on. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I had unlocked the door hours ago.

When the library closed and the last guest had left, I would reemerge from the basement and hang with Twilight and Spike. Spike had taken the news that I was intelligent with mixed results. He was terrified of me when I had first arrived, but with the knowledge that I was as intelligent as a pony, his fear seemed to grow. In fact, he locked himself in Twilight’s room for several days and refused to come out. After the fourth day, I decided that I should go in after him. Well, Twilight decided that, and apparently I agreed with her without actually remembering doing it. Twilight magically unlocked the door, and I slipped in to see him.

I found him hidden within his basket, trying to hide beneath his blanket. I thought his poor little heart was going to stop when he saw me in the room with him. He sat perfectly still, frozen in fear, until I pulled a large emerald out from behind my back and offered it to him (a small tip from Twilight. Apparently the little dragon consumes my college education's worth in gems as a snack). His face had lit up and instead of fear, it had held confusion.

I had left him with his several thousand-dollar snack and had retreated downstairs. Several minutes later Spike had ventured hesitantly downstairs, with some encouragement from Twilight. He was still wary, but it seemed that he no longer was scared witless of me. Eventually we had gotten Spike to warm up to me, and he promised not to tell anyone about me being intelligent. A large ruby and some ice cream sealed the deal.

As the days came and went, Twilight and I continued to bond and our friendship continued to grow. She would ask me questions about my old world, and I would answer to the best of my ability. I, in turn, would ask her about her world. It was weird to discover all the things that were similar to what I used to know, but so different at the same time.

I wasn’t willing to believe everything Twilight told me, however. I found it hard to believe (and still do to this day) that Celestia did, in fact, have control over Equestria's sun, and that her sister controlled their moon. I was very skeptical of that, but Twilight kept insisting it was true. I tried to inform her that there was no way that anything could have the power to move a star, but she was adamantly stuck to her belief. Realizing that we would never see eye-to-eye on the subject, we eventually decided to just let the other believe what they wanted to and we moved on to happier topics.

We would spend hours just communicating with one another (when no one was looking, of course). We'd be sitting down comfortably in the library; Twilight chatting while sipping on tea or coffee, me with my papers, quills and an ice water (I disliked coffee, hated tea, and Twilight didn’t have any sugary beverages in the library). The only downside to our conversations was the fact that my hand would cramp up after several hours from all the writing I had to do.

Luckily, Twilight found a way around this. It was something called “hoof-language” and it was very similar to sign language back home, except instead of using your hands and fingers, you used your back and front hooves in various combinations to tap and sign out your message. Since not many ponies knew of hoof-language, there was no major risk with me using it in public as most ponies would believe that I was just ‘acting like a human’. Twilight, of course, would be able to understand me, for she knew hoof-language by heart because ‘why not’!

At first I thought I would have difficulty using hoof-language, as I obviously had no hooves, but I soon found out that my hands worked just fine, if not better. It took me almost a week to learn most of the basic rhythms and beats, but I was soon able to communicate almost flawlessly with Twilight, without the use of paper. There were some times that I had to spend a couple of minutes getting a message across if I didn’t know the proper word, but for the most part it was almost like talking again.

It sure made life a lot easier for me.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a beautiful summer morning. The sun was shining brightly down upon Ponyville. The sky was bright blue and was clear except for a few clouds. The temperature was a warm 76 degrees and everyone was outside enjoying the wonderful day. Everyone, except me.

I had my ass planted on the couch inside the cool library, my feet up on the coffee table, an ice-cold water in my hands and a book on ancient Griffon culture open in my lap. It was a Saturday, so there was no fear of somepony barging in on me, but just to be sure I had closed most of the shades. Didn’t want a pony to pass by the window, glance in and see me reading.

Sipping on my water, I turned the page and continued to read about the old wars of the Griffons. Their clans were always bickering over territory, and they even drew other races into some of their conflicts. They were known for their mercenaries, as well as their brutal fighting styles. They actually reminded me a lot about humans from my world, always fighting with each other over something as trivial as land, wealth or power. The only difference was that the griffons didn’t have access to fully automatic weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

I had just taken another mouthful of water when the front door’s handle began to jiggle. I inhaled sharply, and began to choke as some water went down the wrong pipe. Sputtering and coughing, I quickly closed the book and shoved it in between the cushions of the couch. Jumping up, I dumped my water into a nearby plant and dove upon my cushion that we still kept in the library (it was more for show, but I still used it sometimes). I threw my glass across the room and it shattered against the wall right as the front door swung open.

Twilight stood in the doorway, blinking slowly. She looked between the shattered remains of the glass on the wall and me splayed out on my cushion, an innocent expression on my face.

“You thought I was somepony else, didn’t you?” she asked, amused. I just laid there, staring up at her, trying to hold in another cough. Twilight sighed and shook her head, a small smile playing across her lips. She trotted in and shut the door behind her, laughing softly to herself.

“You never cease to amaze me,” she said, bopping me in the leg with her hoof as she passed. I coughed once and sat up. She walked over to the remains of the glass, and with a quick flash of magic, the glass was whole once more. Placing the new glass on the coffee table, she turned to me, an angry expression on her face.

“You’re lucky I can fix those things so easily, otherwise we’d have a problem.” I responded with poise and dignity; I blew a loud raspberry at her. Unable to keep her angry face any longer, Twilight giggled at my response.

Standing up, I brushed myself off and turned to my lavender friend.

~Where were you this morning?~ I asked, stomping my feet and clapping in a quick combination.

“I was out getting certain plans ready for today,” she said, walking around me and heading towards the kitchen.

~What plans?~ The great thing about hoof-language is that even though it helps for you to be looking at the individual using it, it is not necessary. While being mostly signs, it’s also used a mixture of rhythmic vibrations to relay the message.

“Plans with my friends,” Twilight called back to me, a small smirk on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her.

What are you up to, Twilight? Entering the kitchen, she pulled a wicker basket out of one of the lower cupboards. Putting it on kitchen table, she went over to the refrigerator and started to pull out pre-made sandwiches and drinks. She placed them into the basket along with a checkered blanket.

~What plans?~ I asked again, approaching the table and looking into the basket. Each of the sandwiches were made with hay, grass or flowers. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. While they ate some of the same food as humans, ponies diets also consisted of food that I could not possibly enjoy or digest, mainly plants.

“What were your plans for today?” Twilight asked as she double-checked if she had everything. Grabbing the basket in her teeth, she exited the kitchen. Placing the loaded basket near the front door, she placed one of the larger umbrellas from the coat closet next to it.

~Why?~ I asked as Twilight started to head up the stairs. She stopped midway up and looked back at me, smirking again.

“How would you like to come to the beach with me and my friends?”

~YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES~ I danced around the room, my hands clapping out my answer as my feet did a little jig. Twilight laughed as she continued up the stairs.

“Okay, okay,” she called down as she rooted around the bathroom closet. “Just let me grab a towel for both of us and we’ll be off!” As she fished around for the towels, I pulled the book I had hidden in the couch out of its hiding place and placed it back on the shelf. Rule 13 of living with Twilight: ALWAYS put the book back where it goes. No exceptions.

Twilight came down with the towels and placed them on top of the basket. Grabbing the leash, she attached it to my collar, grabbed the basket, towels and umbrella in her magic and headed to the front door. She grabbed the doorknob in her hoof, but hesitated. Turning back towards me, she grimaced slightly.

“I almost forgot, but Rarity will be joining us.” I winced at this. Our first meeting hadn’t been the best, and I had learned that her and Twilight had fought about Twilight keeping me. Luckily, Twilight had managed to smooth everything over with Rarity and the pair were still friends. However, ever since the first time I had met her, Rarity had been going out of her way to avoid me. Both Twilight and I didn’t know why she didn’t want anything to do with me, but we both agreed that it would probably be best to limit the time I was near her.

~I’ll be on my best behavior~ Twilight nodded once, doubt still on her face, but nonetheless she opened the door and we walked outside. I stretched in the sunlight as Twilight made sure the door was locked. Satisfied, we headed off.

“We’ll be meeting up with everypony at the beach,” Twilight said softly to me as we walked. I nodded, barely moving my head. Keeping slightly behind Twilight, I kept my face blank and expressionless.

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Twilight squealed, a smile on her face. “Another possible chapter: Having Fun with Your Human!” I groaned and rolled my eyes. Ever since Twilight had gotten rid of Your Human and You, she had been treating everything we had done as part of a learning experience. She even had taken to naming each event. Luckily, she hadn’t started to actually write anything down...yet.

Fortunately Twilight calmed down before we reached downtown. We headed through the marketplace, ponies stopping to say ‘hi’ to Twilight, or ask her how her day was going. She answered each with a smile as we made our way steadily through the crowd.

~Is Spike already at the beach?~ I asked when there was a lull.

“No, he is foal-sitting the Cutie Mark Crusaders for Applejack and Rarity,” Twilight replied, glancing around to make sure that nobody was looking at her. “It’ll just be us and the girls.”

We had almost reached the edge of town when we were flagged down by a mare with a fuchsia coat and a rosy mane.

“Twilight! Hey, Twilight!” Twilight stopped in her tracks and turned to the mare.

“Hey Cheerilee, what’s up?” The mare, Cheerilee, smiled at Twilight.

“I just wanted to say thank you for your help the other day with my class. I wasn’t sure how I was going to teach any of the unicorns about magic theory until you showed up!” Twilight blushed at this comment. Refusing to meet Cheerilee’s eye, she waved a hoof at the mare.

“It was no trouble at all. I was just happy to be able to teach eager young minds.”

“Nonetheless, I still appreciate what you did for me,” Cheerilee said before she noticed what Twilight was carrying.

“O-oh, I’m sorry! Am I interrupting something?” she asked, her ears splayed backwards.

“Oh no, of course not,” Twilight reassured her, smiling. “I was just heading to the beach with some of my friends, and my human.” Cheerilee looked up at me with wide eyes.

“This fine specimen is yours?” she asked, her eyes slowly drifting over my frame. “How long have you had him?”

“Several weeks now, actually,” Twilight said, tilting her head slightly to the side. “Why?”

“No reason,” Cheerilee said offhandedly, her eyes drifting lower. A weird light seemed to appear in her eyes as she “studied” me. “You’ll have to let me...ah... borrow him sometime.” Even though I was wearing my sack-pants, I could still feel her gaze burning into my groin.

“I... What...?” Twilight asked, her face lighting up red and her mouth agape. Cheerilee giggled and, swaying her hips, walked off, leaving Twilight and I flustered and confused. As we stared after her, I slowly turned to Twilight.

~Let us never speak of this~

“I concur,” Twilight said, turning around abruptly and heading back down the path. I cast one last glance after Cheerilee before following behind Twilight.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The remainder of our trip was (thankfully) uneventful. Once we were out of Ponyville, we were able to talk more freely. We walked for a good while, but since it was such a nice day neither of us really cared.

As we neared the end of our journey, the grassy hills slowly became sandy dunes and the path we had been walking on disappeared. Heading over the last dune, we reached our destination: the beach! There were ponies scattered up and down the beach, some relaxing on towels while others played in the cool water. A group of pegasi had gathered a patch of clouds together and were currently diving off of them and into the lake below. There were a few humans there as well, but they were few and far between and none of them were anywhere near the water.

“There they are,” Twilight said, pointing at one of the smaller groups of ponies. I looked and saw that the other five mares were already here. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already competing with each other, a volleyball flying back and forth between them. Pinkie Pie was cheering them on, waving small flags as she acted like...well, like Pinkie Pie. She was an unique one, I’ll tell you that. I had learned from Twilight that she really like to party, even going as far as to throw a party for each new pony to Ponyville. Luckily for me, she did not extend this policy to humans.

I spied Rarity lying on her blanket, eyes closed as she soaked up the sun. I wasn’t entirely sure that ponies could tan, but she was definitely trying. And then there was Fluttershy, sitting beside Rarity as she watched Rainbow and Applejack play, a small smile on her face.

We headed down the dunes and made our way towards the group. As we drew nearer, Twilight called out to her friends.

“Hello everypony!” Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all stopped what they were doing to wave at Twilight, calling out their greetings. Fluttershy looked up, her face hidden behind part of her mane, and her eyes locked onto me. There was a loud squee-like noise and then I was tackled by a yellow blur. I stumbled slightly as Fluttershy latched herself onto my chest, her hooves around my neck in a hug.

I don’t know what I had done to earn her affection, but ever since Twilight had taken me to her for the exam, she had been rather clingy. Whenever she saw me, she would always have to hug me, regardless of what she had been doing at the time. Twilight had figured that it was due to the fact that I had been malnourished and Fluttershy had been concerned for me, and I had accepted that answer with no questions asked. It was actually kind of nice.

As Fluttershy nuzzled my neck happily, Rarity lifted her head and gave me a disgusted glance. Laying her head back down, she groaned irritably.

“Ugh, Twilight dear. Why did you have to bring that thing with you?” she huffed, closing her eyes and turning her head slightly. Rainbow shot her an annoyed glance.

“Now, come on Rares. She can bring her human if she wants tah,” Applejack said, trotting over to the group.

“Yeah, the more the merrier!” Pinkie cheered bouncing around me, a huge smile plastered on her face. I’m pretty sure it’s permanent, as I’ve never seen Pinkie without it. Rarity just sighed and went back to her sunbathing.

That was a better reaction than what I was expecting. Fluttershy continued to cling to me as Twilight placed her baggage down. Twilight opened the umbrella and placed it in the sand, creating a large shaded area. Pulling the checkered blanket out of the basket, she spread it across the shaded sand and began placing the various sandwiches and drinks that she had brought with her upon it. It seemed the others had brought food of their own as well. Soon the blanket was covered not only with Twilight’s sandwiches, but also cupcakes and cookies from Pinkie Pie. Applejack, true to her name and legacy, brought apple pie, apple crisp, and something that looked remarkably like an autumn cheesecake.

Soon there was a veritable smorgasbord laid out upon the cloth. My mouth was watering just looking at it all, but unfortunately for me, I wasn't going to be able to partake in anything, as it wasn’t for me. As the others began to gather around the food, Twilight shot me an apologetic look.

~I’ll save you some so you can have it later~ she quickly tapped out for me as she hooked my leash to the umbrella. I flashed her a quick smile while no one was looking, and then settled down in the sand just outside of the shade of the umbrella to wait.

While the girls ate and chatted with each other, I just basked in the sun and enjoyed the feeling of warmth. The sand was comfortable, and I had no problem just laying around the beach. It sure beats just laying around the library. At least this way I got to go outside and blow the stink off of me.

A soft thump next me alerted me to the presence of a pony nearby. Lazily opening an eye, I glanced beside me and saw Fluttershy sitting there, a kind smile on her face. In her hooves was a plate of apple crisp and a cupcake. Behind her I saw the others watching her with curious expressions.

Fluttershy placed the plate beside me and nudged my hand with her hoof. I looked from her to the food, tilting my head to the side. I knew what she wanted me to do, but I feigned innocence (more to see her reaction than anything else. Fluttershy is SO cute!).

“Go ahead; it’s for you,” she cooed, nudging my hand again. Without waiting for another prompt, I reached down and grabbed the plate. As there was no spoon provided, I was forced to use my hands but I didn’t care. The apple crisp was too delicious to bemoan not having an eating utensil.

As I ate, Fluttershy scooted up beside me and leaned against my side, affectionately stroking my leg and knee with her hoof.

“Yes, you eat that all up,” she said, smiling as she watched me eat. “We want to make sure that you are getting plenty to eat.” I glanced over at Twilight, who rolled her eyes at me.

~I told you she was still going on about how underfed you were when you first arrived~ she signed, her back to her friends. I resisted the urge to smirk as I finished devouring the apple crisp and turned my attention to the cupcake. The mare might have been crazier than hell, but Pinkie sure did make a mean cupcake.

“Don’t feed him too much, Fluttershy,” Rainbow called over, her mouth full of food. “You might make him fat!”

“Aw, don’t ya worry about that Rainbow,” Applejack said, “A few bites o’ apple crisp never hurt anypony.”

“He has been behaving well the past couple of days,” Twilight quipped, shooting me a quick smirk, “I think he deserves a treat.”

I’ll get you back later for that comment, Sparkle Butt, I growled in good humor, my mouth full of sugary cupcake. I finished eating and Fluttershy took the plate to the blanket. I sat in the sand, licking my hands clean of the aftermath.

“I’m happy to see you’ve been taking such good care of him, Twilight,” I heard her say as she sat back down with the group. “He was in such poor condition when he first arrived.” Blocking out the rest of the conversation, I laid back down, closed my eyes and proceed to take a nap.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was awoken by the feeling of something tugging at my collar. Opening my eyes, I found Twilight trying to unhook the leash from the collar.

“Sorry,” she whispered apologetically, “I figured I’d take this off for a while, just in case you wanted to wander.” Finally unhooking the leash, she flashed me a smile before heading back over to the blanket.

Yawning, I sat up and stretched. Wiping the sand off my back, I glanced around. While I had been asleep, the girls had finished eating and were now back to playing volleyball. It looked like it was Rainbow and Pinkie against Applejack and Fluttershy. Twilight appeared to be refereeing and Rarity was still sunbathing.

I glanced around, looking for something to do, when I spied the water. There weren’t any ponies nearby, other than Twilight and her friends, and she did say that I was allowed to wander. It was a hot day; I was at the beach, it didn’t take much more convincing than that.

I took off towards the sparkling water at a dead sprint, sand flying behind me. I heard Twilight shout something at me, alarm in her voice, but I didn’t stop my advance. I had left my shirt at the library, but I still had my sack-pants on, though I didn’t really care if they got wet. I could just have Twilight dry them off with magic, and they were already as crappy as they could get. Reaching the water’s edge, I splashed through shallows before diving head first into the waves.

Immediate calm and coolness wash over me. The water was refreshingly cold. Opening my eyes, I found that I could see perfectly underwater; everything was so impossibly clear! Kicking my feet, I propelled myself further out into the lake, my arms pulling me through the clear blue water. I don’t know how, but this lake was cleaner than any pool back home, and had the added bonus of not having any chlorine. It was fresh. It was clear. It was perfect. I could have stayed under for hours, but the sudden need to breathe drew me back to the surface.

I breached the surface, taking in great gulps of air as I wiped the water from my eyes. As I happily treaded water, I glanced back to the shore. I saw that everyone had stopped with the volleyball game and had gathered around the edge of the water. Well, not everyone; Rarity was still asleep on her blanket and oblivious to the world around her.

They seemed antsy, and it was hard to tell from this distance, but they appeared to have worried expressions on their faces. Squinting closer, I noticed that someone was missing.

Where’s Twilight? I glanced around, trying to locate the mare. There was a flash of movement above me and I glanced up. Twilight was airborne, flitting around as she searched the lake.

What’s she doing? I eyed her curiously, watching her fly here and there, eyes scouring the lake’s surface. She eventually spotted me bobbing in the water. Diving out of the sky, she streaked towards me faster than I have ever seen her move, even that one time I had almost spilled my water on a book on the coffee table. Acting on instinct, I ducked back beneath the surface as she zoomed overhead, hooves skimming the water. Coming back up, I watched as she quickly banked and headed back towards me. Stopping above me, she hovered in place, her eyes wide.

“What the buck are you doing?!” she hissed, fear evident in her voice. I blinked, confused. Had I broken a rule that said 'no humans allowed in the lake'?

~What do you mean?~ I asked, trying to sign and keep my head above water at the same time.

“What do you mean ‘what do you mean’?!” she growled, trying to snag me with her hooves, but I bobbed away from her. Whatever was stressing her out, she appeared to have forgotten that she could use magic.

~I just don’t see what the big deal is~ Diving quickly, Twilight finally grabbed a hold of me and began to try and lift me out of the water.

“Big deal? Big deal?!” she wheezed, her voice panicky. “Of course it’s a big deal! Humans can’t swim!!!” At this, I stare up at her incredulously.

Seriously? She’s getting all worked up because she thought I couldn’t swim? I quickly bopped her on the nose, causing her to yelp and drop me. She looked down at me, surprised and confused.

~Humans can’t swim? Says you!~ Smiling, I inhaled deeply and dived back beneath the waves, leaving Twilight hovering above, a bewildered expression on her face. Kicking my legs, I flew through the water for several seconds before surfacing again. Twilight was instantly next to me, worry on her face. I rolled my eyes and splash some water at her. She easily avoided my 'attack', but still hovered nearby like a mother hen. She had a look on her face like she was worried I might slip beneath the waves and never come back up.

~Stop worrying; I’m fine~ Splashing more water at her, I began to float lazily on my back. I hadn’t had this much fun since I had arrived in Equestria, and I was going to make it last.

~Go get a ball~ I told Twilight, causing her to tilt her head at me, confusion replacing worry. ~I want to have some fun with you~

“But, what do I tell the others?” She asked, glancing back at the shore. “Humans aren't supposed to be able to swim.” I look at the shore as well. A crowd had gathered at the water’s edge, watching us with curiosity. I turn back to Twilight, shrugging my shoulders.

~That you are a very smart alicorn who taught a human to swim?~ She shot me a skeptical look. I shrugged again then went back to floating.

~I don’t really care what you tell them, I was just hoping for a ball~ Twilight sighed and flew back to the shore. I watched as she landed and was immediately swarmed. I chuckled to myself, closing my eyes and drifting lazily through the water.

I had been drifting there for several minutes before something splashed down next to me. Glancing over, I smiled as I saw a volleyball floating there. Twilight hovered nearby, looking at me with an irritated expression.

“There, I got you your ball,” she huffed, glaring down at me. “Happy?” I nodded, smiling. I swam over and grabbed a hold of the ball. The minute it was in my hands, I launched it up towards Twilight. She squawked, swooping to avoid the ball. It splashed down in the water again, and I immediately swam over to retrieve it.

“What the buck was that for?!” Twilight growled, anger clear in her eyes. Grabbing the ball again, I turn towards the enraged mare.

~Play with me~ Twilight blinked, her anger vanishing instantly. A small blush slowly covered her face as she looked down at me, her mouth agape.

“W-what?” she stuttered, causing me to chuckle. I toss the ball up to her again, and this time she caught it.

~Play with me~ I repeated, still smiling. ~I want to play a game with you~ Twilight looked between me and the ball, her face still red. Realization dawns on her face, and she smiles down at me.

“I guess I could spare some time,” she said, tossing the ball into the air. It landed in the water with a splash, and I swam towards it. Grabbing it, I launch it back up to Twilight, who laughed as she caught it in her hooves. Both of us smiled at each other as we tossed the ball back and forth; a pony and her human.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

We continued to toss the ball back and forth for the rest of the afternoon. Rainbow Dash joined us shortly after we started, and we soon had an actual game going. Rainbow Dash and I would toss the ball back and forth between us as Twilight tried to intercept it without using her magic.

The crowd of ponies on the beach dispersed slowly as we played, heading back to their original spots on the beach or some just heading home for the day. Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie remained at the edge of the water, however, dipping their hooves in the water as they watched us. Rarity had remained asleep through the whole thing.

The sun had started to sink towards the horizon when the three of us finally decided to head for shore. I was exhausted from swimming so much, but I didn’t care. I had enjoyed myself, and had had some fun bonding time with Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The mares flew above me, Rainbow holding the ball as Twilight kept an eye on me as I swam. Even after spending several hours swimming around the lake, she was still slightly worried that I would sink beneath the waves.

As I stumbled out of the water onto the beach, I was assaulted by a worried Fluttershy who had to check me over to make sure that I wasn’t injured or hurt in any way. Finding nothing wrong with me except exhaustion, she latched on to me, tears in her eyes.

“I thought we had lost you,” she sniffed, looking up at me with big, watering eyes. I wince inwardly.

Damn, now I feel like an ass. Rainbow Dash came to my rescue, though.

“Aw, come on Fluttershy! It’s not like he was going to drown,” she said, hovering beside my head.

“But Rainbow Dash,” she whined, gazing up at the rainbow mare. “Humans aren’t supposed to be able to swim! They just...they just sink.” Her grip on me tightened and she buried her head in my chest.

“You heard Twilight, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “She taught him how to swim before coming out here, and when has Twilight Sparkle ever failed at doing something she set her mind to?” Fluttershy opened her mouth to reply, but Rainbow Dash cut her off again.

“Besides, humans may be stupid, but they wouldn’t do anything that could kill them. If he didn’t know how to swim, I doubt he would have gone into the water like that.” What happened next stunned me completely.

Rainbow Dash, the “most awesome pony in all of Ponyville”, swooped down and nuzzled my cheek. Gazing at me with her magenta eyes, she smiled tenderly at me.

“It’s still nice to know you’re okay, big guy,” she said, before blushing and zooming off. I glance down at the others and see that they are all staring after Rainbow Dash, their jaws on the ground. They were as speechless as I was, and that’s saying something.

Applejack was the first to recover.

“I think that I better get goin’ too,” she said, turning to Twilight. “I’ll wake up Rarity and we’ll go save Spike from the Crusaders.” Nodding to the others, Applejack walked over to Rarity and nudged her awake. The white unicorn mare sat up, groaning slightly as she stood. Even through her coat, I could see a bit of red underneath. She winced as she and Applejack began to walk home. Eeyup, she was sunburned alright, and it looked painful.

Serves her right, I snicker to myself as I watch her limp off. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both said their goodbyes before heading off. Twilight magicked everything into the basket and closed up the umbrella. She reattached the leash to my collar and we started the long journey back to the library.

As we walked, I glanced over to Twilight and saw a smile on her face. Walking closer to her, I bumped into her gently.

~What are you smiling at?~ Twilight looked up at me and her smile grew.

“I was just thinking of how much fun I had today,” she giggled. “I didn’t know you could have that much fun at the beach!”

~You learn something new every day~ I snickered, stifling a yawn. All the swimming and playing had taken a lot out of me, and I couldn’t wait to get home and crawl into bed.

“Yeah,” Twilight said, her ears drooping slightly, along with her head. “Something new.” She was silent for several seconds before turning back to me, her smile no longer present. She looked up at me through her bangs. “You really scared me with the stunt you pulled.” I raised an eyebrow at her, confused. Twilight sighed and rubbed her head against my leg as we continued to walk.

“I thought I had lost you when you dove into the lake,” she whispered, tears starting to well up in her eyes. “Even though we have only known each other for a few weeks, I couldn’t bear the thought of something bad happening to you.” I reached down and scratched behind her ear. She flicked the ear and giggled, the smile reappearing on her face.

~I’m sorry I scared you. I didn’t know that humans here couldn't swim; back home most humans can actually swim very well~

“It’s okay,” Twilight said, wiping the tears from her eyes with a hoof. “Just don’t do anything like that again without telling me first.”

~I promise~ The rest of the walk home was silent, both of us quiet. As we walked through the deserted marketplace, Twilight leaned into my leg. I placed a hand on the back of her head, scratching her behind the ears gently. She hummed contentedly as she leaned more into my leg, her head pressing into my hand. We remained like this all the way to the library.

Once inside, Twilight removed the leash before flinging it, the basket and the umbrella into a corner. The sound of snoring upstairs informed us that Spike was already home and out like a light. By some unspoken agreement, we both head towards our respective rooms. Reaching the basement door, Twilight nudged me one more time in the leg.

“Goodnight Max,” she murmured, a tired smile on her face. “Thanks for allowing me to have fun with you today.”

~Goodnight Twilight~ I sign, yawning. ~Thanks for taking me with you~ We flash each other one more smile before I headed down into the basement and Twilight headed up to her room.

Reaching my bed, I flung back the covers and sunk into the bed. Snuggling down into the coolness of the sheets, I close my eyes and sigh happily. It had been a fun day at the beach and I had had a blast with the mares, even if they didn’t know the whole truth, but I was happy to be back at the library.

No, I realized as I felt myself drift slowly off to sleep. Not the library. Home. Sighing again, I let sleep take me and I drifted off into dreamland, a happy smile on my tired face. I was home.

Chapter 11: Bonding with Your Human

The food in Equestria is not only delicious, but by far more healthy than anything back home. They don’t have preservatives, artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup in any of their foods. Everything is fresh, no exceptions. They can and store their food though, but they don’t have a need for preservatives to keep them from going bad. They use—get this—magic in order to keep the food fresh. That’s right, magic. There is a small amount of magic laced through all the containers that keep the food as fresh as when it was packed.

How do I know this? Because I’m smart!

...and because Twilight explained it to me. Ever since I had revealed myself to Twilight, my diet had improved greatly. While it is true that Twilight had never starved me during the first week, she hadn’t been providing me with enough to be satisfactory. Now that we were able to communicate with one another, I had been able to get as much food as I liked. Since all the food is fresh and pure, my health had improved greatly. I wasn’t as heavy as when I had first been dropped into the desert, but I wasn’t skinny either. I was somewhere comfortably in the middle.

It wasn’t just my diet that was helping my health either. Another factor was at play as well: Rainbow Dash. It had first started during one of the girls’ “Pet Playdates”. Twilight’s pet owl, Owlowiscious (yes, she has a pet owl too. I found that out one dark night on my way to the bathroom. I made sure that I was the one to clean up after that accident though), was not feeling well (how the fuck could you tell? It’s a bloody owl!) so Twilight brought me instead. Luckily, Rarity was busy working on a massive order for a customer in Canterlot, so we didn’t need to worry about that.

It was during the play date that Rainbow Dash had accidentally crashed into me while flying with her pet tortoise (don’t even ask). Thinking she was attacking me, I wrestled with her until she broke free. We had both sat there, staring at the other in confusion. I have no idea what made her think of it, but Rainbow Dash decided on the fact that I had simply wanted to “play wrestle” with her, and she was more than happy to oblige.

From that day on, I was under a constant barrage of attacks from the prismatic mare. It could happen at any moment when Twilight and I were out and about. We would just be walking through the market when she would strike. Rainbow would crash into me, and the wrestle match would start. We would continue for several minutes, then we’d stop, catch our breaths and Rainbow would fly off until next time.

The first time she had done it after the play date, there had been mass panic in the marketplace. Ponies ran around screaming about the “mad human” and how there was a “rogue human attacking ponies”. It was only when the guards arrived and Rainbow and Twilight had explained the situation (it was mostly Rainbow, while Twilight glared at her) that everyone stopped panicking. Although, even with Rainbow Dash claiming it was her fault and that I was harmless, I still had to take a series of tests designed to assess a human’s aggression level. After having a piece of apple taken from me several times, as well as ponies poking and prodding me, I passed with flying colors.

It got to the point that no one seemed to care about our wrestling matches. They would simply step around our flailing limbs and go about their day. The constant play fighting (as well as my occasional attempt to run from her) caused me to slowly become more muscular. It wasn’t a lot of growth, just enough to become slightly noticeable. Rainbow Dash had definitely noticed.

It had been during one of our matches that it had happened. She had been sitting on my stomach after a particularly long fight when she had noticed my muscular abdomen and chest. She had just sat there, staring down at me, panting slightly. The longer she stared, the redder her face became. Suddenly, her wings had snapped open and she had rushed off. Several days had gone by before I saw her again. After that day, she became a lot more affectionate towards me.

Rainbow’s new affection aside, the wrestling matches as well as my new, healthier diet, had done wonders for my body. Although, there was one thing that I had come to miss: meat. Being herbivores, meat isn’t on the menu for ponies. It probably doesn’t help that most creatures in Equestria were sapient. Nonetheless, I found myself craving it. With Twilight’s feelings in mind, I tried my hardest to ignore the cravings, but eventually I decided to go out on a limb and tell her.

She had about leapt out of her skin when I first asked her if she knew of a place where we could get meat. With her back against the wall, and a knife in her hooves, she had demanded to know why I wanted meat. This had lead to an awkward conversation about my dietary habits. After informing her that all of the animals on my old world weren’t sapient, and Pinkie Promising not to eat her or anyone else, she finally started to calm down. It was only when she had reread the chapter that had information about feeding your human in Your Human and You (yes, she still had it. She had ‘rescued’ it from the trash shortly after she had threw it away) and saw that meat was part of a human’s diet that she finally believed me.

Some more research later, and we found that the local human store sold some pills that would give a human the nutrients they got from eating meat. Twilight had asked me if that was a possible substitute, as she really, really, really did not want to have to find, buy, and cook meat. I might be her friend, but that didn’t mean that she would willingly handle what used to be a living creature for me. I told her that if it stopped the cravings, I would be happy to take the pills.

Miraculously, it had actually worked. One pill a day, and I got the nutrients I supposedly needed, and the cravings for meat disappeared.

Needless to say, both Twilight and I were happy with the results.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

~I hate mornings~

“Oh, stop whining. It’s not that early!” Twilight and I walked down the path that lead from the library to the marketplace. Well, Twilight walked; I had my eyes closed and was following Twilight, using the tugs on the leash to guide me. It was 7:30 in the morning, and I had just woken up only fifteen minutes ago. I was still asleep, if only in my mind.

It was Thursday, which meant that it was Twilight’s errand day and we were headed into the marketplace to get stuff done. Whatever the stuff was that Twilight needed to do. I wasn’t really listening when she had been listing it off. I had been trying to find my way back into the warm, gentle embrace of sleep.

“I'll tell you what,” Twilight said as we neared the marketplace. It was still relatively empty; most ponies were still waking up. “The faster we get our errands done, the sooner you can get home and nap.”

~Deal~ I suppressed a yawn and followed Twilight into the market. Due to us being there early (I don’t care what Twilight said, we were early), most stores and stalls weren’t open yet. Fortunately, a few of the stores that we need to stop at were already open, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

Our first stop of the day was the Quills and Sofas shop. Even though I no longer needed to write everything down, we still somehow went through quills at an alarming rate. This being a ‘no-humans-allowed’ type of store, I was left outside as Twilight went in. I didn’t really care, as it gave me an excuse to go back to sleep.

Twilight lashed my leash to the hitching post outside the store (don’t even go there. It’s too damn early for me to deal with the irony right now) and went inside. As the door closed behind her, I slid to the ground with a groan, my eyes still closed.

I’m not sure how long I sat there before a low growling sound caught my attention. Cracking open an eye, I glance around, looking for the source. There weren’t any ponies nearby, and most of those I could see were busy getting their stalls and shops ready. The local mailmare flew by, weaving through the air like she was drunk, but I had long since learned that that was normal.

My gaze continued to wander until I happened to glance across the street. What I saw caused me to sit up a little straighter and open both eyes.

Across the street from me, tied to the hitching post of one of the stores, was a female human. This wasn’t unusual; there were times that Twilight had to tie me next to another human. I just usually ignored them until Twilight returned. But there was something about this girl that held my attention.

She appeared to be young, probably about my age. Her short red hair fell down to just above her shoulders, and some strands stuck out at odd angles. Her body was thin, lanky and covered in dirt, and she was naked. Despite most humans being naked in Equestria, I still found myself blushing occasionally at the sight of a naked member of the other sex. This time was no exception, but it wasn’t her nakedness that caused me to stare. It was her eyes.

Her eyes were a deep emerald green and they were locked on me. As we looked at each other she growled again, flashing her teeth as she did so. Her gaze never leaving mine, she slowly rose to her feet. Moving forward, she strained at her leash, trying to get at me. Snarling, she swung her arms through the air, trying in vain to reach me.

She continued to strain against her bonds for several more minutes before giving up. Returning to her seated position with a huff, she glared at me before lowering her head and making several chirping noises.

What the fuck was that about? I continue to stare at her for several more seconds, but she didn’t look back up. It appeared that she was done with me. Twilight reemerged from the store as I sat there thinking.

“Okay, next stop is the human store,” she said as she untied my leash. “We need to pick up some more of your pills.” Standing up, I begin to follow after Twilight, but not before glancing back at the girl one last time.

As I watched, she looked up and glanced at me one last time. My eyes narrowed as I saw something that looked like sadness flash across her eyes. Turning back around, Twilight and I head off down the street.

As we walked off, I heard her chirp softly to herself. It sounded oddly familiar.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

After the human store, we wandered around the marketplace. Most of the stalls were open, and the marketplace was starting to get crowded as Twilight and I worked our way from store to store. By midday, we had gotten everything that Twilight had needed to get and were heading back to the library. We were just passing by the spa when Twilight pulled up short, causing me to stumble as I avoided tripping over her. Looking down at her, I tilted my head to the side to show my confusion. She looked up at me sheepishly.

“Before we headed back home, I was hoping that we could do some bonding today,” she said, drawing circles in the dirt with her hoof.

~Bonding?~ Twilight pointed at a sign in the spa’s window. I leaned in close and read what it said.

~Ponyville Spa~
SPECIAL!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Relax with your human!
For each paid session, get one session for your human, FREE*.
-Only available for ponies living within Ponyville-

*Humans must be well-behaved.

After reading the sign, I glanced back down at Twilight. She looked up at me and smiled slightly. I point at the sign, raising one of my eyebrows slightly. Twilight nodded, a small blush slowly spreading across her face. I look back up at the sign, chewing on the inside of my cheek. I wasn’t entirely sure what a ‘session’ for a human was, but it couldn’t be anything too bad, right?

What the hell; let’s do it! Turning back to Twilight, I nodded once, flashing a quick smile when no one was looking. A huge smile appeared on Twilight’s face as she squee'd in delight. Pulling on the leash, she dashed towards the door of the spa, dragging me along.

What have I gotten myself into? I chuckled to myself.

As Twilight and I entered the spa, a bell above the door rang, signaling our presence. The pony behind the counter, a pink mare with blue hair, looked up and smiled.

“Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle,” she said with a heavy accent, “How are you doing today?”

“Very well, thank you Aloe,” Twilight replied, smiling at the mare. As the two ponies greeted each other, I took a tentative sniff. The air had a pleasant aroma to it; a mixture of scented lotions and the minerals from the baths. Just one quick sniff and I could already feel my muscles begin to relax.

“Vat can ve do for you today, Miss Sparkle?” Aloe asked, tilting her head to the side with a smile on her face.

“I was hoping to take advantage of your special today.” Aloe turned her gaze to me, looking me up and down with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Vell,” she said, chewing her lip in thought, “I’m not ze ‘human specialist’. Zat vould be my sister.” Tearing her gaze from me, she turned her head and called into the back.

“Lotus! Could you come here, please?”

“Coming!” A few seconds later, and another pony emerged from the doorway behind the counter. She was nearly identical to the first, the only difference being the fact that her colors were reversed: she had a blue coat and pink mane. That, and there were some bandages wrapped around her stomach; the white bandages matching her headband.

They are definitely related, no question about that. Even their cutie marks are the same!

“Vat can I do for you, sister?” The blue mare asked, approaching the counter.

“Miss Sparkle is interested in our special today,” Aloe said, motioning towards me with a hoof. “I believe zat you are ze human specialist here. Vat do you think?” Lotus gazed up at me, her eyes widening slightly and an alarmed expression flashed across her face. As quickly as it had come, however, it was gone. Her expression returned to normal as she slowly walked around the counter and approached me carefully.

Her blue eyes flicked across my frame, taking in every detail. She began to walk around me, gently prodding different parts of me with her hoof: my leg, my knee, my stomach, my arms. As she slowly circled me, I remained completely still. She seemed tense and slightly uncomfortable with me, so I didn’t want to startle her with any sudden movement.

“Is he vell-behaved?” she asked Twilight, never taking her eyes off of me. Twilight shot me a knowing smirk before replying.

“He is the most well-behaved human I have ever seen.” Lotus seemed to relax at the response. Appearing satisfied with that answer, she nodded then walked back over to her sister.

“He is most certainly one of ze better looking humans I have ever seen,” she said, a soft smile on her face. “I do believe zat I can work vith him.”

“If you vould follow me,” Aloe said, motioning with her hoof.

The sisters lead us around the counter and farther back into the spa. Walking through a doorway, we entered a large, circular, spacious room. A large tub, big enough to hold several ponies, rested against the wall on the far side, steam rising up from the warm water within. Several massage tables were arranged in a semicircle just in front of the tub. Off to the side, there were several pits in the floor that were filled with mud that bubbled slowly. Several rooms were connected to the main room. They looked like they were private rooms, meant for privacy and comfort. The entire room smelled of lilacs.

“Now zen, before ve begin,” Lotus said as the sisters came to a stop in the middle of the room. “Ve must know: do you vant to have private rooms for both you and your human, or do you vant to be in ze same room?” She motioned with a hoof at the private rooms as she spoke.

“A private room won’t be necessary,” Twilight replied as she glanced up at me. “I think he’d prefer if we were together.” The sisters looked at each other at that statement, but shrugged it off.

“Very vell,” Aloe said. “Let’s get started.” Aloe motioned for Twilight to lie down on one of the massage tables. Removing her saddlebags, Twilight handed Lotus my leash before climbing onto the table and collapsing on her stomach with a content sigh. Lotus tugged on the leash, smiling up at me.

“Come along...um,” she paused, unsure what to call me.

“Max,” Twilight said, her voice muffled as her face was pressed into the massage pillow. She groaned slightly as Aloe began the massage.

“Max. Zat is a good name,” Lotus hummed, giving the leash another gentle pull. “Come along, Max.” She lead me to the table to the right of Twilight and patted the cushioned surface, encouraging me to climb up.

I move over to the table and climb up onto it, taking care to let Lotus lead me, as to avoid suspicion. Didn’t want them finding out that I was as smart as them, now did we? She removed my sack-shirt and placed it on top of Twilight’s bags. Thankfully, she let me keep my pants on. Turning around, I laid down on my stomach. It surprised me that even though this was a pony spa, the tables were designed to be large enough to hold a human comfortably. Lotus gently pushed my head into the pillow, careful not to accidentally smother me.

As Lotus prepared, grabbing various lotions and creams, I glanced over at Twilight. Her eyes were closed and there was a large smile on her face. Aloe was digging her hooves into Twilight’s shoulders, causing happy groans to escape the lavender mare. She seemed to be taking great care to avoid Twilight’s wings, which were spread wide by her side.

I frowned slightly as I watched Aloe work, her hooves turning Twilight into putty. Beside me, Lotus finished her preparations. Standing up on her back legs, she leaned against the table and placed her front hooves on my back. I shivered slightly as the hard surface of her hooves touched my flesh.

I’m all for a massage, but it can’t be very comfortable with hard hooves, can it? I can’t see any possible way that this is actually going to be relaxing. This particular thought immediately left my head as soon as Lotus started kneading my back muscles. As did every other thought that I could possibly have had. In fact, as she slowly and gently worked the kinks out of my back, the only thing I could think of was the thought, Oh god...this is gooooooood.

The gentle pressure of the hooves as Lotus located and worked out every single knot and twist in my back. The kneading motion as she slowly worked her way down my body, taking great care to not push too hard. The slow rubbing of my back as she worked the lotion she was using into my body. I didn’t know how it could possibly feel as good as it did, but I didn’t care; I was in heaven.

“I must say, Miss Sparkle,” Lotus said as she slowly worked her way up and down my body. “You certainly have a very fine human stallion here. Vherever did you find him?”

“He w-was a gift,” Twilight moaned as Aloe found a particularly sore spot on her back. “From P-p-princess Celestia.”

“He certainly is one of ze more muscular humans ve have seen,” Aloe added, glancing at me. “I vonder vhere the princess ever found him.”

“You can actually t-thank Rainbow Dash for that,” Twilight groaned, “She’s taken to play wrestling with him whenever she gets a c-c-chance.”

“And he allows zat?!” Lotus asked, the surprise evident in her voice as her hooves stopped for a second. “He doesn’t become violent vith her?”

“N-no, he just plays along with her. He stops when she does, and they have yet to actually injure each other.” I heard Lotus and Aloe murmur to themselves, obviously impressed.

“Zis is ze first I have ever heard of a human actually tolerating a pony attacking zem, even if it vas only in good humor,” Aloe said as Lotus resumed her work. “He must have a great deal of patience to behave as such.” A peaceful silence fell across the room as the mares continued to work their magic, only broken by a soft groan from Twilight.

The silence continued until Lotus found a particularly sore spot just at the base of my neck. As her hoof pushed down upon the knot I let out a loud groan. She lifted her hoof immediately and jumped back, inhaling sharply. Confused, I raised my head and looked over at her, trying to get my mind working again after being caught up in a blissful haze. She gazed back at me, a terrified look in her eyes.

“Vat happened?” Aloe asked, her voice tense. I glanced over at her and found her eyes glued on me, apprehension on her face. Twilight head was up and she was staring at me as well, a worried and confused expression on her face.

“I-I don’t know,” Lotus stammered, “I found a tense spot, but vhen I started working on it, he growled at me.” At this Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed.

“I don’t think he was growling at you, Lotus,” Twilight said, laying her head back down. “If he isn’t violent towards Rainbow when she attacks him, I don’t think you have to worry about him getting hostile towards you.” The blue mare stared at me hesitantly, before slowly approaching me, her eyes watching for any sign of movement. As she approached, I laid my head back down, trying to look submissive. Reaching the table, she placed a tentative hoof on my back again. When I didn’t move or react, she slowly began working on my muscles again. I sighed as I slowly drifted back into a blissful state. Lotus giggled nervously as she resumed working on my neck.

“I apologize for my behavior, Miss Sparkle,” she said, “It vas rather unprofessional of me.” I groaned softly again as she worked the muscle. She paused for a second, but continued her work. I could tell she was trying to be more gentle than before, and apparently it showed as well, because after several seconds Twilight spoke up.

“Lotus, is something wrong? You seem to be tenser than before.” The hooves paused again and I heard a sigh above me.

“I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle. It’s just zat, vell, a few veeks ago I vas vorking on a human for one of our other clients. I’m not sure vat caused it, if I hit a tender spot or was overly rough vith him, but he suddenly attacked me.”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed as she sat up, ignoring Aloe’s attempt to get her to lay back down.

“My sister and ze client vere able to gain control over him, but ze damage vas already done,” Lotus said, motioning to the bandages around her stomach. “I ended up in ze hospital, and he ended up having to be put down. And ve haven’t heard from ze client since.”

“How bad was the injury?” Twilight asked, allowing Aloe to push her gently back onto the table. “Nothing permanent I hope.”

“No, nothing permanent. Just some slight pain every now and zen,” Lotus sighed, absentmindedly stroking my back with a hoof. “It’s just zat ever since zen, I have been rather nervous around humans. I realize zat not all of zem are violent, but-”

“-but given what has happened, nobody can blame you for being nervous.” Twilight finished, turning her head to the side and smiling up at Lotus. Her gaze drifted down to me and the look in her eyes changed to something I couldn’t quite recognize. Her eyes closed slightly, her smile softened and a small blush appeared on her cheeks.

“But I don’t think you have to worry around Max here,” she said, the tenderness clear in her voice. “I don’t think he could ever hurt you.” I blushed slightly at her statement.

Where did that come from? I thought, averting my eyes from Twilight. The floor suddenly became very interesting. I know that Twilight and I are friends, but that seemed more personal.

“Yes,” Lotus said, stroking my back gently as she smiled. “I can see zat now. He truly is an amazing human. He is ze first human I have vorked vith since ze attack, and so far he has been more behaved zen any other human I have ever had ze pleasure of vorking vith.”

After that, the atmosphere of the room became a lot more relaxed as the sisters continued with the massage. Aloe chatted quietly with Twilight, the pair of them talking about this and that. I was only half-listening to their conversation as Lotus silently massaged away my stress. I couldn’t see her face from my downward facing position, but I could practically feel her stress leaving her as well, as she slowly and gently worked her hooves across my skin, tenderly making sure that she got every single knot.

She treated me with care, and I could almost feel her happiness as she massaged me into complete bliss.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight and I emerged from the spa a few hours later, both of us feeling more relaxed than when we entered. I’m not sure about Twilight, but I don’t think I have ever felt this good before. While I wasn’t overly stressed before entering the spa, that massage was definitely needed. If I ever ended up going back home, no human hands would ever be able to compare to Lotus’s hooves.

Behind us, Lotus and Aloe waved from the doorway.

“Zank you for your business, Miss Sparkle,” Aloe called, a smile on her face. “Please come back anytime!”

“And bring your human vith you anytime as vell,” Lotus added. She wore a larger smile than her sister; her face seemed to glow with her happiness. “He is always velcome here!” Twilight waved back at the sisters as we walked off. When we were out of sight of the spa, she turned to look up at me, and smirked slightly.

“Well, it seems that you have made an unintentional friend,” she giggled, nudging me with her hoof. “You couldn’t see her face during the massage, but Lotus couldn’t keep her eyes off of you. She seemed taken with how ‘well-behaved’ you were being.” I rolled my eyes, but chuckled all the same.

~I’m just glad that she was able to relax around me. I would hate for her to be uncomfortable around me just because of what some other human has done~

“Yes,” Twilight agreed, “It’s horrible what happened to her, and I’m glad that you were able to help her get her confidence back.” Twilight fell silent as we reached the marketplace. It was late in the afternoon and the stores were beginning to close up for the day. We slowly made our way through the crowd, working our way in the direction of home.

“I’m glad that we were able to have a nice moment together,” Twilight said as we left the market. “It was relaxing, and you did look like you were enjoying yourself.” I snickered loudly at that, causing Twilight to look at me with confusion.

~I wasn’t the only one enjoying themself. You were moaning rather loudly~ Twilight’s face turned crimson and she stumbled slightly. Regaining her footing, she continued to walk along, refusing to meet my eye. I chuckled softly, bumping against the mare.

~Joking aside, I did enjoy getting that wonderful massage with you~ I scratched behind her ears and Twilight leaned into my hand, humming slightly.

“I’m sorry that you couldn’t get your nap today,” Twilight said, still leaning into my hand. Raising an eyebrow, I flipped my free hand around in a gesture of confusion.

~What do you mean?~

“I promised you that we would go home after finishing the shopping and you could nap then, but we ended up heading over to the spa instead.” I stopped scratching her head and bopped her gently on the nose.

~It was totally worth it~ Twilight smiled, gazing up at me. We reached the end of the street and proceeded to turn around the corner.

“I concur,” Twilight said, strutting playfully along. “It was a rather relaxing way to spend some time togeth...AUGH!” As we walked around the corner, Twilight plowed headfirst into another pony walking the other way. The other pony stumbled slightly, grunting in pain. Twilight was not so lucky. Losing her balance, she fell backwards onto her back. Laying sprawled out on the ground, she groaned as she held her head in her hooves.

“Ow...what’d I hit-”

“CAN’T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING, YOU STUPID UNICORN?!” Both Twilight and I flinched as the pony Twilight bumped into screeched at us. He was a normal pony; no horn or wings were on him. His coat was a dirty golden color, and he wore a black tuxedo over it. His mane, a slightly darker shade of gold than his coat, was slicked back, giving him a greasy look. He glared down at Twilight, his expression filled with rage.

“I-I’m sorry, sir,” Twilight stuttered as she got back up. “I w-wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“That much, my dear, is painfully obvious,” the stallion growled. The contempt was clear in his voice as he glowered down at Twilight. Call it an instinct, call it common sense, but I had the feeling that nothing we could’ve said would have calmed this guy down.

Snorting, the stallion ground his teeth in suppressed rage. “Slap a pair of wings on a unicorn, and they think they own the entire town.” At those words Twilight gasped, tears forming in her eyes. My eyes narrowed as I glared down at the twit.

“Do you even know who you are dealing with, you stupid unicorn?!” the stallion roared, stepping towards Twilight. The mare scrambled backwards, her eyes wide. She gaped up at him, mouth opening and closing wordlessly as tears rolled down her face. “I am Golden Ingot! I earn more bits in one day than you will ever see in a lifetime!”

What crawled up his ass and died? I didn’t know what this pony’s problem was, but there was no reason he should be talking to Twilight like that. I growled at the stallion but he ignored me, choosing instead to study a smudge of dirt on his suit in disgust.

“Great, look what you’ve done!” He snarled at Twilight, “You’ve gotten dirt on my suit, you worthless nag! Do you even know how many bits this was?!”

“I-I-I’m sorry,” Twilight squeaked, doing a rather good impression of Fluttershy. It would have been adorable if the situation would have been different.

I glanced around quickly. With how loud Ingot was being, we were starting to draw attention. Ponies were stopping and staring at the scene before them. Many were gazing at Ingot with clear disgust, while others looked at Twilight with sympathy. None of them, however, moved to help her.

Come on, someone do something! I shift back and forth on my feet, looking from Twilight to Ingot. I growled in frustration; I couldn’t do anything without getting in trouble for attacking a pony. Twilight was trying to form words, but Golden wasn’t having any of her excuses; he just steamrolled right over her.

“Of course, you wouldn’t care about that! You have everything handed to you on a silver platter, just like every other hornhead!” At that, a gasp went up from the crowd of ponies watching. I could wager from the reaction that ‘hornhead’ wasn’t something you were supposed to call a unicorn. Golden Ingot didn’t seem to care as he continued on.

“Always using your magic to get ahead in life! Not like the rest of us who have to work hard to get where we are!” He advanced towards Twilight with each word, slowly closing the gap. “In fact, if it weren’t for your magic, Princess Sparkle, you would be completely useless!” Twilight’s eyes opened wider and she gurgled slightly, her brain trying to figure out a proper response.

“In fact,” Golden said, shoving his face right into Twilight’s, “the only reason you even became Celestia’s pet was because she felt sorry for you when she saw you couldn’t control your powers! The only reason you are where you are today is because you were a complete and total failure!!!” I could see Twilight break completely with the last statement. She stared forward, eyes blank as rivers of tears ran down her face.

Something within me snapped.

That, I growled as I felt my anger boil up inside me, is going one step too far! As Golden opened his mouth to spew some more filth at Twilight, I made my move. Instantly stepping between him and Twilight, I crouched down and shoved my face into his, snarling loudly as I bared my teeth. Startled, Golden stumbled backwards, his expression changing from anger to fear instantly. Slowly, I raised myself to my full height, which compared to the ponies, was quite impressive. I glared down at Ingot, my mouth still open in a silent snarl. He gazed back up at me, terror-stricken.

Around us I heard whispers and gasps, but I didn’t care. Twilight was hurting, and this ass had overstepped his boundaries. Twilight may be many things, but a failure is not one of them. I didn’t care what happened to me after this, I was going to get rid of this bastard no matter what.

My face still contorted in rage, I stepped forward, causing the stupid ass to scramble backwards away from me. More gasps sounded, and a pony screamed in the distance.

“Stay away from me, you filthy animal!” Ingot growled at me, trying his hardest to sound tough, but the tremble in his voice and the shaking of his legs gave his fear away. His voice raised in pitch as he continued to try and regain his confidence. “Do you know who you are m-messing with?” I didn’t even give him a chance to continue.

Slamming my fists into the ground on either side of him, I leaned down and roared. Spittle flew from my mouth as I released my rage for this scum-of-the-earth in one, monstrous breath. Closing my mouth, I stared down at the stallion with all the rage of Hell itself in my gaze.

He cowered beneath me, his entire body shaking and ears splayed back. Silence fell around us as we stared into each other's eyes. His brown eyes gazed fearfully up into mine. Ingot opened and closed his mouth once, but no sound came out.

Growling, I made to grab the bastard with my hands.

When my arm twitched, life seemed to return to the stallion. Shooting out from underneath me, he was gone before I barely even moved. I watched the dust cloud that was Golden Ingot disappear into the distance. Turning, I gazed out across the crowd of ponies that had gathered around us. They gazed up at me with a mixture of horror and wonder.

With my heart slowly rising into my throat, I tried my best to ignore the stares. Swallowing nervously, I turn my attention to Twilight. She was still just sitting there, staring blankly into space. Her eyes were red and the fur on her cheeks was matted from her tears. Ignoring the whispers of the ponies around us, I slowly approached my distressed friend and owner. Reaching Twilight, I sat down in front of her and pulled her into a hug, nuzzling the side of her face gently. My face became wet from her tears, but I didn’t care.

She flinched slightly at the initial contact, but didn’t shy away. Slowly, life seemed to return to her eyes. She slowly raised her head and gazed into my eyes. I could see the pain in her eyes, the hurt from everything Golden Ingot had said, but there was also something else there as well. The silent thanks for what I had done.

I pulled her closer, and she lowered her head. Burrowing her face in my shoulder, she wept as I held her. From the crowd of ponies around us the sound of stomping began. The sound grew louder and louder until every pony around us was stomping on the ground. It took me a second to realize what they were doing.

They were applauding. I didn’t know if they were applauding me, or what I had done, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was comforting Twilight.

The applause died down as Twilight and I just sat there, holding each other. The crowd slowly began to disperse. Some stayed behind to inform the guards, who had finally shown up, what had happened. Luckily, these were the same guards that had ‘tested’ me after the first incident with Rainbow Dash. After getting the story from several different ponies, the guards decided that I had acted in self-defense when I sensed that my owner was in danger, so I was not considered a threat to ponies, and they did not need to take me into custody.

Hurray for small victories. The entire time that the guards were doing their “investigation”, Twilight continued to cry into my shoulder.

The day had been going so well too. Why did it have to end this way? One of the guards, a pegasus mare with a pink mane, found a blanket and covered us with it, but other than that they left us alone. It was probably best that way: Twilight was too distraught to deal with anything right now, and they still (luckily) thought that I was just a stupid human.

By the time the guards were finished and left, Twilight had calmed down. Sniffling, she slowly pulled away from me. Rubbing her eyes with a hoof, she hiccuped slightly.

“T-thanks,” she croaked, her voice cracking slightly. I nodded, a strained smile on my face. Twilight just stared at the ground, looking broken. It tore my heart to see her like this.

Deciding that it was up to me to cheer her up, I cupped her face in my hands. Wiping her tears away with my thumbs, I stroke her cheeks gently and caringly. Despite my attempts, Twilight still refused to meet my gaze.

Releasing her face, I leaned back slightly and sighed. Smiling, I waved my hand slightly to catch her attention. Her ear flicked, letting me know she was paying attention.

~Hey, you want to go see if Sugarcube Corner is still open, and maybe talk to Pinkie?~ Twilight shook her head, sniffling again. A stray tear fell from her face to the dirt below. Chewing on my cheek, I tilt my head to the side, thinking.

~Do you want to go find Fluttershy and talk to her?~ Another shake of the head and another sniffle as Twilight continued to stare at the ground, her ears splayed back. I sat there with her, trying to think of some way to cheer her up.

Suddenly my intestines gave a low rumble, followed by a slight pressure in my lower abdomen. I looked down at my stomach, eyebrows raised. As I gazed down at my gurgling stomach, an idea popped into my head. Grinning, I raised my head and looked at Twilight.

~You want me to take a shit on Golden Ingot’s lawn?~ There was a slight pause, then Twilight nodded her head. She looked up at me, no longer crying, but her eyes were still red. I smiled at her and got to my feet, and she shakily rose to her hooves. I held out my leash for her and she took it in her magic.

~Okay. Let’s go let me take a shit on Golden Ingot’s lawn~ We began to walk down the road, slowly making our way along. As we walked, I placed my hand on Twilight’s head, gently stroking her disheveled mane. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small smile begin to spread across Twilight’s face. Quietly, she began to hum happily to herself as the sun slowly began to slip beneath the horizon, and the first star appeared in the evening sky.

Chapter 12: Beating the Heat with Your Human

The funny thing about running for your life is the fact that it snaps everything into perspective. Everything is clear, and your brain is on overdrive as your body works to keep you alive. I found myself in this predicament as I ran through the dark forest around me.

I gulped down great lungfuls of air as I sprinted through the trees. Behind me, the sound of wood shattering and trees falling echoed as the thing chased after me. Branches scratched at my face as I tore by them. I didn’t have time to slow down; I had to escape!

Behind me, the Darkness roared, enraged that its prey was on the run. Trees fell beneath it as it plowed through them as if they weren’t even there.

“You cannot run from me, Wanderer!” The shriek caused me to wince, tears in my eyes as I covered my ears. I didn’t falter, however, and continued my all-out sprint for freedom. Around me, bits of wood and plant life flew as the Darkness drew closer. To my right, a tree toppled, nearly taking me out with it. I screamed and put on an extra burst of speed.

I spied a clearing in the distance and angled myself towards it. The trees seemed to grow thicker around me as I neared the clearing, almost as if they were trying to prevent my escape. It did little good as I broke through the scratching branches and burst forth into the open air. Behind me, the Darkness let loose a earsplitting screech that echoed around the forest for miles.

The clearing was small, surrounded by the dark trees on all sides. I was trapped. Above me, the branches of the twisted trees seemed to meet and interlace together, creating a web like structure above me. Through the gaps I could see the night sky. The stars sparkled down upon me, laughing at my imprisonment.

The Darkness screeched again and I spun around, bracing myself for the inevitable attack. Which didn’t come. The Darkness stayed in the forest, glaring out at me from behind the trees with its glowing red eyes. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was massive! It glowered down at me, gnashing its teeth in anger.

“You can’t hide from me, Wanderer,” it growled, the ground beneath my feet rumbling with each word. “I...see...you!”

“What do you want from me?!” I screamed, tears in my eyes. “What?!” The Darkness didn’t reply. It just lurked behind the trees, just barely visible in the gathering gloom. I swallowed, breathing heavily as I squinted into the trees.

The silence of the clearing was broken by the sound of a snapping twig. Whirling around, I hunched down, waiting for an attack. It never came. Instead, I felt my breath catch in my throat and my eyes widened.

Standing in the center of the clearing was a large, pale horse. A long, slender horn protruded from its forehead, ending in a sharp point. Large wings adorned its back, spread out wide, nearly sixteen feet in width. Its long pink mane hung loosely across its face and neck, and it gazed at me with deep, magenta eyes.

It nickered softly, pawing at the ground. Slowly, it approached me. I stood completely still as it drew nearer. The horn itself would be enough to kill me. Running its nose over my body, it snorted as it breathed in my scent. The horse’s nostrils flared and its eyes widened.

Turning abruptly, it headed off toward the far end of the clearing. Glancing back at me, it nickered again. The intent was clear.

As I began to follow the creature back into the dark forest, I happened to glance back behind me. Across the clearing, the Darkness remained still, unmoving in the treeline. It gazed across the empty space at me and the horse, its red eyes flaring with hellish light.

As I disappeared into the undergrowth with the horse, I heard a voice carried upon the wind.

“Help...them...as only you can.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a sweltering summer day in Ponyville, with the temperature reaching nearly 100 degrees. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the fact that, unless Twilight’s little weather device was broken, the relative humidity was nearing 80 percent. That meant that it didn’t feel like 100 degrees outside; it felt more like 150 degrees.

It was this type of weather that makes you feel like you are walking underwater. You’re sweating just lying on the couch, and you feel like, even if you used a towel, you’d never get dry again. Getting up to get something was hard, as the humidity made it difficult to breathe.

It was this type of weather where you could drink gallon after gallon of water, and you’d never have to piss because you’re sweating it out faster than you could take it in.

It was Hell on Equus today in Ponyville. And it was only 8:45 in the morning.

“Ugh, why would the weather team schedule this type of weather for today?” Twilight moaned as she lay splayed out on the couch. She had her wings spread out as far as they could go, with feathers sticking out at odd angles, as she tried in vain to cool herself off. Her normal straight and combed mane was disheveled. Her face was flushed and she was panting slightly. Overall, she just looked downright miserable.

“Or any day for that matter,” she added, still fanning herself with her hoof. “What possible benefit could this weather have for anypony?” I didn’t answer. I simply remained spread eagled on the floor, trying (and failing) to find a cool spot somewhere on the wooden surface.

This was the fifth day of this horrid heat wave. The first day we had managed just fine. We had taken it in stride and simply went down to Sugarcube Corner for some ice cream. We figured that it was just an off day, and the weather would return to normal tomorrow.

That was, until the next day came, and the temperature went up several degrees. We had spent most of the second day indoors, trying to stay comfortable, which was rather hard seeing as the library's climate machine had died. The weather team had sent out a notification that, although they weren’t entirely sure what the problem was, they were working hard on figuring out what was wrong with the weather. It just seemed oddly suspicious that all this was happening AFTER the Weather Factory’s request for more money had been declined.

It was on the third day that things really started to get bad: the humidity had begun to rise as well. Ponies were dropping left and right, and the hospital could barely keep up with those passing out from heat exhaustion. It was on this day that I threw whatever dignity I had left out the window and decided to discard my clothing and walk around naked.

We didn’t get anything done that day, as Twilight had decided to forgo her list and try and seek out some form of relief from the heat. Did you hear that? That’s how hot it was. Twilight Sparkle was NOT obsessing over her list of things to do. You can put that down in the history books.

It was on the fourth day that things got completely out of hand. Some asshole on the weather squad decided that they could use a thunderstorm to cool everything down. All it did was make everything wet, and increase the humidity by 20 percent! That’s when, according to the newspaper, the entire Weather Factory in Cloudsdale threw up their hooves and gave up. We were told to simply wait the heat wave out, and pray for the best. And pray that the Weather Factory got their goddamn money soon.

Which brings us back to where we were: Day Five.

“Ugh...it’s too...bucking...humid!” Twilight whined, her tongue lolling slightly out her mouth. Once again, I didn’t respond. I just groaned in discomfort from my position on the ground.

“How are you holding up?” Twilight asked, glancing sideways at me without turning her head. I groaned again, before sluggishly raising my arms.

~Like I’m slowly roasting in— I paused, trying to decide how best to convey the word, before deciding to spell it out instead —H-E-L-L~

“Hell? Is that your world’s version of Tartarus?” Twilight asked, finally turning her head to look at me. She had that look in her eyes that she usually got when we began to discuss the differences between our worlds.

~Let’s just go with ‘yes’ and leave it at that~

“But I want to know,” Twilight whined, raising her head up off of the couch. She kept it raised for several seconds, staring at me, before she closed her eyes and her head dropped back down onto the couch. “Ugh, you’re right. It’s too hot to deal with this right now.”

“Twiillliiiighht!” Both Twilight and I turned our heads to look towards the source of the moan. At the top of the stairs, collapsed upon the top step, lay Spike. “Twilight, it’s too hot up here!” Twilight and I looked back at each other and grimaced.

Great, it’s so hot that even the fucking dragon is complaining. As if reading my thoughts, Twilight groaned loudly, holding her head in her hooves.

“Oh dear Celestia...we’re all going to die!” she moaned, “We’re all going to roast until we’re nothing but charred remains!” As Spike slowly made his way downstairs, step by step, I turned my attention to Twilight.

~Didn’t you say that Celestia controls the sun?~

“Princess Celestia,’ Twilight corrected without opening her eyes. “And yes she does, why?”

~So isn’t this kind of, like, her fault or something?~

“No, she raises and lowers the sun. She has no control over how hot it is!” Twilight replied, returning to fanning herself with her hoof. “The heat comes from the Weather Factory.”

That doesn’t make ANY sense! The sun is the source of heat!!! I decided to keep my disbelief to myself; it was far too humid to start another argument with Twilight regarding her mentor and the sun.

A thump from the foot of the stairs informs us that Spike has finally reached the bottom. The young drake just remains there, unwilling to move from his new position face down on the floor. Silence fell across the library as the three of us laid there, trying to not move too much to avoid becoming even more uncomfortable.

“WHY CAN’T THEY JUST GIVE THE WEATHER FACTORY THE CELESTIA-DAMNED BITS?!?!?!” Twilight suddenly screamed, causing Spike and I to jump as she broke the silence. “EITHER COUGH UP THE BITS, OR GO AND FORCE THE WEATHER FACTORY TO STOP THIS DREADFUL HEAT WAVE!!!”

~You get right on that then~ I signed, groaning as I was forced to move my arms. ~Send a letter to Celestia and ask her to take care of it~

“I’m not bothering the princess with something like this,” Twilight huffed indignantly. “Especially since she was the one who declined the Weather Factory’s original request.”

~Twilight, this is cruel and unusual punishment! It’s also probably illegal! You have got to contact the princess about this!!!~

“Nope,” Twilight said, shaking her head weakly. “No, I am not writing to her about this. She already has enough on her plate, without having to listen to my complaints.”

~Then you take care of it!~ I signed, growling in annoyance. ~You are a princess, after all!~

“I’m not using my status as Princess just to force ponies to do what I want!” Twilight looked horrified just at the mere mention of it.

“Then stop complaining about it,” came Spike's muffled voice from the stairs. I closed my eyes and nodded in agreement. Twilight huffed and turned away from us.

Rolling my eyes, I rolled over and slowly got to my feet. The very act of standing up caused me to become short of breath.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked, glancing at me over her shoulder. I didn’t answer. Shuffling sluggishly along, I made my way towards the kitchen. The linoleum floor seemed to stick to my feet as I made my way to the sink. I grasped the faucet in my hand and turned it on, cranking it as far over to ‘cold’ as it would go. Putting the drain plug in place, I waited several seconds for the sink to fill up before dunking my head.

I held my breath for as long as possible, enjoying the sensation of the cold water against my skin. Eventually my lungs began to burn, and I was forced to remove my head from the cooling embrace of the water. I let the water run off my head and down my body, shivering slightly as the cold water trailed down my flesh. Taking a deep breath, I plunged my head back into the sink.

I repeated the process several times before draining the sink. Sagging against the kitchen table, I closed my eyes and simply enjoyed what little relief the cool water had given me before the humidity began to work its wicked magic.

Sighing heavily, I stood up and opened my eyes. I moved to make my way back to the main room of the library when something caught my eyes. It was beautiful. It was gorgeous. It was my savior.

It was the refrigerator.

Hurrying over to the appliance, I threw open the freezer door. It was built with the height of ponies in mind, so I had to get down on my knees, but I didn’t care. Ignoring the fact that my head was still wet from sticking it in the sink, I shoved my head into the icy depths. I shivered instantly, the combined feeling of the cold freezer air on my wet head and the cool fridge door against my stomach feeling incredible. As I knelt there, feeling my body temperature drop several degrees, only one thought made its way through my head.

Why the hell didn’t I do this sooner?! I remained like that for several minutes, enjoying the painfully cold feeling, until I heard the sound of something moving behind me. Tiny claws grasped at my arm as something pulled itself up my limb. As the thing reached the top of my arm, I felt tiny clawed feet stand upon my shoulder. One second later, Spike’s head appeared, resting his chin on the top of my head. I reached a hand up and patted the little dragon on the back before I let it drop and hang by my side again.

The sound of hooves on linoleum was our only warning before Twilight’s head joined us, her horn scraping the top of the freezer as she slid in next to me. I felt her drape a wing across my back as she tried to force as much of her head into the cold confines of the freezer. The three of us gave a great sigh of relief.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Spike moaned, his voice causing the top of my head to vibrate. I snicker slightly at the sensation, my breath clearly visible. Silence filled the freezer as we basked in bliss. It felt like several hours before any of us moved.

~I feel like packaged meat~ Beside me I feel Twilight tense. It took me a second to realize why.

~Sorry, I feel like an ice pop~ Twilight relaxed, breathing out a cloud of mist. Spike giggled, before breathing out as well.

“Look, instead of fire, I’m breathing icy mist!” This caused me to chuckle, causing more water vapor to appear. The sheer stupidity of what was happening caused Twilight to laugh as well, which set off Spike again, which set me off. It was a cycle that soon had all three of us laughing at our breath.

“You do realize how ridiculous we’d look to anyone who came in right now?” Spike asked between laughing fits. “The three of us with our heads in the freezer, laughing at nothing.” The laughter died down instantly as we realized the truth of what he just said.

“Why has it come to this?” Twilight murmured.

“It’s because of the heat,” Spike replied. I nodded my head silently, Spike’s head gently thumping against mine. My cheek rubbed against Twilight’s furry one as I moved. A small blush spread across her face.

We fell silent again, our heads still pushed deep into the freezer. My hair was slowly beginning to freeze, and it was starting to actually become painful.

“If only there was something we could do,” Spike sighed. I nodded again, my cheek brushed against Twilight’s, causing her cheeks to redden even more.

“Or someone we could ask for help.” Both Spike and I glanced over at Twilight. She was silent for a few minutes, refusing to meet our gazes. I coughed, causing Twilight to glance over at us. She stared at us for several seconds before sighing.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll write to the princess.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

One letter later and Twilight, Spike and I were standing outside, staring off in the direction of Cloudsdale. Although we couldn’t see the city itself, we could see the sky lighting up like a firework display. It had taken the princess the rest of the day to respond to the plea for help, but when she had, it was rather spectacular. The display of anger, which looked very similar to a 4th of July celebration back home, actually looked very pretty in the evening sky.

~She’s not actually hurting anyone, right?~ I asked, not taking my eyes off of the light show.

“No, she’s just ‘explaining’ to them why what they are doing is wrong,” Twilight replied.

~If you say so~ I chewed on my cheek as we continued to watch.

“I know it looks bad, but it’s more of a shock-and-awe type of thing,” she explained. “The princess doesn’t get mad often, but when she does...” She trailed off, shrugging.

~She makes it so you won’t want to do it again~

“Exactly.” We continued to watch the light display with the rest of the ponies in Ponyville. The minute the sky started lighting up, the temperature and humidity had dropped significantly. After just 5 minutes, it had become relatively comfortable outside. The town had taken notice, and now everyone was out enjoying the cooler weather. Foals ran around, laughing and playing with their friends. Adults chatted with each other as they watched the flashing lights.

“I have a feeling that we are in for some perfect weather for the next couple of weeks,” Twilight commented, sipping at a glass of iced tea she had brought outside with her.

“And you didn’t want to bother the princess,” Spike snarked, giggling from Twilight’s back. Twilight’s ears splayed back, but she ignored the comment. I chuckled along with Spike, enjoying the nice breeze that was beginning to blow through Ponyville.

“Well,” Twilight said after several minutes, stifling a yawn with her hoof. “I think I’ll go back inside. We have a lot of catching up on my to-do list tomorrow.” Spike and I groaned loudly as Twilight headed back indoors, Spike still clinging to her back with a sour look on his face.

I was headed back in after them when I decided to take one final look back in the direction of Cloudsdale. I eyed the flashes of blue, green and red as Princess Celestia apparently dealt with the unruly pegasi of the Weather Factory. It looked almost like an aurora. I smiled slightly as I gazed at the pretty sight.

It’s funny that something so beautiful is caused by the anger of one pony. Shaking my head, I made to turn back to the library, but something in the sky caught my eye. I stopped, my hand on the library’s door knob. Squinting, I tried to make out what it was.

It was small, but moving fairly quickly through the air. It passed through clouds, dissipating the white, fluffy objects as it flew through them. As I watched, the object appeared to be getting closer.

My eyes narrowed as the object drew closer. The flying object. The cerulean flying object. The cerulean flying object that had a rainbow trail behind it.

My eyes widened as I realized what was about to happen. As Rainbow Dash closed in on her prey, I groaned inwardly and braced myself for impact.

Strangely enough, flying through the air with a pegasus attached to you does not actually help cool you off.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I staggered down the basement stairs, heading down to my room. After fending off the surprise attack from Rainbow Dash, I was bruised and exhausted. Thankfully it was actually pretty cool in the basement, mainly due to the fact that it was partially underground. With the cooler weather rolling in, and my underground bedroom, I felt that I was in for a great night's sleep.

I was going to need it too, if Twilight was really going to work on getting her to-do list caught up.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, I thought as I shuffled towards my bed. Groaning, I collapse upon the sheets, not even bothering to put my sack-clothing on. I’d deal with that tomorrow. Tonight I was sleeping in the nude. I wiggled around a little bit, trying to get comfy. Resting my head on my pillow, I feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier as I slowly begin to drift off.

I laid there, just between sleep and consciousness, listening to the relaxing sounds of the world around me. The muffled sound of crickets chirping coming from outside. The occasional hoot of Owlowiscious from upstairs. The distant clip-clop of Twilight’s hooves as she moved around her room, getting things organized for tomorrow. The sound of scratching coming from my closet.

…

…

...scratching from my closet...

…

...

My eyes snapped open and I shot upright, fully awake. I stared at my closed closet door, my heart rate slowly increasing as the scratching noise continued to emanate from within. Slowly, silently, I got out of bed and made my way towards the closet door.

It’s probably just an animal, I tried to convince myself as I inched closer to the closet. Maybe a little raccoon that wandered in through some small hole in the wall.

I reached the closet and clasped the handle in my hand. Behind the closed door, the scratching sound ceased. With my heart threatening to rip itself out of my chest, I pull on the handle, yanking the closet door open.

I stared into the empty closet, my heart lodged in my throat. There was nothing there. Nothing was inside. My eyes scanned the bottom of the closet, looking for any evidence that something had just been inside it.

I found nothing. I was just about to brush it off as my imagination and head back to bed when something caught my eye. Crouching down, I ran my hand across the floor of the closet. Looking at my palm, I noticed that it was covered in some form of dust. Bring my hand to my face, I sniffed at it tentatively.

Sawdust? Rubbing my fingers together, my eyes slowly drifted up the inner wall of my closet. My breath caught in my throat and I froze as my eyes landed on something that wasn’t there before. Slowly, my blood cold in my veins, I rose to my feet. I don’t know how I had missed it before, but now that I saw it I couldn’t tear my gaze away.

There, etched deeply into the wall, were two words. Two words that froze my blood. Two words that chilled me to the bone. Two words that caused my heart to practically explode in my chest. Two words that came from my darkest nightmares.

HELP THEM

I was up the stairs and in Twilight’s bed before she even knew I was coming. Needless to say, I did not sleep in the basement that night.

Chapter 13: Meeting the Cakes (Guest Chapter)

This chapter was written by Portal82. I'd like to thank Captain Croissandwich for editing it.

Today Twilight planned on meeting up with some of her friends at Sugarcube Corner. I, as usual, tagged along behind her—on my leash and collar—towards our destination for the day. It was a sunny morning and was scheduled to be for the rest of the day, but I would have preferred to just stay home in my comfy bed and sleep a little more. Home... Yeah, it was my home now.

Twilight had dragged me out of bed, and had used her secret weapon to make me come with her: it's that damn puppy dog stare. Seriously, does every female pony have that ability? I had seen some other ponies use it; the worst ones were those three fillies that call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I saw them use it on a stallion when they operated a stand in the market (selling apples, I think).

So if this is an ability all mares have, then the stallions are screwed, myself included. How could one's eyes get any bigger? And let's not forget that pout. I know they fake those tears, but I can't help it; my defenses crumble like a house of cards. So, here I was being lead towards Sugarcube Corner, still with some sleep left in my eyes.

~Have I ever told you that I hate mornings?~ Twilight looked over her shoulder towards me, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, hush. It's 9:30; it was about time for you to get up anyways."

~I'm still tired. We were up pretty late last night~ We had another Q & A session about my world and hers the previous night. There is seriously no way to satisfy that mare's curiosity.

We finally saw Sugarcube Corner ahead, and soon we were right in front of the door. Unlike most places of business in Ponyville, Sugarcube Corner didn't have a 'No Humans Allowed' policy. Humans were allowed inside, IF they could behave. The Cakes had a special corner made for the humans to be placed: it had leash hooks, water and food available to them, as well as slightly worn-out cushions. I've been in the corner two times before now, and it wasn't half bad, actually.

Without a word, Twilight trotted inside with me in tow. She placed me in the human area, which was empty at the moment (thank God), then headed towards a table nearby and sat down. Looking around, I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. The store looked just like any other bakery back home, with all the sugary goods displayed on shelves as well as under the counter, with a register perched on the countertop. A lanky stallion with a yellow coat and an orange mane sat behind the counter. He had a cutie mark depicting three slices of (what appeared to be) carrot cake, with white icing. Seeing Twilight, he turned his head towards the kitchen door behind him.

"Honeybun, Twilight is here." Coming out from the door was a mare with a light blue coat and a two-toned mane with two shades of pink, and a tail to match. Her mane and tail were styled like ice-cream frosting. She had a cutie mark of three cupcakes on her bigger-than-average flanks. She looked to be on the chubby side, which was unusual, as most ponies I've seen had little to no body fat. She looked to be the motherly type, one that was always ready with a plate of cookies and a glass of lemonade when children were near.

My eyes drifted lower, and I immediately felt my face heat up. Despite being naked, ponies don't typically expose their... privates... for all to see. I don't know how they do it, but they do. I've been in this world for several months, and very rarely do I catch a glimpse of anything... well... private. Granted, I haven't exactly been trying to look. That being said, I couldn't help but notice her teats were slightly swollen, swaying slightly as she walked. She was lactating, most likely. Blushing heavily, I tore my gaze away; it may be a common sight for ponies, but for me, it still is a bit awkward. As she approached us, she smiled at Twilight.

"Hello dear, how are you this morning? Are you here to see Pinkie?"

"Hello, Mrs. Cake," Twilight said, smiling at the motherly mare. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Is she upstairs?"

"Yes dear, and so are the others. They will be down shortly." Turning around, Mrs. Cake turned towards her husband, who was still managing the register.

"Carrot honey, I have to get back to the kitchen and... uh, finish using the machine, so the twins have something for later today." I felt my face heat up more at that. I was never comfortable with this kind of thing back home, either.

"Okay honeybun, I can handle the shop for now." Mrs. Cake turned, headed back behind the counter and slipped back into the kitchen. As she made her exit, I couldn't help but glimpse at her behind and swollen teats again. I don't know why I was looking there, but I didn't have much time to think about it. As soon as Mrs. Cake left, I heard voices coming from the stairs near the kitchen door. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack came trotting down the stairs, talking happily amongst themselves. As they drew nearer, I saw that Pinkie also had two foals on her back: a female unicorn and a male pegasus.

Oh my god! Let me tell you; they were adorable! I was working hard to not just let out a 'daww' and rush over to hug them. Sometimes it sucks having to pretend being dumb, I thought as I stayed put, staring blankly at the group. Pinkie placed the foals on the ground near some toys, and walked towards Twilight with her usual bounce in her steps. I kept my gaze on her as she approached. I wasn't scared of her, just wary. I had seen that hyperactive sugar rush of a mare do things that defied logic and basic physics. I asked Twilight about it once, and she told me that she also had a hard time accepting it at first, so to save me the headache she told me that Pinkie “was just being Pinkie” and left it at that.

As Twilight started to talk to Pinkie and Applejack, Fluttershy sat nearby, trying to not be noticed. When I noticed that Rainbow Dash or Rarity weren't here, I began to wonder where they could be. Rarity I suppose I could understand; I was here, after all.

Looking around at the group, I decided that I was probably not going to get much attention. Tuning out the noises around me, I took the chance to lean against the wall and close my eyes, deciding that I'd take a nap and catch some more sleep. Twilight might be able to work efficiently with only 3 hours of sleep, but I sure didn't.

After some time (maybe ten minutes or so, I wasn't exactly paying attention), I felt something gently poking my leg. Not wanting to open my eyes, I remained still and tried to ignore the feeling. Unfortunately, the culprit had something else in mind. Soon, something was climbing up on my lap, and I felt two small things poking my chest. Opening my eyes, I saw that one of the foals Pinkie had brought with her—the little unicorn filly—was standing in my lap, her little front hooves pressed against my chest. Her blue eyes were looking up at me with curiosity; I just blankly looked back at her. As I sat there, trying to figure out what to do about the little one, I heard a small gasp come from Fluttershy.

"Girls... Girls... GIRLS!" Her quiet voice was finally heard after she had repeated it several times to get her friends' attention. I didn't dare move my head as the filly leaned in closer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance at Fluttershy in confusion.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"Look," the timid pegasus said, pointing a hoof towards me. Her friends looked where she was pointing, and took in the strange sight: the foal standing on my lap and looking up at me, while I remained perfectly still.

"Oh ponyfeathers, Twi, has yer human interacted with foals before?" Applejack asked, the nervousness clear in her voice.

"I don't believe so," Twilight told her. I knew she wasn't afraid that I would hurt the foal, but apparently she wasn't sure exactly how I would react. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sparky.

"Ah hope he isn't territorial, or one that don't like young ones. Humans can be aggressive, even to their own young sometimes. Usually the males, if they get annoyed or provoked." I furrowed my brow slightly at that information. Humans here are aggressive towards their own young?

Mr. Cake seemed to have finally noticed where the foal was. "What are you waiting for?! Get her out of there!" His voice sounded slightly panicky as he turned towards Applejack.

"It is not that simple, Mr. Cake! If we approach him now, he could become aggressive towards Pumpkin or us and then the foal could be hurt." Oh come on! That's profiling! I hope this doesn't get too out of hand...

Just then, Mrs. Cake walked out of the kitchen. Welp, there goes that prayer out the window. Confused as to what everyone was panicking about, she followed their gazes over towards me. Her eyes widened as she saw her daughter looking up at me, poking my chin with her hoof. I groaned inwardly as her expression turned to fear and panic. "Pumpkin!" she shrieked.

"Quiet Mrs. Cake! If we agitate him somehow, she could get hurt." Applejack cautioned. Stop making the situation worse! I was still looking at the filly that was still perched in my lap, looking up at me with her curious eyes. Those adorable blue eyes.

Deciding that I was already in trouble, I couldn't help myself any longer. Slowly, I started to raise my hand, trying my hardest not to startle the little thing. A collective gasp filled the room when they saw me lift my hand towards the foal; everyone was holding their breath. Applejack looked ready to charge me (something I prayed to God she wouldn't do), Fluttershy and Mrs. Cake looked ready to faint, and Twilight was looking at me with a neutral expression. Yeah, just keep staring, Twilight; it's not like I could use your help or anything!

Moving with the utmost care, I placed my hand on top of the foal's head and started to pat and rub her mane in a friendly manner. The filly—Pumpkin, as everyone was calling her—started to giggle and laugh at my actions, making it harder for me to keep a straight face. She was pretty damn cute.

A sigh went around the room. Everyone started to breathe again once they heard the foal laughing, and realized that I wasn't going to hurt her. I flinched slightly when Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared beside me, and she picked up the foal from my lap. Pumpkin's eyes started to water, and soon she began to cry. Pinkie tried to get her to stop crying while she carried her away, but the foal raised her front hooves towards me, clearly not wanting to leave me. Well, it looks like I made a new friend today.

"Oh, I know what to do!" Pinkie said. She put the foal down next to her brother, Pumpkin still with tears in her little eyes. Pinkie then galloped into the kitchen, only to return seconds later with a bag of flour. What is the flour for?

"This should do the trick... whoa!" Pinkie 'accidentally' slipped on something, and the flour bag went sailing through the air. It didn't take a genius to guess where it was headed. That's right: towards me...

The bag hit me right in the chest, and unfortunately for me, it burst open. As a result, I was now covered in flour.

"Oops..my bad. Sorry, Twilight," Pinkie Pie laughed, looking at her friend. The twins seemed to like it though, and were beginning to giggle in the background. I just sat there, blinking the flour out of my eyes. Twilight sighed, and turned towards Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

"Do you mind if I use your bathtub to clean him up?"

"Of course dear," Mrs. Cake said, picking up her daughter and checking to make sure she was alright. The filly continued to look at me, giggling loudly.

"I'll help you get his clothes off, then!" Pinkie cheered... wait, what?

"Good idea. Those probably need to be cleaned as well," added Applejack. What!?

Before I could move, Pinkie had somehow taken off my flour-covered shirt. Holding it up, she had a big smile on her face. Luckily for me and my dignity, I still had on my pair of baggy shorts. I was now sitting with my upper body exposed. As I've mentioned before, I had become more muscular as of late due to Rainbow, and unfortunately for me, it showed. I can't say that I expected the reactions this time around.

I couldn't see any difference in Pinkie Pie's reaction other than her already big smile growing on her face. Fluttershy, however, was blushing, her cheeks bright red. As I watched, her wings flared out widely, and she tried to hide her face behind her pink mane. Applejack was looking at me with some interest, looking at me up and down, like she was inspecting me. Twilight was looking away with a little bit of a blush on her cheeks. Mrs. Cake was looking at me with big eyes and her cheeks were beginning to turn pink. Carrot took one look at me and snorted before glancing at his wife, his eyebrow raised. I don't like their expressions; it makes me feel uncomfortable...

"My my, Twilight, your human sure looks like he's a fine breed," Applejack said, breaking the silence. She then looked down towards my groin with a front hoof under her chin, looking thoughtful. Her cheeks were starting to turn pink. "If he is as fine down there as what Ah'm seeing up here, Ah may have some females that he could breed with if ya wouldn't mind, Twilight. Of course, Ah'll pay ya, standard breeding fee." WHAT?! OH, HELL NO!

Fluttershy gave off a small 'eep' and looked ready to faint on the spot. I somehow kept my poker face and didn't blush, but it wasn't easy. Twilight shook her head, and with her magic, picked me up and headed for the stairs. I fought off the feeling of vertigo as I flew through the air.

"Thanks for the offer Applejack. I'll think about it, but for now I will decline that offer," she said quickly, trying to hide her blush as well.

Pinkie Pie giggled at me floating beside her as we were heading up the stairs. I could see Twilight starting to blush more before she rushed to the bathroom and closed the door, with me in tow. Sadly, the door didn't have a lock, so it looked like she would be forced to clean me. I had other plans, however.

~Twilight, make sure no one gets inside while I bathe, okay?~

Looking around, I saw what looked like what I'd expect from a pony bathroom (only small changes, such as the height of the toilet and sink). The bathtub here was big, wide, and made of wood, kind of like the old ones you see on old western films; it seemed big enough for me to fit. On shelves beside it, bottles of different kinds were displayed.

Twilight nodded, and we began to fill the bathtub with water. Then, I quickly stripped and jumped in, beginning to scrub and bathe while Twilight turned away from me and watched the door. It didn't take me long before I finished, and quickly got out of the bathtub. Twilight levitated a small towel towards me, still turned away from me, but I could see her cheeks were flushed. I was just about to grab it when we heard the clopping of hooves coming up the stairs. We both froze.

Thinking quickly, Twilight turned towards me and made me sit down on the floor. She then took the towel and started to rub my head with it, acting like she was the one drying me off. The door opened, and both Mr. and Mrs. Cake were standing in the doorway with some more towels on their backs.

"I just remembered that we only had one towel left up here," Mrs. Cake said. "The rest were downstairs in the laundry room, so here are some more." She then stepped forward and presented the towels to Twilight. As she did so, she caught a good look at my crotch, and her cheeks started to turn bright red. Unfortunately, due to my position, I couldn't cover myself even if I wanted to. I just hoped that Twilight would cover me, but she didn't seem to have noticed. She was looking straight at my chest, trying to look busy, a small blush on her cheeks as well.

"Thanks Mrs. Cake," she said. I saw that Carrot also was also glancing at my junk before snorting and looking away. He looked towards his wife, who was still looking at my crotch. Her big eyes were locked on-target, with her mouth slightly open, and I thought I saw some drool leaking from it, too. Oh god...please, no...no nononononono!

"Honeybun?" Carrot asked, poking his wife in the shoulder. Mrs. Cake seemed to snap out of her trance-like state, and she shook her head before putting the towels down on one of the bathtub's shelves. I still saw her sneaking glances towards my groin every now and then. She was biting her lower lip, and had an expression like she was thinking about how to say something. Oh god, what did I do to deserve this?!

"There you go dear," Mrs. Cake finally said, still taking another glance towards my junk. I didn't like the look in her eyes.

"Then let's go honeybun, and leave Miss Twilight to take care of her human." He looked and sounded a little impatient, having seen his wife stealing glances at my... lower parts. I figured that's why he was acting so blunt. Yes! Let the jealousy flow through you, and get your wife out of here!

Mrs. Cake seemed to be having an inner battle with herself, but she slowly turned and headed towards the bathroom door. I saw that Carrot had exited the room already, having disappeared from view. I could hear his hoofsteps further down the corridor, heading towards the stairs.

Mrs. Cake stopped by the entrance and looked over her shoulder. As she looked at me, she did something that nearly gave me an heart attack (and also nearly made me lose my poker face): she moved her tail to the side, and flashed me a look at her private parts.

My heart stopped as I realized—to my shock—that she was showing me her... erm, marehood. Unfortunately for me, I found it to be strangely arousing. Oh god...kill me now, please!

I have seen the 'lady parts' of one or two girls before, even before I ended up in Equestria. Hell, the ponies here are walking around naked most of the time anyways. Sure, the mares cover their private parts with their tails so a stallion doesn't get a free show, but since I was a human, they weren't so guarded like that towards me. Sometimes I think mares show me their privates (or almost do it) on purpose, trying to get some kind of reaction from me or play some sort of game, one where I didn't know the rules.

I'm not completely oblivious, though; I know that humans here are sometimes used for satisfying certain desires. It didn't make it any less awkward for me when I was flashed by a pony, however.

Seeing her wink at me (and not with her eyes), my 'little buddy' treacherously responded by giving a little jolt of anticipation. My face flushed, and I prayed to whatever god was listening that the floor would open up and swallow me whole. Mrs. Cake noticed my reaction, and her eyes got a little bigger, her blush deepened, and she looked away. I saw her smiling before she exited the room, flicking her tail towards me and swaying her hips a little more than before. She looked as if she had just won something special.

Twilight had turned away during all of this to clean up the bathtub and put away the shampoo, so she didn't see what had transpired. At the moment, I didn't know how to tell her what happened. Hopefully I would be able to tell her later, when we were back at the library.

~Twilight, it's time to go~ I signed, still staring off into space. Confused, she just nodded and with her magic, levitated over a large towel and put it around my waist. She then picked up my flour-covered clothes and headed towards the door. I followed her down the stairs, completely numb.

I saw Twilight's friends sitting around a table talking about something. I could hear some words like 'bodyguard', 'rich mare', 'foal-sitter' and such before they stopped and turned their attention towards me and Twilight. When Fluttershy saw my slightly damp, half-naked self, she blushed and her wings locked up again.

"Girls, I have to take Max home and get him a new set of clothes," Twilight said, waving the flour-covered garments in the air.

"Awww," Pinkie said, looking sad. Suddenly, her face lit up again and she rushed off into the kitchen. Shortly after, she returned with a box wrapped in a bow.

"Here, Twilight! Some cupcakes for you and Max!" As Twilight accepted the package, Applejack stepped forward and looked at her.

"Wouldja mind if Ah talked to ya for a minute?" She then looked up at me for a second before looking back at Twilight.

"Sure Applejack," Twilight said, giving her a smile.

"In private," Applejack said, looking pointedly at Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

"Umm... okay, Applejack," Twilight said, looking a little confused.

Twilight put me inside the human area again, then Applejack and Twilight walked to the other side of the room and started to talk. Pinkie Pie was talking to Fluttershy about something by the window, so I sat down and crossed my arms while Twilight spoke with Applejack. I just wanted to get home, put on some clean clothes, and forget about what had happened, but it seemed that was going to be put on hold.

I watched as Mrs. Cake trotted in from another room by the displays. She looked around and spotted Twilight and Applejack talking in the corner, and Pinkie entertaining Fluttershy by the window. She then looked in my direction, and slowly started to walk towards me. As I watched her draw nearer, I started wondering what she was up to.

She walked up until she was standing right in front of me, her cheeks a rosy color. She then glanced around to see if anybody was looking at us. Seeing that no one was watching, she lifted one of her front hooves and patted me on the head. Hmm... so she only wanted to pet me? I'm okay with that...

...but then her hoof started to travel downwards. Starting first at my face, then working down to my chest, followed by my stomach, rubbing her hoof across my skin the whole time. Her cheeks were starting to become more red, and her breathing got heavier while she explored and felt my skin and muscles. She then took a glance towards my towel.

...awwww, hell no, I silently whimpered. There was no way I could voice my protest or resist without causing me to look bad.

She licked her lips and was bending down towards the towel. Her mouth was partly open, ready to remove the towel. Fortunately, before she reached the towel (and what was hidden beneath it), we heard a voice from behind her.

"Mrs. Cake?!"

Mrs. Cake's eyes got comically big, and she turned quickly towards the sound. I couldn't help but notice her private parts again while she was facing away, as my face was at the same level as her flanks. Her generous rear was almost in my face. Her nether lips were wetter now, and I could see trails of liquid on them, with some traveling down her inner thighs. I winced slightly, but I couldn't help but stare, my face red again.

Is that... is she...why...?

Twilight—who seemed to have finished talking with Applejack—was walking towards me and Mrs. Cake. Applejack was looking at the scene with a knowing smirk on her face.

"Why are you near Max? And what were you doing?" Twilight asked, confusion on her face.

"N-Nothing dear. Just making sure that the towel was on." Mrs. Cake lied, clenching her hind legs together slightly. Pinkie Pie was instantly there by my side, giggling and with a huge smile on her face.

"She was also rubbing her hoof on his chest and tummy. She seemed to have so much fun doing it; she was then bending down, trying to correct the towel, I think, and she would have used her mouth to do it. And she also had this funny expression on her face. But wouldn't it have been easier if she used her hoof instead?" Pinkie put a hoof under her chin and had a thoughtful expression.

Twilight was looking at Mrs. Cake with a expression I couldn't quite place. It looked kind of like...suspicion, but I wasn't too sure. Twilight's horn glowed, and my leash was lifted into the air by her magic.

"Well, it's time for me and Max to go, so goodbye everypony!" Her friends and Mrs. Cake said goodbye, and Twilight quickly led me towards the entrance to the shop. Before I exited, however, I couldn't help but take a glance back. I saw Mrs. Cake looking back at me, with an almost hungry look in her eyes. I shuddered a little, and followed Twilight. We exited the shop quickly, and she trotted towards the market place, me by her side. Once we got a safe distance away, she leaned towards me and whispered.

"Max, what was that all about?" I told her about what Mrs. Cake did when she came into the room, looking away as my face lit up; Twilight had a disgusted expression on her face. As I finished, she seemed to trot closer to me, almost like she was trying to protect me. It was cute, in a weird sort of way. I could feel her tail touch me every now and then as we walked. We continued in silence for several minutes before a thought struck me.

~Twilight, what did you and Applejack talk about?~ I asked, glancing down at her. This time it was Twilight's turn to look away, her cheeks taking on a pinkish hue.

"N-Nothing, Max."

~Twilight...~ She flinched slightly, her wings twitching at her side.

"Oh, alright," she said, her head lowering slightly. "She was asking me if I could take you to her farm, and let her run some tests on you." Oh, I don't like the sound of that...

~Tests?~

"Yeah, tests that would measure your intelligence, endurance, and some other stuff," Twilight said, refusing to meet my gaze. She fell silent again, as I watched the buildings pass while we walked.

~Did you agree to it?~ I asked finally.

"Umm...I told her I would think about it."

~Did she say when?~ I asked, eyes on the mailmare as she flew by, upside down. How does she do that without any letters falling out?

"She wanted to do them later this month, unless I agreed to do it sooner.” Not much more was said after that. As we got to the marketplace, we turned down the path that led to the library. After a few minutes of walking, I could just see the top of the tree further ahead. Twilight looked like she was thinking hard about something, glancing at me periodically. She would look away whenever I turned my head in her direction, and her cheeks would turn a light pink every time she did. Her behavior made me wonder what these 'tests' she and Applejack talked about entailed.

We soon arrived at the library and entered our home. Twilight headed to the kitchen to drop of the box with the cupcakes, and I headed to the living room. Throwing the towel into the corner of the room, I reached behind the couch and slipped on one of the extra sets of clothing that Twilight had somehow convinced Rarity to make. With a loud sigh, I collapsed upon the couch. There was the sound of hoofsteps below me as Twilight made her way up the stairs.

"Max?" she asked, tentatively. I looked up and motioned for her to join me. She trotted over and slipped up on the couch, snuggling up next to me.

"I'm sorry about what happened today," she mumbled, her head resting on her hooves.

~It's okay. It's not your fault~ Scratching behind her ear, I returned to staring at the ceiling. Twilight shifted next to me, leaning in closer.

"What are you going to do about Applejack's offer?" she asked tentatively, her voice hesitant as if she feared the answer. I sighed, closing my eyes.

~If it's all the same to you, I think I'll decline the offer for now~ I replied, opening my eyes and glancing at my friend. Her ears perked up, and a small smile spread across her face.

"Okay," she said, laying her head back down. "I'll tell her next time I see her that we aren't interested." Closing her eyes, she snuggled even closer to me. I'm not sure if it was just the stress of the day, or the fact that she had very little sleep the night before, but Twilight was soon fast asleep.

I just laid there, my arm around her, staring up at the ceiling. I was thinking. Thinking hard.

Why am I getting so flustered about ponies making advances on me? They're ponies! I'm a human! Sure, some of them are really good looking, but I certainly don't like any of them in that way...

An image of Twilight flashed through my mind. A cute smile on her face as her eyes lit up. Her laugh that seemed to light up the room. The eager way she tried to learn everything and anything new. I felt my face flush again as I glanced over at the sleeping mare in my arms.

I don't like any of them that way...

...right?

Interlude: Rainbow Dash's Stunt Day (Guest Chapter)

Interlude: Rainbow Dash's Stunt Day (Guest Chapter)

This chapter was written by Portal82. I'd like to thank Captain Croissandwich for editing it.

Today I was lying on the grass as the wind blew over my face, causing the grass and leaves to sway gently in the breeze. I was near the Everfree Forest with Rainbow Dash; since Twilight had to run an errand in Canterlot, she apparently decided to make someone 'take care of me'. She figured that it would look bad if she just left me alone for the whole day, so she asked her friends for help.

Personally, I think it was to get back at me for the prank I pulled on her. Seriously, it wasn't that bad of a prank; all I did was press my foot down on the scale when she was weighing herself. She should have known that she wasn't actually three hundred pounds! I think that it's hardly my fault she overreacted.

The first pony she asked was Fluttershy, but the pegasus was too busy with her other animals to look after me; a bear had hurt his paw and needed her attention, and some baby bunnies needed tending to as well. Seeing as she had her hooves full, Twilight just thanked her and moved on to the next candidate.

Next on the list was Pinkie Pie, who was unfortunately out at some party. Mrs. Cake said that she could look after me, but neither I (nor Twilight) liked the look the mature mare was giving me. In fact, Twilight practically yanked me away from the store, and away from Mrs. Cake. As I was pulled along, I noticed that Mrs. Cake was pouting as she looked at me, before she turned around and, with a flick of her tail, trotted back inside the bakery. But not before flashing me her damp privates again; her swollen, milk-filled teats swayed underneath her as she went inside. I shuddered, knowing that I had dodged a bullet with that one. Why the hell can't her husband take care of her needs? She clearly needs him badly!

Turning my head back around, I saw Twilight looking at me, then back to the shop. She had a neutral look on her face, but her eyes glinted slightly, giving away her distaste. She just harrumphed and dragged me along, mumbling something that I couldn't quite hear.

We both agreed Rarity didn't need visiting, considering what she thought of humans. I didn't know why she was so afraid of humans, but I wondered if there was something I could do; I'm really bothered by her fear and disapproval of me.

When Twilight spoke with Applejack, at just the mention of my name she proceeded to blush, look away, and mumble something, before saying that it wasn't a good idea. Twilight looked a little determined not to hand me over to the farmer, which only made me wonder again what exactly Applejack had talked to her about at Sugarcube Corner. Considering how Twilight had been acting around me lately, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know.

But, surprisingly, when we had asked Rainbow Dash, she had agreed to take care of me for the day. The only issue she had was if I would be alright being left alone, and rest or something while she practiced her flying stunts. After Twilight confirmed that it would be alright, Rainbow Dash became my babysitter for the day.

...great.

So, here I am, resting in the grass while Rainbow Dash flies around through the sky, doing her daring stunts. I was watching her practice, and let me tell you; she's got some moves. The way she twisted and turned through the air, leaving behind a rainbow trail behind her, was a graceful dance that mesmerized me. It was hard not to see why she liked flying so much. I continued to lay there, watching the pegasus zip through the air.

For the next hour or so she continued to practice, but after a while she looked like she was getting tired. When she went to perform one of her stunts, she miscalculated her speed and—with a cry of panic—she flew off course. Trying to regain control of her wings, she tumbled down and flew straight into the Everfree Forest. I winced as the sounds of twigs and branches snapping, Rainbow's muffled curses, and a yelp of pain reached my ears.

Sitting up, I stared at the forest in concern. Twilight warned me of the forest—as well as the creatures that lived in it—and she had stressed that I should never, ever go into the forest alone. After hearing that there were manticores, hydras and other horrific creatures living in the trees, I couldn't have agreed more. However, Rainbow was currently in the forest alone, and probably hurt.

I waited a few minutes, hoping she would fly back out. When she failed to emerge, I sighed heavily and stood up. These ponies will be the death of me, I grumbled as I slowly entered the forest, determined to find the prismatic pegasus and get her out of there.

As I ventured through the trees, I couldn't help but notice that, despite Twilight's warnings, the forest didn't seem that dangerous to me. It felt more like a forest back on Earth, actually, and I half-expected to come across a paved road, or a lone hunter dressed in their orange hunting gear.

After several minutes of searching, my ears picked up some noise further down the path. Picking up the pace, I moved cautiously towards the noise and soon found a small clearing. Stopping at the edge of the trees, I peeked through the brush and saw Rainbow Dash. It was kind of hard to miss her, actually, with her colorful mane and tail. Unfortunately, it looked like she had managed to find some new 'friends'.

She was pressed against a small cliff, her back against the rock. Her 'friends' were some strange form of canine creature, but instead of fur and flesh, they seemed to be made out of wood. Wat? I blinked, staring at the sight before me in confusion.

As I watched, Rainbow tried to take to the air, but fell back to the ground with a cry of pain. It appeared that she had hurt one of her wings; the appendage was spread open, with a large bruise slowly spreading across its surface, and there were some feathers missing as well. She tried to open the wing, but winced in pain.

My eyes drifted to the canines, and I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I eyed them. Wooden wolves...? Could these be the 'timberwolves' Twilight was talking about?

Movement at the top of the small cliff caught my eye, and I looked up. One of the wolves had snuck up above Rainbow, and was eyeing her, the hunger clear in its gaze. With a snarl, it jumped down the cliff towards the trapped pegasus. Rainbow seemed to sense that something wasn't right, and looked up. Her eyes got bigger as fear flashed across her face. Before she had a chance to react, the timberwolf was on top of her back. She cried out in pain as the wolf's claws dug into her back, its weight and momentum roughing up her injured wing. Moving on instinct, Rainbow whipped her head up and rolled to the side, just barely missing the wolf's fangs as it attempted to bite into her neck.

Now trapped on her back beneath the wolf, she was looking up at the creature as it loomed above her, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. The wolf leaned down, opening its jaws as it prepared to take a chunk out of the pegasus. Not able to move or think due to fear, Rainbow just closed her eyes and prepared for the end.

I had seen enough. Pushing off of the ground, I rushed out of my hiding place and into the clearing, sprinting towards the wolves. Max, this has to be the stupidest thing you've done yet! As I drew nearer, the wolf on top of Rainbow stopped and looked up, turning its head towards me. I saw its fiery green eyes widen, but before it could react, I smashed into him, tackling it like a rugby player. The wolf and I fell off of Rainbow, our momentum carrying us backwards towards the cliff. One more burst of energy, and I slammed the wooden creature into the cliff face, the sound of wood breaking echoing around the clearing. The wolf howled in pain before he burst apart, bits of wood and plasma raining down onto the ground, where it gathered in a heap.

Pushing myself off of the rock face, I turned and looked around at the rest of the wolves, who were eyeing me warily. Holding up my arms and hands, I spread my legs, lowering my stance, trying to make myself look ready to pounce on the next attacker. I positioned myself above Rainbow Dash, trying to protect her from another surprise attack. Contorting my face into an angry snarl, I flashed my teeth at the wolves, trying to intimidate them.

It was all a ruse, however, as my heart was about ready to burst from my chest. Fear gripped me as the wolves slowly began to circle around me and the fallen pegasus. Didn't really think this through...

Rainbow had opened her eyes when I had ripped the wolf off of her, and she was currently looking up at me with surprise, hope, wonder, fear, and something else. As she looked up at me, her cheeks began to turn pink. Glancing off to the side, she shook her had before trying to stand.

"Ah, horseapples," she hissed, wincing in pain as she tried to get her hooves underneath her. Not taking my eyes off of the wolves, I bent down further, placed a hand on her shoulder, and pushed her down onto the ground. She gasped, glaring up at me with an angry pout on her face.

"Hey, what gives? I can fight," she growled, pushing against me. "This is nothing; I ain't no damsel in distress!" Ignoring her, I just pressed her back down gently. Tearing my eyes from the wolves, I glanced down at her, giving her a look that said 'stay still; I got this'. The last thing I needed right now was to be forced to keep watch on both the wolves and her. Rainbow's ears splayed back. I think she got the message, but I didn't have time to confirm it before one of the wolves decided to rush towards me, taking advantage of my distracted state. Fuck!

Snapping my head around, I grabbed the wolf as it leapt up, using its momentum to redirect it over my head and towards the cliff behind me. I winced as it hit the cliff, shattering on impact,and crumbling to the ground in a heap of wood. Another wolf jumped at me, this time from the side. Spinning quickly, I kicked out with my foot, connecting with the wolf's jaw. Much to my surprise (and horror) the wolf's head snapped back and flew clean off, the body landing with a thud in front of me, before it collapsed into a pile of wood. Not very strong, are they? I mused, kicking the pile of sticks away from me.

After watching their pack members fail, the other wolves were now slowly circling in front of me, more cautious of approaching. One of them inched forward, growling up at me. I growled back, baring my teeth and hoping that I looked more terrifying than I actually felt. Beneath me, I saw Rainbow watching everything with wide eyes, her jaw agape. She looked quickly from the defeated wolves, then back up at me. I didn't know what she was thinking, but whatever it was, it could wait until we were safe.

One of the wolves—a large beast with a scar across its muzzle—stepped forward suddenly, howling loudly. He was respectably bigger than the rest, and clearly the pack leader. He scratched at the earth, glaring at me. I took a step forward, snarling at the brute as I shifted my stance. The other wolves backed off, giving us room. Oh shit, I thought, as I glanced around quickly. Did I just accept a challenge?

The alpha and I began circling each other, but I kept close to Rainbow, just in case another wolf decided to run for her. He growled, lunging at me with his jaws open wide. I leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding his attack. As he passed by, I kicked out, hitting his underside. Pain flared through my leg as I yelped; the wolf seemed to be made out of stronger wood than the others. Wincing, I staggered back, rubbing at my shin as the wolf circled around again. He leapt forward again, and I leaned back, trying to avoid his gaping maw, which snapped shut just inches in front of my face. These ponies are going to be the death of me!

Stumbling back, I tried to put some distance between the two of us, all the while keeping myself between Rainbow and the wolves. There was no way I could beat this thing on my own; I needed some kind of weapon if I ever hoped to win. Looking around quickly, I didn't see anything that could be used as a makeshift weapon. Returning my attention back to my opponent, I balked as he leapt at me yet again. I barely had time to bring my arms up before he was upon me. Wood dug into my skin as I snaked a hand under his head, grabbing his throat to keep his jaws from biting into me. Unfortunately, the force of him landing on me caused me to fall backwards. This earned a gasp from Rainbow.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought as I laid there on my back, struggling with the alpha on top of me, who was trying his hardest to tear me a new breathing hole in my throat. Freeing my right hand, I threw punch after punch at the wolf, all the while trying desperately to hold him off with my left. Wiggling my legs around, I managed to get my feet underneath the wolf. With a grunt and a push, I forced the large creature off of me.

Rolling myself over, I pushed myself up to my knees before forcing myself into a low stance. The wolf had already recovered, and was now making his way towards me again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rainbow still looking at me. Good, she's still relatively safe. Glancing down at myself, I saw that I had gotten some scrapes from the scuffle; the rough wood of the timberwolf marking my flesh. Nothing serious, however, for which I was lucky.

Something just on the edge of my vision caught my attention, and upon turning my head, I noticed a big, thick piece of wood lying nearby. Moving quickly, I scooped the log up and held it firmly in my hands, ready to use my new weapon with extreme prejudice. I had barely brought the 'weapon' up, when the alpha leapt at me again. With an angry snarl, I swung the log with all my might, connecting with the side of the alpha's head as he soared through the air. A resounding crack echoed through the clearing. Heheh, knock on wood, you bastard!

The wolf went down from the blow, but was back up a moment later, growling at me, his teeth bared. I growled back, feeling more confident now that I had something to defend myself with. The alpha leapt again, but I smacked him away with the log, driving him back. We traded blows, repeating the dance for a little while; the wolf tried to get a hold of me, and I used the log to fend him off. I also managed to attack him a couple of times, trying desperately to find a weak spot.

During our bouts I had gotten more scrapes, as well as a bruise or two, but I had also managed to get a couple of good hits on the wolf as well, his bark-like skin cracked in several places. One particularly nasty attack left me with several claw marks across my upper arm, with my blood slowly flowing down it. I was exhausted, but so was the wolf; his tongue hung from his mouth as he panted for air. It seemed we had reached a stalemate, and I had a feeling the wolf knew it. Give up already, you bastard.

The wolf had just staggered forward for another attack when it suddenly stopped, its ears perking up as it looked off to the side. It seemed to scan the forest, looking for something, before turning its attention back to me. It gave a low growl before turning its head and letting loose a howl. The entire pack, the alpha included, turned and sprinted back towards the edge of the clearing, disappearing into the forest. The alpha was the last to go, and it looked back at me, glaring with such hatred it made me shiver. The look was clear: we weren't finished with each other. One last growl, and it disappeared into the undergrowth.

I gazed nervously around at the surrounding forest, a feeling of trepidation rising up in me. I wasn't sure what was out there, but if it could make an entire pack of timberwolves run away, I didn't want to stick around. Turning towards Rainbow and walking quickly, I bent down and scooped her up in my arms, carrying her bridal style, being mindful of her wings. This didn't seem to go over well with the injured pegasus.

"Hey, I can walk just fine by myself," she complained, struggling weakly in my arms. "You don't need to carry me; put me down!" I just ignored her and walked hurriedly back into the forest, and hopefully back towards the safety of Ponyville. Rainbow continued to protest for several more minutes, wiggling around in my arms. I swear, it's like trying to hold onto an excited puppy! Finally, she stopped struggling and fell silent. Stepping over a root, I took a glance down and saw her looking to the side, a small pink blush on her cheeks. Her forelegs were bent over her chest as she pouted cutely. Why did nature make you ponies so damn cute and adorable?

I walked at a quick pace for a while through the forest, still carrying the pouting Rainbow, who was surprisingly lightweight. After several minutes I felt her shift slightly, snuggling deeper into my arms. Looking down, I saw that she had turned her head and was now resting it against my chest, her eyes closed and her cheeks a darker shade of pink. I could feel her good wing twitching slightly, almost as if it wanted to extend. She looked content, and (not wanting to wake her) I didn't do anything to disturb her and just walked a little faster.

Finally, I saw light peeking in through the edge of the forest, and with a few more steps, we were out. Blinking in the bright sunlight, I looked around and saw that I wasn't far from Fluttershy's cottage. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I glanced down at Rainbow. It would probably be best if I brought her to Fluttershy; she's sure to have a medkit. Cracking my neck, I turned and started heading in the direction of Fluttershy's.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It took me a few minutes to walk to Fluttershy's cottage. I gazed at the small, homey building beside the small river, a small smile touching my face. Approaching the door, I used my foot to knock on the wood, trying not to disturb Dash in my arms. "I'm coming," I heard a quiet voice speak up from somewhere inside. Then came the sound of movement from the other side of the door, followed by the top half of door swinging open. Fluttershy peeked out, looking around shyly.

"H-hello?" When she saw me, her eyes lit up and her expression turned instantly from nervous to happy, her wings flaring and a smile spreading across her face. "Max! How have you been? Is Twilight still feeding you well? Oh, it's so good to see you!" I just blinked at her, nonplussed. I've heard of talking to your animals, but this is ridiculous! It's like she expects me to respond. Her expression slowly turned to concern when she saw how ragged and muddy I was. When she finally noticed Rainbow in my arms, she gasped.

"W-what happened? Is she okay? Oh Celestia, let her be okay," she murmured, quickly opening the bottom half of the door. Max, could you—if you don't mind, that is—put her on the sofa while I get the first aid kit?" she asked, motioning for me to enter and pointing at the couch. As she flew to get the first aid kit, I ducked inside and placed Rainbow gently down on the sofa. Once I had put her down, I stepped back, pulling a sleeve down over the claw marks on my arm. It hurt, but I'd take care of it when I got back to the library.

Rainbow seemed to have noticed the lack of warmth around her, as she woke up quickly and started looking around owlishly.

"What happened? Where am I?" she slurred, blinking stupidly. Upon seeing where she was, she let her head sink back onto the sofa and gave off a low moan. "Ah, ponyfeathers. Fluttershy is going to let me have it again." Turning her head, she glared up at me and pointed a hoof in my direction. "And as for you, buster, I'm not finished with you!" I just cocked my head to the side, giving her a confused look. Before she could say anything else, Fluttershy was there by her side, fussing over her.

"Rainbow, you have to take it easy when you practice. See what happens when you aren't careful?" Fluttershy said as she looked over Rainbow's wing. Nothing appeared to be broken, but the ugly bruise on it looked bad. Carefully cleaning the area, Fluttershy began to bandage the appendage. "You'll have to take it easy for a couple of days, Rainbow. It seems you sprained your wing, so that means no flying, okay?" Rainbow groaned in displeasure, hitting her head against the couch cushion.

"Awww, but..." she began, but one look from Fluttershy and she could only nod. Fluttershy then started to go over her minor injuries, and kept fussing over the injured pegasus. Sensing my chance, I took that moment of distraction to make my exit, leaving Rainbow in Fluttershy's capable hands... er, hooves.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Third Person < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Rainbow's eyes were following the human as he snuck out, a small smile and blush touching her cheeks, and her uninjured wing twitching slightly. Against her will, it started to flare out, spreading to its full length.

"Rainbow..." Fluttershy said timidly, snapping Rainbow out of her fantasy. Turning her head quickly to look at Fluttershy, she noticed where the timid pegasus was looking, and her blush darkened. Looking at Rainbow's wing, Fluttershy couldn't help but blush as well, her cheeks taking on a pink hue. "Oh..." Fluttershy whispered, before continuing to take care of her injured friend.

Neither mare talked to each other during the rest of the treatment; Fluttershy was too timid to ask, and Rainbow too embarrassed to tell. Both were content to just sit there, each with their own thoughts.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I walked down the path towards Ponyville, heading towards the market place and onwards to the library. I kept the sleeve on my shirt pulled down as far as I could, trying to hide my injury. For the most part, the ponies didn't react when I walked through the market. Some raised their eyebrows, seeing me without Twilight by my side. Unfortunately, some mares tried to get me to come near them by making cooing sounds and pet talk. I just shuddered, my eye twitching as I tried to ignore them.

I was closing in on the market stalls when I happened to spot the mare that was the queen of all mares that wanted to get inside my pants: Mrs. Cake. Inhaling sharply, I quickly jumped behind an empty stall, peeking out towards her position. She seemed to not have noticed me yet, for which I was grateful; she was too busy browsing the stalls and talking to another mare. This second mare had a light brown coat, with a tail and mane of darker brown. Squinting, I could just make out her cutie mark: a red heart with a baby bottle.

Mrs. Cake turned and started heading in my direction, all the while talking to this other mare. Oh, fuck. Fearing I would be spotted, I hide behind the wooden stall, a small hole in the wood allowing me to keep an eye on the approaching mares. Taking a peek, I could now hear what exactly Mrs. Cake was saying. Unfortunately for me, it was something I didn't want (or need) to hear.

"Three months! Can you believe that? Three months and no rutting. My no-good husband and I haven't had a good roll in the hay for three months. I'm starting to lose it!" Mrs. Cake whined, looking at her companion. "It tapered down when the twins were born, but I didn't think it would stop completely! Sure, we must be careful; we can't have any more foals at the moment, but that is a poor excuse. Ugh, I miss being filled!" She had an expression of longing, and the other mare gave a quiet nod. I shivered, not enjoying that particular image. "I was beginning to feel that my hubby wasn't finding me attractive anymore.

"But, then Twilight came by about a week ago with that human of hers, and I got such a positive reaction from him; I was so happy!" It wasn't a positive reaction! I was confused and scared as hell! Mrs. Cake just smiled from ear to ear, giving off a small squee as she smirked at the other mare.

"I felt beautiful again—young even—and more so when I saw the jealous look Carrot gave him. My hubby was giving me some attention again, but still no rutting!" Mrs. Cake huffed, her tail flicking side to side in irritation. Is that all this mare ever thinks of? I swear, she's got to be a nymphomaniac!

"That handsome looking human seemed to have no trouble getting in the mood," she muttered under her breath. She then sighed, her voice filled with so much passion and longing that I cringed, shivering violently. "If Twilight hadn't been there, and if I got a couple of hours alone with him, it would have been so great." Maybe for you, I thought, a blush spreading across my face despite my displeasure. The other mare was blushing as well. She was rather quiet, letting Mrs. Cake do all the talking.

"I wouldn't have cared if Carrot was there," Mrs. Cake continued, stopping in front of the stall I was hiding behind, causing me to break out in a cold sweat. "Maybe he could have learned a thing or two, and saw how to truly treat his wife." She leaned her head towards the other mare, whispering in her ear. Due to how close they were to me, I heard every word. "I have heard, from a reliable source, that humans can rut for hours, and they mount the mare and give it hard. No complaining, no fuss, just straight to the thrusting." The other mare's face exploded into a dark blush, her ears perking up. Mrs. Cake was also blushing now. I had to resist the urge to bang my head against the stall. I was almost to the library! Why did she have to be here at this exact moment?!

"Though they aren't typically much bigger than a stallion, that human Twilight has, from what little I could see at the time... Dear Celestia, he was big. More than Carrot, that's for sure." Mrs. Cake giggled. "I would gladly let him mount me and have his way with me any time! By the reaction I got from him, he seemed like he wouldn't mind." I shook my head, a manic smile on my face. Hahaha... NO! I would have to see if Twilight had anything that could be used as brain bleach.

In all fairness, my hormones could also be at fault here, and truth be told, Mrs. Cake wasn't that ugly, but still. No es bueno. As I lay there, crouched under the stall, my thoughts began to get conflicted. For some reason, they kept jumping to Twilight and her appearance, and even some of her friends, but mostly Twilight. What the fuck, brain? I thought we had an understanding! Especially after mom found our porn stash back in high school!

As I shook my head to clear it, I heard Mrs. Cake continue.

"I really need a good buck, and I can't cheat on my husband for just one night of fun. I can't risk getting pregnant again anyways, so I've been thinking about asking that source of mine if I can rent a human to use. What I really want, however, is to borrow that human Twilight has." Okay, her obsession is becoming a bit unhealthy. "I've heard such good things about what humans can do that no stallion can." Mrs. Cake paused, sighing heavily before continuing. "It's not technically cheating if you do it with a human; it may be illegal in some places, and frowned upon by some ponies, but..." she huffed, turning to look at the other mare, a serious expression on her face.

"As if those uptight ponies in Canterlot haven't used a human to satisfy their needs once in a while! I'm sure that I might get a light scolding, and maybe a small fee if the authorities found out, but still. Carrot might actually feel a little jealous and ashamed, but that would be his fault for not treating me properly!" I frowned slightly, my neck cramping up. It was rather uncomfortable under the stall, and I was starting to get tired of the soap opera taking place nearby. Hurry up and leave already!

Mrs. Cake gave the other mare a large smile, "The best part is that I haven't heard of any mare getting pregnant by rutting a human, so the human can fill the mare to his heart's content, and the mare doesn't have to worry about a foal." Jesus Christ, it's like listening to a zoophile, only in reverse!

The two mares stood there, blushing, as naughty thoughts (most likely) raced through their heads. Their tails were swishing from side to side, and I could tell that they were both excited. Thanks to their position, I had a perfectly good view of their... 'fun zones'. I shuddered, looking away as I cursed about my bad luck. As I grumbled silently to myself, Mrs. Cake started to talk again.

"I've heard that if you are lucky, and the human has been trained properly, they can even please a mare using only their tongues and hands."

"R-really?" I blinked, surprised. That was the first time I had heard the other mare speak. She had a warm tone of voice; almost motherly. It was also heavy with longing. I almost slammed my face against the wall, but thought better of it. I gritted my teeth, trying to take deep breaths. Go away, go away, go away, go away!

Mrs. Cake nodded again. Both mare's had stopped flicking their tails, and had started to raise them slightly. That gave me a better view of their privates before I tore my gaze away. Unfortunately, I had seen enough, and my body was already reacting in a less than favorable manner. Traitor, I thought, glancing down. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I risked another glance out and saw to my relief that the mares were beginning to walk away: slowly, but at an even pace.

"My husband is always away," the other mare said. "I have something in my closet that I can use to make the situation a little better, but it isn't like the real thing." This caused Mrs. Cake to giggle, and she and the other mare turned and headed towards Sugarcube Corner.

After several minutes, I emerged from under the stall, shaking my head as I tried to not think about what I had just heard. I'm not sure which is worse: the fact that I just overheard all of that, or that fact that no ponies seemed bothered by it. Cracking my neck, I glanced down again, glaring at my 'friend'. We're gonna have to have a talk later, buddy, about what's okay and what's not okay. Looking behind me to make sure I was still safe, I quickly hurried through the market place and to the library. Opening the door, I slipped inside and shut the door behind me.

Spike glanced up as I entered, his eyes widening when he caught sight of my bloodied arm and scuffed up appearance.

"Dude, what happened to you?" he asked. I just gave him a tired look, my shoulders sagging slightly. "One of those days, huh?" he asked, giving me a knowing nod. I just nodded, before slowly making my way upstairs, to the bathroom. I'm going to need a nice, long, hot bath.

Chapter 14: Your Family and Your Human

Twilight awoke to the sound of Spike snoring. While normally sleep apnea was a rather annoying condition to have, she had become accustomed to hearing his growl-like snore throughout the years. She found it surprisingly comforting, letting her know that he was still there, and still sleeping peacefully.

Pulling herself out from the warm, comfortable embrace of her bed, she yawned loudly, stretching both her legs and wings until they popped gently. Ruffling her feathers gently to try and get them back into their proper place, she silently made her way towards the dresser, trying hard to not wake Spike. It was still fairly early in the morning, and she didn’t want to wake him too early; he needed his sleep. He was still a baby dragon, after all.

Reaching the dresser, she pushed a small amount of magic through her horn. Grasping her manebrush, she lifted it into the air and began to brush her mane into a more presentable state. Using the mirror on top of the dresser to see what she was doing, she got her mane as straight as possible.

Once that task was done, she returned the brush to the dresser, cutting off the magic flowing through her horn. The brush clattered softly against the hardwood surface. Twilight leaned in closer to the mirror, admiring her handiwork. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed her bangs.

It appears that some of my mane is getting rather long, she thought to herself, eyeing the offending hairs with distaste. Why, that one particular patch is nearly two millimeters longer than the rest!

Despite her displeasure, it would have to be for now. She’d have to look through her schedule to see if there was any free time coming up soon where she could possibly schedule a haircut.

Her unfortunate case of bedhead taken care of, Twilight snuck quietly by Spike, still asleep in his little basket. Trotting softly to the bedroom door, she cracked it open and slipped out into the hall, closing the door silently behind her. She walked quickly to the stairs, her hoofs clicking against the wooden floor, the only sound in the early morning silence.

Maneuvering the stairs as quietly as possible, she soon arrived in the living room.

The entire room had a cozy feel to it. The curtains were drawn, keeping the morning sun out. The only source of light in the room came from the fireplace, where red embers—evidence of a recent fire—provided warmth as well as a dim light to see by. Summer was slowly coming to an end, and the mornings were becoming chillier and chillier. Twilight had started making sure that there was a fire burning each night, just so that the library remained comfortable when temperatures dropped below the acceptable levels. If it got too hot, they could just open a few windows.

As Twilight made her way across the room, a loud snore broke the silence. Her eyes quickly snapped to the couch, and it was there that she spied the other inhabitant of the library.

Sleeping on the couch, half covered by a wool blanket, was Max. Lying on his back, he had his feet up on the hoofrest on one end of the couch, his head resting on the other. His mouth was open slightly, his breathing even and calm. Every few breaths, a soft snore would issue forth. He looked peaceful, which was good considering recent events.

Almost a week ago he had come dashing up to Twilight’s room and dived under her covers in a state of near panic. She had managed to get enough hoof-language out of him to understand that something weird was going on down in his room. She had investigated immediately, while Max stayed secure under her sheets. However, she found nothing out of the ordinary. She had even looked in his closet at his insisting, but it looked like an empty closet to her.

Just to be sure, she scanned the closet, as well as the entire room, with her magic. It came back clean: nothing was amiss, magical or otherwise. She was pretty sure that Max was just suffering from a bad dream, but he insisted he had been awake at the time. Nevertheless, Max had refused to go back down to the basement, instead electing to sleep on the couch. And there he had slept for the past several days.

Twilight didn’t really care where her human slept, as long as he was comfortable. And judging by the way he looked right now, she’d hazard a guess that he was pretty comfortable on her couch.

As she watched, Max’s foot twitched slightly, evidence of him dreaming. She smiled to herself as she watched him; as she watched her human.

She felt a slight tingle when she thought that. My human.

Twilight didn’t have a human growing up. Her parents didn’t think that one was a necessary addition to her family, and she never pushed the matter. As she grew, even though she never truly understood the fascination with them, her curiosity about them had grown. She had always wondered what it would be like to have a human, but never had a chance to actually pursue the thought.

Even after she moved to Ponyville, she had never actually considered buying a human. Then Princess Celestia had sent her a human of her own. Not just any human, though. She had sent Twilight Max, and her life had changed. All thanks to her human.

Her human was special. Her human was handsome. Her human was intelligent. Her human was caring and kind and understanding.

Her human was from a different world.

Twilight squee’d internally as she felt her heart flutter at that very thought: a different world!

It had been nearly impossible for her to believe that Max was intelligent at first, let alone from a different world entirely. However, after everything he had told her about his world, Twilight had had no choice but to believe him. Nopony could have made anything like that up off the top of their head, and his details were consistent.

And what details they were! To think that humans could have come up with such technological advances! It shouldn’t be possible, but neither should Max. An intelligent human: simply marvelous!

Another snore from the sleeping human snapped Twilight back to reality. Chuckling softly to herself, she made her way over to the curtained windows. Pushing a small amount of magic through her horn, she grasped the curtains in her magic and yanked them open quickly. Immediately, the light from Princess Celestia's glorious sun burst through the window, brightening the room.

The sudden attack of light caused Max to wake with a startled yelp. His eyes snapped open, only to shut almost immediately afterwards as his sensitive eyes were assaulted. Hissing, he grasped at the woolen blanket and dragged it up, over his head. Twilight giggled at his antics. Approaching the couch, she poked at his hidden form with a hoof.

“Good morning, Max,” she chirped cheerfully. “It’s time to get up and seize the day!” Max squirmed under the blanket as she continued to prod him, causing her to giggle again. A muffled growl came from the blanket, followed by his response.

~I hate mornings~

“Come on you,” she chastised, prodding him one last time. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a mare healthy, wealthy and wise!” There was some movement from under the blanket, and then Max’s hand emerged. His fist closed, he raised his middle digit in Twilight’s direction. Leaving it there for several seconds, the hand then withdrew back into the hidden depths of the blanket, the raised digit still standing proud.

This wasn’t the first time that Twilight had seen him use that strange gesture, but she still didn’t fully understand what it meant. Taking into account the different situations that he used it in, however, she could surmise that it probably wasn’t anything good.

“Fine then,” she huffed, a small smile touching her lips. “I’ll be downstairs making breakfast when you decide to be civilized.” Spinning around, she trotted off to the stairs and headed down to the ground floor, leaving behind a grumbling pile of blanket.

Making her way to the kitchen, Twilight lit up her horn and began pulling pots and pans out of the cupboards. Despite the popular belief amongst her friends, she was a decent cook. Not as good as Spike, though. When it came down to Spike and her, he would always be the better chef, but she could handle herself fairly well in the kitchen.

Seriously, one little incident and everypony thinks that I’m a disaster in the kitchen. Placing a pan on the stove, Twilight turned the range on. She opened the fridge and grabbed several eggs in her magic. Cracking them on the edge of the counter, she dropped the yolks into a mixing bowl, tossed the shells into the trash, and began stirring the eggs with a whisk. She added milk and seasoning to the mix as the pan on the stove slowly heated up, stirring the contents of the bowl until they were mixed evenly.

Satisfied with her egg mixture, she brought the bowl over to the stove and poured it into the designated pan. As the eggs began to cook, Twilight began gathering the other ingredients she needed. She flipped the eggs over and began to mix another batch of eggs, humming softly as she worked.

As the eggs continued to cook, she began adding the fillings for the omelet, knives flashing across the cutting boards as she worked.

She placed some fire-roasted peppers and onions across the middle of the omelet, making sure to spread them out evenly. Some diced tomatoes and a few mushrooms followed. As the omelet continued to cook, the entire kitchen was soon filled will a pleasant aroma and the sizzle of cooking food. Sprinkling some shredded cheese across the omelet, Twilight folded the edges together, scooped it up, and placed it upon a plate. She hovered the omelet-laden plate over to the table as she started on another omelet.

Twilight had just started on a third omelet when the sound of shuffling footsteps behind her indicated that Max had finally made his way downstairs. She turned and watched as he shuffled across the kitchen and collapsed into one of the chairs by the table. A giggle escaped her lips at his appearance, his hair sticking out in all directions in a severely obvious case of bedhead.

His head was hung low and he had his eyes closed tight, a small frown upon his face. He looked reluctant to wake, but the smell of food seemed to be working against him.

“Come on. Eat up before it gets cold,” Twilight said as she levitated a glass of orange juice over to him. “We have a big day ahead of us.” Raising his head slightly, Max cocked an eyebrow, his eyes still closed.

Twilight deadpanned, “You forgot what we had planned today, didn’t you...”

Grunting, Max lowered his head and reached for his fork. Twilight shook her head as he began to eat.

“We’re heading to Canterlot for dinner with my family,” she said, causing Max to begin choking on his food. As he pounded on his chest with his fist, Twilight began to eat her own omelet.

~Why am I going with you?~ He finally asked, getting his coughing fit under control. Twilight smirked slightly as she took another bite of omelet. At least that got him to open his eyes.

“Because my parents are interested in you,” she replied, sipping at her own glass of orange juice. “That, and my brother and Cadance will be there as well, and Cadance wants to meet with you personally. Something about seeing what you are really like.” That seemed to alarm Max. His eyes widened and he swallowed thickly.

~You didn’t tell her about me, did you?~ There was a hint of fear in his eyes as he looked at her.

“No, no I didn’t,” Twilight replied, trying to calm him down. “She’s just curious and thought this would be an opportune moment to finally meet you.” Max grunted, then returned his attention to his breakfast. Twilight watched him for several seconds as he played with his food.

“Are you still against ponies knowing you’re intelligent?” she finally asked, placing another bite of omelet in her mouth. Chewing, she watched Max fidget slightly as he continued to stare at his food. Silence filled the kitchen while she waited for his answer.

Finally, he looked up at her with uncertain eyes.

~Are you?~ For a split second, for the briefest of moments, Twilight thought of pushing the idea for him to reveal himself. She didn’t know why he was so scared. Princess Celestia wasn’t going to treat a sapient creature in any negative way, even if it was a human.

But as she opened her mouth to voice her opinion, something stopped her. It was almost like a whisper in her ear. It’s his decision, not yours. Thinking quickly, Twilight chose her next words carefully.

“I think we should proceed with caution,” she said slowly. “There are certain ponies out there we want to avoid, but I believe that others might handle the information well, if we handle it carefully. I leave the decision up to you, though.” Max was silent for several more seconds before shaking his head.

~I’m not ready for ponies to know about me yet. I know it’s a little paranoid, but I just don’t feel ready. Sorry~ He smiled sadly at Twilight, his apologetic expression pulling at her heart. Reaching across the table, she patted his hand gently with her hoof.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. We can wait as long as needed.” she smiled at him before returning to her food.

The rest of breakfast passed in a comfortable silence. When they both had finished with their food, Twilight cleared the table with a quick burst of her magic.

“Why don’t you go and get cleaned up?” she asked Max, trotting to the sink to take care of the dirty dishes. “We’ll be leaving for Canterlot around noon.”

Nodding, he stood up and stretched, his back cracking several times in the process. With a yawn, he shuffled silently from the room and headed up the stairs. Twilight turned her attention to the sink full of dishes.

It didn’t take long for her to clean the kitchen. Her magic made short work of the pile of dirty dishes, pots, pans, silverware and cups. The various platters and cooking utensils danced around her as she worked; some flew into the sink to be scrubbed clean of all offending material, while others disappeared into their proper cabinets and cupboards. She hummed a little tune to herself as she worked.

With the dishes done and put away, she placed Spike’s omelet in the fridge for later. He would be able to heat it back up with his dragonfire, so she wasn’t too concerned about it.

Exiting the kitchen, she made her way up the stairs and down the hall. As she passed the bathroom door, it swung open and a cloud of steam drifted out. Max emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist while he dried his hair with another. Other than that, he did not have his clothes that Rarity had made him on. His body was on display for all the world to see. And what a display it was.

Those wrestling matches with Rainbow are definitely doing wonders for his body, Twilight thought before she could stop herself. One of her wings twitched involuntarily at her side. Luckily for her, Max didn’t seem to notice anything amiss.

~Bathroom is all yours~ He signed as he slipped past her. As he walked by, Twilight noticed that he had shaved off the fur that grew on his face, leaving his cheeks bare. Personally, she liked it better the way it had been. It made him look very attractive.

Wait...what am I thinking? Blushing, she quickly slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. A quick glance around showed her that Max had closed the drapes of the window, as to avoid any pegasi that flew by possibly glancing in and seeing him. Flinging open the drapes, she cracked the window open slightly to air out the room.

Turning on the water in the shower, she waited for the water to warm up before hopping in. A happy sigh escaped her lips as the warm water washed over her body. Closing her eyes, Twilight stuck her head under the stream of water coming from the shower head, warmth spreading across her face as the water flowed over her fur.

She remained under the stream for several minutes, basking in the wonderful feeling coming from the flowing water. Slowly, she began to wash herself as she became lost in her thoughts. Using her magic, she gently began to massage the scented shampoo into her coat, working it into a lather. It was quickly washed away as she stepped back under the shower head.

Why am I getting so flustered by him? I just view him like a brother. She thought back to the end of the first hellish week he had put her through. How apologetic he had been about what he had done to her; even more so than Rainbow Dash was when she destroyed several books during a failed stunt.

How happily he had subjected himself to her endless stream of questions about his world and concerns with him living in Equestria; convincing her that everything would be fine as long as they took it slow and careful.

How attentively he listened whenever she tried to explain the concept of something to him; paying more attention to her than her own friends do whenever they ask her a question on something they didn’t understand.

How caring he had been after their run-in with Golden Ingot; how he had risked revealing himself in order to help her, and how he had held her—and comforted her—as he tried to get her to feel better.

How gentle he had been with the Cakes' children, despite everypony's fears; how he had gently held Pumpkin and made her laugh.

Twilight felt her cheeks begin to heat up, and she didn’t know if it was because of the shower, or something else. He’s not even a pony. He’s a completely different species! Besides, I only love him like I love Spike, right? Like a brother?

...right?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite it being midday on Saturday, Ponyville’s train station was relatively empty. Only a few ponies were present, waiting to board the train or waiting for somepony to disembark.

Max and Twilight made their way through the station, the leash to Max’s collar grasped firmly in Twilight’s magic.

“The train departs in fifteen minutes,” she muttered under her breath to the human. “We just need to purchase tickets and then get aboard.” She glanced back at Max and received the faintest of nods. His expression was blank and emotionless. His eyes seemed glazed over, almost out of focus, but she knew that he was secretly observing the world around him.

As they approached the ticket booth, Twilight cleared her throat, catching the attention of the pony behind the counter. As he turned to look at her, she smiled brightly at him.

“I’d like two tickets to Canterlot please,” she said, pushing magic through her horn and placing the bits on the counter with a soft ‘clink’. The stallion behind the counter glanced down at the bits, then looked back up at her. His eyes then flicked over to Max for a brief second before he shook his head, his bored expression never changing.

“Sorry, Miss, but we don’t allow humans to ride in any of the train cars unless it’s first class,” he sighed, sounding like she was wasting his time. Nodding towards Max, he continued in the same bored manner. “Your human will have to travel with the baggage, with all the other garbage, just like all the other humans. No exceptions.”

“What if I-”

“No exceptions.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she managed to keep the smile on her face. Behind her, Max tensed up slightly.

“Then I’ll take two first class tickets, please.” Forcing more magic into her horn, she lifted a few more bits onto the counter.

“Sorry, but there are no more first class coaches available. Looks like your fleshy friend will have to ride in a crate today,” the stallion snorted, staring at her like she was stupid.

That didn’t seem right to Twilight. There was barely anypony in the station at the moment, so how could there be no more first class seats available?! As she gazed confusedly at the stallion, he smirked slightly. Her eye twitched and something within her snapped.

That does it. Twilight was used to dealing with stubborn ponies. She was friends with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, after all. She knew how to deal with stubborn ponies. The stallion behind the counter was intentionally being difficult, and she did not appreciate it. And she was NOT putting up with it today.

“Do you know who I am?” she whispered, the smile no longer present on her face. The stallion opened his mouth, but she didn’t give him a chance to answer. “I am Twilight Sparkle, one of the Elements of Harmony and the Princess of Magic.” One of the stallion’s ears twitched and a bead of sweat began to roll down his face. Dimly, in the back of her mind, Twilight realized that he probably wasn’t expecting this response. He was just expecting her to shut up and put up with his Celestia-damned bullshit, but not today!

“I realize that I was only recently crowned as Princess, but that does not give you a reason to treat me like this. I have done nothing to deserve this, and I do not appreciate it.” Twilight leaned towards the window, glaring at the stallion with all the hatred she could muster. She could see the fear growing in his eyes. “I am trying to get to Canterlot for a very important meeting concerning my human here, and you, good sir, are preventing that. That means that you are impeding royal business and I could have you arrested for that simple fact alone.” Twilight was bluffing, but she didn’t care and he didn’t know. “A simple letter and I could have Princess Celestia or Luna down here, and you wouldn’t know what hit you.”

The stallion’s ears were splayed back and his eyes went wide, sweat dripping down his face. Twilight smirked, still glaring at the poor pony. “That being said, I’m feeling generous today, and I am in a hurry so why don’t we try this again?” The stallion nodded fearfully, before quickly pulling out two first class tickets and sliding them across the counter.

When he went to take the bits, Twilight’s horn flared and she pulled them out of his reach.

“I don’t think so,” she scoff, smiling at his confused expression. “I believe that I shall be riding in the private Royal Coach today, and I do believe that it’s free for me, as I am a princess. And I believe that my human will be allowed to join me.” She grabbed the bits and tickets in her magic and began to trot away, leaving the stallion looking like he had just survived a round with a Ursa Minor.

Approaching the train, Twilight glanced back at Max and smirked. “Looks like being a princess has it’s benefits after all!” He simply stared back at her with a slight frown on his face. He looked… disappointed? Twilight paused, confused.

“What?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Glancing around quickly, Max made sure nopony was nearby before replying.

~I’ve never seen you pull rank like that before~

“He was asking for it!” Twilight huffed, rolling her eyes. Max shook his head, still frowning. She opened her mouth to point out that she had every right to do what she just did, but the warning whistle sounded, causing both of them to jump.

“We better get on before we’re left behind,” Twilight grumbled, still annoyed that Max was upset with her. Reaching the train, they quickly hopped aboard one of the cars just as the train began to pull out of the station.

The train car they had entered was almost completely empty. Only two compartments were occupied. Twilight snorted, still disgusted by the ticket-pony’s behavior. 'No more first class seats available' indeed!

They made their way towards the Royal Coach at the front of the train, walking past compartments as they moved from car to car. As they entered the car that was attached to the Royal Coach, the pair came face-to-face with another pony and a human. The unicorn mare’s face lit up and a wide smile spread across her face as she saw them.

“Well well well, what have we here?” she chirped, trotting forward. “It’s nice to see that somepony else had the idea to take their human with them as they travel.” The mare had a light gray coat with a blue mane that curled around her horn. Her human followed behind her, staring intently at Max the entire time. Twilight just stared at the strange mare, raising her eyebrow slightly. The mare bowed as she approached, still smiling.

“A pleasure to meet you, Princess Sparkle,” she said, her eyes never leaving Twilight. It’s rather creepy, actually, Twilight surmised. Unsure of what to say, she simply said the first thing that came into her head.

“And you are...?” Nice one, Sparkle. Real professional.

“Oh, forgive me,” the mare said, chuckling slightly. “My name is Winter Cold, and I’m one of the chairponies of the Canterlot branch of the Weather Factory. And before you ask—” she said, cutting Twilight off as she opened her mouth “—I had nothing to do with the horrid heat wave we had several weeks ago. As my name indicates, I’m part of the winter team.”

“But you’re a unicorn,” Twilight said, her eyes darting up to the mare’s horn. “How can you be part of the weather team?”

“Being able to perform magic has it’s benefits, darling,” Winter Cold said, smirking slightly. “It also helps to have a large pile of bits to back me up.” Great, Twilight thought, I’m dealing with a noble. No wonder she’s trying to butter me up. This was one of the reasons why she rarely went to Canterlot anymore.

A growl next to the mares cause them to both look over at their humans. Winter’s human was staring at Max, his lips pulled back in a slight snarl as he glared at the human. Max just stared back, his eyes narrowed. Winter’s human growled again and inched closer to Max. Max’s eyes hardened and he bared his teeth, fists clenching by his side. They seemed to be trying to make the other back down.

As the humans tried to intimidate each other, Twilight noticed some differences in the general appearance of the two. Up until then, she didn’t have a chance to compare Max with an average Equestrian human. It was something that she had been wanting to do ever since Max told first told her that he was from a different world, but she had never gotten around to asking Applejack if she could borrow one of her humans.

There was something about Max that just seemed to be different from the Equestrian humans (besides him being intelligent), but Twilight couldn’t ever put her hoof on it. But now that he was face-to-face with one, the differences were surprisingly startling in Twilight’s eyes.

Max loomed over the other human by a good six inches. The height of the train car was designed so that humans could travel comfortably with their ponies, yet the top of Max’s head almost brushed the ceiling.

Max’s face was another difference she saw. His forehead was less prominent than Winter’s human, the Equestrian human’s forehead more square in nature. Max’s nose and ears were also smaller, not nearly as blocky as that of the other human’s.

It was the teeth, however, that really stood out.

While the Equestrian human’s teeth looked like they were designed for eating meat, they appeared as though they were better suited for eating fruits, vegetables and grains. They were more flat than they were sharp, great for grinding food. Max’s teeth looked as if meat was something he was supposed to eat on a daily basis. They were serrated, perfect for cutting through—and tearing—meat, and his canines were longer than that of the other human.

Between the two, Max had the more intimidating teeth; the teeth of a predator. Luckily, Winter didn’t notice any of this.

“Brutus, behave!” Winter Cold said, scolding her human, before turning her attention towards Max. “And who do we have here?”

“This is my human, Max,” Twilight said, still keeping an eye on the two humans. She didn’t want a fight to break out on the train. She knew that she could trust Max to behave himself, but she wasn’t too sure about this ‘Brutus’. If it came down to it, she could just use her magic to subdue him.

“He is a very fine looking human,” Winter said, her eyes drifting over Max’s body. He just ignored her, continuing the staring contest with Brutus.

“So I have been told,” Twilight growled, her voice tense. She wasn’t entirely sure what Winter was after, but she was pretty sure it was some kind of stupid favor. She really didn’t want to deal with this right now, wanting to just get to the private coach and relax.

“How old is he?” Winter asked suddenly, her head tilting to the side. Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but froze.

I don’t know his age. She stood there, mouth agape, a blank look on her face. Even after living with Max for several months, she had never asked how old he was. Closing her mouth with a click, she glanced nervously at Max. He didn’t look that old to her, but he didn’t look young either. How much time do I have left?

“I have no idea,” Twilight finally said, turning back to Winter. “He was a gift from… a close friend. The ponies she bought him from found him out in the desert, so they didn’t know his age either.”

“Shame,” Winter tsked, still studying Max closely. “I could never live not knowing how much time I had left with my human. Brutus here is only three years old, so I know that I still have a decent amount of time with him.” She glanced at Brutus and smiled lovingly, almost lustily.

Twilight shifted uncomfortably from hoof to hoof, clearly not liking where the conversation was going. Another growl came from Brutus and she decided to end it before it got even worse.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, Ms. Winter, but I’m afraid that I find myself rather tired,” Twilight said, smiling awkwardly. “So, if it’s all the same to you, I’ll be heading to my coach.”

“Oh, of course, darling,” Winter said, her horn flashing as she levitated a small card over to me. “If you ever find yourself in Canterlot again, feel free to pop in and say ‘hello’. My door is always open, especially for ponies such as yourself.” She smiled slyly at Twilight as she took the card in her own magic.

“I’ll be sure to do just that,” Twilight said, chuckling nervously before hurriedly making her way around Winter and her human, Max following close behind. As the pair made their way towards the Royal Coach, Max kept glancing back over his shoulders, keeping his eyes constantly trained on Brutus.

Opening the door, they slipped into the roomy private coach and Twilight quickly shut and locked the door behind her. Sighing heavily, she collapsed upon one of the cushioned seats, unfurling her wings and closing her eyes.

Hopefully this day gets better, she thought to herself as Max shuffled over and sat down on the seat opposite of her. Twilight just laid there, feeling the gentle rumble of the train beneath her as she tried to relax.

Opening her eyes, she glanced over at her human. Max was currently leaning against the wall, watching the countryside flash by with a blank look on his face. As she watched him, the conversation she had with Winter played through Twilight’s mind again. When she came to the part about Max’s age, her stomach tightened slightly.

Exhaling loudly, Twilight sat up and turned around to face Max. She cleared her throat, catching Max’s attention, and he turned his head, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.

“That entire disturbing conversation aside, Winter brought up a good point," she said, her voice trembling slightly. It was everything she could do to stop her voice from cracking. “H-how… how old are you, exactly?”

Max stared her her, chewing the inside of his cheek absentmindedly for several seconds before answering. ~I’m currently twenty years old~

“WHAT?!” Twilight shrieked, her wings snapping open wide as she stared at him in horror. Max jerked backwards, his eyes widening in shock at her response. “B-but,” Twilight stuttered out, the whites of her eyes showing, “that’s impossible!”

~Why do you say that?~ Max asked, looking confused, and slightly terrified.

“The average human only lives for fifteen or so years. In fact, the oldest human on record was only seventeen years, three months, and sixteen days old!” Tears began to well up in the corner of Twilight’s eyes, and she sniffed pitifully. “If… if it’s true that you’re twenty years old… that means… that means you’re going to… to…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. The very thought of what was coming was too much for her.

She dropped her gaze to the floor, tears starting to flow freely down her face. How many days does he have left? she thought to herself. Is he simply living on borrowed time? Am I going to wake up tomorrow and find his cold, dead body on my couch. As these thoughts raced through her head, tears continued to fall.

She didn’t look up, even when Max shifted in his seat. She just couldn’t, couldn’t look at him at the moment. She did jump when Max’s hand suddenly entered her vision, however. Grasping her chin, he gently lifted her head up. Twilight resisted weakly before giving in and looking up. She blinked in surprise when she was he was smiling at her.

~I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon~ he signed, releasing her face. More tears fell as Twilight stared up at him sadly.

“B-but, the average h-h-human only lives for—” she began to blubber out, only to be interrupted as Max placed his finger against her lips.

~Humans in your world might die early~ he signed, ~but where I come from, twenty years is quite young for a human~

Twilight blinked up at him, his smiling face blurred slightly due to her tears. “W-what do you mean?” she asked, trying to fight off a fresh wave of sorrow. “How old do humans get in your world?”

~Where I come from, humans can live anywhere from eighty to one-hundred years, depending on their lifestyle~

Twilight inhaled sharply, staring up at Max in shock. “E-e-eighty to one-hundred?” she wheezed, stunned by the revelation. Hope slowly began to rise up in her chest, but she quickly pushed it down. Eyes narrowing, she studied Max’s face closely. He’s joking, she thought darkly. He has to be. She wanted desperately to believe him, but it seemed too good to be true.

“You aren’t lying to me, are you?” she asked. Still smiling, Max just shook his head. “You’re going to live for another sixty years, maybe more?” He nodded, the smile still present. Twilight studied his face for a few more seconds, but she couldn’t see any signs of deception. Still, she had to be sure.

“You promise?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly. Max nodded again. Then he did something that cause Twilight’s breath to catch in her throat, and her heart to forget to beat for several seconds.

Reaching up, he made a crossing motion over his heart with his hand before reaching up and placing his palm over his eye: a Pinkie Promise. Twilight knew that he knew what it meant. He had seen Pinkie do it once before, and had asked what the significance behind it was. When Twilight had explained it to him, Max had simply scoffed. When asked what was funny, he had replied that trying to hold someone to their promise was ridiculous. What if something happened that was out of their control?

Yet, here he was, using the promise to show her that he would still be with her for many more years.

Twilight’s heart soared in her chest, and a large, dopey grin spread across her face. I still have sixty more years with him! The very thought sent shivers down her spine. We still have sixty years together!

Leaping from her cushion, she wrapped her legs around Max, hugging him tightly as she snuggled into his chest. Max couldn’t help but chuckle as he returned the hug.

The pair stayed like that for several minutes, enjoying each other’s company. With Max’s arms wrapped firmly around her, Twilight snuggled deeper into his lap, cooing happily as she enjoyed the feeling. His body was surprisingly warm; she could feel the heat coming off of him even through the ‘clothing’ Rarity had made for him. She could hear his heart beating in his chest over the sound of the train, pushing life-giving blood through his veins.

Twilight sighed happily, knowing that that heart was going to continue working for many years to come.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“I want to apologize.”

Max perked up, looking over at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. The train rumbled along, continuing its journey up the mountain path. It had been nearly an hour since it had left the station. The journey from Ponyville to Canterlot usually took around two hours, which meant that they were only about halfway to their destination.

After getting over the initial relief of finding out that her human wasn’t going to die anytime soon, the pair had slipped into a comfortable silence as they both rested upon the cushioned seats. The silence had allowed Twilight’s mind to wander, and something was starting to bother her.

~Apologize for what?~ he asked, still in his prone position. After Twilight had vacated his lap, the human had stretched out across the bench, resting his head against on of the cushioned hoofrests. His feet were propped up against the window, out of which he had been watching the scenery zip by.

“For earlier at the train station,” Twilight continued, staring dejectedly at the floor. “You… you were right. I shouldn’t have gone off on the stallion like that.”

~So, why did you?~ Max asked. He didn’t appear to be upset, just curious. Twilight sighed as she tried to gather her thoughts.

“I was… angry,” she replied after several minutes, still staring at the ground.

~Angry with how he was treating you?~ Max asked, his feet tapping a gentle pattern against the glass, causing it to shake slightly.

“No,” Twilight whispered, ears splaying backwards slowly. “With how he was treating you.” At that Max sat up. Turning around, he leaned towards her, the confusion clear on his face.

~What do you mean?~ he asked. ~He didn’t do anything to me~

“Yes, he did,” Twilight murmured, head still hung low. “He said that you would have to travel with ‘all the rest of the garbage', and he called you a very crude name for a human.” Max moved to sign something, but stopped as she continued to speak. “I know it’s probably not that big of a deal to you, but to me… to me it felt like he was insulting one of my friends. No—” she shook her head, her gaze hardening “—he was insulting one of my friends.” She finally looked up, glancing over at Max. He was looking back at her, listening intently. Twilight tried to smile, but it didn’t feel right.

“I don’t know how you feel about the way other ponies treat you, but to me, it’s frustrating to watch everypony treat you like dirt. I realize that it’s normal to treat humans like that, but you aren’t like other humans. You’re smart, caring, funny, and you have more compassion than most ponies I know. It just tears me up inside to see ponies walk all over you like that, just because they can.

“That’s why I pulled the whole ‘I’m-a-princess’ thing back there,” she said, tears spring up in her eyes. “I wanted you to be comfortable on the ride to Canterlot. I wanted you to ride with me, like a normal pony, like the intelligent creature that you are. So, when that stallion was preventing that from happening, I… I just snapped… and that wasn’t right of me, and I’m sorry.”

Hanging her head, Twilight blinked back tears. She had wanted this to be a happy trip to visit her parents, yet here she was, getting ready to cry for a second time that day.

There was the sound of movement, and Twilight blinked as Max was suddenly sitting next to her. She opened her mouth to talk, but fell silent as he wrapped his arms around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug. She sniffled slightly as her gaze slowly raised.

Max smiled down at her, wiping the tears from her cheeks gently with one of his fingers.

~Twilight, you don’t have to worry about me~ he signed as he pulled his hands back.

“B-but—”

~I will admit that it can be frustrating sometimes, but there is something that makes it all worthwhile~ Max signed, stumbling a bit as he tried to remember the proper words.

“W-what’s that?” Twilight asked, gazing up into his dark brown eyes. They seemed to shine with amusement.

~You and Spike~

Twilight froze, her eyes widening and ears splaying backwards.

“Just the two of us?” she asked. “I’m sorry, but that’s… how could Spike and I help you in this circumstance?” Max just chuckled, shaking his head as he continued to smile.

~Despite how awfully other ponies treat me, I know that once we are back home, you and Spike will treat me with... kindness and respect. It might not seem like much to you, but it is to me. Because of you and Spike, the library has become a sort of safe herald—~ Max winced at Twilight’s confused look before correcting himself ~—haven for me. A place where I can stop pretending to be stupid and actually be myself. And that’s made even better because you and Spike are there as well. After all, having two friends is better than no friends. It really doesn’t matter to me how others treat me, because you treat me better than I could have hoped for~

It took a while for Max to sign all of that, and he had to pause in order to collect his thoughts. As he slid his fingers through Twilight’s mane, massaging the skin beneath, she couldn’t help but coo contently. He really is getting better at hoof-language, she thought. I can remember back when he could barely sign a sentence without help.

~I’m a human from a different world~ Max continued. ~I made your life a living nightmare for over a week. And yet, despite that fact, you welcomed me with open hooves when I finally came to my senses. You cared for me and my well-being, you try and make sure that I am happy, healthy and have everything I need, and ask for nothing in return. With all that in mind, I don’t care how other ponies treat me, because as long as I have you by my side, I know everything will work out for the best~

Warmth spread across Twilight’s face as her heart fluttered in her chest. Oh, there’s that feeling from earlier! she realized, remembering back to when he had emerged from the bathroom after his shower. What does it mean, though? Maybe… maybe I’m coming down with something? Oh, I hope it isn’t contagious! I don’t want to get others sick.

Her musings were cut short as the inside of the coach suddenly darkened. The pair exchanged a confused look before turning their attention towards the window.

The Lonely Mountain loomed above the train, blocking out the light of the sun. The city of Canterlot, in all its glory, clung to the side of the mountain, growing steadily larger as the train hurdled down the tracks.

“I didn’t realize we were almost there,” Twilight breathed, staring up at the colossal, white city. The towers, the buildings, the waterfalls. The place was still as beautiful as it was the day she had left for Ponyville. Twilight loved her friends dearly, and she loved the little town of Ponyville, but there was no denying that Canterlot was still more breathtakingly beautiful.

Max inhaled sharply and leaned forward quickly, pushing his face against the window. Tearing her gaze from the majestic sight of Canterlot, Twilight glanced over at her human. He wasn’t looking up at the city; his gaze locked on something down at the base of the mountain, his brow furrowed.

Leaning forward, Twilight touched her muzzle to the window, trying to see what he was gazing at. It took her a few seconds, but she soon spotted what had drawn his attention.

At the base of the mountain, drawing nearer and nearer as the train sped along, was a giant, gaping hole. It looked like somepony had gouged out part of the terrain with a giant hoof. There was a flurry of movement from within the crater, and Twilight narrowed her eyes, trying to make out what was going on. Her eyes widened suddenly as she realized what was moving in the crater.

“They’re humans,” she breathed, her breath fogging up the window. “Those are humans down there.” As the pair continued to watch, Twilight could start to make out more and more details. The humans were working around the edges and sides of the crater. They had mining equipment in their hands: pickaxes, shovels, and carts. As the humans mined inside the crater, the glimmer of golden armor signaled that there were also members of the Royal guard walking amongst them.

Twilight scrunched up her face in confusion. “Now, why are the Royal Guards making humans mine part of the mountain?” she asked nopony in particular. “What purpose could that serve?”

They continued to watch the strange scene in silence as they passed by the massive crater. Humans swung their pickaxes and worked on filling the mining carts with some material. From this distance, it was hard to tell what it was they were mining exactly, but it had to be important if the Guard was involved.

~I thought humans couldn’t be trained~ Max eyed the scene below with interest, resting his forehead against the window.

“It’s not impossible, just time consuming,” Twilight replied, also watching the humans work in the crater. “If it wasn’t possible, Applejack wouldn’t have any humans working on her farm.” They fell silent as they watched the humans work, continuing to watch until the train had pulled away, leaving the strange scene behind.

When the train pulled into Canterlot station twenty minutes later, the pair was still quiet, trying to figure out what they had just seen.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

~There is no way I can get out of this, is there?~ Max asked as the pair stood outside the house of Twilight's parents. It was nearing late afternoon and they had managed to make their way through Canterlot to her old home without any incidents.

As they stood there, on the front step, they could hear the murmur of voices on the other side.

“Nope,” came the reply, and with it Max sighed, closing his eyes. He seemed to be steeling himself for what was about to happen. Twilight wasn’t sure why he was getting so worked up; it wasn’t like they were dating or anything. Everypony on the other side of the door thought he was just a stupid human. He had nothing to worry about. Nonetheless, she thought it best to wait for Max to be comfortable before proceeding.

“Are you ready?” she asked, glancing up at the human. He opened his eyes and stared at the door in front of him, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes as he thought. Twilight made a mental note to ask him if he wanted a haircut when they got home. It was getting rather long.

Not that it looked bad, though. It actually suited him rather well.

~No~ he finally signed, still staring at the door. ~But let’s do this before I lose my nerve~ Twilight nodded and turned to the door. Raising her hoof, she paused for a brief second before knocking three times.

The gentle murmur of voices on the other side of the door fell silent and there came the sound of hoofsteps approaching the door. Max swallowed nervously as the sound grew louder; Twilight just rolled her eyes. He’s being overly dramatic.

The door handle turned and the door swung open, revealing…

“Twily!”

“Shining!” Twilight cried, rushing forward and tackling her older brother. Giggling, she clung to him as he returned the hug, slightly winded.

“It’s been too long, big brother!” she said when they finally broke apart. He smiled, ruffling her mane with his hoof.

“It sure has, Princess Sparkle,” he said, smirking slightly. Twilight punched him in the shoulder, blushing.

“Shining,” she whined. “You know I don’t want you to treat me any differently!”

“I know, but your expression always makes it well worth it.” Stepping aside, Shining Armor motioned for the pair to enter. Twilight trotted over the threshold, tugging lightly on the leash when Max hesitated. She gave him an encouraging smile when Shining wasn’t looking, and he seemed to relax slightly.

As Shining closed the door, Twilight dropped her saddlebags in the hallway and steered Max into the living room. It was empty except for a single pink alicorn lying on the couch. She looked up as the pair entered and a smile spread quickly across her face.

“Twilight!” Cadance squealed as she jumped up off the couch, dancing over to Twilight.

"Sunshine, sunshine. Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" They both recited, giggling together. It may have been an old greeting of theirs, but it never got old.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight could see Max biting on his bottom lip, trying to hold back his laughter. This caused her to blush slightly.

“How’s my favorite little filly doing?” Cadance asked, hugging Twilight tightly against her chest.

“Better, now that I’m actually here,” came the reply as Twilight returned the hug. As the pair separated, Cadance turned to look up at Max, her curiosity clear on her face. Max just stared back, his head cocked slightly to the side, a blank expression on his face.

“So, this is the human that Auntie Celestia was going on and on about,” she said, wonder in her voice. “He’s better looking than I pictured.”

“And a lot bigger too. Easily one of the tallest humans I’ve ever seen,” Shining quipped as he trotted over. As he studied Max, he kept his expression blank and emotionless: a professional guardspony at work. “He’s certainly more muscular than most humans I’m used to seeing.”

“That always seems to be the first thing ponies see when they first meet him,” Twilight grumbled under her breath. It was true too. Half the time somepony commented on Max, it was about how good looking and muscular he was. There’s more to him than his looks.

“And how did he get so muscular?” Cadance asked, a smirk crossing her face as she wiggled her eyebrows at Twilight. “Have you been helping him stay fit, hmm?” Twilight’s face lit up instantly as she blushed.

“Cadance! N-no, I haven’t,” she whined, shaking her head quickly. “You can thank Rainbow Dash and her constant wrestling matches for that.” The minute the words left her mouth, Twilight groaned inwardly.

“Wrestling matches?” Cadance’s eyes widened as her smirk grew.

“Not like that!” Twilight huff, giving her a light shove. “I mean actual wrestling matches, like rolling on the ground, getting cuts and bruises. Stuff like that.”

“He’s attacked somepony?” Shining asked sharply, ears standing at attention as his eyes narrowed. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Max tense up, trying hard to keep his face emotionless as he prepared for trouble. Oops, better head that off quickly.

“Actually, it’s more like she attacks him and he puts up with it.” she quickly replied. Pausing, she glanced at Max, giving him a thoughtful look. “In fact, I think he gets more injuries out of it than Rainbow does. Fluttershy certainly thinks so, and she’s the one who patches them up after each fight.”

Shining was silent for several seconds, continuing to glare at Max, who (to his credit) just stared back at the three of them with as blank an expression as he could muster on his face. Despite the mask, however, Twilight could see the nervousness in his gaze.

Moving carefully, Shining approached Max and, keeping his eyes locked on his face, jabbed him experimentally with a hoof.

Cadance gasped and cringed, obviously expecting some form of retaliation from the human. It never came. Max remained where he was, wincing as he rubbed the side of his stomach where Shining’s hoof had poked him.

Shining jabbed Max with his hoof again, causing another wince from the human, but still no retaliation. A third jab, and another wince, but nothing else.

It was on the fourth jab that Max finally moved. Reaching over quickly—far quicker than Shining Armor could react to—Max lifted his hand and bopped Shining on the nose. Shining snorted, blinking up at the human in confusion. The tension in the room broke, and Cadance giggled at her husband’s response.

“Well, he’s certainly seems to be very tolerating,” called a voice from the kitchen. Turning around, Twilight smiled as she saw her mother leaning through the doorway, an amused expression on her face. “I would’ve smacked some sense into anypony doing that to me after the second time.”

“Mom!” Twilight cried, galloping over to give the older mare a hug. Behind her, Shining jabbed Max again when he thought nopony was looking, causing Max to wince again.

“There’s my little princess,” her mother—Twilight Velvet—said, wrapping Twilight up in a hug. She nuzzled the top of her head, humming softly. “I’m glad you were able to make it.” While the pair hugged, Max smacked Shining on the back of the head, causing Cadance to snort as she held back her laughter. Twilight’s ear twitched in annoyance, and she tried her best to ignore them.

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Twilight said, returning the nuzzle with a happy sigh. Breaking apart, she smiled up at her mother. “I’m just glad you allowed me to bring Max along as well.” Shining shoved Max, causing him to stumble slightly. Cadance’s body shook as she pressed a hoof to her mouth, trying desperately to hold in her laughter.

“Of course, honey. Although, the main reason I agreed to that was to see if he is safe for you to live with—” A crash behind them caused both mares to look around.

Shining and Max’s limbs were locked together as they wrestled, bumping into tables, chairs and the couch as they struggled with each other. Cadance was on the ground as well, rolling around as she laughed her flank off, tears streaming down her face.

“And from what I’ve seen, you have yourself a fine human,” Velvet said, laughing as she watched Shining and Max’s antics. “Okay you two, that’s enough! It’s time for dinner.”

Shining and Max broke apart, both panting heavily as they stared at each other. Twilight could see that Shining was trying to hold back a smile. Max just looked slightly annoyed.

I’ll have to find some way to make this up to him, she thought as Shining got to his hooves.

“Unfortunately, despite the fact that your human is starting to grow on me,” Velvet said as she headed back into the kitchen, “He’ll have to stay in the living room for dinner.” Twilight nodded and headed over to retrieve her bags from the hallway. As she did so, Shining and Cadance headed towards the dining room, both still breathing heavily: Shining from his wrestling match and Cadance from her laughter.

Pushing a small amount of magic through her horn, Twilight grabbed her saddlebags and levitated them over to Max.

“I figured something like this would happen, so I packed you something to eat,” she whispered to him as he took the bags from her magic. He looked down at the bags, then back up at her. “Sorry.”

~It’s fine. Go have fun with your family~ He smiled quickly at her before sitting down on the ground and opening the saddlebags. As he rooted around from the food she had packed for him, Twilight followed after Cadance and Shining into the dining room.

Entering, she saw the pair, along with her mother, sitting around the candlelit table, which was covered in platters of mouth-watering food.

There was a large bowl for the salad, tomatoes and cucumbers mixed together with bits of croutons. A large pot was filled with steaming mushroom soup, bits of mushroom and celery floating in the delicious substance. There was three different flavors of wine to choose from with their meal, the bottles placed at separate ends of the table. Velvet had even made her famous Saltbush Lasagna, melted cheese oozing out onto the plate as steam wafted from it. It all looked delicious, it all smelled delicious, and Twilight just wanted to dive right in, but something stopped her. Something was missing, and she had just now noticed it.

“Where’s dad?” she asked, looking around. His place at the table was empty; it didn’t even have any silverware. Velvet’s ears drooped as she smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, honey, but he had to work late tonight. He won’t be joining us.”

“Why is he working late?” Twilight asked as she took her seat in between Cadance and Velvet. Her father was part of a special branch of the Royal Guard that specialized in covert missions. It wasn’t often that he had to do field work but when he did, he could be gone for several days at a time. The last time that that had happened had been after the Changeling Invasion. His department had spent two weeks tracking down Queen Chrysalis.
The reports had listed her as ‘Dead on Arrival’, but there were rumors that a secret underground facility in Canterlot had a new occupant. Princess Celestia and Luna would send humans down to the facility every week or so to feed the imprisoned queen while they interrogated her.

Of course, they were only rumors.

“When you wrote to Princess Celestia to inform her that the ponies she had bought Max from had been mistreating their humans, she immediately started trying to track the group down. She has always had a soft spot for humans for some reason,” Shining explained as he tucked into his food. “After doing some research, she discovered that the group didn’t have the proper licensing to be able to handle humans, let alone sell them, which means that what they are doing is illegal.

“After figuring out that little bit of information, Princess Celestia, with the help of the S&S unicorns, has been attempting to track the group down, but they seemed to have all mysteriously vanished into thin air. Although, the S&S have a potential lead. A warehouse in Manehattan. As of right now, dad’s team is heading out there right now to try and seize any humans that are being stored there, as well as attempt to catch any of the ponies that are responsible.”

“Is that what Auntie Celestia’s been up to?” Cadance asked as she sipped at her glass of wine. “I wondered why she wasn’t returning any of my letters in a timely manner.”

“It’s also why she took so long fixing the issue with the Weather Factory, and why she was so angry with the featherbrains that work there,” Shining said, his mouth full of mushrooms. “That little stunt they pulled distracted her from her search, and cost her valuable time and resources.”

“Can’t Luna help with the search?” Twilight asked, helping herself to a third helping of lasagna. It was a childhood favorite, afterall. “It seems that with her help, you could cover double the area. That would make finding the ponies easier.” Shining just shrugged, cheeks packed with food and his spoon sticking out of his mouth.

“Auntie Luna isn’t able to help because she has problems of her own,” Cadance replied, shaking her head at her husband.

“What problems?” Velvet asked, placing another bite of food in her mouth. Chewing daintily, she wiped her mouth with a napkin as she waited from Cadance to answer.

“There has been a string of nightmares afflicting Equestria for the past couple of months and Auntie Luna has been trying to track it back to its source, but she’s been having trouble following it.”

“What’s the big deal with a couple of nightmares here and there?” Velvet asked, tilting her head to the side. “I’m not saying that I want to have one, but that doesn’t seem to hold any risk over Equestria.”

“Neither does the group that Princess Celestia is tracking,” Shining Armor added as he poured himself some more wine, his mouth finally cleared of food. “Princess Luna is in charge of the night, and that includes the dreamworld. She feels that it is her job to make sure that her subjects sleep soundly at night. With this outbreak of nightmares, she probably considers it her duty to find out what is causing it and eliminate it.”

“I haven’t heard of any major nightmares in Ponyville,” Twilight said, scrunching her face up in slight confusion. “Nor anywhere else for that matter.”

“That’s the thing that has Auntie Luna mystified,” Cadance said, leaning forward slightly. “It’s not multiple ponies that are having the nightmares. All the nightmares are coming from the same, single location.”

“You mean that one pony is causing Luna that much trouble?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe.”

“I did too,” said Cadance, nodding her head, “but apparently something is preventing her from tracking the nightmares to their source. Whenever she gets close, the pony in question wakes up.”

“So while Princess Celestia chases after common criminals, her sister has been chasing nightmares?” Velvet asked, staring at Cadance with an incredulous expression. “The entire night and day court must be in chaos!”

“Bet Discord is loving that,” snickered Shining. “By the Sun, I’m glad that we’re up in the Crystal Empire while he’s down here in Canterlot. I don’t think I could put up with his antics for more than a day.”

“Actually,” Cadance said, ears splaying back, “Discord has also been acting weird.” Everypony stared at her with blank expressions, Shining's salad-laden fork halfway to his mouth. She huffed, rolling her eyes as she elaborated. “More so than usual.”

“How so?” Twilight asked, fear rising in her stomach. She silently prayed that he wasn’t relapsing into his old ways again. She really didn’t want to have to imprison him again; she didn’t think Fluttershy could stand to see him turned back to stone.

“That’s just it,” Cadance said, chewing her bottom lip as she stared at her plate. “He’s been acting ‘normal’. Everytime I visit from the Empire, he’s been on his best behavior. He hasn’t pulled any pranks on anypony in months, and whenever Auntie Celestia or Luna talk to him, he’s always polite and respectful. They’ve both noticed his odd behavior, but they haven’t been able to focus on it just yet, what with them being busy most of the time.” Cadance paused, taking a deep breath and running a hoof through her mane before continuing. “It’s almost like there’s something on his mind, something big, and he doesn’t want Auntie Celestia to know about it.”

“Do you think he’s planning something?” Twilight asked, perking her ears. If something was distracting Discord from his usual pranks, it didn’t bode well for anypony.

“I’m not sure,” Cadance admitted, her ear twitching slightly. She was silent for several seconds, clearly lost in thought. Suddenly, she brought her head up, her eyes meeting Twilight’s. “But I happened to hear from one of the guards that have been posted outside his room that he has been muttering to himself a lot behind that locked door. Always the same thing, over and over again.”

“And what is that?” Twilight asked, her throat suddenly dry. Food was completely forgotten as all three ponies stared at Cadance, waiting with bated breath. She put force behind each word as she spoke, her voice emotionless.

“‘He’s not working fast enough.’”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Throwing off his shirt, Max groaned aloud as he collapsed upon the couch in the main room of the library. Princess Celestia had set her sun during the their train ride back home, and Luna had painted the beautiful night sky with its usual scattering of stars.

Closing the front door behind her, Twilight tossed her empty saddlebags into a nearby corner, trying in vain to suppress a yawn. The library was quiet; Spike was already upstairs, in bed and fast asleep.

“All in all,” she said, rubbing her eyes with a hoof, “I’d say that that went pretty well.” Max grunted once, his eyes closed as he lay stretched out upon the couch. Twilight’s eyes fell upon a growing purple bruise on the side of his stomach, a clear indication of where Shining had jabbed him.

“I’m sorry about my brother’s behavior,” she said quietly, her ears splaying backwards. Max’s eyes opened and he turned his head to face her.

~I like him!~ He flashed Twilight a large grin, his canine teeth clearly visible in the dim light. She stared at him, shocked.

“Y-you do?” she asked. “Even after he bruised your side and fought with you?”

~Rainbow fights with me almost every day~ he signed, smirking at her as he did so. ~And as for this injury, I’ve had worse. You remember when Rainbow Dash accidentally gave me a black eye and bloody nose?~

Twilight giggled at the memory in question. “Nopony could believe their eyes when you just sat there, blood dripping down your chin and hand covering your eye. They all expected you to maul Rainbow after that little incident.”

~It wasn’t her fault~ Max shrugged, before adding on, ~Well, mostly not her fault~
Twilight snickered again, before succumbing to a massive yawn; her jaw cracked and her eyes watered. Blinking back tears, she headed towards the stairs.

“Nonetheless,” she said, fighting another yawn, “Thank you for putting up with my family, as well as the lack of a proper dinner tonight. I wanted to make a good impression on them, and apparently that was a success.” She flashed Max a small smile as she passed.

~Glad I could be some help, for the short time they saw me~ He snorted in amusement, rolling his eyes at her. With a quick flick of her magic, Twilight tossed a pillow at him, hitting him in the face with a light ‘thump’. He remained still, the pillow just sitting on his face, hiding it from view. The sound of muffled laughter came from under the pillow. Twilight just rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same. She continued her journey to the stairs, ready to go curl up in her bed and sleep.

“Joking aside, thank you again for putting up with meeting my family, and the...issues...on the way there.” Not removing the pillow, he raised his fist in the air, his thumb held up towards the ceiling. Again with the hand gestures I don’t understand.

“Goodnight, you big doofus—”

knock knock knock

Twilight froze, her hoof on the bottom step. Slowly, she turned her head and looked first at the front door, then at Max. He had sat up slightly, removing the pillow from his face. He stared at the front door, a mystified expression on his face.

knock knock knock

Slowly rising to his feet, he looked at Twilight out of the corner of his eyes.

~Were you expecting someone?~ He signed. She shook her head, her eyes drifting back to the door.

“No,” she hissed under her breath, “Nopony was supposed to come over tonight!” She glanced quickly at the clock. It’s 9:30 at night! Who in Equestria could be at my door at this time of night?

knock knock knock

They both jumped slightly as the knocking continued, this time more forcefully. Whoever was on the other side of the door, they were getting impatient.

~Well, someone’s here~ Max signed, backing slowly away from the door, ~And I don’t think they’re going to be leaving anytime soon~

“Oh come on,” Twilight muttered under her breath. Snorting, she trotted to the door. “Here we are, acting like scared little fillies after a ghost story.” Reaching the door, she made to grab the handle.

knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock

As the pony on the other side of the door started assaulting the door, Twilight pushed magic through her horn and grasped the door handle. Twisting, she wrenched the door open quickly.

On the other side of the door, her hoof still waving through thin air, sat a sky blue pegasus mare. Her mane was yellow and extremely unkempt, looking like she had done a great deal of flying recently. Her feathers were a mess, sticking out at odd angles, indicating that she obviously hadn’t had a chance to preen lately. Twilight could also tell that by the way she smelled. Her ribs were clearly visible from beneath her coat. Overall, she looked like she had been through some rough times.

Noticing that the door was open, she stopped waving her hoof in the air and dropped it back down to the ground. She flashed Twilight a large smile, her violet eyes shining in the gloom of the night.

“Hi, my name is Sunny Breeze. Can I come in?”

Chapter 15: The Horse You Rode In On

“Goodnight, you big doofus—”

knock knock knock

My heart jumped in my chest as someone knocked on the door. Reaching up, I removed the pillow that Twilight had flung at me from my face. Tossing it aside, I pushed myself up slightly with my arms and stared at the door. Silence had fallen across the library.

knock knock knock

I held my breath as I slowly rose to my feet. Glancing over at Twilight out of the corner of my eye, I saw her staring at me, a look of confusion on her face.

~Were you expecting someone?~ I asked. She shook her head, eyes darting to the door.

“No,” she hissed quietly, “Nopony was supposed to come over tonight!” As she said that, she glanced at the clock on the wall. I just continued staring at the door.

knock knock knock

Both Twilight and I jumped as the pony pounded on the door again, this time with more force.

~Well, someone’s here~ Sighing, I started inching away from the direction of the door. I didn’t think anything bad was going to happen, but I didn’t want to be near the door either. It was better to be safe than sorry. ~And I don’t think they’re going to be leaving anytime soon~ We both remained in place, staring at the door with bated breath.

“Oh come on,” I heard Twilight mutter to herself after several seconds. Snorting once, she shook head and walked over to the door. “Here we are, acting like scared little fillies after a ghost story.” As she reached the door, the pony on the other side began to pound on the door for all they were worth.

knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock

As the knocking continued in rapid succession, Twilight’s horn flashed brightly. The door handle was immediately encased in her magical aura and she turned it quickly, flinging the door open wide. There was a brief silence as she studied whoever was on the other side of the door. Due to my position in the room, I was unable to get a good look at our guest. Twilight and the door blocked my view.

“Hi, my name is Sunny Breeze. Can I come in?” My whole body froze as a familiar voice drifted into the library from the open door. Sunny Breeze, one of the original ponies who had found me...had found me again.

How the hell did she know where I was? Twilight didn't fare any better: a confused look on her face and her mouth opening and closing as she stared out the door at Sunny.

“I-I’m sorry...but...w-wha…?” She stuttered, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Still hidden from view by the door, I waved my arms in the air, trying to get Twilight’s attention.

~She’s the pony who found me in the desert when I first arrived!~ I signed quickly and quietly when she finally glanced over to me. Her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk. Barely nodding her head, she faced the open door again and moved aside, motioning for Sunny to enter. I moved quickly to the large cushion in the corner and collapsed upon it.

“I-I’m sorry, please come in,” Twilight said, composing herself quickly. As Sunny slipped past Twilight and entered the library, I felt my breath catch in my throat. She looked horrible!

Her mane was disheveled and unkempt, tangled up in knots with strands sticking out at odd angles. Her blue coat was matted and filthy. She looked like she hadn’t had anything decent to eat in weeks. Her ribs were clearly visible through her coat, and her spine stood out along her back. The feathers on her wings were a chaotic mess, sticking out in all directions in a way that looked quite painful. Her fetlocks were long and dirty, nearly covering her hooves completely.

She looked like she had been to Hell and back.

As she made her way into the library, I noticed that she was limping heavily, favoring her back right hoof. Limping to the center of the room, her violet eyes took in every detail, scanning the room quickly. She caught sight of me and a look of recognition dawned on her face, her eyes widening. I only had a split second to ready myself before she was upon me.

“Oh sweet Celestia, yes!” she cried, nuzzling into my chest as she squeezed the life out of me. “I finally found you again!” I grunted, struggling for air, as her legs wrapped tighter around me, almost as if she was afraid I’d slip away if she wasn’t careful. I could feel my ribs begin to creak and groan under the pressure. I looked over at Twilight, silently pleading for help.

“Um...can I help you?” she asked, clearing her throat. Sunny jumped, obviously forgetting Twilight was still there. Smiling sheepishly, she jumped down off me, wincing as she placed weight on her injured hoof. I breathed a sigh of relief as sweet oxygen filled my lungs again.

“Heheh...sorry,” ruffling her unkempt feathers, she took a deep breath, trying to retain what little dignity she still had. “My name is Sunny Breeze, and I represent a group of human breeders and sellers. I was just stopping by to make sure that our humans are being treated with the care and respect they deserve.” She gave Twilight a large smile as she shifted nervously on her hooves.

“Oh...you mean the same group that is currently wanted for human abuse?” Twilight said impassively, slamming and locking the door behind her. Sunny’s smile vanished instantly and she swallowed.

“H-how do you know that?” She squeaked, ears splaying back.

“I’m a princess of Equestria.” As Twilight slowly approached, Sunny scrambled backwards in a panic. “It's my job to know.”

“W-w-wait! It’s not what you think!” she cried out, waving her hooves in front of her. “I can explain!”

“Your caravan is wanted for several counts of abuse, as well as selling humans without a license,” Twilight snorted, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the helpless pegasus. “You yourself are on the run from the Royal Guard, which is a crime in-and-of itself. Yet you come to the home of an Element of Harmony, known princess, and daughter AND sister of members of the Royal Guard... just to 'check-up' on a human?” As Twilight talked, she had backed Sunny up into a corner. Closing the gap between them, Twilight leaned in until their faces were barely inches apart.

“You best have a very good explanation!” she growled.

“I-I wasn’t technically part of their organization,” Sunny said, sweat dripping down her brow. It left streaks in her fur as it mixed with the grime present there. “I was hired on as a scout: I looked for humans that were out wandering around!”

“That doesn’t excuse what you did!” Twilight snarled. “Those humans were in poor condition and suffering from malnutrition! That doesn't just happen overnight!”

“But t-that wasn’t my fault!” Sunny cried, trying to inch around Twilight. Unfortunately for her, the alicorn stood her ground, blocking her route. “I was in charge of locating and retrieving humans. I wasn’t responsible for feeding them! That was Rose and Pearl’s job!”

“So that makes it okay?”

“W-well...no, b-but…”

“That’s it! I’m calling the guard.” Twilight huffed, backing up. Sunny’s eyes widened and she threw herself upon the ground, grasping at Twilight’s hooves.

“No! You can’t!” she pleaded, tears forming in her eyes.

“Why not?” Twilight asked, her voice cold and uncaring. I shivered just hearing it. Glad it’s not directed at me. I just sat there, watching the scene, hoping that I wouldn't need to intervene.

“Because I’m not part of the organization anymore!” Sunny cried, holding on tighter to Twilight’s hooves. “I left voluntarily!”

“So you’re just a rat jumping ship-”

“NO!” Sunny screamed, causing Twilight and I to flinch slightly. Upstairs, I heard Spike shifting around in his sleep. Oh please don’t let him wake up. The last thing we need is Princess Celestia to come down here herself. “I left before the guards started to hunt us down. I couldn’t stand what we were doing anymore, and decided to make a break for it before things went south. I left shortly after we sold Max here to Princess Celestia,” she said, waving a hoof at me, still clinging to Twilight with the other. “Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.”

“That was nearly 4 months ago!” Twilight said, staring down at the pitiful pegasus attached to her hooves. “If you did leave then, what have you been doing since then?”

“Trying to find him!” Sunny jabbed a hoof in my direction. Twilight looked over at me with a confused expression. I just shrugged slightly, returning the look. Why would she be hunting for me?

“W-Why him?” asked Twilight, voicing my confusion.

“Because he’s special,” Sunny gasped, staring up at Twilight with teary eyes. Twilight’s eyes widened and she glanced back at me again. I could see the question on her mind, and I shook my head back and forth. Sunny doesn’t know that I can talk. Twilight understood, and nodded once before returning her attention to Sunny.

“How so?” she asked, finally prying her hooves from Sunny’s grasp. Rubbing her ankles, she backed away from the pegasus. Just enough to give her some room, but not enough to give her an opening to escape.

“He was the first human who didn’t fight back against us,” Sunny said, sitting up on her haunches, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. “He acted almost like he could understand what was going on around him. He was well behaved, he never attempted to attack any of us, and he seemed to just be observing what went on around him. By the sun, he even caught Princess Celestia’s eye! You can’t tell me that that doesn’t make him unique!”

“So you went looking for him...so you could sell him again?” asked Twilight slowly. It was a question, not an accusation. She was trying to find out Sunny's motivation.

“No,” Sunny said, shaking her head quickly. “Never! I tracked him down to make sure that he at least found a good home.”

“You risked capture and imprisonment...just to make sure Max was safe?” Twilight asked, studying Sunny closely. The pegasus hung her head, grinning sheepishly.

“Well, when you put it that way, it makes it sound pretty silly.” The two mares sat there, neither willing to meet the other’s eye. Sunny became fascinated with a speck of dirt on floor, scratching circles around it with her hoof. Twilight just stared at the bookcase behind Sunny, chewing on her lip as she thought. I just kept looking back and forth between the two, waiting for something to happen.

“S-so...what do we do now?” Sunny mumbled, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. Twilight tilted her head to the side, still chewing her bottom lip. She glanced over to me and frowned slightly. Finally, she spoke.

“There’s a bathroom up the stairs, second door on the left,” she said, still not looking directly at Sunny. “Y-you...you should get yourself cleaned up.” Sunny’s ears perked up slightly, but she kept her head lowered. Standing up, she limped over to the stairs and began to work her way up them.

Twilight waited until we heard the bathroom door shut and the sound of running water start before turning to me. She looked tired, stressed, and unhappy.

“What the buck do we do now?”

~Trust her~ I signed, getting up from my spot on the cushion and shuffling across the room. I collapsed upon the couch and rubbed my eyes, groaning softly.

“What? You want to just trust her? After everything she’s done to you?!” Twilight looked at me aghast.

~She was actually telling the truth when she said that she wasn’t responsible for us humans~ I signed, stifling a yawn. ~The only time I ever saw her was for a few hours in between feedings~

“Just because she wasn’t technically responsible for feeding you doesn’t mean that it was right for her to just stand by and watch!” Twilight huffed, rolling her eyes. “I still think I should contact the guards, or at least Princess Celes-”

~She gave me extra food~ Twilight froze, staring at me with her mouth hanging open. She blinked slowly several times before closing her mouth and swallowing.

“W-what?” she stammered.

~She snuck me extra food when the other ponies weren’t looking~ I leaned back, smiling softly.

“S-she did?”

~Yes, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for her~ Twilight turned and began to pace back and forth, brow furrowed as she became lost in thought. As I watched her pace, I fought to keep my eyes open. I was exhausted, and I was fighting to stay awake.

“So, you don’t think I should contact the princess?” Twilight finally asked, glancing over her shoulder at me. I shook my head. “Or the guards?” Again, I shook my head. “What would you do then?”

~I’d let her stay here for awhile~

“What?!” Twilight cried, spinning around quickly to stare at me in shock. “Why would you want to do that?”

~If she stays here, you can observe her and see if she really is sorry, or just trying to save her hide~ I signed, smirking at Twilight’s expression. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking at something that wasn’t there.

“So...basically,” she finally said, speaking slowly as her brain put everything together. “I should have her stay here to watch her, and let her earn her pardon?”

~Exactly~

“You really care for her, don’t you?” she asked, studying my face closely as she scrunched her face up in a cute manner.

~Yes~ A brief flash of emotion shot across Twilight’s face. it was almost...sad? Hurt? I couldn’t quite make it out before it vanished. ~She was my first, if somewhat unofficial, friend here in Equestria~ Twilight’s ears dropped and she lowered her gaze. I could see tears starting to form in her eyes. Reaching forward, I grasped her chin and lifted her head up, staring into her beautiful violet eyes.

~Hey, she might have been my first friend, but you are my best friend~ I stroked her cheek lovingly, smiling softly at her. A blush slowly spread across Twilight’s face as my fingers danced across her fur. ~And I’m glad that it’s you I get to live with~ Twilight let a small smile adorn her face at that. Closing her eyes, she reached up and gently pressed her hoof into my hand, sighing softly. She opened her mouth to say something, probably to thank me, but was interrupted by a strange, gurgling noise coming from the staircase. It sounded like a cross between a gasp and a gag. Breaking away from each other, both Twilight and I glanced up towards the source of the noise.

Standing at the top of the staircase was Sunny. She gazed down at us with a horrified expression plastered on her face, her bottom jaw almost touching the top step. Her wings were unfurled, water dripping off of the feathers. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and Twilight, her pupils the size of pinpricks.

Lifting a trembling hoof, she pointed first at me, then at Twilight, before pointing back at me. She seemed to be having trouble getting her mouth to work.

“Y-y-you...and h-h-him, but t-t-that’s...you are, he is...not p-possible…” she stammered out, her ear flapping madly. “H-he’s a hu-hu-human...but, but...but he c-c-can underst-st-stand you?! That’s…that’s...that’s i-impossible…” Sunny’s eye twitched before both rolled back into her head and she collapsed. Her limp body slowly began to slide down the stairs, hitting each step on the way down.

Twilight and I watched her as her body descended the stairs, wincing with each ‘thump’. She finally reached the bottom, her body laying there in a crumpled heap. We both stared at her for several seconds in silence.

I glanced over at Twilight, raising my eyebrow. She just sighed, shaking her head. Standing up, she headed towards the kitchen.

“I’ll go break out the strong stuff and brew some coffee. This is going to be a long night…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Was I this bad when I first found out?” Twilight asked, blowing on her coffee to cool it off.

I was currently suffering from a severe case of déjà vu. It was extremely late at night. Or was it really early in the morning? Either way, it was nearing three, and all three of us were sitting around the kitchen table. Twilight and I were positioned on one side of the table; Twilight was working on her fifth cup of coffee, while I was still forcing down my first.

Sunny—having recently regained consciousness—sat on the other side, her head in her hooves. Her eyes were constantly darting back and forth between me and Twilight, trying to make sense of the situation. Her mane was still damp from her shower, and it cascaded down her shoulders. Her coat was no longer covered in dust and grime, and seemed to gleam in the dim glow of the light over the kitchen sink. She had even taken the time to preen her feathers, although her trip down the stairs had ruffled some of them again. It was amazing the transformation a simple bath could have; you could still see her ribs, but she looked a lot more healthy than when she had first arrived. However, she looked like she was close to having a mental breakdown now.

We had moved her to the kitchen while she was still passed out, using water from the sink to try and revive her. When she had first come to, she had been rather calm and collected. That was, until Twilight made the mistake of asking me what I would like in my coffee. I guess it’s partially my fault as well, as I was dumb enough to actually answer. After that, Sunny started getting real twitchy again. Now it was up to me and Twilight to try and calm her down and salvage the situation.

~No. You were worse~ I snickered slightly as Twilight gaped at me, clearly offended.

“How in Equestria was I worse than this?” she asked, waving a hoof at Sunny, who cringed slightly, as if she was expecting Twilight to hit her.

~You threw stuff at me~ Twilight huffed indignantly but didn’t say anything else. I snickered again before taking a tentative sip of my coffee. I grimaced as the vile liquid went over my tongue and down my throat. Even with sugar and cream, it still tasted horrible.

As Twilight and I bantered back and forth, Sunny groaned. Rubbing her temples with her hooves, she closed her eyes.

“This can’t be happening,” she muttered to herself, “This can’t be happening!”

~Hey! That’s what Twilight said when she found out!~ My remark earned me a bruised shoulder as Twilight glowered at me. It was totally worth it.

“How can you even understand me?” Sunny moaned, looking up at me. I moved to respond, but Twilight beat me to it.

“Forget about him understanding you,” Twilight said, “How can you understand him? It’s rare for a pony to know hoof-language.”

“My mother was deaf. I had to learn it growing up.”

“Ponyfeathers,” Twilight swore, causing me to snicker again. While they used swear words that I was used to, ponies also had several of their own that were, in my own opinion, very hilarious. Have you ever seen a grown mare scream ‘horseapples’ after hitting her funny bone?

Well I have, and it’s—by far—one of the more humorous things I have ever witnessed. And I was there when Rainbow Dash tried to eat an entire triple-decker strawberry cake in one bite. Thank you Applejack, for that little dare.

“Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before somepony caught us,” Twilight sighed, glancing at me. I nodded sagely, eying my cup of coffee with distaste. I still had slightly over half a cup left, and it was now cold. Placing it on the tabletop, I slowly slid it away from me.

“This isn’t possible!” Sunny cried, slamming her hooves on the table. “Humans aren’t intelligent! There is no way that something like him should exist in Equestria!” Twilight and I looked at each other. She seemed to be silently asking permission. With a nod, I gave it.

“Well, you see,” Twilight said to Sunny with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of her head with a hoof. “Max here isn’t from Equestria.”

“So...what?” Sunny asked, glancing back and forth between me and Twilight. “Is he from the Griffin Empire? Zebrica? The Far Imperial North?”

“No, not like that,” Twilight huffed, annoyance clear in her tone. “He isn’t from anywhere on Equus.” Sunny stared at Twilight, her mouth opened wide in shock. Leaning over to Twilight, I smirked slightly as I watched Sunny’s reaction.

~I think you broke her again~ Twilight just sighed heavily before getting up from the table and trotting over to the counter to refill her coffee mug. I waved a hand in front of Sunny's face, chuckling when she didn't react.

“N-not from Equus?” Sunny whispered faintly, practically mouthing the words instead of saying them aloud. She continued to stare at where Twilight had been, a faint look of awe slowly spreading across her face, replacing the shock that had been there. Twilight returned to the table and—sitting back in her chair—took a tentative sip from her now full cup. Wincing at the heat coming from the steaming liquid, she proceed to softly blow on the coffee, trying to cool it down.

“W-wait,” Sunny said, her look of awe turning to confusion. “If you are from a different world, then how did you get on Equus? And why did I find you alone in the desert?” I smiled slightly at that. Thank god I don’t have to write it all down like with I had to with Twilight.

I quickly filled her in on the circumstances that had led to her finding me in the desert. Twilight helped a little by filling in the parts that I had forgotten. Her memory must be something magnificent, as I had only told her the story once several months ago, and yet she still remembered even the little details. As we wrapped up the tale, Sunny’s look of confusion deepened.

“So there was a blinding flash of light, then you found yourself in our world?” she asked, scratching at her ear. “And something is preventing you from talking?” I nodded once. “Could it possibly that your vocal cords were damaged when you were transported here?”

“That’s what I thought when he first told me his story,” Twilight said. “Although if that were the case, it surely should have healed by now. Nonetheless,” she said, holding up a hoof to stop Sunny from interrupting. “I checked his throat already, and his vocal cords are perfectly fine. They should work perfectly, and they do. He can growl, grunt, cry out in pain, and make noises. The only issue is he can’t talk.”

“Could something magical be preventing him?” Sunny asked, her head tilting sideways as she looked at me. I hate getting into these conversations; I feel like a science project. “I may not be a unicorn, but it sounds like he got here through magical means, so could magic have damaged his vocal cords?”

“I’ve already checked that as well. There is no Harmonious Magic at work. It’s almost like his body has forgotten how to talk, and he can’t relearn.”

“Could it be fixed by him going home?” We both stared at Sunny, who fidgeted under our gazes. “What...can’t he get home?” A look of horror flashed across her face as she realized what she had said. “Oh no! You aren’t trapped here, are you?! You can go home, right?” Twilight blinked several times, staring at Sunny with a strange look on her face.

“Now that you mention it, he hasn’t shown signs of wanting to go home…” she said, trailing off as she looked at me, a look of confusion on her face. “Why haven’t you at least tried to figure out how to go home?” I looked back and forth between the two of them, confused.

~I didn’t think that it was an option!~ I mentally kicked myself for not at least asking Twilight about the subject during my stay. She's one of the smartest ponies in Equestria, and I hadn't even asked her for her help.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

~The Multiverse Theory~ I signed, trying not to roll my eyes. ~There are supposedly an infinite amount of universes out there. How could we possibly be able to find mine?~

“It’s actually a lot easier than you think!” Twilight said, a large smile spreading across her face. “About a year-and-a-half ago, my friends and I got transported into a different universe, where everypony was the opposite gender. As you can see, we managed to get back just fine.”

~How did you manage that?~ I asked, hope rising in my chest. If she managed to get back home, does that mean that I can as well?

“It’s quite simple: each universe has a unique frequency, which it passively imprints onto the creatures that live in that particular universe.”

~Like a...a…~ I paused, frowning slightly. There was no sign for ‘fingerprint’ in hoof-language. Ignoring Twilight and Sunny’s confused expressions, I looked around the room quickly. Spotting the pad of paper and quill that Twilight used for her grocery list, I stood up and retrieved them. Returning to the table, I sat down and quickly scratched out my question.

+Like a fingerprint?+ I slid the pad over to them so they could read it.

“‘Fingerprint?’ What’s a fingerprint?” Sunny asked, staring at the word in question. I looked at both of them incredulously. Seriously? They have humans in this world, and they don’t know what fingerprints are? Grabbing the piece of paper again, I grumbled as I was forced to write out my reply again.

+Human fingers have little ridges across them called ‘fingerprints’. No two humans have the exact same pattern+

“Really?” asked Twilight, her eyes lighting up. I held my hand out for them to see. Both of them leaned in, staring at the tips of my fingers in wonder. This is ridiculous, I thought as I resisted the urge to facepalm.

“That’s amazing,” Twilight breathed as she started moving my fingers with her magic. I coughed slightly, snapping her out of her trance. “S-sorry, I got distracted.” she said sheepishly. “You’ll have to let me get a closer look at that later.” Leaning back, she took a sip of her coffee, trying to play off what had just happened. I just rolled my eyes. “To answer your question, if a fingerprint is indeed unique, then a universe’s frequency is like a fingerprint. Since you are from a different universe than this one, you have a different frequency than we do.

“To get you back home, it’s a simple matter of finding the spell that allows for objects to be transported from one universe to another, then locating the universe that matches your frequency. Once that’s done, we can use the spell on you and you will be relocated back to your own universe.”

~Do you know the spell?~ I asked, leaning forward eagerly. Twilight flinched slightly, her expression falling slightly.

“No, I don’t actually know the spell,” she said, her ear twitching slightly as she refused to meet my eyes.

~But I thought you said that you’ve traveled to a different dimension before!~

“We were teleported there by accident. It was only with the help of the two princes on their side that we were able to get back home,” Twilight said, drawing little circles on the table with her hoof. “I could probably look it up, but it might take some time.”

~Wait, you said the princes helped you~ I signed, my stomach tightening as I realized what she was implying. ~Does that mean that the only ones who could help me would be…?~

“Yes. Princess Celestia and Luna.” Twilight finished for me, nodding her head. “And as of right now, neither of them know the truth about you, and I can’t see them helping you without revealing what you really are. Especially when they learn you are from another universe.” I slumped back in my chair, defeated. My one chance to get home, and it could only be done by the one pony I feared the most. Sunny looked back and forth between me and Twilight, confused at our glum expressions.

“Wait, so the princesses don’t know about you?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. I shook my head, not wanting to look up. “Then why don’t you tell them and have them help out?”

“Because he’s scared that Princess Celestia might have her scientists experiment on him if she finds out he’s intelligent,” Twilight huffed, looking at me with annoyance. “I’ve tried to explain to him that she’s not like that, but he won’t listen.”

“Why would you believe that she would do that?” Sunny asked me, her face scrunched up in confusion. I simply looked at her with an expression that basically screamed ‘are you shitting me’.

~Possibly due to what I suffered my first two weeks here?~ At that Sunny’s ears splayed back and a look of shock crossed her face. Looking down at the floor, I could see tears begin to form in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. The sight caused my heart to break, and I winced as I realized what I did.

~I’m not blaming you~ I signed before reaching over and scratching behind her ear. Her wings twitched slightly, and I could see a small smile playing across her face as she leaned into my hand. Twilight grunted slightly, glancing away from us with a huff. As Sunny wiped the tears from her eyes, Twilight spoke up.

“At this point I’d have to agree with him anyways.” My head whipped around as I looked at Twilight in confusion. She’s agreeing with me about this? She never agrees with me about not telling Celestia! Twilight just sat there, staring off into space with a blank expression on her face, her eyes slightly glazed over. “It’s probably not a good idea to tell her about him when we’ve been hiding it for several months already.” She blinked once, and then her eyes returned to normal.

Yawning, she glanced around the kitchen, looking at the clock that now read a little after five-thirty in the morning.

“What?” she said as she caught sight of my expression. I glanced over at Sunny, but she didn’t seem to have noticed anything unusual. I leaned back, rubbing my chin absentmindedly.

~You said you could possibly look up the spell?~ I asked, deciding to focus on Twilight's weird behavior sometime later, when I wasn't about ready to pass out. Twilight nodded her head, trying to stifle another yawn.

~About how long would that take?~ She cocked her head to the side, mentally adding up the numbers.

“It would probably take a couple of weeks for me to find the spell, and learn how to do it successfully,” she finally said. For some reason, she refused to meet my eye. Getting up from the table suddenly, Twilight placed her cup in the sink before heading out of the kitchen. Reaching the doorway, she looked back at both me and Sunny.

“I'm going to bed,” she said, her voice almost sounding sad as she looked at me. “I'll start research on a way to get you home tomorrow. Until that time, Sunny,” the pegasus perked up upon hearing her name. “Due to the unique circumstances in which you find yourself, you'll be staying here with us for the time being.” Sunny's ears drooped at that. “At least until I determine that you are actually sorry about what you've been a part of.” With that, Twilight turned and left the kitchen, leaving both me and Sunny to stare after her in slight confusion.

After several seconds, Sunny looked back at me, fidgeting nervously. I glanced over at her, cocking an eyebrow.

“I want to apologize again for what you've been through,” she said, her ears drooping slightly. “I know it doesn't make it right, but I feel like I still needed to say it.” I nodded in thanks, smiling at her. She fidgeted again, something else clearly on her mind.

~What's up?~ I asked, watching her carefully.

“I know you're intelligent and all, but...um, could I possibly...” she said, playing with a feather that had fallen off her wing. Leaning over, she put her muzzle to my ear and finished her request in a whisper. Rolling my eyes, I nodded once, causing her to 'squee' loudly.

Jumping up, Sunny latched herself to my head. Resting her hooves on my shoulders, she nuzzled the top of my head with her cheek, humming happily. Trying to suppress a snicker, I slowly rose from my chair, trying not to tip over with Sunny's weight still on my shoulder. Patting her head as she continued to nuzzle me, I followed after Twilight.

Sunny continued to hum happily into my head as we made our way up the stairs, the sky beginning to turn a bright red as the sun started to work its way into the sky.

Chapter 16: The Gathering Storm

Branches snapped at my arms and legs as I followed the pale horse deeper into the forest. An eerie silence had fallen around us; not even the wind could be heard blowing through the trees. In fact, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of the horse's hooves striking an exposed root every now and then. As it walked, I noticed that the branches didn’t seem to affect the horse as it delved deeper into the undergrowth. I, however, was not so lucky, and my arms were soon covered in little cuts and scratches.

Shivering, I got closer to the back of the horse, causing its tail to brush against me as we walked. Pushing aside a particularly large branch, the horse looked back at me, as if to make sure that I was still following it. As its magenta eyes peered into mine, it snorted once before it returned its gaze back to what was in front of it. Ducking under the branch as it whipped by overhead, I winced as the smaller branches on it hit my face, leaving a small welt.

The horse wasn’t aggressive towards me, but she wasn’t that caring either.

Rubbing at the welt, I chanced a quick glance behind me. Darkness spread through the forest behind us, but luckily I couldn’t see any sign of the creature that had been chasing me. A dim light was coming from the horse, holding the darkness at bay.

It wasn’t much, but it was something.

With my attention still directed behind me, I didn’t notice that the horse had come to a stop until I bumped into its flank. It snorted loudly, looking back at me with a confused expression. Realizing what I had done, I quickly shot the creature a sheepish smile. The horse shook its head, nickering softly, before turning and motioning for me to look at something in front of us.

Glancing up, I realized that we had come to the edge of another clearing. That in and of itself was good, but that wasn’t what caught my eye. This clearing was larger than the first, at least twice as big. Resting half in the clearing, and half hidden among the smothering trees surrounding us, a massive castle proudly stood.

Made completely out of large, graying white stones, it loomed far above us, its towers and spires reaching towards the sky. Golden roofs, dulled with age and wear, darkened the tops of the spires. Masses of vines and other vegetation hung from the battlements; the forest was slowly reclaiming what once had belonged to it. Piles of rubble rested where once great structures had stood. The entire castle was slowly crumbling away and had fallen into disrepair, but it was still easy to see that in its prime, it would have been a magnificent sight.

I was drawn out of my daze by the horse beside me. Neighing softly, it nudged me with one of its wings before slowly making its way towards the castle. I followed quickly, unable to tear my gaze from the sight before me. Something about the massive structure before me set me on edge.

Making our way across the clearing, we approached the main gate. The horse nudged one of the large, rotting, wooden doors open with her muzzle. It creaked slightly before swinging silently open, allowing us entry. Glancing once again at me, the horse slipped inside. Not wanting to be left alone in this eerie place, I followed it inside. The door slowly closed behind us, trapping us inside the castle.

Looking around, I found that we were inside a large hall. Tall pillars stood evenly spaced across the hall, some standing tall while others were broken and cracked, no longer able to support anything more than themselves. The broken ceiling was far above us, bits and pieces of it missing due to the stress of time. Debris littered the cracked marble floors; bits of roof, wall, and pillar were scattered across the hall. The walls, covered here and there by worn, ripped tapestries, were etched with carvings.

Some depicted what looked like ponies in armor; pegasi soldiers clashing together in the air as, below them, unicorn mages shot burst of magic and fire at each other. Earth ponies crouched behind shields, wielding spears at all those who dared approach them. Walking down the hall, I watched as slowly the carvings slowly turned from that of war, to that of a more peaceful time. Ponies grouped together, some of them laughing while others played in flower-covered fields. The horse seemed to smile as it observed the now happy carvings, nickering softly to itself.

I just stared, my face scrunched up in confusion. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it felt important.

As we approached the end of the hall and the double doors situated there, I noticed that there was a mural painted on the floor. It showed a group of ponies—unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi alike—gazing into a cave with a look of innocent curiosity. Deep within the dark confines of the cave, I could just barely make out the image of something slowly emerging.

Staring down at the painting, I tried to make out what was hidden in the cave. However, my thoughts were interrupted as the horse nudged me with its nose, exhaling gently upon my back. With a slight shove, it pushed me forward, towards the double doors.

Approaching the giant doors, I rested my shoulder against the polished steel. Grunting loudly, I pushed with all my might, the sounds of my effort echoing around the aged hall. With a great screeching noise, the doors slowly swung open, their hinges protesting loudly as they moved. I winced at the horrible noise, but continued shoving until both doors were open wide. With a snort, the horse slipped past me and into the new room. Groaning, I followed close behind.

Breathing heavily, I glanced around the room we had just entered. It appeared to be a throne room of sorts. Large windows adorned the walls, each frame empty except for bits of broken glass, clearly showing the night sky outside. Faded pictures covered the walls, each one depicting a pony or group of ponies, the details lost to time. A faded and moth-eaten strip of carpet ran from the door all the way back to two thrones, sitting at the end of the room. Both of them were empty; both of them were broken. The horse's ears drooped as it gazed upon the thrones.

Ignoring my companion, I slowly approached the thrones. As I drew nearer, I noticed that a statue stood between them. It didn’t fit with the rest of the castle's decor, though. Everything up until now had been pony-related. Pony armor, pony pictures, pony paintings. This statue, however, appeared to be that of a human.

It was carved completely out of black marble, white veins running through the entire thing. It appeared to be made out of one piece of material, carved perfectly with no cracks or chunks missing. Unlike everything around it, the statue looked like it could have just been crafted the other day. The only flaw that I could see with it was that it had no face. A blank surface sat were a face should be, my reflection gazing back at me. For a split second, it looked like it had my face, but then I leaned back and the illusion was broken.

Pulling my eyes from the statue before me, I glanced around. As I looked closer at the room, I began to notice that it wasn’t the only statue here. Hundreds of black marble statues littered the throne room, hidden in corners and within shadows, concealed easily in the darkness. I had walked right past them without even noticing. Stunned, I turned and looked out one of the many windows. Down in the courtyard, I saw it was filled with black statues as well.

All of them human. All of them without a face.

Turning my attention back to the statue by the thrones, I reached up and ran my fingers over the smooth surface of its ‘face’. The marble was cool to the touch and I shivered slightly. Leaving my hand on it, I paused as I felt the statue vibrate slightly. Leaning closer, I could make out a faint sound coming from its chest. Placing my ear against the statue, my eyes widened as I realized what I was hearing.

“It’s a heartbeat,” I breathed, pulling myself away from the statue. Turning, I shot a confused look at the horse behind me. It just stared back at me with a sad gaze. Opening my mouth, I started to ask it a question when I was interrupted by a earsplitting roar that seemed to shake the very castle to its core.

“YOU WILL HELP THEM, OR YOU SHALL KNOW NO PEACE!!!!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

~What’s with you ponies and mornings?~ I growled, slamming my head on the kitchen table. ~Is there a law against sleeping in later than eight?~

“If you sleep in too late, you won’t get anything done for the day!” Sunny chirped happily, eating her breakfast next to me. The jam was practically dripping from the saturated piece of toast in her hoof. Leaving my face on the table, I groaned and closed my eyes. I wanted nothing more than to return to my couch and fall back asleep, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

I’m a night owl amongst early birds, I thought glumly as I heard Twilight moving around the library, humming softly to herself. The sound of birds chirping floated in through the open kitchen window, a cool breeze wafting in as well. The sun was shining happily, and the distant sound of laughter could be heard coming from the direction of the marketplace. A gang of fillies ran by, happily enjoying whatever game they were currently playing. It’s not natural for someone to be that happy this early in the morning!

“What do you have against mornings?” Sunny asked through a mouthful of toast and jam.

~I have nothing against mornings! I love mornings!~ I signed, lifting up my head and glaring at her. ~I just wish they came later in the day~ Sunny laughed at that, spewing bits of toast across the table. Luckily, she dropped the issue, allowing me to return my head to the table and try to slip once more into the sweet embrace of sleep.

It had already been almost a week since Sunny Breeze had started living with us. She was already looking much better than she did when she first arrived. Her ribs were still visible, but with regular meals, three times a day, she had started gaining back the weight she had lost when she had been on the run.

Her appetite was insatiable; she consumed more than Spike and Twilight combined. I didn’t know where she was putting all of it, but I figured it had something to do with her being a pegasus. Flying probably burned a lot of calories, and she must have a high metabolism to be able to stay warm at high altitudes. That was just a theory, however, but I felt that it was a good one.

Either way, Sunny was consuming almost as much food as me, and it was starting to affect our resources.

Now, I want to point out right now that Twilight is not poor, by any standards. According to what little I could dig up, years of being antisocial had done wonders for her bank account. Even after coming to Ponyville and making friends, Princess Celestia still sent her monthly stipends for her “research”. With all this in mind, she had pretty large pile of bits saved up. And with her now being a princess, she now got a steady stream of income coming from Canterlot. It had something to do with her “allowance” from the national treasury.

Despite all of this, Twilight tried to stress to me that we were working with a finite amount of money, and now that we had another mouth to feed, we had to start planning for when it could possibly run out. Twilight had even sat down and done the math. She had found out exactly how long we could continue living like we were before the bits began to run out. I was unconvinced it was a problem. That was, until she had shown me the results. I could only stare, in disbelief, at the paper she had handed me.

You know how long we had before we were broke?

...

...12 years...

…

Yup, you heard me right. That was how long our current budget would last us: 12 years. 12 years until we ran out of bits and that was without...that was WITHOUT...Twilight receiving any more bits from any outside source.

...you see now what I have to deal with sometimes? Twilight is a wonderful pony—God bless her soul—and I enjoy her company immensely, but she can be really paranoid sometimes. Sunny hadn’t even been with us a full week, and Twilight was already fretting about what we were going to do years in the future. How can someone so knowledgeable and smart be so dense at the same time? If I didn't know better, I would say that she was trying to get rid of Sunny for some reason.

I tried to calm her down, but once she has something like that in her head it’s hard to change her mind. I had asked Spike for help, but he basically told me just to let her worry herself out. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound very healthy. I tried my hardest to help her with her problem and calm her nerves. I sat down and helped her make budgets and spreadsheets (you ever make them without the help of a computer? Horrible!) I tried to help her figure out how many bits we could spend per day, week, month and year.

I helped her as much as I possibly could, entertaining her pleas. That is, until she started waking me up early each day to help her plan. That’s when all my sympathy for the mare went out the window, and I basically told her she was on her own. Not the nicest thing to do, but she had to learn that we were going to be fine.

She had cried and pleaded for me to help her, but I ignored her. When she asked what I would do when we had no money to pay for food, I told her, plain and simple, that I would cross that bridge when I came to it (if I came to it at all).

I don’t know why she was making such a big deal about it. It was almost like she was trying to make me feel bad about something, or trying to focus on this problem in order to ignore something else that was on her mind.

What had finally gotten her to shut up, however, was when I pointed out that the minute she figured out the spell to send me home, she wouldn’t have to worry about spending bits on me anymore. That seemed to cause her to become slightly more depressed, although I don’t know why. At least she finally stopped worrying about her budget though, and that was good enough for me.

“So what are we going to do today?” Sunny asked, finished off her toast. Draining her glass of orange juice in one gulp, she threw the dirty plates into the sink and stared at me expectantly. Ever since Twilight had started looking for the spell to get me home, Sunny had been the one hanging out with me. Sometimes I didn’t know if Twilight wanted me to babysit her, or for her to babysit me.

~It’s getting rather stuffy in here~ I replied, standing up and stretching with a yawn. I smiled as my back popped loudly. ~Why don’t we get out of Twilight’s hair and head into town for some fun?~ Sunny’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hooves together.

“Yes, yes, yes! That’s an awesome idea!” Giggling to herself, she flew out of the room and up the stairs, nearly knocking Spike down the steps. I stood there, alone in the kitchen, and rolled my eyes. Heading out into the library, I passed by Spike who was headed into the kitchen, still rubbing sleep from his eyes and grumbling something about Sunny under his breath. Looking around the main room, I spied Twilight at her desk, a large pile of books around her.

~Hey, Sunny and I are heading into town. Do you need anything while we’re out?~ I asked, walking up behind her. I scratched at my collar as I looked over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of what she was reading.

“No, thank you,” she said curtly, not taking her eyes off her books. I stopped trying to see what she was up to and frowned slightly at that.

~Is something wrong?~ I asked, nudging her shoulder with a finger afterwards.

“Nope. I’m perfectly fine,” she said. Her voice still had a bit of a bite to it. Reaching down, I placed a hand on her back. I felt her stiffen, her eyes no longer roaming across the page, but staring at a single point. Picking up a nearby quill, I dipped it into a bottle of ink. Finding a blank piece of paper, I scratched out a quick message.

+If you ever want to talk about something, I’ll be here to listen+ Placing the note in front of her, I stood and gave her back a quick rub before turning around. I had only taken a few steps when I heard her speak.

“...not for long you won’t be...” It was so faint that I wasn’t completely sure if she had indeed spoken, or I had just imagined it. I glanced back at her, waiting for more, but she remained hunched over her open books, unmoving. I was just about to turn around and make her tell me what was wrong when Sunny came shooting down the stairs.

“I’ve got my saddlebags! Let’s go!” she said, a huge smile on her face. Deciding that I would deal with Twilight later tonight, I turned and headed towards the door. Grabbing the handle, I was about to open the door when a small whimper came from behind me. Glancing down, I saw Sunny sitting on the floor, staring up at me with big puppy dog eyes. She sniffled slightly as I looked down at her, causing me to groan softly.

~Fine~ I sighed heavily as she ‘squee'd in delight. Jumping up, Sunny latched onto my back, her front hooves wrapping loosely around my shoulders as her head rested on top of mine. Swinging the door open, I cast one last glance back at Twilight before exiting the library.

It was another warm, beautiful summer day. There weren’t going to be many more like it, what with autumn just around the corner. All-in-all, it was shaping up to be a perfect day…

...so why did I have a bad feeling about it?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

~Remind me again; why are we here?~ I asked, trekking through the rows and rows of endless apple trees in Sweet Apple Acres. Sunny was still latched to my back, enjoying the ride as I worked my way around tree after tree. ~And why we couldn’t have taken the main road?~

“Because too many ponies were staring at us,” Sunny replied, gazing in wonder around at the apple-laden trees. I wasn’t quite sure, but I think she may have been drooling on my head slightly. “And the apple stand was closed and I really wanted a fresh apple!” I rolled my eyes, moving to avoid another exposed root. I may have gotten used to walking around barefoot, but those roots still hurt.

When we had left the library, Sunny and I had headed towards the marketplace. Naturally, most ponies had stopped and stared at us. A pony riding on a human wasn’t exactly a normal thing, especially when the human was the one steering. When we had reached the marketplace, Sunny, despite the fact she had just consumed five pieces of toast, two grapefruits, and nearly half-a-gallon of orange juice, had taken one look at Applejack’s empty stand and declared that she wanted an apple. When we found out that the apple stand wasn’t going to be opening at all today, we (and by ‘we’ I mean Sunny) had decided to go straight to the source.

I can’t believe I actually agreed to this, I growled quietly, my toes hitting another rock. Luckily, I could see Applejack’s main barn in the distance, and I picked up my pace, hoping for a break once we got there. Carrying a pony was tiring work.

When we finally reached the barn, Sunny hopped down off my back and looked around.

“Where is everypony?” she asked, looking up at me. I returned her look and shrugged. Glancing around again, Sunny huffed angrily, stomping her hoof.

“I just wanted an apple!” she whined, falling backwards and waving her hooves in the air. She kind of reminded me of child throwing a tantrum.

~Maybe they’re out in the fields, working~ I suggested, sitting down on one of the hay bales that were just lying around. Sunny sat up, pouting slightly. She glanced over at the barn, and a mischievous smile started to spread across her face. Standing up, she waved a hoof at me as she made her way towards the barn.

~What are you up to?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow. My gaze followed as she walked by.

“I’m going to grab myself a couple of apples from their stock!” Sunny replied, the smile still on her face.

~That’s stealing~ I signed as I remained seated on the hay bale. Sunny just shot me a blank look.

“I’m going to leave them a couple of bits,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “Now come on; I may need your help.” Sighing again, I rolled my eyes but stood up anyways, following her to the barn.

As we approached the door, Sunny slowed, her ears perking up slightly. Apparently she heard something I couldn’t. Turning to look back at me, she shot me a questioning look.

“Do you hear that?” I paused, listening intently. The only sound I could hear was the breeze blowing through the trees, causing their branches to creak slightly. I was just about to ask what she had heard when…

~Was...was that a moan?~ I glance down at Sunny, confused. By the look on her face, I could tell that she had heard it too. She opened her mouth to reply, but then we heard it again. A muffled moan...coming from the barn.

Sunny and I glanced at each other, before we both looked at the barn. Walking in sync, Sunny and I slowly approached the door to the barn. Grabbing the door, I slowly worked it open, trying hard to not make a noise. Another moan came from within, followed this time by a loud grunt.

I glance down at Sunny one last time, and she nodded once before I turned my attention back to the door, pushing with all my might. When the door had been opened wide enough, Sunny and I slipped our heads into the barn.

Glancing around quickly, we both looked for the source of the noise. Locating it shouldn’t have been that hard; the barn was mostly empty except for a few barrels in the far corner, some hay bales up above in the rafters, and a rack of farming implements hanging from a wall.

Movement in the center of the barn caught my eye. What I saw caused my eyes to widen. Then my brain finally realized what exactly it was I was actually seeing. It was in that brief moment of enlightenment that my brain decided to soak itself in gasoline, light a match and proceed to incinerate itself in a large blaze of glory.

Standing in the center of the barn was Applejack...

...with her head on the ground and her flank in the air.

...moaning loudly.

...with a human male bent over her.

...thrusting.

…

…

…

AWWWW….HELL NO!!!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Maybe we could-”

~Nope~

“Perhaps she’s done by-”

~Nope~

“Well, can’t we-”

~Nope~ Sunny and I were headed back towards the marketplace. Well, I was headed back to the marketplace. Sunny just clung to my back like usual, hitching a free ride.

“Are we even going to talk about what we just saw?” she asked, poking the side of my head with the tip of her wing. I turned my head and stared at her with one eye, still trotting down the dirt path at a brisk pace, heading towards town.

~Nope~ She sighed defeatedly, resting her head on my shoulder.

“You’re no fun, you know that?” she lamented. I looked at her again and laughed, causing her to flinch slightly. She could handle me being intelligent just fine, but she couldn’t stand my laugh. The first time she had heard it, she had said that there was something dark and disturbing to it. Something animalistic and wrong.

Twilight had attributed it to the fact that up till now, no one had ever heard a human laugh, so there was nothing to base it off of. Funny; Twilight didn’t seem to mind my laugh…

“So, we can’t talk about him sticking his dick in her-”

~Nope~

"Aw, come on!”

~We are NOT going to talk about a pony having sex with a human!~ I signed, shaking my head at my passenger.

“Why not? It’s completely normal!” she said, flapping her wings in annoyance.

~Not to me~ I growled slightly at that. Luckily, Sunny didn’t push the subject anymore and the rest of our journey back to Ponyville was quiet.

Reaching the busy marketplace—for the second time, I might add—Sunny perked up and glanced around.

“Well, if we can’t talk about what happened back there,” she said, looking from stall to stall, using my height to her advantage. From my shoulders she could see over everyone in the marketplace just fine. “And you won’t go back so I can get some apples, how about we find someplace around here that serves food and grab a quick bite to eat?” I winced slightly as she practically yelled in my ear.

~Okay, just tone it down a bit~ I signed, glancing around nervously. Ponies were beginning to stare at us, especially with how loud Sunny was talking.

“Oops, sorry,” she said softly, flashing me a sheepish smile. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Ignoring the mare on my shoulders, I looked around at the nearby buildings, trying to spy a place that served decent food.

“Ooh, ooh, how about the Sugarcube Corner?” Sunny asked, trying to keep her voice down. “I hear they have amazing food there!” Glancing at where she was pointing, I felt my blood run cold at the sight of the massive gingerbread bakery, and the memory of the one who dwelled there.

~No! No! Definitely not!~ I signed, abruptly turning around and heading in the other direction. Sunny looked crestfallen.

“Awww….whyyyy?” she pouted, her bottom lip trembling slightly.

~For similar reasons as to why I shall not be going back to the farm~ This caused her to chuckle slightly.

“Heheh. Did you catch a pony and a human getting it on in there?” I glanced back at the building in question behind us, a shiver running down my spine.

~No. I was almost the human involved~ At this, her entire face lit up. Leaning down, she smiled a rather creepy smile at me.

“H-oh my Celestia! Juicy details, now!” she whispered in my ear, the predator smile on her face growing larger. I lifted a hand and pushed her face out of mine, growling slightly in annoyance.

“Fine, be that way,” she huffed, leaning backwards, her back hooves digging into my shoulder slightly. “I’ll just get the story from Twilight later.” Running her hoof through my long hair absentmindedly, she chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. Gazing back at the bakery as I continued to walk, she gently hit me upside the head with her wing.

“Hey, how about this,” she said, still looking back the way we came. “Let’s go there, and you can stand outside while I go in to get the food? That way, I still get to enjoy their sweets, and you don’t have to deal with...whatever you are trying to avoid.” I slowly stopped walking, cocking my head to the side as I thought. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Sunny still looking longingly at the Sugarcube Corner.

Sighing, I hung my head and slowly turned around, trying to ignore that little voice deep inside of me screaming something about being a doormat.

~Fine, but be quick in there. I don’t want to have to stand outside all day~ Sunny cheered happily, her wings slapping against my shoulder blades as she danced in place.

Reaching the bakery, Sunny jumped down off my back and trotted to the door.

“I’ll just be a second,” she said, flashing me a quick smile as she pushed the door open. I just grunted, leaning my back against the hitching post and resting my arms on the cold bar of metal. As I waited for Sunny, I watched the other ponies go about their day. This had easily become my favorite past time whenever Twilight took me into town with her.

The flower ponies were out enjoying the warm weather as they tended to the flowers growing outside their store. The pale yellow mare with raspberry mane, I think her name was Roseluck, smiled as she watered a group of lilies. Each one of them looked after the flowers with such tender care.

The mailmare, Ditzy, walked by, her golden eyes staring off in different directions as she chatted animatedly with the little pale-purple unicorn filly on her back. Despite the fact that she was extremely klutzy, she carried her daughter with utmost care. At least, I’m assuming it was her daughter. I’d never seen her with a stallion, so I couldn’t be quite sure.

An orange blur shot past me, heading in the opposite direction as Derpy and her offspring. I watched as the little pegasus filly flew down the street on her scooter, little wings beating furiously. Where are her two cohorts? I thought, chuckling softly to myself as I watched ponies trying to jump out of her way as she raced through the marketplace.

Glancing up at the clouds floating lazily in the sky, I watched as Rainbow Dash flew by, leaving behind her signature rainbow streak. She hadn’t spied me, and continued her journey towards the other side of town, occasionally flying through a cloud, causing it to disperse. That was okay with me, though. I didn’t quite feel up for a wrestling match today.

Closing my eyes, I sighed happily as I felt a soft breeze blow across my skin and run through my hair.

CRACK

I winced as a sickening pain flared in the back of my head. Trying to fight off the darkness growing around my vision, I slumped to the ground, hand grasping at my head. It came away slick with blood. Darkness slowing filling my vision, I tried to turn to see what hit me. A pair of gray hooves was all I could see before I slowly succumbed to the void of unconsciousness.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The first thing I noticed as I regained consciousness was a throbbing pain in my head. Groaning, I reached up and felt the back of my head. It was covered with dried blood where whatever had been used to knock me out had hit me. Opening my eyes, I winced as the pain in my head flared again. Blinking, I tried to clear my blurring vision. Once my eyes focused, I was able to take in my surroundings.

What I saw caused my heart to stop.

I was trapped inside of a cage, in a large warehouse. The entire place was lit by dim lanterns hanging from the ceiling. In the gloom, I could see that in the center of the warehouse was a large, circular pit that had been dug into the ground. Sandbags had been placed around the edges of the pit, dried blood staining several of them. A large ring of crates and boxes encircled the pit, covered in bits of cloth and fabrics.

Tens of ponies sat on the crates, chatting with one another and passing bags of bits back and forth. Pegasi flew through the air, calling out bets of some kind. I flinched as one flew by overhead, barely missing the top of my cage. The sudden burst of air caused my headache to worsen.

Gritting my teeth, I glanced around the warehouse again. I saw dozens of cages sitting around the outside of the makeshift arena. Every cage housed a human; most of them bearing scars or open wounds. Several of the humans shook their cages, snarling at passing ponies. This only caused the ponies to laugh.

What is this place? I thought, fear rising in my chest. Looking around, I tried to see any possible way out of this. My thoughts were brought to a halt as a red unicorn stallion jumped up onto a large crate.

Wait...I know him! My eyes widened in horror as I recognized the unicorn now grinning around at the crowd. The red coat, the blackened mane, his icy blue eyes that seemed to peer into the soul. There was no way I was ever going to be able to forget that bastard.

After all, he was one of the ponies who had found me in the desert.

“Mares and stallions! I am happy to announce that it is just about time to start!” he cried, his voice amplified by his magic. Cheers met his words. “Come on over and get comfortable! We got us several fights about ready to start that will be a good bit of fun!” He jumped down as the crowd cheered louder, ponies moving to get settled on any crates still available. Nodding at two other unicorns, the red bastard and his friends approached the cages of humans.

My stomach dropped as I got a good look at the two ponies helping Mr. Red. It was the two unicorn twins from the train as well. Include Sunny, and a few missing ponies, and the gang's all here, I thought bitterly as I watched them slink through the maze of cages.

One of the sisters lit up their horn and one of the cages was lifted into the air. The human inside, a young male by the looks of it, screeched in anger as he bashed his fists against the bars.

“Ooh, he’s gonna be a good one,” the other sister chuckled, her voice causing me to shudder slightly.

This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening! I felt my heart thudding wildly in my chest, causing my head to throb as blood pounded in my ears. This can’t be happening! Where’s Sunny? What the hell happened to her?! Wait a minute! Sunny didn’t betray me, did she? The second sister approached my cage and fired up her horn. Instantly I felt myself and the cage floating through the air.

“Hey Pearl, look who I found wandering around Ponyville!” she sneered, shaking my cage slightly. Her sister, Pearl, and Mr. Red looked up, both cracking a smile as they saw me.

“It appears that the princess didn’t really care for him,” Pearl said, swinging her cage lazily behind her, causing the trapped human to snarl at her.

“Hold up Rose,” Mr. Red said as my cage floated past him. His face scrunched up in a look of concentration and his horn began to glow. I immediately felt a pressure around my throat, causing me to cough and gag. Struggling for air, I felt the pressure continue to grow until finally there came a snapping noise. Instantly I could breathe again, and I did so, taking in great gulps of air.

“That’s better,” he said, hovering the two halves of what used to be my collar out of the cage. “He doesn’t need this where he’s going.” The sisters laughed at that, their giggles chilling my very soul. I gripped the bars of my cage, trying not to hyperventilate.

Twilight! Where’s Twilight?! This can not be happening! Rose carried my cage over towards the pit. Her sister had already placed the other human on the opposite side of the sunken ring. As my cage touched down, the ponies surrounding the pit began to cheer louder, stomping their hooves in anticipation.

“Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Mr. Red said, firing up his horn again. His steely voice echoed around the warehouse. “Let’s get this thing rolling!” Suddenly the door to my cage was wrenched open and the entire thing tipped sideways, dumping me into the pit.

I had no time to prepare myself before I landed on the hard dirt ground with a thud. The air left my lungs and I gasped for breath. Coughing, I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, glancing around. On the opposite side of the pit, I could see that a similar fate had befallen the other human. He staggered quickly to his feet, shaking his head in a daze. Looking around, he snarled as his eyes fell on me.

I remained motionless on the ground, praying with all my might to whatever deity could hear me that this was just a bad dream. Ponies gathered around the edges of the pit, cheering and shouting as they prepared to watch us fight.

Swallowing thickly, I slowly rose to my feet, still staring at my opponent. Above me, Mr. Red’s voice cut through the noise of the crowd.

“Mares and stallions! Without further ado, let’s get this match started!” That’s when I realized exactly where I was.

I was back in Hell again…

...and this time I would be fighting for my life.

Chapter 17: 'The Greatest' is Here!

Twilight ran her eyes slowly over the wall of text before her, trying to discern if any of it could be any help to her. Finding nothing that could even be remotely considered helpful, she closed the large tome with a ‘snap’ and placed it on top of the ever-growing pile of rejects. When that was done, she leaned back in her chair and rubbed at her eyes with a hoof, groaning softly.

She had already looked through everything in the library that was relevant to magical transportation, and so far she had come up with next to nothing. With no other resources left at Ponyville’s library, the only place left that would have anything related to what she need would be the Canterlot Archives.

“...and I really don’t want to go to Canterlot,” she whined, her eyes still closed. Without looking, she pushed a small amount of magic through her horn, years of training helping her focus. With practiced ease, she lifted a nearby glass of water over and took a sip of the cool liquid. Sighing happily as the refreshing drink soothed her parched throat, she placed the glass back on the coffee table where she had gotten it from before leaning forward and grabbing the next book in her hooves.

Pulling it forward, she flipped the cover open and began to read.

It was in my darkest dreams that he did appear; almost like a knight in shining armor. I was lost, alone and afraid, and yet even now I do not know why the mere sight of him was enough to calm my fragile nerves.

It all started several months ago this last Tuesday, during the Autumn Festival of the Harvest Moon. I was but a young mare, just out of her adolescence, and had no idea yet what horrors the world doth hold. Although, had I know of all the troubles that would be caused on that fateful day, I would not have ventured forth from my home.

My troubles began shortly after I had spied Summer Blossom and Appleseed hiding behind one of the tents at the fair. They appeared to be…

Blinking, Twilight frowned as she continued to read. After another page of nonsense, she started to flip through the pages, confused.

“What the buck is this?” she muttered, skimming through one of the latter pages quickly. “‘White Herald leaned in close, breathing softly in my ear as he’...?” Confused and slightly flustered, Twilight closed the book and glanced at the cover.

Upon seeing the title, her eye twitched and she groaned.

“Love Lost Among Worlds, by Covert Love?” she growled, slamming her head on the desk. “This won’t help me at all!” Keeping her forehead pressed into the wood, Twilight lit up her horn and, in a flash of magic, she levitated the book across the room and—gently—placed it back in its proper place in the romance section.

Lifting her head up, she pulled the next book over and glanced at the cover as well. Upon seeing the words, ‘Two Words, One Heart, by Timid Pleasure’ in loopy pink writing, her horn flashed again and it joined its friend back on the shelf.

“I don’t even know why we have those here,” she grumbled, pulling herself out of her chair and stretching. She winced as the joints in her back and wings popped loudly. I will never understand why Max likes doing that, she mused, flexing her flight muscles.

Turning back to her desk, she cast a critical eye over the mountain of books before sighing.

“Right, let’s get you all back where you belong,” she murmured as she began to push magic down her horn. Picking up the books in her magic, she proceeded to trot around the library, sliding books back onto the shelves whenever she passed their proper place.

As she worked, she hummed softly to herself. Nothing much; just an old song that her mother used to sing to her and her brother whenever they were sick.

Oh, tell me a tale of mystery
Of a poet, old and gray,
And the magic book, that brought to life
The tales the poet lay.
His muse, she was his happiness
Which let his daydreams roam,
He wrote stories of her beauty deep
In the pages of his tome.
‘Til in the darkness of one dawn,
Still in slumber’s hold,
The muse, she opened up the book,
Consumed by the rhymes it told.
And now to free his love from her plight
He needs the Sun-forged key,
Find the spirit of dark within the light
To awaken Harmony—

Placing another book upon a shelf, Twilight was lost in her own thoughts when the front door suddenly burst open. The loud noise startled her, causing her to lose control over her magic. Books that had previously been suspended in midair fell to the floor with resounding ‘thud’s.

Letting out a shriek, Twilight’s wings flared wide and she spun around.

Sunny Breeze stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and breathing heavily.

“Oh, it’s you,” Twilight said, placing a hoof over her chest. Her heart felt like it was trying to break out of her ribs and run away. “Don’t scare me like that!” she scolded the disheveled pegasus, shooting her a dark look before picking up the books again. Holding them gingerly in her magic, she checked to make sure that none of them had been damaged in the fall.

Oblivious to Twilight’s hostility, Sunny danced in place, the whites of her eyes showing.

“Twilight, have you seen Max? Did he come back here? I can’t find him anywhere!” she asked, clear panic in her voice.

Twilight gave her an unamused look.

“I believe he was with you,” she said as she returned to reshelving the books. “In fact, last I checked, both of you left this house together. Looking rather happy,” she added under her breath. She placed another book in its place before moving to another section.

Sunny flew over and hovered next to her, wringing her hooves in agitation. “We were together, yes, but then we went to Sugarcube Corner for lunch. He didn’t want to go inside for whatever reason, so I left him outside while I went in to get something to eat.”

Twilight growled slightly at that. She knew the reason Max didn’t want to go in, and, quite frankly, it was through sheer force of will that she didn’t chew Mrs. Cake out for what she had attempted to do.

He is not some sex toy for her to use! She fumed silently. In her anger, she slammed a book into the bookshelf a little too forcefully, and she winced as she heard the cover cracked slightly.

“Anyways,” Sunny continued, still oblivious to Twilight’s currently emotional state. She flew in front of her, blocking the alicorn’s path with a wing. “When I came back out, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen! I flew around town looking for him, but I couldn’t find him!”

“I don’t see what the problem is. He’s fully capable of making his own decisions,” Twilight said haughtily, pushing past Sunny and moving across the library to another section. “If he wants to wander around town by himself for a while, far be it from me to stop him. He’s an intelligent creature, after all.”

“You’re not at all worried?” Sunny asked in disbelief.

“Not in the slightest,” Twilight scoffed, not bothering to turn around. She refused to look at Sunny. This is all her fault anyways, she thought, trying to control her anger. Everything had been fine until she showed up. Life had been relatively peaceful lately. It had been a good couple of months; Max and her had been happy just living day to day. He was content to just be with her, and live with her in her library. And it had been wonderful. Ever since Max had showed up, Twilight had had somepony to talk to, somepony who would listen to what she had to say without becoming bored. Somepony who, when they asked her a question, didn’t interrupt her explanation because they wanted the quick, dumbed-down version. Max actually listened intently to what she had to say! He cared about her opinion, and Twilight was more than happy to give it to him.

Everything had been just perfect until Sunny showed up.

Max had been happy living with her, and then Sunny found him again, just waltzing right back into his life like nothing had happened. She hadn’t kept him in a cage for two weeks with very little food. Then she had started asking questions, and Max had found out that there was a way to get back to his own world. Now, here she was, trying to figure out how to get rid of one of the only individuals in her life that actually made her feel whole.

To put it lightly, Twilight was not happy.

She sighed, closing her eyes. She knew she shouldn’t feel the way she did. She should feel happy that there was a way for Max to get back home again, that she should feel elated that he could return to his own world. He probably had friends and family there that missed him and were worried sick, not knowing where he was. She should feel great, knowing that she was the one that was going to make his return possible.

...then why did she feel so depressed?

“Seriously, how can you not be worried?” Sunny asked, her voice snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “He could be in trouble! Lost! Hurt!”

“I highly doubt that he’s in any kind of trouble,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. Pulling a small ladder over with her magic, she climbed up several rungs before glancing across the row of books, looking for the proper place to put one of the books floating around her. “We’re in Ponyville, not Canterlot. I seriously doubt that anything bad is going to happen to him—”

Severe, blinding pain exploded through Twilight’s head, causing her to cry out in shock. It felt like somepony was shoving a railroad spike through her skull and into her brain. Slipping off of the ladder, she dropped to the ground, clutching at her horn. Sparks leapt from it as she bit her bottom lip, blinking back tears. The books fell to the floor around her, no longer supported by her sputtering magic. She writhed around, whimpered pitifully as another burst of pain flared within her head.

And just as quickly as it had started, the pain ceased.

Twilight was on her hooves in an instant, looking around the library, completely alert. Her ears were perked and her wings were flared widely.

Sunny just stared at her, mouth agape. “W-what was that!?”

“That,” Twilight growled, her eyes narrowing, “was a spell I placed on Max’s collar the first week I had him. It was designed to let me know if he ever got it off. I had completely forgotten about it.”

“Wait, you designed a spell to horribly shock you?” Sunny asked, looking at Twilight like she thought she was insane.

Twilight shook her head. “No, I designed it to give me a light zap if the collar were ever removed.” Ignoring Sunny’s look, she began to search around for her saddlebags. As she did so, she brought up a mental checklist and began to run through it quickly. Spike’s currently at Rarity’s, helping her with her orders, so I don’t have to worry about him. Library’s closed, so nopony’s going to come in.

“The large shock can only mean one thing,” she continued. “A unicorn has forcibly removed the collar with magic, causing the spell to overload. I highly doubt that Max would reveal himself to another pony just to get the collar off, so that can only mean one thing.”

“And that is…?” Sunny asked, hovering over beside her.

Finding her bags, Twilight lifted them onto her back and clipped them into place. She quickly tightened the straps, before flapping her wings once and folding them at her sides. Hurrying to the door, she shot a glance back her shoulder at Sunny.

“That means,” she said, forcing the library’s door open with a burst of magic, “that you were right, and Max is in serious trouble.”

Sunny’s eyes widened and she let out a small whimpering squeak.

Turning back around, Twilight exited the library. The sun was just beginning to set, casting a fiery-orange glow across the entire town. All around town, ponies were heading back home, happily chatting with one another as the day came to a close. Foals rested on their parents’ backs, tired after playing outside all day in the warm weather. Everypony seemed happy and oblivious.

And somewhere out there, Max is in trouble, Twilight growled, eyes darting around the scene before her.

“What’s the plan?” Sunny asked, moving to stand beside her. Her tone was serious, her usual carefree nature absent.

Twilight glanced sideways at her, her previous discontent for the mare forgotten.

“First, we need to get a hold of the Guard,” she said, turning and quickly heading towards the center of town. With a flap of her wings, Sunny followed behind her.

“Are you sure they’ll help us?” she asked.

“They should,” Twilight replied, keeping her gaze forward. “They are technically my royal guards, after all.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Where the hell did he get a shiv!? I thought as I stumbled backwards, clutching at my arm. Above me, the crowd roared with delight as I fought back tears of pain. Scrambling, I dodged to the side as my opponent lunged at me, waving his weapon about wildly. I tried to put as much distance as I could between us, rushing to the other end of the pit. Once I was at a safe distance, I glanced down at my arm. I winced in pain and alarm when I saw blood slowly oozing through my fingers; the cut wasn’t deep, but it was bleeding a lot.

The crowd of ponies roared again, and I glanced up just in time to dodge another lunge from the shiv-wielding human. Damn it! He’s too fast!

Grunting, I swung my good arm around and punched him in the chest. The air left his lungs with a ‘whoosh’ and he stumbled backwards, clutching his chest. Glaring at me, he shrieked loudly and came at me again.

My eyes widened and I just barely managed to duck under his strike. Looking around, I desperately searched for an escape route. The edges of the pit were easily twelve feet in height, and with nothing in the pit that could be used as leverage, there was no way I was getting out of the hole without outside help.

While I was looking for an exit, my opponent took another swing at me. Being momentarily distracted, I failed to move out of the way in time, and I caught his fist with the side of my head. Stars exploded in front of my eyes as I staggered backwards, falling to the ground.

As I lay there, trying to get my head to stop ringing, my opponent leapt on top of me, thrusting his shiv towards my stomach. With a yelp, I brought my hand up and shoved the blade away at the last second. However, I wasn’t fast enough to avoid injury completely. I gasped in shock as I felt the blade slice through my side, immediately drawing blood.

“Come on, boy! That’s it! Carve him a new one!” a voice cried out, barely discernible in the noise of the crowd. Quickly glancing up, I felt my anger grow as I identified the speaker.

Golden Ingot leaned over the edge of the pit, sneering down at us. He happily puffed away on a fat cigar as he watched the spectacle below.

Great, all of my favorite ponies are together under one roof. Snarling, I brought my knees up and slammed them into the back of the human on top of me. He cried out as I forced him off. As he rolled away, the shiv dug into my shoulder. I yelped in pain, but still managed to push myself to my feet.

Ignoring my throbbing shoulder and side, I turned to face my opponent, readying myself for another attack. Instead, I saw him struggling to get to his feet. Seeing him distracted, I ran forward and jumped, slamming both my feet into his chest with as much force as I could muster. I was rewarded with a loud ‘crack’ as several of his ribs gave out.

He fell back, clutching at his chest and wheezing in pain. As the sound echoed around the pit, the ponies above cheered and stamped their hooves, reveling in his suffering.

Unable to return my feet to the ground fast enough, I landed heavily on my back. Blinking back tears as pain flared in my shoulder, I rolled over with a groan. That works so much better in the movies.

Getting to my feet, I glanced down at my opponent. He was still on the ground, coughing up blood as he clawed at his bruised chest. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the taste of bile rising in my throat. I wasn’t a fighter by any means. The worst fight I have ever been in before coming to Equestria had been a small scuffle with another boy back in the second grade. The worst injury received had been a scraped knee. My nearly daily wrestling matches with Dash, while helpful, didn’t really count either, as neither of us were truly out for blood.

However, I was now being forced to fight for my life. I had to kill this human before he killed me, and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if I could actually do it.

Still coughing, my opponent finally managed to get back to his feet, gripping that goddamn shiv tighter in his hand.

“Attaboy! Earn me some bits!” Golden Ingot cheered.

I ground my teeth together, wishing that bastard would lean too far over and fall into the pit himself; I could use him as a club. Cracking my neck, I hunched down and waited for the incoming attack.

I didn’t have to wait long. With a scream, my opponent rushed me, the shiv held high. Clenching my teeth in preparation for the incoming pain, I reached up and grabbed the jagged blade in my left hand. Blood immediately dripped from my clenched fist as the jagged blade sliced into my hand, but I managed to hold on despite the pain. Bringing my other arm up, I slammed my fist into his stomach once, twice, three times before releasing the blade and backing off. A roar sounded from the crowd, signaling their approval.

As the human stood bent over, choking on blood while attempting to gasp for air, I took the time to look at my hand. A deep gash ran across the palm, and an alarming amount of blood was flowing from it. I clenched my fingers, wincing as the torn flesh flared with pain. Okay, so that wasn’t my brightest idea ever.

Something flashed in the corner of my vision and I tore my gaze away from my hand to look. Lying on the ground between us, covered in my blood, was the shiv. The human must have dropped it shortly after I had released it.

Not waiting for my opponent to recover, I dashed forward and scooped the weapon up. In a split-second decision, I knew what I had to do in order to ensure my own survival. Holding the shiv in my right, uninjured hand, I tackled the human to the ground. We struggled for several seconds before I managed to get around behind him. Wrapping my arm around his neck, I tightened my grip as he fought to get free.

Struggling frantically, the human grabbed at my arms with both his hands, scratching me as he pulled on my limb with all his strength. When he finally pulled my arm far enough away from his neck, he then opened his mouth and bit down.

I screamed as I felt his teeth sink into my flesh, cutting through skin and muscle before reaching the bone. Blinking back tears, I growled. That does it! With a grunt, I pushed the arm he was biting up, forcing his head up and exposing his throat. Spinning the shiv around in my hand, I raised it high into the air.

The human’s eyes widened, and he began to thrash about with renewed vigor.

Although it might be just a measly shiv, I thought as blood dripped down my arm, it is quite effective when applied to the jugular! Bringing the blade down, I plunged it into the struggling man’s neck. Instantly, a torrent of blood erupted from the room, his fighting only causing the gash to open wider.

He thrashed about, panic clear in his eyes. Fighting back tears, I just closed my eyes and dug the shiv in deeper wishing for it to end soon. I tried to ignore the feeling of flesh tearing, as well as the wet ‘schlink’ of the blade sinking deeper and deeper into his neck.

Soon enough, his struggles slowly began to weaken. His jaws began to slacken and I wrenched my arm from his mouth before pushing him off of me and scrambling away, breathing heavily. He just laid there, clutching weakly at his throat. A low gurgling noise came from his mouth as the life slowly left his body.

While he died, I just sat there, staring at my hand. My entire arm was now soaked in a mixture of my blood and his, although I suspected that most of it was his. I felt numb all over, and I had to fight the urge to vomit. I had just killed someone. I had actually just killed someone. Sure, it had been in self-defense, for the twisted amusement of a gang of sick, demented ponies, but still… I had killed another human being.

At least it’s over, I thought, trying to calm my nerves. My entire body was shaking due to all the adrenaline coursing through my system. My senses were on high alert, and I was dimly aware of Golden Ingot looking down at me in disgust, chewing angrily on the end of his cigar, which had gone out. I didn’t care, though. I was just happy it was all finally over.

“There you have it, mares and stallions! A rather spectacular display, wouldn’t you say?” Mr. Red roared, his magically-amplified voice cutting through the noise. All around the rim of the pit, ponies cheered and stomped. Some were grumbling about losing a few bits to a bet, sour looks on their faces, but most were just happy to have seen some blood.

I dry heaved at the sight, never having seen such pure, unadulterated joy in someone else’s suffering.

“And it’s not over yet!” Mr. Red cried, a wicked grin on his muzzle. “Oh no, we’re just getting started. Let’s bring out the next competitor!”

At his words, my heart sunk into my stomach. N-no… no, no, no, no!

As they levitated the lifeless body out of the pit, another cage was placed along the lip. Ponies began to stomp their hooves in time with one another, chanting, “Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!” With a ‘click’, the cage door swung open. It was tipped forward, the human inside spilling out into the pit.

As my new opponent, fresh and rested, staggered to their feet, I closed my eyes, tears beginning to roll down my face. My injuries from the previous fight took that moment to flare to life, causing me to groan in pain.

Please, is anybody out there? Twilight... where are you?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Glancing around, Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration. She was surrounded by at least fifteen unicorn guards, all of them clad in golden armor. Each one was working on a different spell meant to locate Max. Overhead, armored pegasi flew by, their armor glinting softly in the moonlight. Down the road, Earth pony guards were going house to house, knocking on doors and asking those inside if they had seen anything.

Beside her, Sunny danced on her hooves nervously, looking around at all the guards.

“How hard is it,” Twilight growled, her voice growing louder as she ground her teeth together, “to find one, singling, mother-bucking human!?” The guards around her flinched as she practically screamed at them in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

One of them, a white unicorn stallion with a red mane, approached her tentatively.

“I’m sorry, Princess Sparkle,” he said, saluting even as sweat dripped down his brow. “We are searching as quickly as we can, but no leads have come up yet.”

“Not good enough,” Twilight snarled, causing him to shrink back. “I want him found, and I want it done an hour ago!” The guard saluted quickly before returning to his squad.

Growling, Twilight ground her hoof into the dirt. This is unacceptable! The had been searching for several hours now, and yet they were unable to find neither hide nor hair of Max anywhere! She and Sunny had headed towards Sugarcube Corner first thing, hoping that they would be able to pick up Max’s trail from the last place he had been seen; somepony had to have seen what had happened.

Unfortunately, upon arriving at the bakery, Twilight had discovered the remaining residue of a powerful “Ignore-Me-Now” spell. With it in place, nopony would have noticed Max getting abducted. With eyewitnesses out of the question, she had decided to try and use her magic to track Max down. Her mood had only gotten worse upon discovering that none of her tracking spells were working. After several minutes of trying a variety of different spell and charm combinations, she had give up and decided to actually get her guards involved.

Her mood hadn’t improved when they had arrived at town hall. All of the guards had laughed when she had told them they were going to start hunting for a human. That was, until Twilight had finally lost it and screamed at them in her variation of the Royal Canterlot Voice and busted several windows. After that, the guards had gotten their heads out of their flanks and started to actually listen.

“T-Twilight?” Sunny’s voice beside her brought Twilight back to earth, her timid and scared tone causing Twilight’s ears to splay back. She glanced over at Sunny, relaxing slightly and trying to give the nervous pegasus a small smile.

It came out more like a grimace.

“It’s okay,” Twilight said, more to herself than anypony else. “Everything’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be fine. We’ll find him.” Turning, she gazed up at the stars, twinkling merrily in the sky, cruelly taunting her with their happiness.

“We’ll find him…” she whispered, a tear slowly rolling down her cheek.

There was a ‘thud’ behind the pair as one of the pegasus guards touched down. Glaring over her shoulder at him, Twilight motioned for him to report in.

“Your highness,” he panted, saluting with a wing. His disheveled man hung out of his helmet in sweaty strands. “Commander Steelwing reporting in, ma’am! Still no sign of the human!”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as her temper slowly began to rise again. The ends of her mane and tail began to smoke.

“Anything else to report?” she asked, trying hard to not let her anger control her voice.

“Yes, ma’am,” Steelwing cried, still saluting. “Although there is no sign of the human, upon questioning the local residents, it appears that several other humans have gone missing as well.” Sunny suddenly stiffened, her eyes widening slightly.

“So, whoever took Max might have also taken those humans as well?” Twilight asked. Steelwing nodded, his face still expressionless. He could give Max a run for his bits, Twilight thought, remembering the way Max looked whenever he was in public. It was always weird for her to see, especially with how expressive he was in the privacy of the library.

And you may never see that again if you don’t find him soon, whispered a small voice in the back of her head.

Pushing that morbid thought aside, she returned her attention to Steelwing.

"Commander, I want you to tear this town apart until you find him!” she ordered, her tone indicating that there was no room for argument. “I don’t care what it takes; I want him back safe and sound!"

Steelwing saluted before flying off. As he returned to those under his command, Twilight took another look around at the surrounding buildings. Her gaze fell upon the Ponyville spa and tears began to well up again as she thought back to the day she and Max had spent there. How relaxing it had been, and how thankful she was that Max had agreed to go with her. How afterwards he had scared away Golden Ingot for her.

Clenching her teeth, she glared at the ground, tears falling from her face and dampening the ground.

“I'll find him. No matter what, I'll find him. Even if I have to overturn all of Ponyville to do it,” she growled.

The sound of thundering hoofbeats from behind heralded another approaching guard. Turning, Twilight watched as an armored Earth pony ground to a stop right in front of her, saluting quickly. He was built similarly to Big Macintosh, and she had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

He had a small smile on his face.

“Ma’am,” he said, his deep voice causing the ground beneath her hooves to shake slightly.

“Yes?” Twilight asked, a small flicker of hope slowly spreading through her chest. She squashed it immediately, at least until she heard what he had to say.

“We’ve received word from one of the local residents,” he continued, dropping the salute. “He claims that earlier today he saw a group of ponies down by the old warehouses on the north edge of town. They were carrying crates and boxes into one of the buildings, trying hard not to be seen.”

“And this information helps us how?” Sunny huffed, her wings flapping slightly in irritation. Twilight remained silent. He had more to say she was sure of it.

The stallion’s grin grew as he glanced down at Sunny.

“Ma’am,” he said, tilting his helmet back, his golden eyes twinkling in amusement. “They were also carrying cages. Cages designed specifically for humans.” Silence fell as both Sunny and Twilight gaped up at him, their brains not registering what he had said. Then, all of a sudden, everything clicked.

“GUARDS! ON ME!!” Twilight roared, her Canterlot Voice piercing the night air. Heads swiveled around as every guard within earshot became alert. The earth shook as each one answered her summons.

“THE NORTH END OF TOWN, THE OLD MARKET DISTRICT! SEARCH EVERY WAREHOUSE YOU CAN FIND!” she roared, wings flaring wide. Turning, she nodded to Sunny.

Instantly the pegasus was in the air, speeding off into the night, heading north.

Snorting, Twilight turned quickly and—flexing her wings—galloped off after her. She was still getting used to her wings, but she was quick on her hooves.

Behind her, the thunder of hooves indicated her guards following behind.

“We’ll find him,” she growled, wind tossing her mane back and forth as she headed towards the warehouses. Behind her, an entire company of Royal Guards followed, the pounding of their hooves causing the very earth to tremble. Ponies peeked out of their windows, their eyes wide with wonder and alarm as the sea of golden armor raced past.

“We’ll find him...and Celestia help whoever may have hurt him!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Three rounds. I had managed to survive for three rounds. Three soul-crushing rounds of hellish torture. I groaned loudly as I leaned against the wall of the pit. Closing my eyes, I tried to shut out the sound of the ponies cheering and screaming above me. Clenching my fist, I winced as my broken finger burned.

I was exhausted, my body covered in dozens of gashes. Blood slowly oozed from them, dripping to the dirt below. My entire body hurt, and my muscles screamed at me, not used to being pushed so hard for so long.

Sighing, I ran a shaky hand through my hair, staining the brown strands red with blood. Seeing another cage being placed on the lip of the pit, I pushed myself off of the wall and tried to steel myself for another fight.

“Mares and stallions,” cried Mr. Red, causing me to roll my eyes and snarl; I was getting really tired of that asshole’s voice. “Let’s hear it for our tenacious little friend down there!” There was the sound of stamping hooves from above as the crowd began working themselves back up into a frenzy, getting pumped up for another match. “Now then, let’s get round four underway!” With that, the door of the cage opened and it tipped sideways. Out dropped another human. Unlike the three before, this human managed to flip in midair, landing on all fours like a cat.

My eyes widened and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Slowly, the naked human stood. Brushing her short, fiery red hair out of her face, the girl gazed at me with deep, emerald green eyes. I realized with a start that it was the girl from the marketplace.

Tightening my grip on the shiv I still had from the first fight, I slowly begin to circle around her. She just watched my movements with a curious gaze, relaxed and calm.

Inching closer, I kept my eyes locked on hers. When I was close enough, I mustered all my strength and lunged forward, thrusting the shiv towards her exposed abdomen. In a flash, she dodged my thrust, causing me to stumble. As I tried to regain my footing, I caught a glimpse of her sides. I dimly noted that she had three carrots branded on her hips. Pushing that information aside, I slammed my foot into the ground, trying to steady myself. Flipping my shiv, I twisted around and swung at her neck, trying for a quick kill.

Before the shiv made contact, though, she deftly reached up and grasped my wrist. As her fingers locked around my arm, I saw that her nails had been sharpened; they now resembled something more akin to claws than human nails.

She twisted sharply, causing me to scream in pain as I felt something in my wrist snap. Dropping the shiv, I clutched my wrist with my other hand, stumbling backwards.

She didn’t give me any time to recover. Dashing forward, she brought her hand down across my back. I screamed again as her sharpened nails dug into my flesh, leaving long, jagged scratches down my back. She brought her other hand up and slashed at my side.

Trying to hold back my cries of pain, I aimed a kick at her stomach. She attempted to dodge it, but I was quicker and my foot clipped her hip. The force of my blow caused her to spin around and collapse upon the ground.

I backed away from her, trying to catch my breath. Raising my right hand, I flexed my fingers experimentally. I winced as pain flared up in my wrist. Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, I thought, fighting through the pain. All that matters right now is survival. Pain can come later.

Turning my attention back to my opponent, I barely had enough time to duck underneath her swing as she aimed at my head with her claws. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her attack coming up from below until it was too late.

Stars exploded in front of my eyes as her knee connected with my face. I heard a sickening ‘crunch’ followed by a loud ‘pop’. Falling backwards, I grasped at my nose, a stream of blood flowing from both nostrils. I landed on my back, gagging as the flow of blood changed and it started to flood down my throat.

Coughing and sputtering, I attempted to spit out as much blood as possible as I scrambled away. The girl’s foot came down upon my leg, and a loud crack echoed through the arena. I cried out as I felt my shin bone break.

Blinking back tears, I clawed my way across the ground. The girl chased after me, teeth bared as she scratched at me. I gurgled out screams as she clawed at my body, her fingers digging shallow furrows through my flesh. Trapping my legs beneath her weight, she held me in place as she scratched at every exposed inch of flesh she could reach.

I held up my arms, trying to protect my face from her attacks. That only caused her to tear at my forearms, causing the old bite wound to start bleeding again. Wincing as she delivered blow after blow, I cracked an eye open, trying to find a way out of my situation.

I stared at the first thing I saw.

Now, there comes a time, in sheer desperation when you have nothing left to lose, that you will give anything a chance. Anything. This was one of those moments, and working on pure instinct alone, I did what I had to.

Throwing out my arms, I pushed her arms aside, causing her attacks to cease. Taking advantage of the momentary lull, I reached up with both hands and grasped at her exposed breasts. I dug my fingers into the soft flesh, snarling in both pain from my wrist and my finger, and in discomfort of what I was about to do. Tightening my grip on her bosom, I pulled hard in different directions.

A guttural scream tore itself from her throat as I pulled at her breasts. Throwing back her head, she shrieked in pain as I pulled harder. Working my good leg out from underneath her, I kicked her off of me, releasing my grip on her chest as I did so. I was dimly aware of the fact that I had left a bloody handprint on her right breast.

As she collapsed on the ground, I quickly stumbled to my feet, trying to ignore my broken leg as it shook beneath me. I pushed my advantage, staggering slightly as I hurried towards her.

Swinging my foot, I aimed a kick right at her head. She saw the attack coming and rolled quickly to the side, still clutching her breasts. Unfortunately, I had put too much force behind the kick, and as my foot connected with thin air I felt my other foot twist beneath me. Crying out in pain as I twisted my ankle, I completely lost my balance. The air was forced from my lungs as I landed on my back.

Instantly my opponent was on me, straddling my chest. Before I had a chance to even breathe, she had her hands around my throat. Reaching up, I tried to pry her hands off my neck, fighting for air. However, the lack of oxygen was beginning to affect me and my feeble attempts did nothing to release my throat from her viselike grip.

My vision narrowed as my mouth opened and closed, desperately trying to bring some air—any air—into my lungs. I felt her steely grip tighten around my neck, her fingers digging into my skin. Above us, the ponies cheered louder and louder as they realized the fight was almost over.

As I struggled weakly in her grasp, I slowly became aware of something wet dripping on my cheeks. Trying to focus my eyes, I looked up at the girl above me. My eyes widened as I saw her face.

Tears streamed down her cheeks from her brilliant, emerald eyes. Her lips trembled as she looked down at me, tears dripping off her chin to land on my blood-soaked face. They weren’t tears of pain or anger though: they were tears of regret. I heard her make that faint chirping noise that was completely alien to me, and yet sounded so familiar. Dimly, I realized that she was repeating the same sound over and over again. The same three chirps, each a different tone and length. It sounded almost like ‘I’m sorry...I’m sorry...I’m sorry…”

At least, that’s what I would have liked it to have been, although in all likelihood, it was probably just my brain slowly shutting down. Darkness slowly crept around the edges of my vision. The roar of the crowd above us grew fainter and fainter as all sound around me ceased. As I slowly felt myself beginning to slip away, I gazed up into the tearful face above me, my dark brown eyes meeting her stunning green ones.

As I lay there, dying, I watched as my life flashed before my eyes.

The first day of kindergarten, and how scared I had been when my mom had dropped me off. How quickly I had made a friend shortly afterwards, and the reluctance to leave that friend when my mom came back to pick me up.

The operation I had on my eye in the second grade. I had been extremely nervous with all those doctors in white masks standing around me as they prepared. How special I felt when everyone at school could not stop looking at my bloody eye for several weeks afterwards.

My trip to South America in the fifth grade, visiting relatives in Chile. How amazing it had been to stand on top of an active volcano as it spewed ash into the air, or the how cool it had felt to be several miles underneath the ocean in one of the many coal mines located there.

My first kiss. I had gotten it from my crush, who would later go on to become my girlfriend after I had spent several years trapped in the friendzone. How soft and warm her lips had been as they pressed gently against mine.

My trip to New York City with the high school orchestra. Standing in Times Square at night, staring in awe at all the lights around me. Having grown up in a small country town, the feeling of being in the massive city with all its skyscrapers was indescribable.

Finally graduating from high school. The thrill of having my name called and walking up onto that stage to get my diploma. I didn’t finished at the top of my class, but neither had I finished at the bottom. I was comfortably in the middle.

More memories flashed by: losing my grandma suddenly and unexpectedly three days before Christmas. The look of joy on my parents’ faces when I got accepted to one of the universities I had applied to. Laughing with my co-workers at McDonald's during a slow period due to a massive snowstorm. Playing video games with my friends, laughing and joking as we enjoyed each other’s company.

Then I had arrived in Equestria. Wandering around in the desert, trying desperately to survive. Being found by a group of talking, multicolored ponies. Watching as those same ponies savagely neutered and branded a human. Being kept for two weeks in hellish conditions, and with barely anything to eat. Being sold to the princess of this strange land, and then magically transported to another location.

Meeting Twilight Sparkle.

I could feel tears in my eyes as they slowly lost focus.

Treating Twilight horribly for the first week of my stay with her. Revealing my true self to her and apologizing. Her going out of her way to keep my secret safe, even if she didn’t know my reasons as to why. Living with that amazing mare, answering her thousands of questions. Reassuring her that she wasn’t bothering me with all the questions.

Twilight standing on the beach, the sun shining down on her beautiful mane. Her face when she thought that I was drowning; the care and tenderness that she showed for me. Our trip to the spa and how relaxing it had been. Her cute display of jealousy after that disturbing time at Sugarcube Corner.

That day when we had gone to Canterlot to have dinner with her family. The argument we had before we boarded the train, and the conversation we had had after Twilight had talked with Winter Cold. The fear and pain in her eyes when she thought that I was going to die of old age soon. The look of joy on her face when she learned that I wasn’t going to die anytime soon…

ba-dum

No...that wasn’t right. The look of joy on her face when I promised that I wasn’t going to die anytime soon.

ba-dum

I promised her that I wasn’t going to die…

ba-dum

ba-dum

ba-dum

Slowly the world came back into focus. I could feel my heart begin to beat louder in my chest, attempting to supply my dying limbs with much needed oxygen. My lungs were on fire, my limbs felt like dead weight, and my brain felt like it was about to burst, but I was still there. I was still alive!

Glancing up, I could see the face above me slowly coming into focus, her confused expression as she gazed down at me.

I made a promise to Twilight, I snarled soundlessly, my hands flying to my neck. I grasped her hands in mine, fingers digging into her flesh. I ignored the pain in my wrist as I tightened my grip.

I promised her that I wasn’t going anywhere! A burst of energy erupted from an unknown place deep within me. Using that last reserve of strength, I pulled at her hands with all my might. Tearing her hands from my throat, I sucked in great lungfuls of air, praising each breath.

I made a promise to Twilight, and I intend to keep it! Rearing back, I slammed my forehead into her face, causing her to cry out. She tumbled off of me, clutching at her bleeding nose. Pushing myself up, I ignored my screaming muscles and my throbbing head. Only one thing mattered to me anymore, and that was survival.

Pushing aside my weariness, I crawled on top of my opponent, trapping her beneath me. Wrapping my hands around her neck, I squeezed for all I was worth. Her eyes widened as she flailed beneath me, terror on her face as she became the one struggling to breathe. Ignoring her terrified expression, I closed my eyes and stubbornly held on for all I was worth.

She scratched at me in a blind panic, her nails raking my flesh as she fought against my death grip. I grunted, ignoring the pain as I focused solely on my hands, trying to keep my grip as tight as possible. Her fist came up and connected with my mouth, yet still I held on.

Eventually her struggling ceased, and I tentatively opened my eyes. I looked down and saw her green, lifeless eyes staring up at me, tears still present even in death. Unable to look away, I attempted to hold back the growing feeling in my stomach, but it was too much.

Crawling off of her still body, I heaved, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the dirt-covered ground. I wiped the bloody bile from my chin before crawling over to the discarded shiv. Picking it up gingerly in my trembling hand, I shakily got to my feet. It was only then that I noticed the sound of the crowd above me.

“Amazing!” Mr. Red yelled above the cheers. “Simply amazing! I don’t think any of us saw that ending coming! Somehow, someway, our current champion still remains undefeated!”

Spitting out a glob of blood, I ignored the sound of cheers and stomping coming from the crowd. Running my tongue over my teeth, I frowned slightly. Looking down at the pool of blood, I saw that I had just spat out two teeth as well.

“Already he has managed to defeat four opponents, and he still stands tall, despite the wounds he has sustained!”

Trying not to watch as they levitated the girl’s lifeless body out of the pit, I instead focus on my injuries. I gingerly placed weight on my leg, only to wince as I felt bone grind against bone. Flinching, I grunt as pain flared in my twisted ankle as well. Fuck, this isn’t good at all.

“But can he survive what we have in store for him next?”

I heard a cage door open above me, and seconds later a large thud echoed around the pit. The ground beneath my feet vibrated slightly at the impact, causing me to grunt in pain as my broken bones shifted slightly.

“Now then, let’s sit back and watch the bloodshed!”

I froze as a deep, primal growl came from behind me. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I slowly turned around to face my next opponent.

I looked over at the human, and my pupils shrank to tiny pinpricks.

Now, despite what most ponies here believed, I did not consider myself muscular. Sure, the wrestling matches with Rainbow Dash had added more muscle mass to my frame than I had had back on Earth. That, coupled with the fact that my diet in Equestria had stripped me of almost all my excess fat, I looked pretty athletic. I had the body of a runner, or maybe a swimmer.

This guy, on the other hand, was a different story entirely. It was like some steroids and testosterone had gotten together and spawned some perverse offspring. This guy had to have muscles on his muscles!

And he was huge! I had to crane my neck back just to look into his face. As he towered over me, one part of my consciousness wanted me to shit myself in fear, while another part of me, one that did not understand the severity of the situation, was waiting for him to say something about his technique having been passed down for generations.

I felt my stomach drop as I stared up at the muscle-bound juggernaut before me. My eyes drifted to his hip, and I noticed that he had an apple branded there. Inside the core of the apple, the letters ‘SAA’ could be seen. This bastard, this… brute, belonged to the Apple family! How the hell did these ponies kidnap THAT thing?!?!

As I gaped up at him, he stared down at me with cold, gray eyes. Slowly, he brought up one of his hands. My eyes flickered to his fist, and I felt more despair grip me. Gripped tightly in his large, meaty hand was a massive knife. Nearly thirteen inches long, it gleamed wickedly in the dim light provided by the flickering lanterns hanging from the ceiling above us.

My shiv would be next to useless against that thing.

Trembling, I stumbled backwards until my back was pressed against the wall of the pit. I could do nothing but stare at the behemoth before me. Unlike my previous opponents, he bore no signs of combat on his body. That either meant he was a new addition, or that no human before me had been able to severely hurt him.

He was alert and well rested, a fire burning behind his eyes as he glared at me. My entire body was in a tremendous amount of pain, every inch of me screaming out for sweet relief. My muscles burned, pushed past their limits multiple times tonight, and I didn’t think that they would be able to do it again. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there was no way I was getting out of this fight alive.

The creature roared, the force of his voice shaking the very earth beneath me. Above us, ponies cheered and howled with delight; this was going to be a massive bloodbath, and they knew it. Lifting his arm, the muscular freak reared back before flinging his knife at me. The blade soared through the air like a bullet.

Reacting purely on instinct, I dove to the side, nearly avoiding the lethal projectile. The knife missed me by a hair’s breadth, instead lodging itself into the wall behind me by at least five inches. I looked up, staring at it as it quivered ominously.

My opponent quickly approached me with thundering footsteps, teeth bared. I tried to get to my feet, but my broken leg gave out and I collapsed back to the ground. Reaching the wall, he grasped the handle of the knife and in one, swift movement, effortlessly pulled the blade free. Turning, he brought the blade swing down at me. I rolled, trying desperately to dodge the strike. My anguished screams filled the warehouse as I failed.

The blade carved into me, slicing my chest open. Crimson blood flowed from the wound as I tried in vain to cover the horrific gash with my hand. As I lay there, writhing in pain, he knelt down beside me. My breath caught in my throat as one of his massive hands closed around my throat. Instantly my vision started to fade as I was strangled again.

I have not...come this far...to die now! Feeling around with my hand, I felt my fingers wrap around the handle of the shiv. Bringing it up, I plunged it into the beast’s hand. Roaring in pain, he released my throat and withdrew his hand. Gasping for breath, I attempt to crawl away from him while he was distracted, but as I tried to roll over onto my stomach, my chest exploded in pain. Crying out, I collapsed back onto the ground, unable to move.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw activity around the edge of the pit. I could hear shouts and screams, but couldn’t make out what was being said. None of that mattered, however, as my attention returned to my opponent.

Above me, the brute grabbed the hilt of the shiv with his teeth, dealing with it the same way one would take care of a sliver. Spitting the shiv out, he glowered down at me. Without hesitating, he raised his blade into the air and brought it down on my face.

Reacting with pure fear, I brought my arms up. I grabbed his fist in my hands, wincing as the last inch of the blade cut into the skin of my thumbs. Locking my arms, I struggled to keep his hand elevated, the blade trembling as it dangled over my face.

It was a losing fight, however. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically, after struggling through four fights, each one leaving their toll. He didn’t have that problem; he was well-rested and fresh out of the cage. Not to mention that all of his muscle probably weighed more than me just by itself.

Slowly, the blade inched closer to my face. The muscles in my arm screamed as I pushed back, my chest heaving. Leaning in, the creature put his weight into his hand. Instantly, my right arm felt like it was in a vise, being burned by a branding iron. I screamed in pain as I suddenly felt the muscle in my arm tear. The blade instantly descended upon my face.

With my inner beast roaring in my ear, I let loose a primal, animalistic scream from deep within my soul. Ignoring my injures and my body’s protests, I pushed against him with all my might. The knife stopped centimeters from my face, the blade trembling as my arms shook from the strain of holding back the brute’s strength. Above us, I heard a shriek echo around the warehouse as someone shouted something unintelligible.

And that’s when my arms failed me. Slowly, painfully, the blade fell that last centimeter and sunk into my cheek. No! This can’t be happening! I could feel the blade enter my skin, slicing the flesh as it sunk deeper and deeper. I fought so hard, did so many horrible things, but… in the end…

I opened my mouth in a soundless scream as I felt the steel blade hit bone. In the end, I’m just going to die here… alone…

Blood ran into my eyes as it poured out of the wound on my cheek. I felt it drip down my face, running down my cheek and through my hair. The beast above me growled, and I clenched my teeth together, waiting for the end.

A blinding flash of white light filled my vision and an immense heat enveloped me. Something slammed into the side of the behemoth, launching him off of me. I screamed in pain as the knife cut through my skin, leaving a deep slash across my face. Covering my face with my hands, I screamed into the blooded and destroyed flesh. As I screamed, I felt my last reserves of energy fail me.

This is how I die, I thought, my entire body finally shutting down for the last time. As darkness claimed me, I glanced out from between my fingers. Something bright was descending into the pit, like an angel from heaven. The last thing I saw before I slipped into the void, was a flash of color.

A flash of lavender.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Alright, this is it,” Twilight said in a hushed voice. Her guards surrounded her as the group stood outside the doors of the farthest warehouse. An unconscious unicorn lay at Twilight’s hooves: a lookout that hadn’t been doing a very good job.

From inside, they could just barely make out the muffled voice of a stallion, saying something along the lines of ‘sitting back and watching the bloodshed!’

“Once we breach, use any force necessary to subdue anypony inside,” Twilight hissed to the guards. As one, they nodded silently.

Turning her attention up, she locked eyes with Sunny who was hovering above the group.

“I need you to fly in there and look for Max,” Twilight instructed. “Once you’ve found him, alert me immediately.”

Sunny didn’t say anything. She just nodded, a determined look in her eyes.

Turning, Twilight pushed magic down her horn and grasped the door in her magic. Not the door handle; the door itself.

“Alright, let’s do this!” With a snarl, she ripped the door off of the warehouse, tossing it over the heads of the guards and into the night. Sunny was through the opening in an instant, the guards not a second behind her.

As the group stormed into the warehouse, Twilight’s eyes took in the inside of the building. In the center of the room sat dozens of crates, arranged in a circular pattern, covered with cheering ponies. A large pit had been dug in the middle of the crates, sandbags lining the edge. Cages littered the outside of the ring. Six of them were empty, but the rest of them were filled with humans. Four dead humans lay off to the side of the makeshift arena. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of the mangled corpses, but she quickly saw—to her relief—that Max was not one of them.

A roar suddenly filled the warehouse, followed by a cry of pain. Snapping her attention back to the arena, Twilight watched as the guards descended upon the ponies grouped there. Stun spells were fired into the crowd, taking the cheering ponies by surprise. Twilight watched as their eyes widened in fear at the sight of an entire company of Royal Guards. Screams could be heard as the ponies began to flee.

There were unicorns in the crowd that tried to fight back, but were immediately cut down by the trained guards. Pegasi took to the air in an attempt to escape, but were grounded quickly by wave after wave of armored pegasi. Sunny hovered near the ceiling, amongst dozens of flicker lanterns. Her eyes roamed the room as she searched for any sign of Max.

As Twilight looked around the warehouse, trying desperately to find her human, she heard a shout come from her left. Turning, she saw a sight that caused her blood to boil: Golden Ingot, weighed down by bags of bits, was trying to slink off into the darkness. Smoke began to rise from the ends of her mane as Twilight snarled at him.

Looking back, his eyes widened in terror as he saw the enraged alicorn.

Pushing a large amount of magic into her horn, Twilight ripped apart the very fabric of space. She stepped quickly through the gap, closing it behind her before ripping another hole into it again. Emerging from the void, she found herself face-to-face with the terrified stallion.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked, her voice cold enough to freeze water.

Golden looked up at her, his pupils mere dots in his brown eyes. Trembling, he took several steps back. “W-w-well, y-you see...I-I-I…”

Twilight didn’t even give him time to finish. Channeling her magic, she blasted him, point blank, in the face. His limp body went flying backwards through the air, before crashing to the ground. He rolled several times before coming to a rest several meters away, unconscious.

Returning her gaze to the scene around her, Twilight blinked when she saw three unicorns—a red stallion and two identical gray mares—holding off several guards by themselves. Immediately teleporting over, she joined in the battle.

“Shit,” the stallion growled as Twilight appeared, “It’s the princess’s pet bitch!” His horn lit up, and he shot a burst of magic fire at her.

Twilight started to bring up a shield to protect herself, but one of the nearby guards beat her to it. The fire washed across the shimmering blue dome as Twilight fired up her own spell. As the protective shield dropped, she launched her own round of magic at the trio.

It caught one of the mares in the chest and she crumbled to the ground instantly as the spell took hold, causing the gravity around her to increase. Her twin shrieked at this, launching a salvo of magic bullets back at Twilight.

Blinking out of existence, Twilight reappeared safely several feet away as the magic bullets slammed harmlessly into the ground. Pushing more magic out of her horn, she hit the mare squarely in the horn with a massive stun spell. Her eyes rolled up into her skull and she collapsed on top of her sister.

As the rest of the guard slowly approached the remaining stallion, a scream rose above the din of combat, causing several of the guards to pause. Using this to his advantage, the red stallion blasted one of them. The guard’s armor protected him from the worst of the spell, but it was still enough to lift him up off of his hooves. The return fire was enough to send the stallion flying across the room. He slammed into the wall of the warehouse before sliding to the floor, unconscious.

Satisfied that none of them would be getting up soon, Twilight turned her attention to another fight nearby. She had only taken two steps when she froze, the blood in her veins turning to ice. A loud, beastly scream rent the air, filled with pain and despair. The guttural sound caused her very soul to shiver in fear.

As she looked around for the source, Sunny’ voice shout at her from the high above.

“Twilight!” she shrieked, the panic and terror clear in her voice. Whipping her head around, Twilight looked up at her. Their eyes met and she was immediately filled with fear. The look on Sunny’s face was filled with so much distress that Twilight felt her heart plummet.

“Inside the pit!” Sunny shrieked, pointing down with a hoof.

In an instant, Twilight was at the edge of the pit, staring down into its depths. What she saw caused her heart to stop.

Her human—her Max—was at the bottom of the pit. He was trapped beneath another human, one that looked to be made more of muscle than flesh. They were both struggling with a knife, the blade of which was a hair's breadth away from Max’s face. As she watched in horror, Max’s strength left him and the blade sunk into his flesh.

Letting out a wordless howl, Twilight poured a massive amount of magic into her horn. The energy coursed through her entire body as she rose into the air. Focusing all that energy, all her pain, into a single, massive point, she released a monstrous burst of magic.

It flew into the pit like a lightning bolt. Connecting with the muscled freak of a human, the magic didn’t even slow down. It lifted the human up, the burst of magic enveloped his body. With a flash of light, it slammed him into the wall of the arena, instantly searing his body.

As the smoking creature slumped to the ground, Max let loose a scream of pain. Clasping his face in his hands, he howled as he writhed on the ground.

“No, no, no,” Twilight cried, tears streaming down her face. Snapping open her wings, she jumped down into the pit. The magic around her horn ceased as she glided down to her human.

Landing several feet from Max, she slowly approached him. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the state of his body.

“By the Maker,” she breathed, her entire body numb. His body was covered in dirt and blood, countless cuts and scratches adorning his limbs. Blood oozed out of a huge gash in his chest, his ribs clearly visible from the wound. One of his legs was twisted the wrong way, clear indication of a broken bone. There was a huge bite mark on his arm. The palm of his hand on the same arm was torn to pieces. His face was smashed in, blood dripping from his mouth and broken nose. A long, deep cut ran across his face from one cheek to the other. His long hair was matted to his forehead by blood, streaks of it running through the brown strands. Bloody tears flowed from his closed eyes. His entire body was lying in a pool of crimson.

Tears fell from her face as Twilight gazed down at the body of her human, lying broken at her hooves. She heard Sunny land behind her, her breath coming in broken sobs. Walking slowly up to Max, Twilight collapsed to her knees, not caring about the blood. His chest barely rose and fell, his breath heavy and ragged. Each one sounded like a death rattle.

“M-Max?” she choked out, placing a hoof tentatively on his chest. There was no response. Pushing her hoof into his chest with slightly more force, she realized that she could barely feel his heartbeat.

Panicking, Twilight lifted her head, looking to the top of the pit. The guards stood by the rim, all around the edge of the pit.

“M-Medic,” she croaked, tears flowing from her face. Her chest felt tight, and she was having trouble breathing.

None of the guards moved; they just stood there, staring into the pit with looks of horror on their faces. Some of them even looked like they were going to be sick.

Sunny collapsed to the ground beside her, her body racked with sorrow as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“This is my fault,” she muttered, gazing down at Max’s body in shock. “This is my fault. This is all my fault.” Running a hoof gently over the wound in his chest, she stared at it numbly, not really seeing it. Her wings hung limply by her side, feathers dipping into the pool of blood the pair sat in.

Turning her attention back to Max, Twilight nuzzled his face, mewling softly.

“Please… don’t leave me,” she whimpered, her fur becoming matted with tears and blood. “Please, you promised me you wouldn’t leave me.” Silence fell as she continued to rub her cheek against his. His breaths were coming in shorter bursts.

“Medic!” she cried out again, her wings fluttering. Still, none of the guards moved. They appeared to be in shock. Given the current state of things, she told herself she shouldn’t blame them, but Max was dying and they weren’t doing anything!

“Medic!” Twilight placed her hoof back on Max’s chest. She couldn’t even feel his heartbeat anymore. Fear growing, she removed her hoof and placed her ear on his bloody chest, listening intently.

ba-dum ba-dum

There it was, so faint that she could barely hear it. His heart was still beating, still pumping whatever amount of precious blood he had left through his broken body. As long as it was still beating, he was still alive.

As long as it kept beating, he was still with her.

“MEDIC!”

ba-dum ba-dum

It was growing fainter, the time between beats increasing steadily. No, no, no!

Tearing her ear from his chest, Twilight looked down at him in horror. After he had told her the tale of what had happened on the train as well as his fears, she had promised him that nothing bad was going to happen to him anymore. She had promised him that he was safe. She had promised him that she wouldn’t let anything horrible like that happen to him again.

Yet, here he was, dying in her hooves.

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. There was nothing she could do. She had used too much magic already; she had no more left to perform even the simplest of healing spells. There was nothing she could do to help her dying human.

Clenching her eyes shut, Twilight slammed her hooves into the blood-soaked ground. Scrunching up her face, she threw her head back and screamed into the night, giving voice to her despair.

“MEDIC!”

Chapter 18: Tell The Truth and Shame The Devil

Alone, I drifted silently through the inky blackness of the void. My whole body ached, and I hurt in places that I didn’t even know existed until the pain enlightened me to their presence.

I tried to move my arm, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t speak. I only existed within the darkness, alone and in pain. I tried to call out for someone—anyone—to help me, but no sound emerged from my mouth. I was lost in the darkness, alone.

I could feel my consciousness slipping, drifting away into the void. I tried to stop it, to hold on to what I was, to who I was, but it was slipping through my grip like water. A voice in my head, quiet and friendly, told me to just let go, to drift off into the emptiness. I tried to ignore it, grasping at my memories with more and more desperation, but it was useless.

I was going... going...... going…......

“Max!”

A piercing light burned through the darkness around me, carving away at the shadows and dispelling the blackness. Instantly I felt my memories—my very soul—return to me. I had a feeling that I was no longer alone in the darkness. Slowly, the light dispersed, but the presence remained.

I was dimly aware of the sensation of something grabbing my jaw and forcing my mouth open. Seconds later, I felt an object being shoved down my throat, and immediately air flooded into my lungs. I could breathe again!

“Max!”

The light flared again, and I felt my fingers twitch. It died out for the second time, and the darkness crowded back around me. It pushed against my body on all sides, trying to smother what little of me there was left.

“Human…” The pressure vanished suddenly as the darkness fled. Light flooded the world around me, and an eerie peace fell over my broken body. Even though I was in pain, I felt content just to bask in the presence of the being before me. Slowly, it approached, almost as if it were afraid that I would disappear. Warmth spread throughout my body as it reached my side. When it spoke again, its voice sounded feminine and gentle.

“D-did...did it work?” There was a brief pause as whatever it was examined me, before it breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank Existence.” I groaned as the pain flared up. The figure bent down and appeared to nuzzle its head against my chest.

“Rest, little human,” it cooed, warmth washing over me like a gentle stream. “You are safe here.” I felt myself slowly drift back into unconsciousness.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“...ntly. Gently! We don’t want to cause any more damage than what's already been done!” Gradually, I felt myself slipping back into wakefulness. Instantly I was assaulted by a massive amount of pain, it felt more real than back in the void, and I cried out in agony. My scream was muffled by something in my mouth, heading down my throat. It felt like a plastic tube of sorts, I was dimly aware that it was supplying me with precious oxygen. At the sound of my cry, several different voices gasped.

“How can he still be alive?” I felt a breeze blow across my body as I became aware that I was resting on something soft, but firm. More voices around me spoke up, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. There was a constant sound of metal clinking on metal in the background, and the sound of hoof beats. A deep voice barked out something that sounded like an order.

I attempt to open my eyes as I felt the thing I was resting on begin to vibrate. I frowned slightly as I realized that I couldn’t open my right eye. Wincing in pain as the surface beneath me lurched slightly, I groaned around the thing invading my airway.

“Careful!” a voice near my head snapped. Ignoring my right eye for the time being, I turned my attention to my left eye and forced it open. I was only able to get it about halfway open before the pain became too much. Colors blurred together as I tried to distinguish what was going on around me. As my vision cleared slightly, I could just barely make out the sight of the night sky above me. Every now and then a tree branch would flit by in the darkness, as would an occasional armor-clad pegasus. Their armor glinted softly in the night.

As I watched them fly by, I felt myself slowly drifting back into unconsciousness. My eye closed, I groaned softly, and then I knew no more.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Pain erupted in my chest as I was jolted into consciousness. Crying out in pain, I tried to sit up and move my arms, but found that I couldn’t. My limbs were bound; my wrists were strapped tightly to whatever I was lying on. As I writhed in pain, I felt a dozen pair of hooves try and hold me steady.

“His heart is pumping again,” A muffled voice said right by my ear. “But his heart rate is still too low.” The wounds on my chest felt like they were on fire. Falling back, I crack my eye open, my gaze darting back and forth. Ponies in medical masks surrounded me, working away at my body. Some of them had horns, which were all alight with magic. The wound in my chest was also surrounded in a magical glow, and it felt like pins and needles were being stabbed into it.

“Keep your magic charged,” one of the ponies said, eyeing something just out of my view. “We can’t afford to have his heart stop again.” The pony by my head shook her pink mane out of her face and looked down into my open eye. Her large, blue eyes widened as she saw me looking back at her.

“Buck, he’s conscious!” she hissed, causing several of the others to gasp. I felt her hooves tighten slightly around my head, holding it down.

“Keep him relaxed until the sedative kicks back in,” a male voice ordered, stress clear in his voice. “I don’t think he can do much in the state he’s in, but better to be safe than sorry.”

“It’s going to be okay, hon,” the nurse cooed nervously, running a hoof through my hair as she tried to keep me calm. I groaned again as the heat in my chest increased. I leaned my head back onto the table, my vision swimming as darkness slowly crept back around me. Closing my eyes, I slipped away once more.

“His blood pressure is too low; he’s lost too much blood! Where the buck is the nurse with those blood transfusions?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“...and I understand that princess, but we’ve done everything we can for him at the moment. The only thing left to do now is let him rest, and pray.” The annoying sound of squeaky wheels assaulted my ears as I felt myself moving along on a flat surface. I caught bits and pieces of conversation around me as I moved, but I was unable to understand anything said. I was too exhausted to care however. As I fell back into my slumber, I heard a familiar voice speak up next to me.

“Thank you, Nurse Redheart, but I’ll be staying with him regardless.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

I don’t know how long I had been asleep for, but the first thing I became aware of as I slowly regained consciousness was that my entire body felt like I had been run over by a steamroller, then mauled by a bear. There was no part of me that wasn’t sore, groaning softly as I tried to shift my limbs. I was stiff all over, and any attempt to relieve that was met with pain.

The second thing I became aware of was the fact that I was lying on something soft and comfortable, and I was pleasantly warm. That, in and of itself, was almost enough to make up for the fact that I hurt all over. Almost.

For several minutes I was just content to lie there in my soft, warm surroundings and listen to the gentle beep of the machine next to me. I wasn’t completely sure where I was, but the whole thing had a kind of peaceful feel to it.

A small itch on the side of my head eventually got me to move. After relieving it by rubbing my head against the pillow beneath me, I decided that it was time to figure out where I was.

Cracking open my eye, I winced as it was assaulted by bright sunlight. Blinking back tears, I waited for my eye to adjust before looking around. My right eye was covered with something, so I only had the use of my left eye.

From what little I could see without the ability to move my head, I was in a bed inside of what appeared to be a hospital room. The walls and ceiling were painted different shades of green, and the window in one of the walls kept up the theme, having green curtains hanging from it. A second, empty bed sat next to mine, looking like someone had been sleeping in it.

Glancing down, I saw that my left arm was completely covered in bandages and was currently hooked up to what looked like a bag of blood. My right arm was in a similar situation, but with an IV needle jabbed into my flesh. In fact, most of the different parts of my body that I could see were covered in some form of bandage. Straining my neck, I saw that I was also hooked up to a heartbeat monitor.

Laying my head back down with a low groan, I rolled my eye in the direction of the window. Outside, the sun was just setting, casting the world in a red hue, and causing the clouds to look like they were on fire. As the sun gradually sank lower beneath the horizon, I just laid there and enjoyed the simple act of observing the beauty of the sunset out of the corner of my eye.

I was brought back to reality by the sound of the door handle turning. Rolling my eye around, I watched as the door opened slowly and Twilight walked in carrying a tray of food in her magic. Closing the door with her back hoof, she walked slowly over to the empty bed next to mine. Her brow was furrowed, and she was staring at the floor, a small frown on her face as she chewed on her bottom lip.

Reaching the bed, she finally glanced up, her frown deepening as she looked at me. Her eyes slowly roamed over my body, working their way towards my face. She froze and the tray clattered noisily to the ground as she saw me staring back at her.

“M-Max…?” she whispered, taking a tentative step towards me. Unable to move to respond, I just blinked at her slowly. “Oh, thank Celestia!” Instantly she was across the room, her hooves wrapped around my neck. I snarled in pain as my body screamed at the sudden pressure. She released me quickly and leapt back, apologizing profusely.

“Sorry, sorry!” Approaching my bed again, she gingerly ran her hoof over the covers, smoothing them out as she looked at me, tears in her eyes. Casting a quick glance at the mess she had made with the tray, she lit up her horn. All the food returned to the tray and she placed it gently at the foot of the empty bed.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, returning her gaze to me and giving me a small smile. I responded with a low, long groan. She giggled slightly at this, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I would expect so, given the state your body was in when we f-found you.” I gave her a questioning look, hoping she understood.

“When the ponies who took you removed your collar, I was immediately alerted and Sunny and I began to look for you,” Twilight said softly, still running her hoof over the sheets. “With help from my guards, we arrived just in time to blast that massive human off of you.” Another questioning look, and she cocked her head to the side.

“How did we find you?” she asked, looking into my eye. Gritting my teeth, I shook my head once, barely moving. “Where’s Sunny?” At that, I nodded once, still gritting my teeth in pain. “She’s back at the library with Spike. I can send for her right now if you would like.” Shaking my head once more, I dropped my head back, groaning in pain. The simple act of moving my head left me with no energy.

Breathing heavily, I just stared up at the ceiling. Beside me, I could feel Twilight’s hoof stroking the bedspread continuously. Finally mustering up enough energy, I glanced back down at her. She was just sitting there, running her hoof absentmindedly over the covers as she stared off into the distance. Tears slowly slid down her cheeks, dampening her fur. As her hoof neared my hand again, I reached out and grasped it weakly with my fingers. She flinched and blinked once, then glanced down at my hand.

“S-sorry,” she murmured, ears splayed backwards. “It’s just...it’s just…” More tears streamed down her face as her breath hitched in her chest. “I thought I lost you.” Leaning down, she nuzzled my hand with her cheek, closing her eyes as she cried silently. “They had to revive you twice, and even then they weren’t sure if you were going to make it.” I twitched my fingers, trying my best to stroke her cheek with the tips. It wasn’t much, but she seemed to get the message because after several minutes she sat back up and smiled weakly at me, wiping the tears from her face.

“T-thanks,” I blinked once, before glancing over at the table beside me. Twilight followed my gaze. Her eyes widened and her face lit up when she saw what I was looking at. Lifting up the cup of water in her magic, she floated it over to me. She gently opened my jaw and stuck the end of the straw in my mouth. I sucked greedily on the cool, refreshing liquid, shivering slightly as it raced down my parched, cracked throat. Draining the glass quickly, I closed my eyes and sighed happily. This caused Twilight to giggle.

“You should get some more sleep,” she said, placing the cup back on the table. “The doctor said the best possible thing for you right now is rest.” Leaning over, she gently nuzzled my head before retreating to the opposite bed. Her horn lit up and a book slowly floated into view. “I’ll be here when you wake up again, I promise.” A smile touched my face, then I closed my eyes, and happily drifted back into oblivion.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I fell to the ground as the entire castle shook from the force of the shout. The faceless statues around me tumbled as well, breaking apart as they crashed to the floor. The horse whinnied in fear, her wings spread wide as her head whipped back and forth. I tried desperately to regain my footing, but the floor was shaking too much and I was flung back down.

With a loud crack, the floor opened up beneath us, the stone crumbling away. My companion took to the air, her wings beating feverishly. I was not so lucky, and with a shout of terror, I plunged into the darkness beneath.

I fell for several seconds before I hit the ground. Landing, my legs crumbled beneath me and I rolled, narrowing avoiding a chunk of rock. As debris fell around me, I rose to my feet. Thankfully, the shaking had stopped. Glancing around, I saw that I had dropped into a large, circular room. Light streamed down from the new hole in the ceiling, dust and other fine particles hanging in the air. The light filled the center of the room, casting the edges of it in shadow. Through the dust, I could see something sitting in the middle of the ring of light.

Coughing, I made my way towards the object, digging slowly through the bits of ceiling, pillars and human statues. As I neared the light, I saw that the thing was actually a large, stone pedestal. A short pillar rested on it, a stone orb sitting on top. Six smaller orbs branched out from the pillar, each with a different symbol etched into it. Moss and vines grew over the entire thing, a testament to how long it had stood there.

Standing beside the weird structure, I stared up at it in awe. I had just reached out a hand to touch the dust covered surface when a deep growl echoed around the room. I spun around quickly, eyes widening in horror. Behind me, glowing red eyes glaring at me from the shadows, was the Darkness. It was huge, nearly fifty feet high. Its head brushed the remains of the ceiling as it towered above me.

“I see you,” it growled, the room shaking slightly. Heart pounding in my chest, I slowly backed up. Eyes darting around the room, I looked for an escape route, but the room had no doors or windows. The only way in or out was through the hole in the ceiling. As my companion was nowhere to be seen, I was on my own. I was trapped with the Darkness. The ground shuddered as I heard it take a step towards me. Quickly, I snapped my head around, eyes locking onto the beast.

As it slowly stepped towards me and emerged from the shadows, I felt my jaw drop. It was like no creature I had ever seen before. It looked like someone had taken several spare parts from different animals and combined them into one creature. The thing had the head of a horse, with a deer antler and goat horn atop its head. Its right foreleg was that of a lion, ending in a massive paw. The left one was that of a bird of prey, it’s long, sharp claws scratching at the dusty stone as it advanced. Two massive wings extended from its back, the left one covered in blue feathers, while the right one was bare and leathery, like a bat’s wing. Its long, snake like body was covered in brown fur, and ended with a scaly dragon tail. As I took in its appearance with a shocked gaze, it glowered down at me, its red eyes burning into my soul.

“There’s nowhere left to run,” it hissed, baring its teeth. Its mouth was filled with long, pointed teeth that glinted in the dim light. A long, forked tongue slithered from in between its teeth as it spoke. It drew nearer, but I was unable to run away. My feet felt like they were glued to the floor, and my legs were like stone.

“If you will not help them,” it roared, stopping just in front of me. I had to crane my head back just to look into its smoldering gaze. “Then you have no more purpose here!” With that, it raised its massive lion paw high into the air. Long, black claws emerged from the paw. With a roar, its paw descended upon me. Screaming for all I was worth, I raised my arms as I tried to stop the inevitable end. Closing my eyes, I turned my head and waited for the impact.

“ENOUGH!!” boomed a second voice, echoing around the room and causing the castle to shake again. A gale force wind ripped through the room, tearing the very stones from the walls and floor. “AT LONG LAST, WE HAVE FOUND THEE!!!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I awoke with a start, my eye snapping open. My breaths came in short, ragged gasps and I was dimly aware that the heartbeat monitor was going haywire. My heart felt like it was attempting to break free of my ribs and make a run for it. My eye spun in its socket, trying to take in as much of my surroundings as quickly as possible. All my senses were on high alert as some old fight-or-flight instinct kicked in.

The entire room was shrouded in the darkness of night; the curtains drawn to block out the bright moonlight on the other side. Twilight was asleep in an armchair in the corner of the room, soft snores coming from her slightly open mouth. I could just make out a sleeping form in the bed next to mine, a blue wing indicating that it was Sunny. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the room that I could see.

“T-that’s impossible,” a voice breathed by my right ear. My heart rate skyrocket and I twisted my head around. Standing beside me, staring down at me with large, shocked eyes, was a dark pony. She had a large, spiraled horn on her head. Her mane was a mixture of several different shades of blue and seemed to flow in a nonexistent breeze, small stars twinkling in its depths. She had a large pair of wings folded across her sides. Fear welled up from deep within me. I had met three of the alicorn princesses already, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was now looking at the fourth one.

Standing beside my hospital bed, looking down at me with a gaze that held such intensity, was Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria and one of the two ponies that I did not want anywhere near me right now.

As we stared at each other, her teal eyes drilling into my brown ones, Twilight stirred, awoken by the sound of my heartbeat monitor going crazy. Sitting up, she blinked the sleep from her eyes as she quickly turned her attention to me. Her concerned gaze changed to one of panic as she saw the pony standing beside me.

“L-Luna?” she stuttered, jumping off of the armchair and stumbling slightly. “What are you doing here?” Luna didn’t seem to hear her, or was just ignoring her, as she stared down at me.

“Twilight Sparkle, what is this?” she asked, turning towards Twilight but not taking her eyes off of me. Twilight paused, eyes darting between the two of us, a confused expression on her face.

“H-he’s a human.” Luna’s eyes narrowed at this, and she snorted in irritation.

“Impossible,” she huffed, glowering down at me. “He is no human.”

What?

“What?” Twilight asked, ears splayed backwards. “W-what makes you say that?” Silence fell across the room as Luna continued to stare down at me, broken only by the beep of the heartbeat monitor next to me. My heart rate was slowly dropping, but it was still pretty high. I was surprised that the doctors hadn’t shown up yet. In the bed beside us, Sunny snored softly, oblivious to what was happening near her.

“We have been tracking down a string of nightmares that has been troubling Equestria for the past several months,” Luna eventually said, her gaze finally leaving mine. Looking over at Twilight, a small frown crossed her face. “Normally it is an easy thing to fix. Find the nightmare, enter the pony’s dream, and help them face their fears. Once taken care of, the nightmare disperses and peace returns to the Dreamworld.

“However, these particular nightmares have been troublesome,” Luna continued, beginning to pace back and forth along the length of my bed. “Something was preventing us from getting to their source, and by the time we fought through the barrier, the individual had already awoken. It has been troubling us nonstop for several months. That is, until tonight.” A small smile touched Luna’s lips at this. “Tonight, we successfully tracked the nightmare. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the cause of all our frustration was this...creature.” Returning to her original position, Luna looked down at me with an intense, annoyed gaze.

“Humans don’t dream, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, her voice icy. “In all the years we have been alive, we have not encountered one dream from a human within the Dreamworld. So I will ask once more and once more only: what is he?” Twilight and I both seemed to sag at the same time. Closing my eye, I sighed heavily. The game’s finally up. When I opened it again, I looked over at Twilight and gave her a small nod. Her ears were splayed back as she returned the nod. Turning to look at Luna, she took a deep breath, then began.

“His name is Max, and he is indeed a human, Luna,” she said, holding up a hoof when Luna made to interrupt her. “I know you said he couldn’t be one, but he is, I swear. Although he is different than most other humans. You see, he’s actually intelligent.” Luna’s eyes narrowed, but her expression softened slightly.

“What do you mean, intelligent?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“He understands what we are saying, and can respond in kind.” At this, Luna inhaled sharply, her wings snapping to attention.

“Impossible!” she hissed, “No human in history has ever been recorded having that ability!"

“Max, raise your right hand,” Twilight said, not taking her eyes off of Luna. Slowly, and with great difficulty, my right arm rose into the air. “Now hold up three fingers.” Grunting in pain, I did as she requested, holding up three fingers. “Now, lower two fingers.” I shot both of them the bird, smirking slightly. Throughout all of this, Luna’s eyes grew bigger and bigger, her mouth opening in shock.

“T-that’s not possible,” she breathed, staring down at me in awe. I shot her a wide, tooth-filled smile, and she backed away immediately.

“This is Max, Luna,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on my bed. “He is a human, who can smile, swim, think, and reason for himself.”

“Where did you find him?” Luna asked, taking a tentative step towards me. She no longer looked angry, just wary. She studied me with a curious gaze.

“Princess Celestia sent him to me several months ago,” Twilight said, keeping her hoof on the bed.

“This is the human that Tia talked about?” Luna asked, running her gaze over me, a slight frown on her face. “What happened to him?”

“He was taken by a gang of ponies and forced to fight other humans in a giant pit,” Twilight said, her voice cracking slightly as she lowered her gaze. “We just barely managed to get him out in time.” Struggling against my own weariness, I stretched my arm down and grasped at Twilight’s hoof again.

“You have our sympathy, human,” Luna said, looking me in the eye. At this, Twilight perked up.

“Does that mean you believe us?” she asked, a hopeful look in her eyes. A shake of Luna’s head caused it to fade.

“Not just yet, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, a thoughtful look on her face. “Although, you have given us a great deal to think about. We shall return to Canterlot to process it all.” Slowly turning around, Luna shot me one more glance before heading towards the door. “Rest assured though, you shall receive no trouble from us.”

“Thank you, Luna,” Twilight said, smiling at the lunar princess. Reaching the door, Luna opened it silently. Just before she slipped out, however, she looked back over her shoulder at us.

“Don’t thank us yet, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, the smile absent on her face. “Unfortunately, we must tell Tia of this interesting development.” With that, she was gone, and the door closed with a soft 'click'. Both Twilight and I stared at the door for several minutes, neither of us moving. Sunny snored softly from the other bed, still in a deep sleep. Eventually, Twilight turned to look at me.

“I think,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip as she looked at me nervously, “it’s time to tell the others the truth.” I stared at her blankly for several seconds, just looking into her eyes. The little voice in my head was screaming at me not to do it.

Then I blinked, and nodded my head once.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Over the next couple of days, my condition improved immensely. The doctors and nurses took good care of me, changing my bandages on a regular basis and making sure that I had painkillers. I was confused at first as to why I was in a hospital since I was a human. Don’t get me wrong; I was extremely grateful for the medical attention, but back home you would never see a horse being treated at the hospital.

Twilight had explained that, even though ponies took their humans to the vet when they were sick, any serious injury was dealt with at the hospital. It had something to do with ponies and humans having similar anatomies, and doctors being trained to take care of both. And they did take care of me.

After three days of care and the use of several spells and potions, most of my minor injuries had all but disappeared. I still had multiple bandages wrapped around my right leg, left arm, both hands, chest and face, but I wasn’t complaining. At least I didn’t look like a mummy anymore. It was on this third day that Twilight finally left my side. She had kept her promise and stuck by me through my recovery, providing whatever help was necessary, but we had finally decided that it was time for her friends to know the truth.

When the nurse had entered to change my bandages on the third day, Twilight had gotten up and left, telling the nurse (and me) that she was going to get her friends. The nurse nodded, then returned to checking my wounds. She had finished changing my bandages and left, closing the door behind her. As I waited for Twilight to return, I closed my eyes and pushed my head further into the pillow, trying to calm my nerves. I didn’t want to do this, but now that Luna knew the truth, we could no longer keep it secret. I'm blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. Everything will be fine.

As I lay there with my thoughts, the door swung opened and Twilight walked in, her friends close behind her. I rose to a sitting position, wincing as my limbs protested. I might be healing, but I was still sore. Twilight immediately rushed over and helped me into a seated position.

“Easy now, Nurse Redheart said to not strain yourself,” she whispered. I grunted once before scooting back and resting against the headboard. Her friends just stared at me, mouths agape slightly. I must have looked like quite the sight, covered in bandages and cuts. Fluttershy looked to be close to tears.

“Shoot, sugarcube. Ah knew ya said it was bad, but not that bad,” Applejack said in a hushed tone. “What happened tah the poor fella?”

“Does this have anything to do with the rumors going around about some sort of human fighting ring?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head as she looked at me.

“They weren’t rumors, Dash,” Twilight sighed, placing her saddlebags on the bed with me. “And that is exactly what happened.” As Twilight told the girls what had happened, I grabbed Twilight’s bags and popped them open. Rooting around inside of them, I searched for what I had requested Twilight to bring with her. As Twilight finished the tale, there was an audible gasp from the group before I was immediately set upon by a yellow blur.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Fluttershy sobbed, clinging to my chest. I grunted in pain. Despite the doctor’s best attempts, my ribs were still broken and tender. They were healing fine, but any pressure caused pain.

“This is all really sad,” Rarity said, refusing to look directly at me. “But why did you need us to come and visit it today?” If it weren’t for the fact that I was currently distracted with trying to pry Fluttershy off of me, I would have rolled my eyes.

“Well, recent events have brought certain things to light, and I think it’s time that you girls know the truth,” Twilight said, shuffling her hooves as she stared at the ground. I managed to free myself from Fluttershy and she returned to stand with the rest of the group. I returned to rooting around Twilight’s bags. “You see, the truth is, even before the events of the past couple of days, Max doesn’t act like a normal human…” Twilight trailed off, trying to think of the best way to continue. I silently cheered as I found what I was looking for. In the resulting silence, Applejack snorted before rolling her eyes and smiling.

“Don’t tell me he’s misbehavin’ again,” she said, tipping her hat back on her head. “Ah still stand by what Ah said before sugarcube: if ya don’t want him tah cause trouble, ya gotta get ‘em neutered, although it would be a waste of good breedin’ material,” she added in an undertone. Twilight sputtered at this, face turning red.

Ignoring the flustered mare, I grabbed the pad of paper and uncapped the marker I had taken from Twilight’s bags. Quickly writing out a message, I cleared my throat to get everyone’s attention and held up the pad.

+Please don’t cut off my balls; I’m rather attached to them+ A hush fell over the room as everyone looked at me in shock, including Twilight. I just stared back at them blankly, waiting for a response. I said that I would tell them the truth. I never said I would be tactful about it. Eventually, Applejack leaned over to Twilight.

“Twilight?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of me. Twilight facehoofed, dragging her hoof down her face. Turning to the rest of the girls, she put on a strained smile.

“Girls, the truth is, Max is unlike any other human in the fact that he is completely and utterly intelligent,” she said, waving a hoof in my direction. To illustrate her point, I smiled. Everyone’s eyes widened and their jaws dropped to the floor, causing me to chuckle as well. Soon, Twilight joined in the laughter as her friends continued to stare. The first pony to move was Pinkie Pie.

“Does this mean that I get to throw you a ‘Hurrah-For-Being-Intelligent’ party?!” she gasped, leaping into the air. I blinked at her in surprise before my smile grew wider.

+Depends. Will there be food?+

“Of course there will be food, silly!” Pinkie said, rolling her eyes and waving a hoof at me. “It wouldn’t be a party without snacks!”

+Okay, but you’ll have to talk to Twilight about who can come+

“Oh, so it’s going to be a private party? Well, in that case I better do all the baking by myself. What’s your favorite type of cupcake?” The others watched in awe as Pinkie and I bantered back and forth. Fluttershy and Applejack just looked shocked, Rarity looked horrified, but a smile was slowly spreading across Rainbow Dash’s face.

“This. Is. Totally. AWESOME!” she cheered, leaping into the air. She immediately zoomed over and started hovering around me. “So, can you really understand me right now?” she asked, her face lighting up. I nodded once and she squealed happily. “That is so cool!” I rolled my eyes and bopped her in the nose with a bandage-covered hand.

“Twilight, how long has this been goin’ on?” Applejack asked, eying me suspiciously.

“Ever since the first week I had him,” Twilight said, not meeting Applejack’s eye.

“WHAT?!” Pinkie cried, wheeling around and latching onto Twilight’s face with her hooves. “He’s been able to understand us this whole time and you never told me?! Think of all the parties he’s missed!!” She shivered slightly, as if there very thought frightened her.

“Yeah Twi,” Rainbow agreed, flying over to join Pinkie. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? Think of all the great pranks I could have been pulling with him!”

“I didn’t tell you girls because we wanted to keep it as quiet as possible,” Twilight said hanging her head. “And also because Max isn’t that trusting of too many ponies.”

“What? Why wouldn’t you trust us?” Pinkie asked, looking at me and tilting her head to the side in a comical manner.

“Let’s just say he didn’t have the best time before he came into my care. You remember what he looked like when he first arrived, right?” Twilight said, turning to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus nodded distractedly, staring at me with an odd expression on her face. “Well, that’s kind of the reason why he didn’t want ponies to know he was as intelligent as they were.”

“So what changed?” Applejack asked, still looking at me. I was trying to keep a straight face, but it wasn’t helping that Rainbow was behind her, pulling funny faces. Pinkie Pie sat on the bed beside me, giggling at the display. I was surprised that she had accepted everything so quickly, but then again...it was Pinkie.

“Recent events have led to the fact that we can’t keep this secret for much longer. Both of us agreed that it was time for you girls to know. Just, don’t tell anypony just yet,” Twilight said.

“Don’t worry, egghead. Your secret’s safe with us,” Rainbow said, swooping over and crashing onto the bed with me and Pinkie. I winced slightly as the movement from her landing caused my leg to shift. For the most part, they were taking this pretty well, especially Rainbow and Pinkie. I had yet to hear a word from Fluttershy or Rarity though.

“That still doesn’t explain why he’s intelligent though,” Applejack said, rubbing her chin with her hoof.

“You girls remember that time we got transported to the world where everypony’s gender was swapped?” Twilight asked. Her question was met by a general murmur of acknowledgment. “Similar situation,” she said, waving a hoof at me. “Max comes from a world where humans are intelligent, and he somehow got teleported to Equestria.”

“Wait, so he’s like, an alien?” Rainbow asked, sitting up and perking her ears. At Twilight’s nod, she pumped her hoof in the air. “Aw man, this just keeps getting better and better! I’m in bed with an intelligent alien human!” Pinkie and I burst out laughing at this, causing Rainbow to look at us in confusion. Her face turned red and her wings stiffened as she realized what she said. “I-I didn’t mean it like that,” she huffed crossing her forelegs and pouting slightly.

“Ah tried tah have ya breed him,” Applejack said, staring at me with a glazed expression. “Ah tried tah use him as a stud for mah humans…”

“Um, excuse me,” Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper. “But if he is intelligent, can he talk? I mean,” she hid behind her mane as her voice lowered, “if he can understand us, why can’t he talk?”

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be, like, able to understand animals?" said Rainbow from her position on the bed. "So why can't you just use the same thing on him?" she asked, jabbing a hoof in my direction.

"I can understand animals," Fluttershy said, sinking farther into her mane. "But I can't talk to humans at all; none of them seem to understand me, sorry."

“We don’t know why he can't talk,” Twilight admitted, shuffling her hooves slightly. “He says that he was able to talk just fine before coming here, but ever since he was teleported to Equestria, he hasn’t been able to talk at all.”

“Oh no, is he injured?’ Fluttershy asked, perking up instantly. A look of concern flashed across her face as she looked between me and Twilight.

“That’s just it though,” Twilight said. “His vocal cords aren’t damaged, and I can't detect any magic at work, so I don’t know what’s preventing him from talking. He doesn’t seem bothered by it though.” I shrugged my shoulders at her inquisitive glance. Being mute had bothered me in the beginning, but after several months of not talking, I had gotten used to it.

“So, what do you say girls? Will you keep this just between us?” Twilight asked, shooting everyone a sheepish smile. Applejack seemed to snap out of her daze. Shaking her head, she shot me another glance before turning to Twilight.

“Shoot, sugarcube,” Applejack said, throwing a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder. “You can count on us!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed, throwing her hoof over my shoulder as well. I winced again. “You can totally count on us!”

“YAY! GROUP HUG!” Pinkie cheered, wrapping her hooves around me in a hug, causing me to yelp in pain. Before I could protest, Rainbow and Fluttershy had also wrapped their hooves around me. Twilight and Applejack joined in a few seconds later. The only one left out was Rarity, who just stood in the corner, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Come on, Rares,” Applejack said, turning to look at the pristine mare. “He ain’t gonna bite ya!”

“I’d rather not darling, if it’s all the same to you,” she said, looking over at me nervously. The others joined in trying to convince her to join, but she continued to decline. Turning to Twilight, I managed to free both my hands from the mass of ponies.

~If the pretty unicorn doesn’t want to go near me, that’s perfectly fine~ Twilight blushed slightly, her mouth opening and closing.

“What did he say?” Pinkie asked, still clinging to me like her life depended upon it. Twilight’s blushed deepened as she looked away.

“He said ‘if the pretty unicorn doesn’t want to go near me, that’s perfectly fine’,” she mumbled. I tried to facepalm, but my arm was currently stuck back underneath a pony. You didn’t have to repeat it word for word, Sparkle, I grumbled slightly. Rarity shifted uncomfortably at this.

“I’m sorry dear. I do believe that you could be a fine...ah, human, but I just can’t right now,” she said, before her voice lowered slightly and her ears drooped. “Not after what happened with Sweetie Belle.” They dropped the subject after that.

The rest of their visit was spent answering a variety of different questions, some ranging from what my favorite food was, to what my old world was like. Rarity had perked up slightly when she learned that humans on my world wore clothes all the time, and even had different types of fashion. There was an odd glint in her eyes, but she looked away from me when I glanced over. My favorite question, by far, was when Fluttershy snuck up to me and asked me in a whisper if Twilight was taking good care of me and making sure I was fed well. I had laughed and given the cute thing a hug, which promptly caused her to blush.

Eventually they all had to leave, as the visiting hours were over with. With each promising to keep quiet about my intelligence again, they slipped out with waves and calls goodbye, leaving me and Twilight alone with our thoughts. Sunny returned around nightfall, having been looking after the library for Twilight during the day. Snuggled up on the other bed, she had promptly fallen asleep, her mouth hanging open slightly. The sight caused a small smile to touch my lips. Twilight rested at the foot of my bed, careful not to put any pressure on my injured foot. Her eyelids were drooping and she had a content smile on her face. As I sat there, trying to fight off sleep, I remembered what Rarity had said earlier.

~What was Rarity talking about earlier?~ I asked as I nudged Twilight with my good foot. ~What happened to Sweetie Belle?~ Lifting her head, Twilight blinked owlishly at me, yawning loudly.

“During one of the Crusader’s attempts to get their cutie marks, she was attacked by an infected human,” Twilight said, fighting back another yawn. She could barely keep her eyes open, and I felt like she was already half asleep. “She survived the attack, but it left her with a few scars. That’s probably why Rarity doesn’t like you, or humans in general. Don’t take it as too much of an insult.” Lowering her head again, she closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into the bedspread.

I watched as she quickly drifted off to sleep. Leaning over, I winced as I reached for the light. Turning off the lamp, I laid my head back and stared at the ceiling, a multitude of thoughts running rampant through my head. I felt as if Twilight’s friends had been a little too accepting of my intelligence. It had taken both Sunny and Twilight several days to come to terms with the fact, but here they were, talking to me like it was normal within minutes. And they forgave Twilight for not telling them right away? Call me paranoid, but something seemed off. Or was I putting too much thought into it? Were they such good friends that they could simply forgive and forget?

Frowning slightly, I reached up and ran my fingers over my bandaged eye. Whatever the case might be, they now knew the truth of the matter. Now all that was left to do is sit back, and hope for the best.

Chapter 19: A Little Fall of Rain

Author's Note

Sound for the mood of the chapter: Rainy Mood

Chapter 19: A Little Fall of Rain

It had been a week since I was abducted and forced into that horrid pit to fight for the pleasure of those demented ponies. Seven days of recovery, and yet I was still sore and bruised from my hellish experience. Although I was healing at a steady pace—and regaining much of my old strength again—there were wounds that would never quite heal. After the incident, I was a lot jumpier, and easily startled by random, innocent things like Twilight closing a book, or Sunny nudging me with her hoof. I was also much more withdrawn from the world around me, spending several hours of the day just staring off into space, unmoving. My body would hurt periodically, my wounds springing back to life for no reason other than to cause me grief.

The nightmares, however, were the worst of it. Ever since Luna had visited me, I had not dreamed of the Darkness again, and the strange creature that had plagued my nightmares was nowhere to be found. Instead, a new nightmare had surfaced in its place: I was back in the pit, and those who I had killed there were surrounding me, preparing to finish what they had started. And this time, Twilight wasn’t on her way to save me; I was on my own. These dreams would cause me to wake in the middle of the night with my heart pounding, and tears running down my face. I would just curl up in the dark and cry myself back to sleep.

Twilight and Sunny had both noticed my decline immediately, and had done everything within their power to try and help, but nothing seemed to work. Of course, that didn’t stop Twilight. She had even snuck Pinkie Pie in one day to try and cheer me up, thinking that a day with the Element of Laughter would be enough to snap me out of my funk.

However, despite her efforts, the best that the party pony got was a half-hearted smile. At the end of the day, Pinkie had left feeling downtrodden, as if she had failed me and Twilight. This only served to worsen my depression. I didn’t want to hurt my friends, but I just couldn’t bring myself to return to how things used to be. How could I, after what had happened?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sparkle, but there is nothing more we can do. The best course of action would be to take him home and let him rest.”

“You can’t be serious! Look at him! He can barely walk on his own!” I sat in one of the chairs in the waiting room, staring blankly at the opposite wall, as Twilight argued with the nurse behind the counter. After seven days of care, they were finally releasing me, despite Twilight’s objections. She believed—strongly—that it was far too soon for me to leave. The doctors, however, insisted that they could do nothing more to help me heal. After one last checkup to make sure that I was good to go, a nurse had escorted us to the waiting room, and bid us farewell.

“This is outrageous!” Twilight huffed, walking over to me. I glanced at her out of my left eye, my right still covered with bandages. “Well, there’s nothing else for it. Let’s get you home and comfortable.” Rising to my feet, I winced as I put weight on my right leg. With one more glance back at the flustered nurse behind the counter, Twilight and I headed out of the hospital and into the crisp, cool air.

Fluttershy was waiting for us outside. Upon seeing me, she smiled and trotted up to me, nuzzling my bandaged hand gently. I scratched her head softly, earning a small sigh of happiness from the shy pegasus.

“Thanks again for helping me get Max home, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, flashing the pegasus a quick smile.

“It’s no problem,” Fluttershy said, hiding behind her mane as we began to walk. As the two trotted ahead, chatting quietly with one another, I limped along behind them, observing the world around us.

It was an overcast day in Ponyville; the clouds were a gloomy shade of gray. Pegasi were flying here and there, placing clouds in the appropriate positions. The wind had some nip to it as it blew, causing me to shiver slightly. While my “clothing” protected my skin from the sun to some degree, it did not keep out the cold. The temperature had dropped noticeably, and the days were beginning to feel much more like autumn than summer. Even some of the leaves were beginning to change on the trees, causing splotches of red, orange, yellow, and brown to stand out against the normally green treetops.

As we passed under a particularly red tree, I frowned slightly. I paused to stare up into the swirl of red, crimson and burgundy. I reached up and brushed a finger over one of the leaves, staring intently at the leaf. Its color reminded me of autumns back home. The cider mill selling fresh doughnuts and apple cider. Afternoons spent raking leaves with my dad before heading inside and drinking some hot chocolate. Evenings spent down in the family room, a fire crackling merrily in the fireplace while we watched movies. Blood…

The blade plunged into his flesh, causing him to jerk. Struggling in my grasp, the man only caused the wound to open wider. Torrents of red blood flowed from his neck, staining the knife and my hands red. With each pulse of blood, the man’s strength weakened. As I dug the blade in deeper, his heart continued to betray him, continuing to pump blood through his arteries and out of the wound. With one last gurgling breath, he died in my arms, my hands now stained with his crimson blood.

I stared up at the leaves for a second longer, before limping my way after the two mares, both of whom were looking back at me with a curious expression on their faces. As I caught up to them, a voice called out from nearby.

“Twilight!” Twilight and Fluttershy both perked up, glancing off to their left. Stopping just behind them, I turned and looked towards the approaching blue mare.

“Hello, Lotus,” Twilight said, greeting the mare as she approached. Lotus flashed Twilight a quick smile as she panted for breath.

“I’m glad zat I bumped into you,” she said, straightening her headband which was holding back her pink mane. “My sister and I heard rumors from our customers zat your human vas in one of those horrid human fighting rings.” Turning to look at me, she grimaced as she looked over my bruised, battered, and bandaged body. “I can see now zat ze rumors vere—unfortunately—true.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Twilight said, also looking back at me. “He was abducted by a group of ponies and forced to fight. Fortunately, however, we were able to find him in time.”

“Indeed,” Lotus said, casting me one last glance before returning her attention to Twilight. “Listen, ve realize zat zis is a trying time for both you and your human, and my sister and I just vant to say zat if you ever need any form of stress relief, ve vould be more zen happy to help.” She said, giving Twilight a quick hug. “Our spa is alvays open to you.”

“Thanks Lotus, I really appreciate it,” Twilight said, returning the hug. As the mares broke apart and Lotus began to trot away, I stared after the spa pony, chewing the inside of my cheek. Above us, the clouds seemed to darken, and a low rumble echoed across the sky.

A low growl rumbled from my chest as I slammed my fist into my opponent’s mouth. Stumbling back, he spat out blood and teeth before lunging back at me. I brought my right hand up, trying to block his attack. Pain erupted from my finger as I felt his fist connect with my hand, a snap echoing around the pit. Roaring in pain, my finger bent at the wrong angle, I smashed my other hand into the side of his face. As he fell to the floor, clutching his head, I grasped my finger and wrenched it back to its proper position before descending upon the man in front of me.

“We should probably get going,” Fluttershy said, looking up at the clouds with a hint of fear. “There is a thunderstorm planned for this evening, and I don’t think we want to get caught out in it.”

“Right, let’s get going then,” Twilight said, turning and trotting off. Fluttershy hurried along after her, glancing back at me to make sure I was following. I continued to stare after Lotus for several more seconds before slowly turning and limping along after the two mares. Lightning flashed across the sky as we walked, causing Fluttershy to flinch slightly. We didn’t make it far before we were stopped once again by another pony. This time it was Cheerilee.

“Twilight!” The fuchsia mare waved her hoof in the air as she approached. The sky rumbled ominously, causing Fluttershy to squeak and cling to my leg. I winced as she put pressure on my wounds.

“Hey Cheerilee,” Twilight replied, her smile strained. “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to pass along my condolences about what happened to your human,” Cheerilee said, stopping just in front of Twilight. I stared down at her with my good eye, a small frown pulling at my mouth. Does the whole town know what happened? My frowned deepened slightly. And yet, to them, it’s as big a deal as if a dog got into a fight with another dog. None of these ponies really cared. They aren’t really that concerned with my health. I’m just an animal to them.

“To think that something like that could happen here in Ponyville,” Cheerilee continued, snapping me out of my dark thoughts. As if she could sense my mood, Fluttershy looked up at me and shifted uncomfortably on my foot.

“Thanks,” Twilight said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Listen, Cheerilee. I don’t mean to sound rude, but is there anything else you need? We’re actually trying to get home before the storm hits.”

“Actually, yes,” Cheerilee said, casting a quick glance at me. “I was wondering if you had your human checked for signs of aggression after he was recovered.”

“S-signs of aggression?” Twilight asked, blinking at Cheerilee in confusion.

“Yeah,” Cheerilee said, nodding. “You know, to make sure he isn’t dangerous. Most humans recovered from human fighting rings have to be euthanized because they are too aggressive and can’t be helped.” Cheerilee cast another glance at me, and this time I saw a hint of fear in her green eyes. My eye narrowed slightly. Nothing but an animal...

"I don’t think that will be a problem,” Twilight said, pursing her lips. She glared at Cheerilee with a look of annoyance. “He’s acted just fine so far.”

“Well, you might want to get him checked, just in case. You don’t want him to get out of control.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Twilight said, a tone of anger slowing rising in her voice. With that, Cheerilee nodded and ran off, heading towards her own house as the sky rumbled again. After Cheerilee left, we returned to our journey home. As I walked behind Fluttershy and Twilight, I reached up and massaged my bruised neck with my hand. It was weird not having my collar on. After wearing it for several months, I had become accustomed to it. Now, with it gone, I almost missed its familiar weight.

My hands wrapped around her throat, cutting off her air supply. I could feel the muscles in her neck working to clear her blocked airway, flexing and pushing against the palm of my hands. She looked up at me with fear-filled eyes as my hands tightened around her neck. I gazed back down at her, tears falling from my eyes as I slowly squeezed the life out from the human beneath me. I felt her throat give one last spasm before she grew still, and the light left her eyes.

“...is true, but she doesn’t have to insinuate that Max will go on a rampage!” Twilight huffed, rolling her eyes and snorting in anger.

“B-but she d-doesn’t know t-t-that Max is intelligent,” Fluttershy whimpered, glancing at Twilight nervously. Noticing this, Twilight closed her eyes and sighed heavily. Opening them again, she turned to Fluttershy and gave her a small smile.

“Sorry, Fluttershy,” she said, hugging the pegasus. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” Fluttershy relaxed, returning the hug with a small smile. They broke the embrace, and we headed off. Making our way through the marketplace, I glanced around at all the ponies. Shopkeepers were closing up their shops and stalls, preparing for the oncoming storm. Customers hurried to and fro, trying to purchase one last thing before retreating to the comfort of their homes. Ponies chatted and laughed with one another as they hurried along. I watched them all with a blank expression, and a heavy heart.

So much pain and death has happened, and yet they are so oblivious. I felt tears building up in my eyes as I watched two ponies hug one another before going their separate ways. A mother scolded her foal for playing in the fountain, pulling the young filly along as they made their way home. Every single pony was happy and carefree. They don’t know, I thought as a pegasus flew over head, giggling as she carried her newest purchase. They don’t care. We’re just beasts to them. Blinking back the tears, I follow after Twilight and Fluttershy as they made their way through the crowd. As we walked, my gaze fell upon a human, tied to a hitching post outside of a store. He was staring at the ground, but as we approached his head rose. His eyes met mine and I turned my face away, not wanting to look at him.

Why is it that a race that preaches love and tolerance turns a blind eye to such cruelty? How can they be so happy when there is such darkness in their world? Just ahead of us, Pinkie Pie crossed the road, bouncing cheerfully along. She waved quickly at Twilight and Fluttershy before she was lost to view behind the buildings. As I watched her go, I ran a hand over my injured chest.

How can life go back to normal after everything that's happened? I dug my fingers deeper into my chest, causing a small amount of pain to flare up. How can I go on, after everything I’ve done? Images of those I killed in the pit flashed before my eyes. I had seen the longing to survive in their eyes, yet I had taken their lives from them, just so I could live. What was the difference between me and them? Just the luck of the draw? A sheer circumstance of fate? Why is it even though I had survived, I was filled with such guilt?

We walked in silence for several more minutes before reaching the library. Twilight opened the door and ushered Fluttershy inside. A rumble of thunder caused the shy pegasus to practically run into the safety of the house. Turning to look at me, Twilight flashed me a sad smile before motioning with her hoof for me to go before her. I had just taken a step when my right eye flared with pain. Grimacing, I raised a hand to my bandaged eye and rubbed it gently.

The tip of the blade sunk into the flesh of my face slowly. Pain erupted through me as I felt the blade slowly cut through the skin and muscle. There was a grinding sensation and I heard a slight crack as the blade reached the bone of my check. As I felt the blade digging into the bone, a blast of light filled my vision. The brute’s body was suddenly lifted off of me, and immense pain erupted across my face as the blade slashed across it. I felt the metal slicing through my nose and check, barely missing my right eye in the process. Blinding pain caused me to scream as I brought my hands to my face. Slowly, I felt myself descending into darkness…

I blinked as something wet landed on the top of my head. Looking up at the dark storm clouds above us, I watched as another raindrop fell and splashed against my cheek. I blinked up at the black clouds as the cool raindrops began to hit my face. Twilight said something, but I was too distracted to hear the exact words. Her tone was one of concern though, and I felt a gentle tug on my hand, but I ignored it. I was too preoccupied with watching the rain fall. As I stood there, slowly being soaked as the downfall increased, I felt tears forming in my eyes, mixing with the wetness already on my face.

Rain. Most people back home had hated the rain. There were always those at work, or at school, who had complained about it. Even my dad loathed it: if it rained, the day was wasted. All it did was trap people indoors, and make the grass grow, just so he would have to cut it later. I, on the other hand, loved the rain. It was something special for me: the feeling of the rain hitting my skin had always had a calming effect. The tears rolled faster down my face as I continued to stare up into the torrent of water that was now descending upon me. Despite what has happened, I thought, as I blinked tears and rain from my eye, life still goes on. No matter what horrors happen, life will continue on unhindered.

I closed my eye and slowly raised my arms, breathing deeply. The smell of wet earth filled my nostrils. I stood there, arms outstretched, allowing the rain to wash over me. I could almost feel the tension, the despair, the anger and the depression washing away as the liquid soaked my body. Despite the horrors I have witnessed, I have also seen kindness as well, I suddenly realized. In the end, everything must pass. The darkness of night must always give way for the light of day.

Tears continued to run freely from my closed eye, and for the first time since I had awoken inside the warehouse, since I had fought for my life in the pit, and awoken in the hospital, I felt at peace.

Opening my eye, I pushed my wet hair out of my face and looked down at Twilight. She looked up at me with concern in her eyes. I reached out and patted her head gently before heading into the library, and out of the rain.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Ow…

After settling down in the library, I discovered one of the few downsides of standing in the rain: bandages don’t generally tolerate getting wet. This meant that I was now seated on the floor, my back resting against the couch. Fluttershy was seated behind me, rebandaging my injuries. Twilight had wandered off towards the kitchen after drying herself off, saying something about getting dinner ready. I had no clue where Sunny was, but I wasn’t too concerned. She was probably off with Spike somewhere, waiting out the storm.

As Fluttershy tugged the roll of bandages taut, I winced again.

“Shorry,” she muttered around the bandages in her mouth. Giving it one last tug, she finished and returned the bandages to her saddlebags. Standing, I groaned as I stretched. I jumped slightly as Fluttershy walked in front of me, appearing from out of my blind spot.

“There, feel better?” she asked, glancing up at me through her mane. I nodded, rolling my shoulder to try and work the stiffness out of some of the bandages. As I stood there, I looked around the room, my eye drifting over the familiar objects. I felt an odd sensation welling up in my chest: one of peace and happiness. Despite everything that had happened within the past few weeks, I was back at the library. I was back at my home here in Equestria. I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes. The faint smell of lavender reached my nose, and a small smile touched my lips. It smelled of Twilight. It smelled of home.

“Dinner is almost ready,” Twilight called from the kitchen. “Will you be staying for dinner, Fluttershy?” The dim room lit up slightly as lightning flashed across the sky, causing Fluttershy to jump. Trembling slightly, she cowered closer to the couch.

“T-that w-would be nice, if it isn’t t-too much trouble,” she stuttered, trying her hardest to disappear into her mane. I sighed slightly, and glanced around the room again. A piece of folded up paper sitting on the coffee table caught my attention. Reaching down, I picked it up and glanced at it. I blinked in surprise as I saw my name scrawled across the front. Unfolding it, I quickly read the contents with mild curiosity.

Hey, human Max,

Hope you get better soon, so that we can start wrestling again. Remind me later and I’ll show you some of my moves for the Wonderbolts!

The awesome,

Rainbow Dash

I read the short note several times, blinking owlishly each time. I placed the letter back onto the table, chewing the inside of my cheek. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be funny, or if she was actually being serious. Fluttershy walked over to me and glanced down at the note. As she read, her eyes widened and a small smile touched her face.

“She really misses that, you know,” she said, glancing up at me. I cocked an eyebrow and tilted my head to the side. “The wrestling matches. Whenever we hung out, there was always a moment when she would talk about your latest match.” She looked down and shuffled her hooves. “She was really horrified that one time she gave you a bloody nose and black eye. Although she would never admit it, she was almost in tears when she came to me.” I looked back at the note, my throat feeling kind of tight. “I know most ponies might treat you badly, or without respect, but Rainbow has always seen you as a friend,” Fluttershy continued, looking back up at me, smiling softly. “Just food for thought.”

The moment was ruined by a crack of thunder. With a shriek, Fluttershy dove behind the couch. As I stared at her tail, which was exposed and quivering, Twilight popped her head into the room.

“Why don’t you two come and get seated,” she said before retreating back into the kitchen. Fluttershy emerged from her hiding place behind the couch and headed to the kitchen. I gazed out of the window, watching the rain fall upon the glass. Blinking, I turned and followed after the pegasus.

As I entered the kitchen, a strange yet familiar aroma hit my nose. Sniffing, I scrunched up my face as I tried to place the scent. It wasn’t bad smelling. In fact, my mouth was starting to water as I took another sniff. Mystified, I looked at what was on the table. Twilight had different fruits and vegetables chopped up into a salad bowl, along with some slices of bread. Steam rose from a bowl of soup. It all looked good, but none of them were the source of the smell. What is that smell? It’s almost like…

A dish placed at my place at the table caught my eye, and as I looked at it I felt my mouth open in shock. There, sitting on the plate, was a huge steak. Steam wafted from the seared meat, filling the room with the delicious aroma. I could see the juices dripping from it, seasoning covering the top of the meat. It was one of the best steaks I had ever laid eyes on, and my stomach agreed wholeheartedly.

As I stood there, staring at the meat, Twilight shuffled up beside me.

“I know you said that you wouldn’t mind not eating meat again while in Equestria,” she said, not looking at me. Instead she decided to stare at her hooves instead, drawing little circles in the floor. “And I know that I said that I wouldn't cook anything that used to be alive, but…” She looked up at me with her beautiful, violet eyes. “I-I...I wanted to get you a treat. Something special, for what you’ve been through. I wanted to show you how much I appreciate you...and how much I care. I just...I just want to see you smile again.” She swallowed audibly, tears forming in her eyes. As she gazed up at me, I could feel the kindness, the affection, the love that she felt for me.

I turned and looked at the meat, before returning my gaze to Twilight. Slowly, I fell onto one knee beside her. She looked at me with confusion before letting out a tiny squeak as I wrapped my arms around her. As I pulled her close, I pushed my face into her mane and started to cry. I’m sorry Twilight. I should have known how much you cared. I should have realized that everything you’ve done for me wasn’t done out of pity. Tightening my grip around her, I hugged the mare close, breathing in the smell of lavender. I cried harder as she wrapped her hooves and wings around me as well. As she murmured into my ear, I felt a smile slowly spreading across my face. You have always stood by me through the hardships we have faced, no matter how small they were.

Finally releasing Twilight, I leaned back and smile my first genuine smile in days, even as tears rolled down my face. Twilight smiled back at me, tears in her eyes as well. Giving Twilight one last, quick hug, I stood and made my way towards the table. I now realize that there is no way for life to return to the way it was...

Pulling out my chair, I sat down and gazed at the steak. Twilight sat beside me, rubbing a wing gently across my back. Fluttershy sat opposite us, not seeming too bothered by the presence of the meat. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t face the changes together.

Picking up the fork and knife, I began to slowly cut into the tender meat, carving out a bite-size piece. You can’t always give up hope for the world. There is still so much to enjoy and to do. Placing the meat into my mouth, I began to chew. At the moment, it was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. My smile grew as I ate, tears still flowing down my face. I glanced over at Twilight, and saw a smile on her face as well as she watched me.

Thank you, Twilight, for showing me that not all ponies are corrupt, and that there is still some good left in this world…

...and it’s worth fighting for.

Chapter 20: The Mind of a Mad Man

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 21: Out of the Frying Pan...

I sat patiently on the couch as Sunny flittered around me, double-checking my bandages. It had been a week since I had returned home from the hospital. I still had bruises across my skin, but the only part of my body that still needed to be bandaged was my chest, hands and face. The cuts and scratches across my arms and legs were just little white lines scattered across my skin.

“Are you sure that you're okay?” Sunny asked, checking the bandages over my right eye again. “No pain or discomfort anywhere?” I shook my head, smiling weakly at the pegasus. Despite the fact that there were no complications arising from my injuries so far, she still fretted over the little things. She was hellbent on making sure that nothing went wrong during my recovery, believing that everything that had happened to me was, in some way, her fault. I had tried to explain to her several times that it was in no way her fault that I had been kidnapped, but she had insisted that if she hadn't left me alone outside, it would have never happened. After the third day of this standoff, I gave up and simply let Sunny tend to me.

“You sure you're going to be fine for the day?” she asked for the umpteenth time, her wings fluttering nervously at her sides. I nodded my head, chuckling softly at her antics. Satisfied with her work, Sunny backed up, allowing me to get up off the couch. Standing, I stretched, making my back pop several times. Rolling my shoulders to work the stiffness out of them, I turned and looked at Twilight, who was standing by the front door, watching us. She shot me a quick smile when she saw I was looking.

~What's the plan for the day, boss?~ I asked, before picking my shirt up off of the coffee table and hanging it over my shoulder.

“Well, Sunny and I are heading to the guardhouse to question some of the ponies we captured at the warehouse. Normally this would be taken care of by the guards, but I asked to be the one to question their leader. It’s personal,” she added, upon seeing my look of confusion. “Once that's done, they'll be transferring the prisoners to Canterlot for trial.” She adjusted the straps of her saddlebags. “It'll probably take most of the day, so we'll be home around the evening, hopefully in time for dinner.” Casting one last glance at me, Sunny turned and trotted over to stand by Twilight. She picked up her own saddlebags that were resting beside the door, placed them on her back, and buckled them into place.

“You'll be on your own,” Twilight continued, a hint of uneasiness in her voice. “Are you going to be okay with that, or should I ask one of the girls to come over to hang out with you?”

~Twilight, I'll be fine~ I signed, slightly annoyed. ~I doubt that anything bad is going to happen while you're gone~

“You say that, but look at what happened last time,” Sunny said, double-checking her bags. I snorted, crossing my arms and looking away. One bad thing happens, and one mental breakdown, and they act like I’m helpless. I’m not a baby. I knew that I should feel thankful and appreciative of their concern, but it was just so annoying at the moment.

“Just promise me you'll take things easy,” Twilight said, grasping the door handle in her magic.

~I promise~ I signed, rolling my eyes. With that, the two mares left the library, closing the door behind them. I stood there for several minutes, drumming my fingers on my legs as I tried to enjoy the silence. It soon became too much, however, and I grew restless.

Alright, I've been stuck in this library for too long. Time to get out and blow the stick off of me, I thought, cracking my knuckles. Heading up the stairs, I made my way towards the couch that also doubled as my bed. Tossing my shirt onto the cushions, I began fishing around behind it. Finding what I was looking for, I quickly pulled out my own bag.

The lack of pockets on my pants had frustrated me to no end, so I finally broke down and designed my own way to carry things. I had made the bag using a belt I had “found” one day when wandering around Ponyville (if Rarity asks, I was nowhere near her shop at the time). Combining it with a small bag that Twilight no longer had a use for, I had made something that roughly resembled a miniature backpack, only in reverse. Instead of going on my back, it sat comfortably on my stomach and was easy to reach, even with a shirt on.

Strapping it on carefully due to my injuries, I picked up a small notebook and a small stick of charcoal that sat beside the couch. Charcoal was messy, but it beat having to deal with ink splotches and the possibility of ruining my notebooks with it. Seriously, I think I ruined at least five notebooks before I got comfortable with using a goddamn quill, and even now I still have issues sometimes.

Making sure not to mark the notebook with the charcoal accidentally, I placed them into the bag. Once I was sure that they were secure, I picked my shirt back up and pulled it over my head. With that, the bag was hidden from view, although it caused my shirt to bulge slightly. Not that anyone would probably notice. My next stop was the kitchen, where some bits of cheese wrapped in paper, a couple of apples, and some bread joined the other things in the bag. Satisfied that I had everything that I would need, I walked out of the kitchen and into the library. Taking one last look around, I opened the front door and headed out into town.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I sat there, staring at the naked human in front of me. He just stared back at me, head tilted slightly to the side. He was slightly smaller than me, with short black hair on the top of his head. He had stubble on his cheeks, and thick eyebrows above his hazel eyes. We were both sitting outside of one of the stores in the marketplace. I had found him tied to one of the hitching posts and thought that he would work for what I had planned, as long as his owner didn’t return before I was finished.

After my realization from talking with Fluttershy, I hadn’t been able to sleep for the next two nights. The fact that I had seen the red-haired girl crying, combined with the fact that Fluttershy said she had never seen a human cry before, could only mean one of two things: either the girl was from Equestria and just happened to be intelligent like me, or she was originally from Earth as well, and stranded in Equestria like I was.

Either way, she took her secrets with her to the grave when I—unfortunately— was forced to kill her. I tried to convince myself that it had been an act of self-defense, but I couldn’t get past the fact that I had possibly killed another intelligent human (which had led to another mental breakdown. Twilight had to cast a calming spell to relax me, and even that didn’t help much).

After eventually calming down enough to think rationally, I had decided to try and understand my fellow humans better, as well as the strange interest that the ponies in Equestria had for them. And if I happened to find intelligent humans along the way, well...that would be a bonus, wouldn’t it? This search would also help settle my growing curiosity as well. There were so many questions that were beginning to pop up the longer I stayed in Equestria, and I was beginning to become frustrated with the lack of answers. For one, was the girl in the pit actually sapient, or was it simply a trick played on me by my dying brain? Were there other humans out there that were intelligent, or was it just me? Could there be other humans from Earth here in Equestria and they were simply stuck like I was, wanting to stay hidden from the local populace? What the hell is up with the humans in Equestria?!

From what I had read in the limited amount of books I could find (seriously, for a race that is completely fascinated with humans, be it rutting them, owning them, or pitting them against each other, ponies don’t have that many books, or information in general, about humans.Your Human and You appeared to be the only “informative” literature about humans that they had, although they seemed to have countless comic books about humans), griffons used humans as livestock, breeding them just for food. They would even hunt “wild” humans as game. In short, they treated them just like any other animal; no exceptions. There were no records of a griffon keeping a human as a pet.

Ponies, however, were different story entirely. They viewed humans more along the lines of dogs and cats, which was odd considering ponies believed that humans were aggressive, dangerous creatures that were prone to acts of violence. Not typically a creature that you wanted living with you, or your foal for that matter. So why the interest in them? What was it about the humans that seemed to draw the ponies to them? And why the hell were most ponies hell bent on rutting one of them?!

Glancing around to make sure no ponies were watching, I reached under my shirt and pulled out the wrapped cheese and bread. The human's eyes widened as he caught sight of what I had. Breaking off a piece of bread, I offered it to him. With a low growl, he snatched the piece of food from me before shoving it in his mouth. I flinched when he lunged for the food, my eye twitching at the sudden movement. As he chewed, he eyed the remainder of the food in my hand with renewed interest. Good, I have his attention. Grabbing a piece of cheese, I held it out to him. He reached out for it, but I pulled back at the last second. He growled at me, but I ignored him. Closing my fist around the cheese, I closed my other hand and presented both of them to him. There was a brief moment of hesitation from him before he reached out and began to try and pry open the hand holding the cheese. I relinquished the morsel to him, and he consumed it quickly.

I grabbed another piece of cheese and did the same thing, but moved the cheese to the opposite hand this time. There was no hesitation as he chose the correct hand. Just to make sure that it wasn’t coincidence, I repeated the process several more times, alternating which hand the cheese was in randomly. He picked the correct hand every single time.

This continued for several minutes until I had run out of cheese. After eating the last piece, the human looked at me expectantly. Holding both my empty hands up, I leaned back and shook my head. His shoulders sagged slightly, and he slumped back against the hitch. I chewed on my cheek as I watched him, absentmindedly rubbing the fingers on my right hand together. Checking again to make sure that no one had taken an interest in what I was doing, I lifted up my shirt to retrieve my notebook and charcoal. The human perked up again as he saw the bag. I smirked slightly at this. Pulling out the notebook, I flipped it open to the next blank page and began to scribble quickly.

The humans of Equestria are somewhat intelligent, enough so that they have object permanence. The subject appears to also have a short term memory: he was able to remember what hand the cheese was in, as well as remember where the food originally came from.

At first, the humans of Equestria appear to be unintelligent, but they can comprehend how to use weapons, as well as how to kill quickly, as shown by the girl choking me, although that could just be instinctive. They also have the ability to be taught how to use tools, as shown from the mining work done around Canterlot [See entry 5 in notebook 3]. There is also the issue of the female showing sorrow from attempting to kill me [See page 15 for discussion w/ Fluttershy re: human tears]. That shows comprehension of one’s actions, as well as understanding the consequences of those actions. These humans might not be as stupid as originally thought. Further testing is needed to see exactly how far their intelligence goes.

After jotting down the specifics of the “test” I had just done, I etched out the date on the bottom of the page before closing it and quickly stowing it back into my hidden bag. After one last, quick glance around to make sure no one saw me, I threw the rest of the bread towards the human before standing. Brushing off my pants, I turned and headed off as the human ate greedily.

Rubbing my bandaged eye, I wandered through the marketplace, with no real destination in mind. I avoided the majority of the crowd, sticking to the edge of the marketplace. While I felt comfortable being by myself outside, I was still wary of the ponies. The kidnapping had heightened my paranoia slightly, and I was constantly looking behind me to make sure that no ponies were tailing me. It also didn’t help that I was still jumping at loud noises.

I glanced at a guardpony that was patrolling the marketplace. He looked back at me and nodded silently, continuing his rounds. I just kept walking, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling welling up inside of me. Twilight had told me that most of the guards had been informed of my unique qualities after the kidnapping incident, and that she had told them to keep an eye on me whenever I was out alone. While they didn’t know any real specific details, they knew that I was a special human that could understand and comprehend ponies (I have a running bet with Spike about what she told them about me. I have 50 bits on her saying that I was an experiment of hers). On one hand, this was good because the guards let me wander around by myself, and they also knew that I wasn’t going to be a problem, so I didn’t have to worry about my actions being interpreted as acts of violence. At least by the guards, that is. Plus, they were ready to defend me if anything happened again. On the other hand, I wasn’t too sure how I felt about the guards knowing I was intelligent. A part of me knew this was completely stupid, and I was being irrationally paranoid, but another part of me, the little voice in the back of my head, kept telling me that the less ponies that knew, the safer I would be.

Shaking my head to clear it, I continued circumnavigating the marketplace. It was nearing lunch time, and luckily I still had the apples left in my bag. Reaching a hand into my shirt, I covertly pulled out one of the apples and took a large bite out of it. Juices ran down my chin as I chewed happily on the delicious fruit. Say anything you want about Applejack, but she knew how to grow some of the best apples that I had ever eaten. As I ate, I continued walking through town. I was too focused on enjoying my apple to notice where I was going, which led to me bumping into a pony. Stumbling, I winced as my right leg twisted suddenly. Rubbing the sore limb, I quickly regained my balance and looked down to see who I had tripped over. I cursed silently as I saw Cheerilee looking up at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. I just stared at her, head tilted to the side, casually chewing the bits of apple still in my mouth.

“G-good boy,” she stuttered, taking a step back. “I d-don't want any trouble.” She’s still worried about me becoming violent? Geez. Huffing, I reached out and jammed the half-eaten apple into her mouth, silencing her. She looked at me in confusion, a blush slowly spreading across her face, but I ignored her. Walking around the mare, I continued on my way, wiping my hands on my pants while finishing chewing the food in my mouth. First she was trying to talk Twilight into letting her “borrow” me for a day or two, and now she’s scared of me. She really needs to make up her mind. Leaving behind Cheerilee, I made my way towards the outskirts of town, limping along.

I had been walking for several minutes before I pulled out another apple. Wiping it on my shirt, I had just sunk my teeth into the fruit when I heard what sounded like someone shouting my name behind me. I stopped walking, confused. After several seconds of silence, I heard it again, this time louder. With the apple still stuck in my mouth, I turned around, looking for the source. My confusion grew as I saw Spike running towards me with three fillies racing behind him. I immediately recognized the fillies as the legendary Cutie Mark Crusaders, three fillies that were working on getting their cutie marks. I had never seen them up close, choosing to avoid them as much as possible, but I had seen their antics from a distance.

As they reached me, Spike collapsed in front of me, breathing heavily. The fillies just stood there, staring up at me in wonder. At least, two of them did. The third, a white unicorn filly, hung back slightly, looking at me timidly.

“This is who we were looking for?” one of the fillies, an orange pegasus named Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to the side. “He’s a human!” Ignoring the girls for now, I returned my attention to Spike. Kneeling down by the panting drake, I poked that back of his head with a finger. When he raised his head to look at me, I cocked my head to the side, an eyebrow raised.

“I’ve been looking everywhere f-for you,” he wheezed, still trying to catch his breath. “W-we need your help.” I tensed slightly as I looked at him with a worried expression. Did something bad happen? Was Twilight and Sunny alright? Spike seemed to notice my worry, as he shook his head and added, “We need you to escort us to Zecora's in the Everfree Forest.” I deadpanned at that. Seriously? They want me to babysit them? I snorted around the apple and stood back up. The unicorn filly flinched slightly as I rose to my full height.

“Spike, why’re ya talkin’ to a human?” the last filly asked, a yellow earth pony with a pink bow in her red mane. Applejack's little sister, Applebloom, if I remember correctly. I grasped the apple and finished taking a bite out of the fruit. Lowering it from my mouth, I chewed slowly as I looked at Spike with a “you've-got-to-be-shitting-me” look.

“Please dude,” he pleaded, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. “I wouldn’t have come to you if there was another way. We've already asked everypony else, but they're all busy. We just need an adult, and you're as intelligent as anypony here. Besides, the trip isn't that dangerous,” he added, noting my look. I stopped chewing and stared at him incredulously. Reaching into my shirt, I pulled out the notebook and charcoal. Unlike Twilight, Spike was not able to understand hoof-language. He was slowly learning it, but I still had to communicate with him via notebook.

Placing the apple back into my mouth, I quickly scratched out a message. Finishing it, I flipped the notebook around and handed it to the young drake. The fillies' eyes widened at the action.

+The same Everfree that Twilight said was “filled with monsters and I should never, ever go there ever”?+ Spike looked back up at me, grinning sheepishly.

“It's not that bad,” he said, handing the notebook back to me. “Zecora lives right on the edge, so we wouldn't have to go far.” I leaned back on my heels, crossing my arms and glaring at Spike. It probably would have worked better if I didn’t have a half-eaten apple in my mouth. The fillies just stared at us with wide eyes, their jaws on the ground. There would be hell to pay for this later, but I’d deal with that when the time came. Luckily, most ponies tended to ignore the Crusaders most of the time.

“Spike,” Scootaloo said tentatively. “What’s going on here?” Spike flinched and looked over his shoulder at them, chuckled nervously, then turned back to me. I already had my response ready. Handing him the notebook again, I continued eating my apple as I leaned back and sat down on the ground. Spike grasped the notebook in his claws, glancing at what I wrote.

+You dug your own grave with this one. Time to get yourself out+ Spike groaned and hung his head. Dejectedly, he turned back to the Crusaders.

“Well, you see,” he began, shuffling awkwardly in place. “This here is Max. He lives with Twilight and me at the library—”

“We already knew that,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. “Why are you talking to him, and why,” she leaned in and took a closer look at the notebook, “is he able to respond?”

“Max is, um…” Spike glanced back at me, chewing his lip, “...unique.” I snorted, nearly choking on my apple as I laughed. “He isn’t like other humans. He’s intelligent.” The fillies tilted their heads in confusion. “He can think like a pony!” Spike huffed, crossing his little arms and rolling his eyes. The fillies all gasped at this, and the white unicorn shrank back even further. Their gaze turned to me, their eyes scouring my body. I just sat there, chewing my apple. I should probably be more upset that they now know, I thought, working a piece of apple out from between my teeth with my tongue, but at this point I really don’t care anymore. Applebloom approached me tentatively.

“So, y’all can understand us?” she asked, gazing up at me with bright, orange eyes. After several seconds, I nodded and took another bite of the apple.

“This. Is. Awesome!” Scootaloo cheered, her wings buzzing happily. “Not as awesome as Rainbow Dash, but definitely awesome!” Zipping up to me, the eager, young pegasus held out her hoof, a large smile on her face. “My name is Scootaloo!” Staring at her hoof for several seconds, I slowly reached out a shook it up and down. Her smile widened at that. Applebloom appeared beside her, hoof outstretched as well.

“My name is Applebloom,” she said, giggling slightly as I grabbed hold of her hoof. When I let go, both of them turned and looked at the white unicorn expectantly. She shied back under their gaze, shivering slightly. She squealed loudly when her friends grabbed her legs and pulled her forcibly forward. She gazed up at me with terror in her eyes as her friends draped their legs over her shoulders.

“And this is Sweetie Belle,” they chimed, oblivious to their friend’s fear. “And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, yay!” They then went off on a tangent about different things they have done to try and get their cutie marks, and what they could possibly do with me to get them. I barely registered what they were saying, however. I was too busy staring down at the shivering form of Sweetie Belle before me. Closing my open mouth, which had opened in shock, I swallowed audibly as I looked down at the filly. So this is Rarity’s sister. Leaning forward slowly, as to not spook the scared unicorn, I peered down at her inquisitively.

At a distance she looked fine, but upon closer inspection, I could see the damage that had been done to her. She had pale scars running through her coat, almost unnoticeable against the white fur. The tip of her right ear was tattered slightly, giving it a worn look that had no place on a filly her age. Her eye was the worst though. The left one was bright green and full of life. The right one, on the other hand, was dim and lifeless. The green was dull and there appeared to be a thin, milky film over the entire eye. I felt my stomach tighten at the sight. I had just met her several minutes ago, but I could already tell that the eye was completely useless. I instantly felt my heart go out to the poor filly. No one that young should have to deal with something like that.

“So, are ya gonna take us tah Zecora’s?” Applebloom asked, hopping around me, her shyness forgotten. Blinking, I tore my gaze away from Sweetie Belle. Glancing over at Spike, I stared at him for several seconds, his eyes silently pleading me to agree. Closing my eye, I sighed heavily before opening it again and nodding. Scootaloo and Applebloom cheered happily. Sweetie Belle just whimpered quietly, her ears splayed back. Spike smiled, clapping his hands together. I just sat there, grumbling to myself, my right eye twitching under the bandages.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight sat down slowly in the chair across the table from the chained stallion, her eyes never leaving his face. She held a cup of steaming hot coffee beside her head, grasped firmly in her magic to prevent spillage. Placing a recording crystal down upon the table, she took a sip of the coffee, only to wince as the hot liquid burned her tongue. Placing the cup down gently on the table, she licked her lips to try and clear them.

Glancing at the stallion, she cleared her throat.

His blue eyes flicked up but other than that he didn’t move.

In the silence, Twilight studied the stallion closely. His coat was a dark red color, practically crimson. His black mane hung in front of his face, unkempt and greasy. The horn on his forehead sparked slightly, an inhibitor preventing him from using any magic.

Opening her mouth, Twilight drew breath to speak, but the stallion beat her to it.

“What reason does a princess have,” he asked, a steely tone in his voice, “interrogating a lowly prisoner?” He leaned back slightly in his chair, chains clanking together as he moved. He gave her a contemptuous look. “Last I checked, it wasn’t seemly for a princess to demean herself by talking to the scum of the land.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she managed to keep her composure. Ruffling her wings into a more comfortable position, she cleared her throat again, and spoke.

“When you take something that belongs to me, it becomes my problem,” she said, lifting the coffee to back up to her lips. Blowing softly on the liquid, she took a tentative sip before lowering it back to the table and continuing. “The human, Max, is mine. That means you not only are in trouble for human fighting, illegally selling and acquiring humans, running from the guards, and resisting arrest, but now you also have stealing from royalty on your record.” She raised her eyebrow at the stallion, but he just stared blankly back, no emotion on his face. Twilight waited several seconds before sighing.

Leaning back in her chair, she crossed her forelegs. “You know, this could go a lot better for you if you simply cooperated, Mr.…?”

The stallion’s ear twitched once, his brow furrowing slightly as he glanced off to the side. Other than that, he gave no indication that he was listening. Silence fell over the room for several minutes, neither pony moving.

Taking her eyes off of the stallion, Twilight glanced back over her shoulder. Behind the tinted glass on the wall behind her, she could see Sunny watching, along with several of the guards. Sunny was staring at the stallion, the hatred clear in her eyes as she shook her head slowly.

Turning back to the bound stallion, Twilight sighed again, and proceeded to rise from the chair. Levitating her coffee beside her, she made her way towards the door.

“Well, if you aren’t going to help me, I’m not going to help you. Enjoy your time in Canterlot’s—”

“Darkflare.”

Twilight paused, her hoof on the handle. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked back at the stallion.

“Pardon?” she asked, lowering her hoof slightly, though she still remained by the door.

“My name,” he growled through clenched teeth, “is Darkflare.”

Turning, Twilight walked slowly back to the table, letting a small smirk gradually spread across her face.

“There,” she cooed, setting her coffee back down on the table. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Darkflare grumbled under his breath, refusing to meet her eye. Adjusting the recording crystal slightly, she smiled at the stallion. “This should go a lot more smoothly now, and your punishment might not be as severe. Now with your help, we can wrap this whole thing up quickly and—” she stopped as Darkflare began chuckling to himself. Twilight’s ears flicked once, a confused look flashing across her face for only a second. The dark chuckle slowly grew into a laugh that chilled her blood.

When Darkflare finally looked at her, his eyes flashed, the smirk still growing on his face.

“You seriously think this whole thing is over?” he asked, the dark mirth evident in his voice. Lifting up his bound hooves, he placed them on the table with a loud ‘clack’.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as he continued to laugh.

“We have you,” she replied, her voice neutral. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. “And we have somepony who can confirm that you are the leader of the gang, so I’m fairly certain it’s over.”

“It’s not over,” Darkflare laughed. The cold smile on his face was really starting to creep Twilight out. There was no warmth in it whatsoever. It was that kind of smile that shouldn’t ever be a smile. “Unfortunately for you, this is simply the beginning.”

“Beginning of what, exactly?” she asked, her voice sounding strained. She cursed silently, not wanting to let him win this battle of wits.

“There’s something big brewing in Equestria,” Darkflare said, idly studying one of his hooves. The horrid smile was still on his face.

Twilight growled at him, which only caused his smile to grow.

“You’re crazy,” she muttered, beginning to stand back up.

“No,” Darkflare said, shaking his head. “I’m not. I’m probably one of the only sane ponies here, especially in this backwater town.”

Twilight growled again, the ends of her mane beginning to smoke. “How dare you insult—”

“It amazes me that you, of all ponies, haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Figured what out?” Twilight asked, gritting her teeth; this was not going how she had planned. “What are you talking about?!”

“And, of course, what is to come,” Darkflare continued, ignoring her question, “will completely change all your pathetic lives when it is over.” He leaned forward, the smile growing on his face. “And I do believe that you will have more problems than me by the end of it.”

“And why’s that?” Twilight asked, her voice soft as her temper slowly died out. Her throat was starting to feel tight and the room had a chill over it. She had to keep reminding herself that Darkflare could do nothing to her; his magic was sealed and his hooves were chained. Plus, she had her royal guards nearby. So why does he fill me with such fear? Twilight was pretty sure that he was just spewing nonsense, but some part of her feared that he knew something that she didn’t, and he was acting on it. Like a horde of rats abandoning a doomed ship.

“Because I have some idea of what’s coming,” Darkflare said, light glinting in his cold eyes. “Plus, while it is true that I may have been the leader of the little group you arrested—” leaning forward slightly, red sparks flashed from his bound horn as he spoke “—and it may be true that we have been illegally handling and selling humans that we have stolen, found, and bargained for. And yes, we have been on the run from the guards lately, but all that doesn’t really matter.

“You may think that that you’ve won, and you can go back to your normal lives just because you’ve caught me, but half of my gang is still out there.”

“So we’ll track them down too,” Twilight huffed, one of her wings twitching involuntarily by her side.

Darkflare shook his head and laughed.

“You can hunt them down to your heart’s content, but that won’t stop the ‘illegal’ activities. In the end I may have been the leader of this organization, but that doesn’t mean that I was the one in charge. There is always a bigger fish out there.” He leaned forward more, practically placing his entire weight upon the table. His blue eyes stared at her, unblinking, seemingly looking into the very depths of her soul. “For, you see, I was hired.”

“Hired?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening.

Darkflare nodded once.

“Yes,” he growled. The smile on his face could rival Pinkie’s, but it was by far much more sinister. “By somepony in Canterlot.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As we walked through the dark forest, I couldn’t help but stare incredulously at the three fillies and dragon trembling by my feet. Ever since we had entered the Everfree Forest, they had been looking around, shivering in what I could only assume was fear. Apparently the forest made them feel uneasy. I couldn’t sense it, however. The forest looked normal, maybe a little on the dark and creepy side, but besides that it felt normal to me. Actually, it felt almost like home. It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling, but it almost felt like I was back on Earth again.

As we trudged through the gloomy environment, I noticed that even though the fillies were staying close, Sweetie Belle was still trying to maintain a distance from me. As she walked along, she limped slightly, favoring her back right leg. I could see a particularly large scar on her right flank, and I hazard a guess that the limp was probably permanent. The human she encountered really messed her up. She cast a fearful glance at me, and I felt a pang of sorrow for her as I realized that at the moment, the one creature she feared the most was the one who was supposed to help her through the evil forest. I quickly made a mental note to treat the fillies when we got back. Maybe I could convince Pinkie to sneak us some cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner when no one was looking.

Ducking under a low-hanging branch, I pulled out my notebook and scratched a message out for Spike.

+How much further do we have to go?+

“Just a little further,” the young drake said, glancing around at the surrounding trees for the umpteenth time. He was practically glued to my leg. All four of them flinched when a low growl sounded out nearby. I froze, my senses going on overdrive. Swiveling my head around, I silently cursed. Due to my eye being bandaged, my field of vision was essentially cut in half. There were several tense seconds of silence, followed by another low growl.

“Scootaloo, I thought I told ya tah eat before we left,” Applebloom whispered, her backside pressed up against my leg. “Tell yer stomach tah knock it off.”

“T-that wasn’t me,” Scootaloo said, her wings hanging limp at her sides. Both girls turned to look at Sweetie Belle. She looked back and forth between the two of them before shaking her head. If it wasn’t any of them, that what was it? I thought, swallowing nervously. I reached for my notebook, intending to ask Spike what he thought, but I stopped when I saw the look on his face. He was staring at something over my shoulder, his pupils were shrunken and his mouth was hanging open. My heart dropped into my stomach at the horror on his face.

My breath caught in my throat as something rustled in the vegetation behind me. I suddenly became aware of the fact that it was almost deathly quiet: the birds had stopped singing. Slowly, with great trepidation, I turned my head to glance behind me. My mouth dropped open and a gurgling cry escaped my lips as I saw what was there.

Three large creatures were slowly emerging out from the underbrush. The beasts were huge; looming over me by at least 2 feet. They looked like someone had taken a giant lion and slapped a pair of bat wings and a scorpion tail onto it. All three of them were glaring down at us, a hungry look in their blood red eyes. Their mouths were open, fangs gleaming in the dim light as drool fell to the forest floor below. As I stared up into the faces of death, I was dimly aware of my companions, even Sweetie Belle, pressing up against my legs, and the sound of whimpering reached my ears.

Images of blood and death flashed before my eyes as my mind screamed at me to run, but my body wasn’t responding. The creatures growled again, sending a shiver through my entire body. We have to get out of here! Despite my fear and instincts yelling at me, I still couldn’t move. My injured leg was beginning to tremble violently, and I was having a difficult time remaining upright. One of the manticores, the one on the right, snarled, snapping its tail behind it. My body unfroze instantly and I took a step back. Thoughts immediately flooded my mind on how I was going to get the fillies out of this mess.

As I quickly flipped through plan after plan, the little voice in the back of my head spoke up. Just leave the fillies and run. You can get away while they are being devoured. I wanted to argue with the voice, but something within me kept insisting it was the correct course of action. They’re ponies! They’d do the same thing to you if they were in your position. You don’t mean anything to them! I took another step back. Glancing down, I realized that Spike and the Crusaders hadn’t followed me. They were too busy staring up at the manticores, trembling in terror. Now’s your chance! Go! NOW! I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, but was unable to. RUN! As I fought with myself, the lead manticore, apparently growing tired of waiting, took a step forward.

Before I realized what I was doing, my body reacted.

Chapter 22: ...And Into The Fire / The Relationship of Pawn and King

Celestia moved through the palace—secure in her resolve—readying herself for what needed to be done. She had received word from her sister that there was a human in Ponyville that was as intelligent as a pony. She had expressed her concerns that somepony was simply playing a prank on Luna, but after she had showed Celestia her memory of the encounter, the Solar Princess was more inclined to believe her lunar counterpart.

To think, she mused as she walked down the empty corridor, as her gold-clad hooves clicked softly against the marble, it was the same human that was in my hooves all those months ago. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the human, but she knew that there was only one creature in Equestria that could be responsible for him.

And she was currently on her way to see him.

She couldn’t confront him immediately after discovering the human, due to the amount of work that came with the recent arrests in Ponyville. The fact that the ponies she had been hunting for the past several months were right under her nose the entire time troubled her. Nonetheless, with all of that taken care of, she could move on to the more serious matter at hoof.

Rounding the corner, she spied her destination down the hall: a large door guarded by four elite Battlemages. Their cobalt armor gleamed in the torchlight, the light dancing off of the polished metal. As Celestia drew near, all four of them saluted, their expressions remaining stoic and cold.

Stopping in front of them, Celestia turned to the commander: a dark gray unicorn mare with green eyes. Her pink mane stuck up through the crest of her helmet, a stark contrast to the cool blue of her armor.

“Major Ebony Rose,” Celestia said as the mare dropped the salute, “has anything unusual happened lately?”

“Nothing of significance, ma’am,” the Major replied, still standing at attention. “He’s been well behaved for the past several weeks. No pranks, no bothering the locals, no harassing the nobles. Nothing.” Her green eyes flicked up and she gave Celestia a skeptical look. “Methinks he may be trying to hide something.”

“That’s what I’m here to find out, Major,” Celestia said. Looking up, she glanced at the door. “Is he here right now?”

“Yes ma’am,” Major Ebony said, nodding her head in confirmation. “He had breakfast earlier this morning, then he retired back into his room. He’s done nothing else since.”

“Thank you, my little pony.” Pausing momentarily to compose herself, Celestia grasped the door handle in her magic. She glanced down at the guards. “No matter what happens, or what you hear, do not enter this door until I tell you to. Luna has been informed of what is going on, and she is standing by if anything severe happens.”

The guards all saluted once more before returning to attention, straighter than when Celestia had first arrived. She smiled softly at the sight; her little ponies never failed to amuse her in some way or another.

Tugging on the door handle, she swung the door open and entered the chamber.

The room was dark, the curtains drawn across the windows. The only source of light came from the fire crackling in the fireplace. The flames made the room feel stuffy and uncomfortable. All the furniture had been removed; the only thing remaining was a large table set that occupied the middle of the room, between the door and the fireplace.

Sitting at the table, his back to the roaring fire, was the very creature that she had come to confront.

“Discord,” Celestia said, her voice icy. Closing the door behind her, she quickly cast several wards around the room. After making sure that they would hold, she took several steps forward, approaching the table.

The draconequus smirked at her, his head resting on his paw as he leaned on the table. His red eyes were alight with mirth.

“To what do I owe this visit, Tia?” he asked, his tail swishing lazily through the air behind him.

“I was informed by Luna that a couple of weeks ago she discovered an intelligent human living in Ponyville,” she said, beginning to pace back and forth while never taking her eyes off of Discord. He showed no surprise at the information, silently confirming her suspicion that he was behind it. His eyes followed Celestia’s movements, the smile still on his face. “According to her, this human can not only understand ponies, but can think like them as well.”

“What does that have to do with me?” he asked, lifting his head up and leaning back. “I fail to see how one little human could pertain to the spirit of chaos.”

“I know you have something to do with this,” Celestia said, her eyes narrowing. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but it can’t be good. I will stop you, here and now.”

Silence fell over the room, the only sound being the fire crackling and popping. Then slowly, Discord began to laugh. It started out as a soft chuckle but grew until he was shaking with mirth. Gradually, he recomposed himself, wiping a tear from his eye as he looked at Celestia.

“And how,” he said, still chuckling to himself, “do you plan on doing that, dear Tia? Especially when you don’t even know what I have planned to begin with?”

“It’s hard to plot and scheme when you’re stone,” came the cold reply.

“Quite right,” he said, clapping his mismatched paws together. “Which is why I have a proposal for you!”

“What kind of proposal?” Celestia asked, stopping her pacing and glaring at the draconequus.

“I’ll give you a chance, much like you gave me a chance. Both you and I know that I don’t want to return to my stony prison,” he began, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “It’s rather dull to be stuck in the same position, staring at the same thing for a millennium, and I’d rather avoid that fate if at all possible. I also know that you don’t want to fight. You don’t like violence, and you don’t want to see any of your precious little ponies getting hurt. Plus” he added, grinning at her, “I think you remember the results of our last major fight.”

“I might,” Celestia said, her expression unchanged.

“The Everfree Forest was never the same, was it?” Discord asked, polishing his claws on his fur than studying them with disinterest. “To think that it used to be a paradise on Equestria. Shame, really.”

“Your point?” Celestia growled, trying to keep her temper in check. Out of all the creatures in existence, Discord was the only one that affected her like this. She could remain calm when facing down dragons and demons, but five minutes with Discord was enough to cause her temper to flare. And the strange thing was, she didn’t know why.

“My point is, you don’t want to fight me, and I don’t want to get blasted again by your annoying little orbital friendship cannon,” he said wiggling his claws as he spoke. “So how about an alternative?”

“What kind of alternative? What do you want?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. What are you planning, Discord? This behavior confused Celestia. In the past, whenever he was cornered, Discord was not opposed to fighting his way out. In fact, it was during one of his escape attempts, when he thought that he was home free, that she and Luna had finally managed to imprison him the first time, at the cost of several hundred of their best soldiers. She truly believed that Twilight and her friends avoided a major conflict simply because they caught the Mad God by surprise. It could have been a lot worse.

“Simple,” he said, snapping his claws. A large, marble chessboard appeared on the table, the pieces already in place. “I want to play a game.”

Celestia let her gaze wander across the chessboard, taking in every little detail. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, her eyes flicked up and she glared at Discord.

“What’s the catch?” she asked, taking a careful step forward.

“There is no catch,” Discord replied, idling twisting a piece in between his claws. “It’s quite simple: a friendly game of chess. If you win, I’ll allow you to turn me back to stone. No fight, no trickery, no catch.”

“And if I lose?” Celestia asked, stepping cautiously up to the table. As she drew near, she saw that the chess pieces themselves were made out of glass. The black ones had little white veins in them, which seemed to burn with an inner pyre, while the white pieces had black veins that seemed to consume all light that touched them.

“If you lose, than you are the one that gets turned to stone,” Discord chuckled darkly, steepling his fingers in front of his face as he grinned, “and I remain free.”

“So my only choices are fight you all across Equestria, or play a game of chess with you?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. The draconequus nodded once, still smiling. She stood there, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought it over quickly. On one hoof, if she agreed and won, that would save her a whole lot of trouble and they wouldn’t turn Equestria into a disaster zone. Contrary to what her little ponies believed about her, Celestia could be very aggressive if she wanted to. The fact that her battle with Nightmare Moon had carved out Ghastly Gorge, as well as created the Badlands, could attest to that.

But on the other hoof, if she agreed and lost, she would be the one that ended up trapped in stone. Celestia knew that Discord had the ability to hold true to the threat, although, thanks to some decrepit sense of morality, it was the one thing that he refused to do. She could always count on Twilight and her sister to release her from her prison, but she dared not think of what Discord would get up to during her imprisonment.

Celestia continued to stare at the board for a few more minutes before she made her decision. Pulling a chair out with her magic, she slowly took a seat, staring at the smiling draconequus in front of her.

“Excellent choice!” he jeered, clapping mockingly. “I do believe that white goes first.” Waving a claw, he indicated that she should go first.

Celestia glanced down at her pieces, selected a pawn, and moved it forward two squares. Releasing her hold on the piece, she leaned back and looked to Discord.

He leaned forward slightly, a look of thoughtfulness on his face as he stroked his goatee.

Celestia waited patiently for several long minutes as the Mad God puzzled out his move. Sweat began to drip down her brow as he took longer and longer to make a move. Discord looked long and hard at the board, studying each and every piece carefully. She could do nothing but sit there and wait, eager to see what long-term, devious strategies were being evolved in his demented mind. Then, after what felt like an eternity, her opponent tapped a piece with a claw. “Remind me again,” he said, “how the little pony-shaped ones move.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I sprinted through the trees, branches slashing at my body as I fought my way along.Taking in great lungfuls of air, I winced as my sides burned. I stumbled over a root, unable to see it thanks to the bandage covering my right eye. After regaining my footing, I skirted around a tree trunk, trying to put as much distance between me and the manticores. I could hear them behind me, crashing through the undergrowth as they pursued me. Feeling one of them breathing down my neck, I put on an extra burst of speed.

The three fillies clutched tightly in my arms shrieked in terror as the beast roared.

“Go faster! Go faster! Go faster!” Spike screamed in my ear. He was looking behind us as he clutched my head, his claws digging into my skin. Another roar, and I felt something swipe at me, ripping the back of my shirt to shreds. I cried out in pain as I felt the claws tear into my flesh. Spike took a deep breath before opening his mouth wide and releasing a torrent of fire behind us. I heard one of the manticores roar in pain, then the presence that was bearing down on us backed off, giving me some breathing room. Ignoring the pain in my back, I leapt over a fallen tree and thundered down the path.

As I ran, I felt the fillies tighten their grip on my arm, clinging desperately to their only lifeline. Sweetie Belle had her eyes closed tight, tears streaming down her face. Applebloom was looking over my shoulder, her red hair flying in the breeze; she had lost her bow when I had grabbed all of them up into my arms. Scootaloo was clearly in shock, staring straight ahead, mouth agape.

I tightened my grip on them, holding them closer to my chest. I’ve got to get them out of here!

I had just ducked under a branch when pain flared up in my right leg. I winced and stumbled slightly as my leg locked up. Gritting my teeth, I ignored the pain and forced my leg to work. The old wound throbbed as I ran. I was still recovering from my injuries in the pit, yet here I was, running for my life again. If these manticores get a hold of me, Twilight’s going to kill me.

“DUCK!” Spike screamed.

I obeyed instantly, a paw swiping over my head, missing me by several inches. At the sight of the massive limb, I immediately threw away all complaints that my leg had filed with my brain and kicked my body into high gear. My bare feet pounded the forest floor as I tried to put as much distance between me and the manticores as possible. From the sound of things behind me, it was a losing battle, but I didn’t care. I had only one thing on my mind at the moment: get the girls to safety.

Why did I agree to this again?! I asked, pain lancing up through my leg again as I continued the mad sprint to freedom, the beasts of hell hot on my heels.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Princess Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Come now, Tia. You should really try and enjoy yourself more,” Discord said, nonchalantly. “This might be the last thing you do for a while.”

Celestia ignored him, choosing instead to study the board intently. She had pushed hard in the beginning—probably more than she should have, now that she thought about it—but nonetheless it had allowed her to get some of Discord’s pieces quickly.

True to his nature, Discord was sneaking his pieces behind her defenses, worming and weaseling his pieces in between hers, picking them off one by one. So far, the pair was evenly matched, each with a fair number of the other’s pieces captured.

Celestia picked up a rook, which was shaped like an Earth pony holding a battle axe in his mouth, and contemplated where she was going to put him. She had been lucky and had managed to capture Discord’s queen right off the bat, but now his knights and bishops were causing her a great deal of strife. Any attempt to capture them was met with her losing another one of her own pieces in return.

Chewing on her lip, Celestia slowly moved the rook back, preparing to protect her king from Discord’s approaching knight. Releasing her magic, she finished her turn.

Discord raised an eyebrow, an amused expression on his face. Ignoring his knight, which was currently in a prime spot to push an attack on Celestia’s defenses, he reached out and picked up a pawn, scooting it forward a square.

Why would he move that one? That doesn’t help him at all, Celestia grunted, furrowing her brow as she tried to figure out Discord’s strategy. The black pawn was nowhere near any of her pieces, so she decided to leave it alone for now.

“You know,” Discord quipped as he studied a claw, “I thought you’d be more talkative, Tia. You know, trying to get me to spill the beans and tell you my plan. Not that I don’t appreciate you shutting your trap for once, but I wasn’t really expecting the cold shoulder.” As he talked, he brushed off the snow that was accumulating on his shoulder. The frozen substance fell to the floor, melting instantly as it came in contact with the surface, heated by the fire.

“You aren’t going to tell me anything you don’t want me to know,” Celestia replied, running an eye over the board to see if there was any weakness in her defense that she had overlooked. “So why bother trying when it won’t work anyway?” She slid a knight forward, claiming another one of Discord’s pieces: a pawn that stood beside one of his rooks. Celestia picked up the captured piece with her magic and studied it. It was an armored Earth pony crouched behind a large shield.

Sighing softly, she placed it down next to the Discord’s other captured pieces.

“Spoken like someone who has the situation under control,” Discord chuckled, studying the board with a bored expression. He nudged a bishop forward, encroaching on Celestia’s side of the board.

“I am in control of the situation!” Celestia snarled suddenly, her temper flaring. Picking up her knight, she used it to capture the offending bishop. All the pieces jumped slightly as she slammed her piece onto the board.

“So is the fly, before it encounters the spider’s web,” Discord snarked, pushing his pawn farther along the board. It was nearing Celestia’s side, but it still wasn’t near any of her pieces.

Celestia felt her anger grow at Discord’s comment. She ground her teeth together before exhaling heavily. The draconequus infuriated her so much. There were only a few times in her long life that she had ever truly lost her temper, and more than half of them were because of the draconequus.

Discord opened his mouth to say something else, but the glare she shot at him shut him up. As she leaned over the board, she heard him mutter under his breath, “Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine.”

Celestia’s left eye twitched as she tried to ignore him. Grabbing her queen, she moved it forward, now intending to finish the game as quickly as possible, consequences be damned!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

"Please,” Sweetie Belle whimpered, her ears splayed back in terror against her head, “please don’t let go. Please, don’t.” She held onto my arm with all her might, desperately clinging to her only lifeline. I could feel her heart thumping against my arm, fighting to burst out of her chest.

I won’t, I thought, well aware of the fact she couldn’t hear me. It was more for myself, as I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my head still telling me to ditch the fillies and save myself.

My breathing was ragged and labored, my lungs and sides burning. The bottoms of my feet were completely scratched up from the sharp rocks and roots I had been stumbling over. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because I should have reached the edge of the forest by now. Shaking my hair out of my eye, I tried to keep my vision as clear as possible. Sweat drenched my face, causing my long hair to stick to my forehead. I was exhausted and would have liked nothing better than to lie down and rest, but the three monstrous beasts behind me tore that dream to shreds.

The manticores roared, frustrated that their prey had eluded them for so long. If my hands weren’t currently full of scared filly, I would have shot them all the double birds. Instead, I just lowered my head and tried to sneak another couple of feet ahead of them. Chancing a quick glance behind me, I instantly regretted it. The large felines were closing the little distance I had gained, quickly. It was almost like they were toying with me, enjoying the thrill of the chase before consuming their meal. This is why I’m not a cat person.

Unfortunately, with my gaze directed behind me, I failed to see the large root protruding in the middle of the pathway. My foot caught it perfectly, causing me to stumble heavily, almost dropping the fillies in the process. All three of them screamed as they tightened their grips on my arms. Spike dug his claws deeper into my skin, holding on for dear life. I struggled hard to not faceplant in the dirt, my feet flailing around beneath me.

I had just managed to regain my footing when I felt intense searing pain flare up in my shoulder. Looking back, I saw that one of the manticores had jammed its scorpion stinger into my shoulder blade, the barb stuck deep in the flesh.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Princess Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Discord winced suddenly, rubbing his left shoulder while grimacing in pain.

Celestia gave him a look of faux concern.

“What’s the matter, Discord?” she asked as she returned her gaze to the board. The game was slowly beginning to wind down, and it looked to be in Celestia’s favor. She had captured almost all of Discord’s pieces, essentially trapping his king in one corner of the board, all alone with no defense. She smiled as she moved her knight closer. A few more moves, then the game is over.

Leaning back, she tried to repress her urge to smirk at the draconequus.

“Nothing that concerns you, Tia dear,” he said, still rubbing his shoulder. His eyes drifted across the board, dominated mostly by the remaining white pieces. Lifting his tail, he used it to push the random pawn on the board forward. It was now two squares from Celestia’s end of the board. Normally, this would be cause for alarm, but it was a little too late for that. Even if he got the pawn into the end row and got a piece back, no piece could help him. Not even his queen. The game was over; Celestia was sure of it.

“You’re awfully quiet, Discord,” she chirped as she moved her knight even closer to his king. “What happened to all that spunk you had earlier?”

“It seemed to be bothering you, Tia,” he shrugged before moving the pawn forward another square. It was now one square away from the end row.

Too little, too late Discord, Celestia thought, moving her knight forward again.

“Check,” she said with a smirk.

Discord leaned down and moved his king over one square. Exactly where Celestia had been hoping he’d move.

A huge grin split across her face as she lunged forward and slid her bishop forward.

“Checkmate, Discord,” she cheered, standing up. Discord just sat there, staring at the board with an expression on his face that Celestia couldn’t quite place. Fear slowly began to rise up in her chest, her eyes narrowing. He isn’t thinking of breaking our deal, is he?

She had just opened her mouth to remind him of his promise, while also slowly calling upon her vast reserve of magic, when she caught sight of Discord’s wings. The tips were slowly turning to stone. That held true for the rest of his body as well; stone was slowly creeping over his frame, encasing the draconequus in a gray prison.

Celestia jumped back with a yelp. What’s going on? I haven’t even cast the spell yet! A slight shimmer caught her attention and she glanced down at the chess board. It was glowing softly, tendrils of magic floating from the marble and slowly entwining Discord.

Celestia’s eyes widened as she realized what it was.

“You snuck a cursed board on me? What were you thinking?!” she shrieked, her wings flaring. She gaped at Discord in horror. While not uncommon back in the Dark Ages, cursed items were all but unheard of in modern times. The fact that she had been blind enough to actually play with one almost made her sick.

This was magic you didn’t mess with.

“My dear, sweet Tia,” Discord said, smiling as he sat there, slowly being encased in stone, “how else did you think I was going to make sure we both kept our ends of the bargain? You can be quite the little trickster yourself when you want to be.”

The stone was slowly making its way up his body. By now, only the top half of him remained untouched, but even that amount was shrinking.

“A little bit of sporty advice before I go,” Discord said, clapping his paws together. He looked awfully calm for someone who was about to become nothing more than a statue. Leaning forward, he pushed the pawn forward, placing it on the end row. As he let go of it, the piece began to morph and change, twisting as though it was made of liquid glass.

Celestia tore her gaze away from the mesmerizing sight and looked towards Discord. Her eyes met his, and a large smile soon adorned his face.

“Sometimes, in our pursuit of gods and kings, we overlook the little things.” The stone was now up to his arms. Folding them against his chest, they were soon immobile as the limbs were embraced by stone.

“You’ll notice in this game of chess, one piece cannot win without the rest.” His neck was now completely stone, and the line was slowly creeping up to his face. Still, the draconequus just smiled, a cold light in his eyes.

“But even when you’re sure that the king is gone, you’ll find that there will still be a little pawn.” And with that, Discord’s face froze completely, a triumphant grin plastered on his face. His entire body was now encased in stone.

Celestia stood there, staring at the grinning statue, not even daring to breathe. That was too easy. She pushed a small amount of magic through her horn, casting a sensor spell on the stone draconequus. The statue glowed white for a second before returning back to normal. She blinked in surprise. The spell had confirmed it: Discord was indeed trapped in stone.

I guess that’s that then, she thought hesitantly. Approaching the board, she turned her attention to the pawn piece.

It had morphed into a completely different figure during Discord’s little stunt. Now instead of a pony, a small human stood at the end of the board. It was positioned with its back to Celestia, a sword held in its miniature hand. It was looking back over its left shoulder, staring at something behind it.

Reaching down, she tentatively picked up the piece with a hoof. She studied the miniature for a few seconds before tucking the piece underneath her wing. Lowering the wards she had placed around the room, she cast one last glance at the now petrified Mad God before trotting to the door and opening it.

As she exited, all four Battlemages tensed up, ready for action. She just smiled at them as the door closed behind her.

“Any trouble ma’am?” Major Ebony asked, glancing at the closed door.

Celestia shook her head, still smiling.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” she said as she began to make her way down the hall. “Please inform my sister that I am finished 'talking' with Discord now. She can handle the rest.”

“Right away ma’am,” the major said, saluting. She hesitated slightly before clearing her throat. “If I may be so bold as to ask, what are you going to do now, ma’am?”

Celestia glanced over her shoulder at the Battlemages, still walking down the hallway. “I have some business to take care of in Ponyville, Major.”

.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

My left shoulder felt like it was on fire, and I was pretty sure that part of the manticore’s barb had broken off and become lodged in my back. My leg throbbed, and my breath came in short gasps, yet, despite all of that, I continued to run.

The three manticores were still close behind me, but they had yet to actually catch me. I wasn’t completely sure how I had managed to evade them for so long, but whatever luck I had left in me, I hoped it would last a little while longer. Although, the venom currently coursing through my system would probably take care of that soon.

Any thoughts to add to this? I asked the voice in the back of my head. It had been quiet for a while now. When no new ideas came from it, I gave up.

Jumping over another fallen log, I heard all three fillies give a cheer of joy. I looked up, trying to see what had caught their attention. That’s when I saw it too. Sunlight was streaming through the trees in the distance.

We had reached the edge of the bloody forest.

Gritting my teeth, I put on an extra burst of speed, pouring everything I had into get us out of that godforsaken place. Spike shouted words of encouragement in my ear as the fillies continued to cheer. Behind us, I heard the manticores roar, redoubling their effort to catch us.

I was fifty feet from the edge of the forest. Behind me, the sound of crashing wood heralded the approach of death.

Thirty feet from freedom, and I could feel their breath on my back. A paw flew over my head, missing me by inches. Spike screamed and a manticore roared.

Ten feet from escaping the forest. I felt something connect with my lower back. Pain erupted across it as a warm liquid began to flow down my skin. I pushed aside any pain and concentrated on closing the last few feet.

With one last push, I burst out of the forest and into the sunlight. I felt the strength leave my legs and my momentum carried me another couple of meters before I collapsed. Twisting myself in midair as I plummeted to the earth, I landed on my back, knocking the wind out of me. I could feel the fillies still clinging to my chest, their bodies shivering horribly.

Lifting my head up, I looked around quickly for any signs of the manticores. As my vision began to blur, I saw them pacing back and forth from the treeline. It appeared that they were reluctant to leave the forest. I let my head drop, sighing in relief. My grip on the fillies loosened, and I felt them scramble off of me. They were saying something, screaming it really, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. I heard a female in the distance shout something, alarm in her voice, followed quickly by the sound of pounding hooves approaching fast.

The last thing I saw before I passed out was a blur of yellow and pink looking down at me as gentle hooves lifted up my tired body.

Chapter 23: The Coming Dawn

Twilight passed the recording crystal to one of the guards as she closed the door to the interrogation room behind her. He tucked it firmly beneath his wing before saluting and trotting off. It had been a long process, and she hadn’t been able to learn much from Darkflare. It was over now, and she was able to return home to relax.

Turning to look at Sunny, Twilight sighed and lifted her saddlebag onto her back.

“I think that about does it for today,” she grumbled, tightening the straps. “I don’t think I can stand another minute talking with him. How about we head back to the library and get something to eat?”

“Fine by me,” Sunny said, fighting back a yawn. “I’m exhausted, and I wasn’t even the one doing the work!”

Checking one last time to make sure that everything was fine at the guard station, the pair headed out into the evening sun. Twilight stretched her wings, a happy murmur escaping her lips. She was glad to be out of the building, and the gentle breeze felt nice on her tense muscles.

Beside her, Sunny giggled.

“Stressful time in there?” she asked, her eyes dancing with laughter.

Twilight groaned as she felt her back pop in several places. I will never understand why Max likes doing that so much, she thought, straightening back up. It seemed like every time he stretched, some part of his body popped and cracked. She could tell when he got up in the middle of the night, as the sound seemed to echo around the library. It always brought a smile to her tired face whenever she woke up to it; it was a sign that her human was still alive.

“That’s the understatement of the century,” Twilight growled, ruffling her feathers as she returned to the conversation. “He made me feel like a little filly on Nightmare Night. It was so unnerving, the way his eyes followed me wherever I moved. How could you stand working for him?”

Sunny flinched before hanging her head.

“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that much,” she said softly. “I just tried my best to avoid him as much as possible. I tried to avoid all of them, actually.” She stared at the ground as they walked along, a small frown on her face.

"If you didn’t like working with them, then why did you?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious. “If you knew what they were doing was wrong, why help them in the first place?”

Sunny chewed on her bottom lip before looking up. Twilight blinked in surprise at the look Sunny gave her. Ever since she arrived, Sunny had been one of the happiest, go-luckiest mares Twilight knew. She could give Pinkie Pie a run for her bits on occasion. Even during stressful times, there was a hint of laughter in her gaze, like she knew everything would turn out alright in the end.

Now, however, there was only a tiredness the likes of which Twilight had only seen once before, on one other pony.

“Truthfully,” she said, sounding weary, “I needed the money.”

“That’s the reason?” Twilight scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You couldn’t have found any other way to earn money than to join up with criminals?”

“That’s easy for you to say; you’re a unicorn. Or were one, rather. For a pegasus born and raised in Canterlot, work isn’t easy to find,” Sunny growled, returning her gaze to the ground. “Everything is run by the unicorns. Hay, the whole damn city is practically ruled by them. Earth ponies and pegasi are usually reduced to working menial jobs like cleaning streets or trash collection, and those don’t pay near enough to support yourself.”

“What about working for the weather factory?” Twilight asked, trying not to sound too accusing. “That’s an occupation for pegasi.”

“Oh please, the weather in Canterlot isn’t controlled by pegasi,” she huffed, a wing twitching at her side. “With the use of weather-controlling magic, the entire Canterlot branch of the factory is run, controlled, and managed by unicorns. They use their stupid magic to make the weather and move the clouds. Why hire twenty pegasi when three unicorns can do the same amount of work faster? You can get more bits that way.

“That’s why I joined up with Darkflare and his crew. I needed the money. Although, I soon found that even though what we did could be considered wrong on so many levels, I enjoyed it. Not because it was torturing and selling humans,” she added, noting Twilight’s shocked expression, “but because I was working with humans. You see, to a human, there is no difference between a unicorn and a pegasus. They don’t see the horn, or the wings, or the lack thereof. They just see another living creature. If you are friendly to a human, they are friendly to you as well, regardless of who you are.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she talked, slowly rolling down her cheeks to fall to the ground below.

“Why is it that a creature that can be considered dumber than most other animals can show more compassion to a pony than other ponies can? Why will a creature that can turn violent so quickly not attack you if you show it a little kindness, but a pompous, arrogant unicorn won’t even pause to help a pony in distress?” She turned her gaze up to the sky, blinking back tears as she did so. “Why are pegasi that grow up in Canterlot considered next to useless?” she whispered.

Twilight’s ears splayed back. She chewed on her lip as she glanced at Sunny out of the corner of her eye, shocked at the sudden wave of negative emotions. She could understand where it was coming from, though. What Sunny said had some merit, much to Twilight’s chagrin. Canterlot was mostly run by unicorns, including the Weather Factory branch located there. Twilight knew that, yet still she blindly ignored the fact. But that wasn’t the only reason she was uncomfortable about Sunny’s revelation.

The entire time Sunny had been living at the library, Twilight had been treating her poorly. Max and Spike would go out of their way to help Sunny if she needed it. There were even times that they would let her pick what was going to be for dinner, or what everyone was going to do for the day. The smile on her face whenever they did that was blinding.

Twilight, on the other hoof, had just simply ignored the mare, or become frustrated if she got in her way. She had even shouted at Sunny once for putting a stack of books away before she was done with them.

I’ve been treating her like dirt, Twilight thought, mentally kicking herself in the flank, all because of who she was and what she did. Swallowing nervously, Twilight decided that it was time to fix her mistake.

Slowly, she moved closer to Sunny, draping a wing over her back. She gasped slightly as the wing settled over her, but she didn’t do anything to move away. In fact, she seemed to lean into Twilight’s side ever so slightly.

“I'm sorry,” Twilight said softly.

Sunny glanced up at her in confusion, tears still rolling down her face.

“I-it’s not your fault,” she sniffled, rubbing at her cheeks with the back of a hoof.

“Not for what happened to you in Canterlot,” Twilight said. “Not for what you went through while living there. I’m sorry for how I’ve treated you when you were staying with us.” Sunny inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. “You didn’t deserve it,” Twilight continued. It was her turn to hang her head, “and I’m sorry—”

She was cut off suddenly as Sunny draped her own wing over Twilight’s shoulder, their feathers brushing together. Twilight glanced over at her and saw she was smiling weakly through her tears.

“After what I’ve done, I deserved it,” she said.

“No, no you didn’t,” Twilight replied, shaking her head.

Sunny gave her a confused look, tilting her head to the side. “What makes you think that?”

“If you hadn’t joined up with Darkflare and his crew, you wouldn’t have been able to help Max,” Twilight said, hugging tighter with her wing. Sunny’s ears perked up at that, a surprised look crossing her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight pushed on. “And for that fact alone, I could forgive you. But that’s not all you’ve done.”

Sunny continued to stare at Twilight, her mouth open slightly. Twilight giggled softly at the sight.

Okay, that’s actually kind of cute. A blush quickly rose to Twilight’s cheeks as she realized what she had just thought. Coughing, she continued with what she had been saying. “You not only left the group voluntarily, but you agreed to atone for your crimes. You’ve helped out around the library. You’ve helped with both Max and Spike.

“Also, and this is the big one,” she said, pulling her wing off of Sunny and turning to face her, “you helped me find Max when he had been abducted, you were beside me every step of the way, and you helped us bring Darkflare down.” Twilight smiled at her before giving the pegasus a proper hug.

As she draped her forelegs over Sunny’s shoulders, she felt her flinch. After a moment, Sunny hesitantly returned the hug.

“In my opinion,” Twilight said, not breaking the embrace, “you’ve already been pardoned.” She tightened her grip on Sunny, tears welling up in her eyes. “And you are not useless,” she whispered in her ear.

Sunny trembled at that, a shuddering breath escaping her. After a brief moment of silence, she murmured softly into Twilight’s ear. “Thank you, Twilight. That means a lot to me.”

The pair broke the hug and smiled at each other, each wiping tears from their eyes. Sunny looked at Twilight, who could see that a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

THUD

And like that, the tender moment was ruined when Rainbow Dash came crashing down in front of them.

Both Sunny and Twilight jumped at the impact, looking over at Rainbow, who was laid out flat on her stomach, her eyes rolling in her head due to the force of her collision with the ground. A flock of birds flew around in a large circle above her, chirping madly. Twilight frowned. Some of them looked like Fluttershy’s birds. Shaking her head, she ignored them and turned her attention to her prismatic friend.

“Whoa there, Dash, where’s the fire?” she asked jokingly as Rainbow struggled to her hooves. Her laughter died when she saw the look on Dash’s face. It was a look of fear and panic.

“Twilight,” she cried, dancing on her hooves in agitation, “We've got trouble!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Pain, my friend, we really must stop meeting like this, I grumbled as I regained consciousness. Shifting slightly, I immediately became aware that I was lying on a semi-comfortable bed. There was an annoying beeping noise coming from beside me, and I could feel something pinching in the crook of my right arm. I could feel bandages wrapped around my torso. Without even opening my eyes, I knew where I was.

I was back in the freaking hospital.

If this becomes a regular thing, I should really look into getting some form of health insurance, I thought, cracking my left eye open and looking around groggily. Back home on Earth, I had been in the hospital many times, but each time was to visit my grandmother, who had several medical problems. I, myself, had been admitted to the ER only once, and that was for a stomach virus that had me vomiting every five minutes.

Now, however, I found myself back in the hospital in Equestria for the second time in less than two weeks.

Coincidence? I’m not entirely sure, but something strange was going on, and my paranoia agreed. After all, I had been in Equestria for five months and nothing remotely bad had happened. Now, it seemed like my good luck had run out. Just... fucking... great.

I tried to get a good look at the room I was in, but the bandage over my right eye made it hard to get a good scope on things. I slowly moved my head around, my left eye scanning the room gradually.

A giggle next to my head caused me to glance to my left. A nurse was standing by the end of the bed, watching me with an amused smile on her face. She had a pure white coat, and her pink mane was done up in a bun underneath her nurse cap. A red cross adorned her flank, similar to the one on her cap. Her blue eyes twinkled with mirth as she looked at me.

“Welcome back. We weren't expecting you to be conscious yet,” she said, chuckling softly as I just laid there, blinking at her owlishly. “It’s good to see you again, even if it is so soon after you left last time.”

I crinkled my nose up at that, casting a cautious glance. It was almost like she knew that—

“Before you start getting paranoid,” she began, her tone of voice remaining calm and collected, “yes, I know that you’re… unique.” Seeing the alarm on my face, she shook her head and quickly added, “Ms. Sparkle explained some of it the last time you were here. Fluttershy filled in a bit more when she arrived with you earlier today. I’ve got to say, it was rather hard to believe at first that you were actually intelligent, but I can start to see that it’s true.” She giggled again as I closed my eye and groaned loudly, letting my head drop back onto the pillow. Great, someone else who knows the truth! Might as well just have a town meeting about it at the rate ponies are learning.

As if sensing my distress, the nurse patted my shoulder tenderly.

“There, there,” she said, laughter hidden in her voice. “It’s not all that bad. The only staff that know about your situation are the ones who are taking care of you. We figured it would be best to keep this as quiet as possible until Twilight could deal with it personally.”

I opened my eye and gave her a weak smile, silently thanking her.

She chuckled again before walking to the end of the bed to consult my medical charts. As she flipped through the chart, she continued her one-sided conversation. All things considered, I was fairly surprised at how well she was taking everything.

“It was a good thing that Fluttershy got you here when she did. Otherwise, the manticore’s venom would have done its job. She treated your injuries back at her cabin, but upon discovering the manticore barb embedded in your shoulder, she rushed you here. She was having a panic attack, believing that she hadn’t made it in time. Spike and the Crusaders will also be happy to hear—”

My heart rate spiked instantly, causing the nurse to drop the clipboard and yelp in shock. I had completely forgotten about the girls! Are they alright? Is Spike okay? What happened after I passed out? Struggling with the sheets around me, I attempted to stand up. The nurse rushed to my side, gently yet firmly pushing me back onto the bed.

“Relax,” she ordered, her tone authoritative, “Relax! They’re fine!”

I slumped back into the bed, breathing heavily. My shoulder burned and a dull throb resonated through my lower back.

“All of them had several cuts and scratches, and were in a state of shock, but nothing major,” the nurse continued, keeping a firm hoof pressed against my chest to stop me from rising. “Out of the five of you, you were in the worst condition when you arrived.” As my heart rate slowly returned to normal, the nurse returned to the foot of my bed, keeping her eyes on me as she walked.

“As I was saying, Spike and the Crusaders will be happy to see you awake,” she continued, picking up the clipboard in her hooves again. “You had the manticore’s barb jammed into your left shoulder, nearly hitting your scapular spine. It was touch-and-go for a bit as we tried to remove it, but once we did and got the anti-venom into your system, your condition stabilized.

“You also had several lacerations across your lower back, which we cleaned and bandaged, although it did require some stitches. Your feet were pretty scratched up as well, but we were able to heal most of the major cuts. Try and take it easy for the next couple of days, okay?” She asked, shooting me a smirk over the clipboard.

I rolled my eyes, but a small smile touched my lips nonetheless. The smile caused her to flinch, a shiver running down her spine. She managed to compose herself again quickly.

Returning the charts back in the basket, she proceeded to check my bandages to make sure none of my wounds were becoming infected. As she checked me over, I mused silently to myself.

Why is it that most ponies that discover I’m smart don’t freak out? Twilight and Sunny were understandable, but everyone else just seems to take it in stride. I glanced down at the mare, who currently had her ear pressed against my chest, head bobbing in time with my heart beat, a small smile on her face. Maybe I’m just not giving these ponies enough credit... or maybe it’s just this bloody town. Twilight did say that the ponies in this town were crazy.

Glancing out the window, I noticed that the sun was just beginning to set. Unless I was mistaken, I had been out for only a few hours.

Once the nurse was satisfied that I was as healthy as I could be given the circumstances, she stood up and headed towards the door.

“Well, everything appears to be in order,” she called back over her shoulder as she reached the door. “Now that you’re awake, there are some ponies out here that have been waiting to see you.” As she said that, I immediately thought of Sunny or Twilight.

I hope Twilight isn’t too upset with me, I winced, preparing my excuse for what had happened.

I was not prepared, however, for the white blur that assaulted me the moment the nurse opened the door. I could only sit there, a dumb expression on my face, as Rarity clung to me, crying her eyes out. Applejack followed her in, snickering slightly at the sight before her.

“T-thank you,” Rarity blubbered out, sobbing into my chest. “Y-you saved them. Y-you could have left t-them behind and saved y-yourself, but you didn’t!”

As she continued to cry, Applejack approached my bed, smiling sheepishly at me.

“Thanks for keepin’ mah sister and her friends safe,” she said, her southern drawl cracking as she spoke. Her eyes were bloodshot, a clear indication that she had been crying earlier.

I just gave her a small smile, wrapping my arms awkwardly around Rarity as she continued to cry. Her once ‘perfect’ mane was disheveled, twists and knots present where normally there wouldn’t be. We remained like that for several minutes; Rarity crying in my arms as Applejack stood beside the bed, shuffling her hooves, looking anywhere but at me and Rarity.

...yeah, it was actually pretty awkward; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Finally, the tears slowly began to cease. Sniffling, Rarity looked up at me and blushed slightly. Wiping her eyes with her hoof, she proceeded to extract herself from me, hiccuping slightly as she did so. Jumping down off of the bed, she attempted to straighten her disheveled mane as she turned to face me.

I rubbed my shoulder, the pain slowly increasing but still manageable.

“I’m terribly sorry about that, dear,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “I-it’s just that ever since her accident, I’ve been scared of something bad happening to Sweetie.” Closing her red-rimmed eyes, Rarity took a deep breath, trying to compose herself.

Applejack snickered behind her hoof, and I couldn’t help but smile as well. After seeing Rarity be very prim and proper every time I’ve encountered her, to have her break down in front of me was kind of funny, even if the circumstances weren’t.

I’m sure she was very worried about her sister. I was just glad that my body reacted before my mind did when it came to saving the fillies.

“Anyway,” she said, opening her eyes, her voice sounding slightly stronger. “I just want to say that I’m sorry for how I have been treating you; it was unprofessional and unladylike to do so, and for that I apologize. I was wrong about you, and I thank you again for saving Sweetie despite our... tense... relationship with one another.”

I had already begun to sign out my response when I realized that neither of them could understand hoof-language. I guess I got too used to Sunny and Twilight being able to understand me.

I facepalmed, which drew confused expression from both mares, who glanced at each other before looking back at me. Gazing around the room, I searched for something to write on. I glanced down beside my bed and my eyes widened as I saw that my bag was lying on the floor next to it. Reaching down, I picked the bag up gingerly. As I placed it on the bed, I grimaced at the condition the bag was in.

There were small patches of dried blood across the bag, most of which I was pretty sure belonged to me. On second thought, I was positive that all of it was mine, as I didn’t really injure any of the manticores. The strap was barely hanging on, held together by mere threads.

I opened the bag and fished out my notebook and the charcoal stick, the charcoal having been snapped in two. Blood had soaked into the notebook as well, staining parts of the pages crimson. Flipping the notebook open to a relatively clean page, I scratched out my response.

+There’s no need to thank me. I would never have forgiven myself if anything happened to them+ There was no need to tell them about the little argument I had with myself about leaving the fillies behind.

I handed the notebook to Applejack, who took it gingerly in her hooves, trying to avoid touching the patches of blood. Rarity ignored the notebook completely, instead focusing on my bag.

“What is that?” she asked, staring at the bag in horror.

Taking back my notebook from Applejack, I scribbled out my response. I just held the notebook in front of her; I was pretty sure that she wouldn’t want to touch it. +It’s a backpa bag I made for myself. It got torn up while I was running from the manticores+

Rarity looked back and forth between the notebook and the bag, shaking her head in disgust.

“That will not do at all, darling,” she huffed, looking at the offending bag like it was roadkill. “I will not allow you to walk around with that... thing any longer! After you get out of the hospital, come over to my shop and I’ll create a new bag for you. Come to think of it,” she said as she started to eye my tattered clothing. “I can make you better clothes, too.”

I went to write out a message telling her that she didn't need to bother, but my notebook was pulled out of my hands by a light blue aura.

“I insist, dear,” she said, giving me a warm smile. “Think of it as a way to thank you for saving the Crusaders, and to make amends for my earlier behavior,” she added, giving my clothing another embarrassed look. “What was I thinking?” she said under her breath.

Sighing heavily, my shoulders slumped and I nodded my head, defeated. I was secretly cheering inside, because I seriously needed new clothing, but I couldn’t let Rarity win this round so easily. Not after all of those snide comments she made at me when she thought I was a dumb beast.

Rarity had just given me back my notebook, and I was about to ask about the girls, when Rainbow Dash suddenly came flying in through the open window. Landing on my bed, she turned her back to me and looked at Applejack and Rarity.

“I found Twilight leaving the guardhouse,” she said, barely winded from her flight. “She’s on her way here right now with Sunny. How’s the big guy doin’?”

I stifle a laugh at her expense. She apparently didn’t realize that I was awake when she flew in and perched upon my legs. Considering her size, she’s actually pretty light. Deciding to have some fun, I reached out and gave her bunny ears. Both Rarity and Applejack had to cover their mouths with their hooves to stop from laughing. Seriously, it didn’t take much to amuse most ponies.

“Why don’t ya ask him yerself, sugarcube?” snickered Applejack, motioning with her hoof for Rainbow to turn around.

I retracted my hand quickly and leaned back before she glanced over her shoulder at me. When she saw that I was awake and looking at her, Rainbow’s wings shot open and her eyes widened.

“Woah, didn’t see you there, big guy—” her words froze on her lips as her bottom jaw fell to the bed, followed shortly by her rear. She stared up at me in some kind of horrified awe, her wings standing further at attention.

The smile slowly left my face as she continued to stare at me, replaced instead by a look of confusion. Glancing at Applejack and Rarity, I raised my eyebrows in a silent question. Both of them just shrugged their shoulders, equally confused. It was when I started waving my hand in front of Rainbow’s face that she finally moved.

“Dude,” she breathed, standing up and taking a shaky step forward. “Your eye looks wicked!”

I looked at her in confusion. What’s she talking about? My eye is no different than the last time she saw me. Or is she talking about the bandages? I didn’t know why she would suddenly find the bandages around my eye interesting. They had been there all week, and she had visited me plenty of times. Was she really that oblivious?

Lifting up my hand, I reached for the bandage covering my right eye…

...only to touch bare skin. I froze instantly, my hand over my eye. There was no bandage covering it; it was completely bare. Yet I still couldn’t see anything!

All three of them immediately noticed my deepening look of horror and Rainbow Dash flinched back, a guilty look on her face.

“Dude, you didn’t know?” she asked in a low voice. She glanced at Applejack and Rarity, who just shrugged.

“We didn’t tell him ‘cause we thought he knew,” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her head. “Ah just assumed that Twilight had told him already.”

Rainbow looked back at me, her gaze concerned along with another emotion I couldn’t quite place. I ignored her, however, opting instead to try and get out of bed.

“Woah there, hun,” Applejack said as I started to rise. She hurried to my side and tried to push me back onto the bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I threw the notebook at them, a new message scrawled on the bottom. +I need a mirror+

All three of them flinched and Rarity shot me a concerned look.

“I’m not sure if that would be wise at the moment, darl—”

I pointed firmly at the notebook, cutting her off. +I need a mirror+

“But you just had a traumatic experience. Can’t this wait?”

I jabbed a finger at the notebook again, and she sighed in defeat before opening up her saddlebags and levitated a mirror out from its depths.

“Alright, darling,” she said, floating the mirror over to me, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Grabbing the mirror, I flipped it over and gazed at my reflection.

My face was dirty from my mad dash through the forest. Small scratches from the branches covered my cheeks, angry red marks against my skin. I had stubble growing across my cheeks and chin, as well as my upper lip. My brown hair, bleached slightly by the sun, covered my ears and hung down in front of my eyes. My left eye was completely normal, the dark brown color unmarred and pristine condition. However, the same could not be said for the other one. A long, thin scar ran from the left side of my face, starting under my left eye and trailing over my nose, before reaching the bottom of my right eye. The eye itself was completely useless; no iris, no pupil. Just a pure white sphere gazed back at me, almost like someone had removed my eye and replaced it with a glass marble filled with milk. It appeared that—despite my original belief—the blade did not miss my eye; it destroyed it.

As I just stared at the eye, transfixed by its horrific beauty, the others shuffled around nervously.

“It’s not that bad, dear,” Rarity said, her voice painfully chipper and false. “It’s actually quite... err, dashing.”

“Eeyup,” Applejack chimed in, a forced smile on her face. “It shows that you’re tough!”

“And look on the bright side,” Rainbow said, inching closer with an eager gleam in her eyes. “Now you and Sweetie Belle can join the ‘We got attacked by humans and are now blind in one eye’ club!”

Both Applejack and Rarity shot her an evil glare, but I actually snorted at that.

I wasn’t really upset that the eye was useless. Don’t get me wrong; it still sucked, and I would have liked to have had it back to normal, but it wasn’t really a huge loss on my part. While my left eye was a perfect 20/20, my right eye, which had been a lazy eye I had had surgery on, was only 20/70. That meant that even though I could see out of it, I relied heavily upon my other eye. So, the only real problem I had now with losing the eye was a permanently larger blind spot. Plus, I was pissed that nobody told me the eye was useless. My guess was that the doctors neglected to tell anyone because I was a human.

No, the eye didn’t really concern me that much. It was the way Rainbow Dash was looking at me that concerned me.

All three mares just stared at me as I studied my blind eye, each with a different expression of concern (or in Rainbow’s case, excitement and awe. Really, it was starting to creep me out). Tilting my head to the side slightly, I leaned in closer to the mirror, trying to get as good a look as possible.

“You okay, darling?” Rarity asked tentatively. “You aren’t upset, are you?”

I tore my gaze from the mirror and looked over at her. I gave her a blank look for several seconds before cracking a strained smile.

Rarity and Applejack flinched slightly at the sight of my teeth, but Rainbow just inched closer still, her wings still at attention.

“Ah don’t care what Twilight says,” Applejack muttered to Rarity. “Ah’ll never get used tah that smile of his.” Rarity nodded nervously in agreement before they both turned and gave me sheepish grins.

I smirked at the two mares before returning my attention back to the mirror, only to find Rainbow inches from my face. I jerked my head back before giving her a bemused look, a look that just screamed ‘Can I help you?’.

“Dude, that scar… your eye,” she said breathlessly, a small blush spreading across her face. “They’re awesome.” Slowly licking her lips, she continued to stare at my face as her tail twitched behind her and her back legs began to slowly knead down into the bed. Her wings were still stiffening gradually by her sides. An odd odor was beginning to fill the room.

I swallowed nervously as I slowly realized what that emotion on her face was exactly. Oh boy... not good.

Applejack and Rarity were staring at her in shock, mouths agape. She was slowly closing the gap between us, and I already scooted back as far as I could go. I glanced sideways at the other two, silently pleading for help, but I think they were completely frozen.

Rainbow was now close enough that I could feel her hot breath on my face, her crimson eyes glinting with an inner hunger. She slowly inched her face closer, her eyes starting to close as she moved her lips closer and closer to mine. Mere centimeters separated her moist lips from mine, her eyes closed tight in anticipation—

“WHERE THE BUCK IS HE?! I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!”

Everything froze as Twilight’s voice echoed around the hospital, causing the entire building to shake. The needy look immediately left Rainbow’s eyes, replaced instead by fear. I was saved! Unfortunately, it was by the lesser of two evils.

“Uh, I gotta go!” she said before bolting back out the window, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake.

“Right behind ya!” Applejack called after her, as she opened the door and shot down the hall.

Ripping the mirror from my hands, Rarity was right on her heels.

“Remember to come visit me later, if you’re still alive!” she called back to me as she ran. And just like that, I was alone in the hospital room, awaiting my final judgment. I should’ve let the manticores eat me.

I had a brief moment of peace before the door flung open, revealing a fuming Twilight.

The Goddess of Magic was glaring daggers at me as her mane slowly began to smoke. Her teeth were grinding together as she growled at me, her wings splayed aggressively by her sides. Sparks flew from her horn, energy crackling down the entire length.

Hell hath no fury…

As I stared at her, wide eyed, I was pretty sure I could hear my heart monitor short-circuiting beside me. Shit, this is worse than that time Spike dropped a book in the bathtub when he was taking a bath.

Twilight took a step forward, the tile creaking ominously underneath her hoof.

"What,” she growled, her eyes glowing with an inner fire, “the buck… were you thinking?”

I shot a quick glance at the open window through which Rainbow had disappeared not minutes ago, weighing my options. My room was on the second floor, so the ground wasn’t too far below. I would probably suffer some bruising and maybe a few broken bones, but I would get out alive.

Unfortunately, Twilight saw where I was looking. The window was quickly surrounded by her magic and slammed shut, the force of the blow causing the glass to rattle in its frame.

“What possibly possessed you to go into that forest, accompanied by ONLY three fillies and a baby dragon?” she growled, taking another step towards me. “Three fillies, a baby dragon, and an injured human? WHAT THE BUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!?!”

Well, when she put it that way, it does sound pretty stupid, doesn’t it?

~In my defense, Spike was the one in charge~ I gave her a sheepish smile, trying hard to resist the urge to bolt. I could feel my right eye twitch slightly as she continued to approach me, step by step.

Twilight’s eyes flashed white when I mentioned the young dragon.

“You let a baby dragon tell you what to do? You let a BABY dragon tell YOU what to do?!” she asked, her voice sounding as if several people were talking at once. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was about to tear my head off, I probably would have found that cool as hell. “What possibly possessed you to agree to that?!”

~They caught me by surprise!~ Twilight just glared at me, growling slightly. I decided that I should probably elaborate. ~It was the first time I saw Sweetie Belle up close, and I was too shocked at her injures to—~

“I thought you were intelligent!” Twilight snarled, interrupting me. “Tell me what part of that could have possibly been a good idea? Entering the Everfree Forest during manticore mating season? What were you thinking?!”

~I’m a human. In case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t the most intelligent species out there~ The pain medication they had me on was wearing off, but it seemed that there was still enough left in my system to make my mind not realize that I was on extremely thin ice with this mare with the power of the gods.

Leaping up onto the bed, Twilight roared at me, “STOP JOKING AROUND! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!!!” The entire bed shook with the force of her shout.

~Trust me, dying is the last thing I plan on doing~ I signed with a smirk on my face while my brain screamed at me to shut up. Instantly, I knew I had said the wrong thing.

Energy burst from Twilight, causing all nearby machines to immediately shut down. A great pressure pushed down on my chest, making it difficult to breathe. Twilight’s eyes were pure white, her mane flying around her head in an unseen hurricane. Snarling, she lunged forward, pushing her nose into mine.

As I stared at her in fear, I was pretty sure that my time had finally come.

“TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, YOU MOTHER Bucker…” Twilight’s voice died in her throat as the magic around her immediately diminished. Her eyes returned to their usual violet color and they began to tear up. Placing a hoof over her mouth, Twilight backed up slightly, her wings lying limp by her side. As she continued to back up, I just stared at the place her face used to be, utterly confused at her sudden mood swing.

Twilight fell backward onto her flank, tears streaming down her face as she continued to stare at me in horror. Slowly lowering the hoof covering her mouth, she breathed, “Your eye.”

I stared at Twilight incredulously. That’s what got her upset? That’s what stopped her rage? My eye?! I know it’s bad, but I don’t think it’s that bad.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, tears slowly rolling down her face and falling onto the comforter below. This only served to make me more confused.

~What are you sorry for?~ I asked, trying hard to figure out what the hell was going on. One minute she’s about to kill me, and the next she’s in tears, apologizing to me.

“I... I cost you your eye.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes in disbelief. Really? She thinks this is her fault?

~You weren’t in the pit. You didn’t have the knife. You didn’t do this to me~

Twilight shook her head, the tears still coming.

“I was the one who blasted the human with the knife,” she cried, her body trembling slightly. She refused to look at me. “I-I’m the reason the blade cut across your face and hit your eye. I cost you your eye… and now y-you’re going to h-hate me!” With that she broke down.

Placing my hand over my mouth, I sighed as I looked at the broken mare in front of me. I didn’t know what to think anymore. Mere moments ago she was ready to tear my head off for going into the Everfree Forest, and now she was practically crying her eyes out because she thought that she was responsible for my ruined eye. I don't get paid enough to deal with this...

Talk about a bad case of being bipolar. What the hell was I supposed to do about this? Why do I feel like the saner one in this relationship? Staring down at the sobbing mare, I couldn’t help but feel my heart go out to her. After everything she’s done for me, after every little comfort she’s provided me, she still thinks that something like this was going to make me hate her.

Twilight, for a mare as intelligent as you are... you can be pretty stupid sometimes.

I sighed as I dragged my hand down my face, ~I don’t blame you, Twilight~

“Y-you don’t?” She glanced up at me, the fur on her cheeks wet and matted. Her eyes searched my face for any sign of deception.

I just shook my head at her, smiling warmly.

She blinked up at me, in confusion. Tears still ran down her face, but they were gradually beginning to fade. “But if I h-hadn’t hit him with my magic—”

~I would have died~ Reaching out, I grasped Twilight’s forehoof in my hand, gently pulling her over and into my lap. Wrapping my arms around her, I hugged her close and nuzzled my face into her mane.

She was hesitant at first, but after several seconds I felt her return my hug, gripping me tightly in her hooves as though she was afraid I would suddenly disappear. I was dimly aware that, elsewhere in the hospital, I could hear nurses running around, trying to comfort patients disturbed by Twilight’s rampage.

We stayed like that for a while, each enjoying the other’s presence. As I hugged Twilight, I caught the faint scent of lavender. Burrowing my nose into her mane, I sighed happily at the scent.

The smell of home, I thought absentmindedly, my mind slowly drifting back to Earth and my old life. A soft cooing noise from Twilight quickly brought me back to the present. I blushed as I realized what I was doing, and quickly removed my face from her mane.

Eventually, Twilight broke the embrace. Leaning back, she wiped her eyes with a hoof, sniffling slightly.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she whispered, sounding tired. “I know it isn’t a good reason to take my frustration out on you, but it’s just… it’s been a rather stressful day. Having to spend all day dealing with Darkflare and his crew, only to find out that you were attacked by a group of manticores; it was kind of too much.” She nuzzled my collarbone, murmuring softly into the flesh.

~Darkflare?~

“The leader of the group that kidnapped you,” Twilight said, not moving her head from my neck. She pressed her nose into my shoulder, inhaling deeply. “Sunny and I had to interrogate him today, and he was less than helpful. Didn’t you know his name?”

~No. They never said his name once while I was staying with them~ I made sure to emphasize “stay” in the most sarcastic way possible, since I couldn’t talk.

“Strange,” Twilight muttered, still refusing to move. Keeping her eyes closed, she rested her head on my shoulder, a small smile on her face. One of her wings brushed gently against my side, the feathers tickling my skin. Her back leg twitched slightly as she let out a happy sigh. I heard her whisper under her breath, “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

I silently agreed with her. It was surprisingly peaceful, sitting there with Twilight wrapped in my arms, her warm body pressed against mine. I even almost forgot about the growing pain in my shoulder and back as we lay there.

It was interrupted, however, by a bright flash of light that filled the room. Blinking back the spots that were now dancing in front of my eye, I watched as a single scroll fell onto the bed in front of us.

Reluctantly, I released Twilight and she leaned forward. Picking up the scroll, she brought it up to her face with a curious look on her face. That look slowly turned to horror as she read what was on the scroll.

“It’s from the princess,” she whispered, her voice terrified. Slowly, she looked up at me and handed me the paper. Grasping it in my hands, I unrolled it and read the message scratched across it.

+Twilight, I am coming to meet him+

Chapter 24: Truth Will Out

After a quick checkup to make sure that the manticores didn’t do any lasting damage, Twilight and I hurried out of the hospital, despite the nurse’s protests. Well, Twilight hurried; I just limped along after her, wincing as I put pressure on my leg. Luckily, the hospital gave Twilight some pain medication for me, which I quickly liberated from her clutches as soon as the nurse’s back was turned. I immediately downed several of the pills, trying to get my shoulder and leg to stop throbbing.

Sunny was waiting patiently for us outside the hospital, having bumped into Rainbow during the latter’s flight to freedom and warning of the situation. Apparently, Twilight had ran ahead of her and she had arrived at the hospital at the same time as the others were making a break for it. After being informed that I was alive and conscious, Sunny had decided to wait outside when Twilight stormed in.

Soon, the three of us were rushing through town, heading for the library. Both Sunny and I were being pulled along by a hysterical Twilight. While I limped down the road, I couldn’t help but think about how screwed up the day had been so far. First, I was studying humans, then I was escorting fillies through a forest and running from manticores. After that it was the hospital, getting yelled at, and cuddled, by Twilight. Now I’m headed to the library to meet with Princess Celestia, I thought, rolling the day’s events through my head. Anything else major going to happen today?

“This is bad, this is bad, this is bad,” Twilight muttered, causing both me and Sunny to glance over at her. She was half trotting, half flying towards the library. It kinda reminded me of a baby bird trying to fly.

Tearing her gaze from Twilight, Sunny glanced up at me, a bemused expression on her face. I just returned it with a small shrug, unsure of what to say at that particular moment. Many ponies were staring at us as we rushed by, some muttering something that sounded like “It’s the doll incident all over again”.

“I’m confused,” Sunny said, trying to keep pace with Twilight, but staying near me at the same time. “Why is this bad? Wasn’t she all for telling the princess before? We can even get you home now.” Rolling my eyes, I just shrugged and continued along, trying to ignore the twinge of unease that washed over me when Sunny mentioned me going home.

“No!” Twilight was immediately between us, her mane disheveled and a crazed look in her eyes. I jumped back, yelping slightly as I stumbled. Twilight didn’t seem to notice, or she didn’t really care. I think she has finally lost it…

“You don’t understand! I’ve been keeping Max a secret from her for months now! Oh, she’s going to be so disappointed with me!” Dancing on her hooves, Twilight eyes flicked back and forth between Sunny and me. “Ooooh, I’m so screwed! She’s gonna yell. She’s gonna be upset. She’s gonna send me back to magic kindergarten!” Her eyes widened at that, and I think she stopped breathing for several seconds. Her eye twitched once, before her mouth opened in a silent scream and shot off again, sprinting towards the library. Sunny watched her go for several seconds before turning back to me.

“It’s nice to know that she cares more about you than her relationship with the princess,” she snarked, rolling her eyes before following after the frantic mare at a more reasonable pace. As I watched the two mares, I shook my head and sighed heavily. I’m surrounded by nothing but insanity today. When did life become so chaotic? Glancing up at the sky and the stars that were starting to come out, I said a silent prayer. To what, I wasn’t sure, but I said one nonetheless. If there is anyone out there watching out for me, please let me live through this. I blinked several times, scrunching my face up as I decided to be more specific. Not meeting the princess, but Twilight Sparkle’s insanity. Despite the stupid things I’ve done, I don’t really want to die anytime soon. Running a hand through my long hair, I lowered my head and limped after the two mares, feeling slightly better as the pain medication began to kick in.

The library soon came into view and Twilight immediately picked up her pace, making a beeline for the front door. Reaching it way before either me or Sunny, she held it open and danced in place as she waited for us to catch up, making it look like she had to pee really bad. I snickered at the sight, my medication making it seem far funnier than it probably was.

When both of us were close enough, Twilight’s horn lit up and we were pulled unceremoniously into the library. As Sunny and I tried to regain our balance, Twilight shot between us, slamming the door shut behind her. She then began rushing to and fro, trying to clean up the library as much as possible, all the while chanting to herself, “Bad, bad, bad, bad.” Sunny and I just stood there, watching her work with dazed expressions on our faces.

“She does realize that the princess is coming to see you, right?” Sunny asked, not taking her eyes off of Twilight as books flew onto the shelves. “I don’t think she needs to be too concerned about the state of the library.” I didn’t reply, choosing instead to just follow my owner’s movements back and forth, my hand slowly moving up to cover my mouth. I’ve seen Twilight freak out before, but this time took the cake by a good country mile.

As Twilight finished with the books and moved on to the other items cluttering up the room, she turned to look at me, a crazed look in her eye. As she spoke, her voice was panicky, yet cheerful, causing me to shiver slightly.

“We have very little time before the princess arrives, and you do NOT know the proper etiquette for meeting with her! Normally we would cover everything over several days, maybe even weeks if need be, but we don’t have that kind of time so we’ll just have to keep it quick and simple!

“Now remember: be polite, use her title, and answer her questions truthfully!” Not even waiting for my reply, she zipped over to a pile of blankets, which instantly flew into the air and down the basement stairs. As the blankets took to the sky a purple dragon scale fell out of them, and as I stared at it, I realized that we had forgotten something.

~So, did Twilight leave Spike at the hospital intentionally, or do we have to go back and pick him up?~ I asked, turning to glance down at Sunny.

“No, she didn’t,” she said, dodging a flying vase. “He’s with Rarity and her sister right now. She said she would look after him for Twilight while she dealt with you—”

“There,” Twilight cried, interrupting Sunny. “That should do it.” I glanced around the library, my eyebrows raising slightly as I took in the sight before me. I think this is the cleanest I’ve ever seen this place. “Now then, the princess should be here any second now, so make yourself presentable!”

Just as Twilight finished saying that, there was a massive crack and a blinding flash of light filled the library.

Dozens of ponies stared down at me in the pit, laughing cruelly. Just out of view, I heard the sound of humans bashing their fists against the cages that contained them; the noise echoed around the room, audible above the sounds of the crowd. Their shrieks of rage chilled my blood, and I felt my throat tighten.

Darkflare gazed down at me, a dark, twisted smile on his face as he lifted another occupied cage into the air. Positioning it by the side of the pit, he swung the door open and dumped the human down into the jaws of hell. My new opponent stumbled to his feet, glaring at me as he did so. Before I could react, he lunged at me with a feral snarl. I brought my hands up to protect myself, but I wasn’t fast enough. His fist connected with my face and my head snapped back. Instantly my face was ablaze with pain…

My eyes snapped open and I clasped my aching face in my hands. Sunny stood above me, her hoof raised to slap me again. She gazed down at me, concern in her eyes. As I sat up shakily, trying to catch my breath, she slowly backed up.

“You okay, big guy?” she asked tentatively, not taking her eyes off of me. I nodded once, rubbing my cheek tenderly. My heart was pounding in my chest, trying to force its way out of my ribs. Despite the pain medication doing its job, my body still felt like I had just run a couple of miles.

To my right, I could just make out Twilight standing off to the side, staring at me with a mix of fear and concern on her face, as well as confusion. I turned to give her a weak smile, but froze when I saw who was standing beside her.

There, previously standing in my blind spot, was Princess Celestia. She was looking at me with an impassive expression on her face, her mane flowing idly in a non-existent breeze. I swallowed nervously as I stood to face her, my legs shaking slightly. As I approached her tentatively, I saw Twilight’s eye darting back and forth between me and the princess, an uneasy look on her face. We stood there, eye to eye with each other, her magenta eyes staring intently into my brown one. I had forgotten how tall she was. The idea that I should probably bow to her crossed my mind, but my body didn’t want to for some reason.

Eventually she spoke, her voice quiet, “You’ve been through much since last we met—” her eyes flickered quickly over my face, pausing briefly on my right eye “—and it is clear that your mind is not at rest.” She trailed off, continuing to study me for several minutes. During that time, the tension in the room continued to grow with each passing second. I heard Sunny and Twilight shift nervously behind me.

“First things first,” Celestia said suddenly, causing me to flinch slightly. Her gaze was cold as she looked at me, causing a shiver to run down my spine. Power radiated in her gaze, and just like when I first met her, I was scared of what she could do to me if she really wanted to. I was now completely at her mercy; I hoped that I’ve done enough good to be spared her wrath. “Before I begin to seek answers to questions that have been plaguing my mind, do you plan on hurting any of my little ponies? Be warned; I will know if you are lying.”

I blinked in confusion, not expecting that to be the first thing she asked. Out of everything she could have asked me, she asks that? If I wanted to hurt anypony, I’m pretty sure that I would have done it already. I blinked suddenly, my mind slowly processing what I had just thought. I just used ‘anypony’ instead of ‘anyone’. I’m becoming one of them. I groaned inwardly, resisting the urge to facepalm.

I glanced back at Celestia and saw her staring at me expectantly, her eyes narrowed. It took me a second to remember that she had asked me a question; one that I should probably answer soon, lest she took my relative silence the wrong way. Shaking my head slowly, I tried to maintain eye contact with her the entire time. Her eyes narrowed further, horn glowing slightly as she studied my face. Slowly, her expression softened and she offered me a small smile.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice quiet. I wasn’t entirely sure why she was thanking me, but I returned her smile nonetheless. She flinched as I did so, her eyes widening slightly. This time I actually facepalmed when I realized why. Humans don’t smile, dumbass, I thought as I remembered Twilight’s reaction to seeing me smile for the first time. She hasn’t seen a human smile before. It probably didn’t help that she got a good look at my teeth, since ponies and humans have different diets.

The princess quickly got over her initial shock, though. Much faster than Twilight, at least. I guess the teacher is still better than the pupil.

“Now then,” Celestia said, more relaxed than when she first arrived. “As I have heard from my sister, you are far more intelligent than the other humans of Equestria, correct?” I nodded, confirming what she had been told. “Very well then. That actually leads to my second question. Where exactly do you hail from, human?” The way she said ‘human’ wasn’t unkind, but there was a little caution behind it. It was clear that she didn’t really trust me yet.

Before I could answer, however, Twilight beat me to it.

“Do you remember that one time the girls and I disappeared for a week, only to turn up in your court unexpectedly?” she asked, stepping forward to stand next to me. She pressed her flank into my leg slightly, almost protectively. Celestia nodded once, tilting her head as she continued to look at me. I just stood there, rubbing the shoulder that the manticore had stung. The pain medication I had taken at the hospital was beginning to wear off and the pain was slowly coming back, much to my annoyance.

“Yes, I do remember that particular event. You six scared the living daylights out of Diligent Scrolls; if I recall, she had to take the rest of the month off to recover, poor thing. Her heart isn’t the best it could be for a mare her age. Now, if I remember correctly, you said that you were attempting a long-distance teleportation spell and ended up traveling to another world, but what does that have to do with him?” Celestia asked, cocking a head in my direction. Twilight didn’t say anything, opting instead to wave a hoof at me. Celestia looked back and forth between us with a blank expression before her eyes widened and she took a step back.

“No,” she breathed, looking at me with renewed curiosity. “Surely you aren’t saying that he…”

“Check for yourself,” Twilight said, returning to her position behind me. Celestia’s horn glowed and I was surrounded by a golden aura. My skin tingled for several seconds, feeling like my entire body had fallen asleep, before the glowing stopped and the feeling dissipated. Celestia stood there with an incredulous look on her face as she continued to stare at me, her mouth hanging open slightly.

“You are not from this world,” she said breathlessly. I simply raised my eyebrows, a small smile on my face. She stared at me for several more seconds before continuing, “How did you arrive in Equestria, then?” I had just started looking around for a piece of paper when Twilight chimed in again.

“She can understand hoof-language.” This time it was Twilight’s turn to receive the incredulous look.

“You taught him hoof-language?” Celestia asked, chuckling lightly to herself. “Why am I not surprised?” Twilight blushed at the comment, suddenly interested in the ceiling. Celestia continued to laugh as she turned her attention back to me. “Alright human, let’s hear your tale.”

I told her everything that had happened to me from the first minute I arrived in the desert, to when she found me in Canterlot. The horrid conditions, the awful train ride, the lack of food and water. How Sunny had inadvertently helped me survive, as well as keep most of my sanity intact. Celestia listened intently, not asking any questions as I ‘spoke’. When I finished, she remained quiet for several minutes, staring at the floor in front of her as she thought. Eventually, she raised her head and looked over at me.

“So,” she said slowly, as if she was choosing her words carefully. “When I first met you, you were intelligent?”

~Yes, I was~

“And you knew what I was saying?”

~Yes, I did~ She returned her gaze to the floor, a troubled expression on her face. After several more seconds of silence, Twilight spoke up.

“Are you okay, princess?”

“Yes, my dear Twilight,” Celestia said, looking over at her student. “I’m just trying to get my head around the fact that I sent you an intelligent creature, that isn’t originally from our world, wrapped up like a Hearth's Warming Eve present.” She turned to look at me, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she did so. “Why did you not try to communicate with me at the time?”

~I did~ I signed, an annoyed expression on my face. ~You mistook it for fear~ She crinkled her nose at me, snorting slightly.

“If that was your attempt, it was a fairly poor one at that,” she scoffed.

~Well, there may have been something preventing me from trying very hard~

“And what might that have been?”

~Fear~ I stated simply, my face expressionless. Her eyes widened at that.

“Why would you fear me?” she asked, sounding slightly hurt.

~After spending two weeks aboard that train of terror, I wasn’t exactly the most trusting guy when it came to ponies~ The princess started to say something, but I cut her off (the glare I got from Twilight for doing that was priceless). ~Plus, there was something about you that made me afraid. You simply radiate power, as if it were as natural as breathing or blinking. When you come from a world that has no magic, nor anything with power like that, it’s kind of intimidating. It felt almost like, at any moment, you could rain down fire and brimstone upon me. It felt like all my sins were laid bare before you for you to judge. It was almost like staring into the face of God himself, and being afraid that he finds you lacking. When I first met you, I could only pray that I didn’t do anything to piss you off and make you want to kill me~

She was visibly shocked by that, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sunny and Twilight doing the same thing. I just stood there, arms crossed as I looked at Celestia. Eventually she seemed to reluctantly accept my answer, nodded her head, and looked at me sadly.

“I am truly sorry that I’ve caused you that kind of grief, little one,” she said. “It was never my intention.” I nodded to show her that I did understand, and a smile told her that I didn’t blame her. It wasn’t her fault that she was as powerful as she was.

Beside me, Twilight looked back and forth between the princess and I, her mouth agape slightly.

“You aren’t surprised by any of this?” She asked suddenly, waving a hoof in my direction, one of her eyebrows raised. “How can you be so calm?”

“I knew he was intelligent because of what Luna told and showed me, so I can’t say that I was surprised by that,” Celestia explained, sitting down on the couch, her wings spreading slightly by her sides. “Him being from a different world, while surprising in and of itself, actually explains how he is intelligent, which rid me of most of my original questions. So… I’m actually at a loss for words.”

~What were your original questions?~ I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“I was going to ask you what your purpose in Equestria was, but seeing as you came here against your will, I think I can safely say that you have no real agenda here and don’t really have a plan to act on.” Sensing I was no longer in impending danger from the monarch, I could feel my inner jackass slowly rising to the surface with some help from my pain medication. I tried to push the urge down, but unfortunately today’s events made it so that I was slowly not caring about anything anymore. Plus, I had had a stressful day and needed to have some fun.

…or so my pain medication told me.

~I wouldn’t say I don’t have a plan~ The princess looked at me in alarm, while Sunny and Twilight shot me a look that screamed “what the hell are you doing, dumbass?” I ignored them, smirking at the princess. Some part of me was screaming not to piss of the powerful, godlike creature before me, but another part just flipped the bird and continued with what I was doing.

“And might I ask what that plan is?” Celestia asked, her body tensing as she made to stand. I could see light beginning to form around her horn as she began to charge a spell.

~Living. Continuing to breathe. I was planning on possibly using the bathroom, a little later on during the night~ I signed with a sage nod. ~Maybe getting something to eat after you left. Perhaps take a shower too~ Twilight stared up at me, a look of pure horror on her face. Sunny looked like she was torn between being shocked and laughing, her face twitching slightly. The princess’s reaction, however, was the best.

She stood there, halfway between sitting and standing, staring at me with a blank expression on her face. The light around her horn ceased, sparking a little as it did so. After a few seconds, she fell back onto the couch, a large smile slowly spreading across her face as she began to laugh. She continued to laugh for several minutes as Twilight watched in confusion. I was mentally patting myself on the back and high-fiving my inner jackass.

~At least she’s taking it better than you did~ I informed Twilight, bumping her side with my knee. She huffed irritably and looked away from me, turning her nose up as she did so. I still caught the small smile on her face, however.

“W-what do you mean?” Celestia asked, trying hard to stifle her laughter. Twilight's head quickly snapped back around as she looked at me pleadingly. Unfortunately, the pain medication had already made up my mind for me, my inner jackass cheering it on in the background.

~When I first tried to show her that I’m intelligent, she freaked out. A lot. She kept pacing around, trying to convince herself that it was a dream. I do believe at some point she threw a piece of paper at my head, along with a glass of water~ Twilight’s blush darkened and she hid her face behind her hooves as Celestia’s laughter grew. Her sides shook and tears slowly began to run down her face. I wasn’t sure if I was actually that funny, or if she just found the circumstances hilarious. Either way, I didn’t care; Celestia was happy, and I wasn’t about to die.

It was several more minutes before she was able to start composing herself again.

“Oh my, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages,” she finally said as she calmed down. Wiping tears from her eyes, she gave me a large, genuine smile. “It’s good to see you have a sense of humor, despite the hardships I’m sure you’ve faced in this world.” Her smile waned slightly as she became more sober.

“I must apologize for your treatment while in Equestria,” she said, giving me a sad smile. “Both at my hooves, and the hooves of my little ponies. I’m sure it’s not fun to be in a world where your own species is nothing more than a bunch of dumb animals, especially when you're treated like one as well.” I shuffled nervously at that. I hadn’t actually sat down with Twilight or Sunny and explained the role reversal of ponies and humans back on my world, and I didn’t think I’d be telling the princess that little bit of information right now either. Luckily, my uneasiness went unnoticed as Celestia continued.

“While I can’t hope to make up for anything done to you,” at that, her eyes darted up to my right eye again, a pained expression flashing across her face, “I hope that you might be able to forgive us one day. I hope you might be able to forgive me.” She looked up at me hopefully, wings twitching nervously at her side. I stood there, rubbing my chin, lost in thought.

Now, I didn’t initially blame the ponies for my troubles. While it’s true that some of them have caused me certain… ‘issues’, that has been vastly outweighed by ponies like Sunny, Twilight, and her friends. Another reason I don’t blame anyone else for my issues (except for Darkflare and his gang) was because it was mainly my own fault. I had kept my secret from the majority of the populace, including Celestia. If anyone was to be blamed for anything, it should be me for my own stupid paranoia. I absentmindedly tapped my finger against my face as I continued my silent musing.

Eventually, I came to a decision. Glancing back up at the princess, I saw that she was watching me with an expectant look on her face.

~I’ll forgive you on one condition~ I signed, a small smirk slowly spreading across my face. Inner Jackass snickered when he realized what I was up to.

“And what condition is that?” she asked, a hint of trepidation in her voice.

~Have you had that lout Blueblood neutered yet?~ I asked, my smirk spreading into a full blown, wicked smile. Celestia instantly reeled back, a deep blush spreading across her shocked face.

“I had forgotten about that,” she muttered under her breath, the embarrassment clear on her face. Beside me, Twilight and Sunny were looking between the princess and me with a confused look on their face.

“Princess, what is he talking about?” Twilight asked Celestia as the monarch tried to regain her composure. She gave both Twilight and Sunny an uneasy look before answering.

“Well, during the time that Max was in the palace, before I sent him to live with you—”

~Sent me via dragonfire. Which wasn’t fun, if you must know. It was like being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste~ The princess winced again and shot me another apologetic look as she continued.

“Yes, well, before I sent him to you, we had a run-in with my nephew, Blueblood.” She paused, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. “Let’s just say that he… well, he didn’t have the best manners, and… he may have—”

~He was looking at me the same way that a hormonally imbalanced filly looks at a colt~ Twilight and Sunny’s faces turned red instantly as Celestia hung her head. My drugged mind was loving this, even if the pills were starting to wear off.

“I’m afraid that it wasn’t the best first impression,” Celestia sighed, leaning backwards on the couch.

~And he won't be getting a second chance~ I signed, growling softly. An awkward silence fell over the room; none of the ponies wanted to look at me. I folded my arms, smirking happily. Eventually, a cough from Twilight snapped everyone out of their stupor.

Clearing her throat, Celestia turned to me and asked, “If it’s not too much trouble, might I ask you what has happened between when I sent you to Twilight and now? I have a feeling that Twilight has kept some of the details from me.” She shot Twilight a look, causing her to laugh nervously and give the princess a sheepish smile. Grabbing my large cushion out of the corner of the room (seriously, this thing was more like a beanbag chair than a cushion. The only reason I still had it was that it was extremely comfortable), I pulled it out into the open and flopped down upon it. Twilight and Sunny followed my example, using a pair of cushions that ponies could use when reading at the library.

After getting comfortable, I began my tale.

I started by telling her of my first day in Ponyville, and meeting Twilight’s friends, even if Twilight didn’t know at the time she was introducing me to them. How the first thing Twilight did was buy a book on how to care for humans. This brought a blush to Twilight’s face, as well as a knowing smile to Celestia’s. At my first encounter with Rarity she grimaced slightly, but it turned back to a smile when I reached the part with Fluttershy and how concerned she was with my health.

Then, I shamefully told her about my first week living with Twilight, and all the crap I put her through. I shot Twilight an apologetic look, but she just smiled at me and shook her head slightly. Celestia listened respectfully, neither smiling nor frowning as she heard of the hell I put Twilight through, although I think she was slightly disappointed by how I handled everything. Thankfully, she did give me the faintest of smiles when I explained how I had annoyed the hell out of Twilight simply by smiling at her. When she heard how I had finally come to my senses and revealed myself to Twilight, she nodded approvingly.

She laughed out loud when I told her about Twilight’s reaction in more detail. Twilight averted her gaze, cheeks red with embarrassment. Next to her, Sunny was snickering into her hoof.

I moved on to tell her about my life in Ponyville. I told her how Twilight had taught me hoof-language, about me telling Twilight about my home (she looked like she wanted me to go into detail about that, but thankfully she didn’t push it), and learning about the new world I found myself in. She laughed at some parts of when Twilight was adjusting to having an intelligent human in her life, especially when she locked herself in the basement as a way to say sorry for doing the same to me accidentally.

When I reached the part where Rainbow and I started having wrestling matches, the princess sat up quickly, giving me a steely look. Twilight came to my rescue, however, and explained that neither Rainbow Dash, nor I, were in any danger at any point, and that most of the time I was the one that got hurt the most. She even told Celestia of the time Rainbow had given me a black eye. The princess relaxed after hearing that, much to my joy. I didn’t need her punishing me because Rainbow liked a good fight.

Her smile grew bigger when I told her about our trip to the beach, and she gave me a surprised look when she heard that I had actually gone swimming.

She gave me what I could only call an appreciative look when she heard about how I had Twilight get me pills to curb my cravings for meat.

The tale continued and Celestia seemed to enjoy hearing about our trip to the spa, but her face grew cold when I told her about the encounter with Golden Ingot. She actually interrupted to thank me when I told her how I had stood up to him for Twilight. “While it’s rare to find ponies like that nowadays, they are still out there,” she admitted.

I told her about us trying to survive the heat wave in Ponyville, to which she gave us a sheepish smile and refused to meet our gaze.

I purposely left out my meeting with the Cakes, as I didn’t want to relive that experience.

I moved on to the time that Twilight took me to Canterlot to have dinner with her family. I left out Twilight’s little issue at the train station, and Twilight shot me a thankful smile. However, when I told her about the conversation Twilight and I had about my age, both her and Sunny were shocked not only to learn how old I was, but also on how long I was going to live. Beside me, Twilight’s eyes glistened as a smile touched her lips.

When I reached the part about seeing the humans digging the pit in the side of the mountain, I stopped and gave the princess a curious look.

~Why exactly are you having them mine in that area anyways?~ I asked her. ~I’m not upset about it; just curious~ I added on, seeing her fearful look in my direction. Twilight perked up, looking at Celestia expectantly. I knew she was curious as well, but didn’t want to bother Celestia by asking. But it doesn’t matter if I ask, apparently. The princess glanced at us, licking her teeth slowly.

Leaning forward, she looked me in the eye and spoke, “Several months ago—the day you and I met, actually—one of my battlemages reported to me that she had sensed something magical beginning to emit energy deep beneath the mountain. She said that the flares had started out faint, but she could sense them growing stronger. She requested the use of humans to mine into the mountain and find what was causing the disturbances. I’m not sure if you are aware, but Equestrian humans are apparently natural diggers. Anyway, I agreed and gave her thirty humans to work with.”

“But there were more than thirty humans down there when we saw it,” Twilight said, scrunching up her face as she looked at Celestia. The princess nodded her head, casting a quick glance at Twilight before looking back at me.

“Yes, there are,” she confirmed. “But there is a reason for that. A week after the dig began, packs of wild humans began to slowly show up around the dig site. We initially tried to keep them out by putting up fences around the area, but after a while that proved useless as they would simply climb over or dig under them.” She paused for a moment, chewing on her lip before she continued. “Whatever is down there, it appears to be attracting humans. We have no clue what it is, as of right now, but I decided to give the Major more guards, as well as more humans. The sooner we figure out what’s down there, the sooner we can figure out if it’s a threat, and why the humans are drawn to it.” The room was quiet for several minutes as everyone processed what had been said. Slowly, Twilight turned in my direction, a thoughtful look on her face.

“When we passed by the pit, did you feel drawn to it, or feel any kind of magical pull?”

~No. I saw it out the window, and was confused as to what was going on, but I wasn’t drawn to it~ The room became silent again, as the gears in Twilight’s head continued to turn. Eventually, she sighed and shook her head, “I can’t think of what it could possibly be.”

“Don’t trouble yourself about it too much, Twilight,” Celestia said, a soft smile on her face. “I have ponies looking into it.” She then turned back to me and nodded her head. “I would very much like it if you could continue with your tale, my dear human.”

I continued where I had left off, recounting the trip to Canterlot, as well as meeting Twilight’s family. She got a kick out of my mock fight with Twilight’s brother. There wasn’t much more to tell about the trip, as I hadn’t been allowed in the dining area, and we had left shortly after dinner. When I told her about the events regarding Sunny's appearance when we returned to the library, Celestia's head had snapped around and she practically glared at Sunny, who shrank down and hid behind Twilight. The purple alicorn draped her wing across the pegasus. Celestia’s expression had softened, however, after I explained Sunny’s position and how helpful she had been during her time here.

I paused briefly when I reached that fateful day. All three of them looked at me with concern as I ran my hand through my hair, staring off into the distance. After a while, I sighed heavily and continued with the story. I told her about hanging out with Sunny that morning, although I might have omitted the part concerning Applejack. The atmosphere of the room slowly became more and more somber as I continued with my tale.

I told her about getting hit in the back of the head, and waking up in the middle of the warehouse.

I had to relieve my experience in the pit once more. Even though I left out some of the more gory details—mostly for Twilight and Sunny’s sakes—it still took me a while to retell the whole thing. I kept having to pause every couple of minutes to relax my tense muscles.

I was halfway through the experience when I suffered another flashback. When I had recovered, I found myself lying on the floor with Celestia kneeling beside me, horn glowing as she looked down at me in concern. Twilight had hurried into the kitchen to get me a glass of water, and the princess told me that I didn’t need to continue with my story if I didn’t want to.

I declined her offer to stop; it felt good to get all of this off of my chest again. She allowed me to continue, but I could see the worry in her eyes.

I managed to finish retelling about my time in the pit without further incident. After that, I breezed through my time in the hospital, meeting Luna, and my slow recovery. I skipped over my experiments with the other humans, although I didn’t exactly know why. Something inside me told me that it was probably best to not mention anything right now.

I told her of Spike and the Crusaders finding me, our trip through the Everfree Forest on the way to Zecora’s, and the resulting chaos. She gasped when I reached the part where the manticores showed up and she began to tear up slightly when she heard that I had grabbed the fillies and Spike, and made a mad dash to freedom. The look of gratitude on her face alone caused my face to flush and I found myself becoming extremely interested in the ground. I quickly skimmed over what happened from when I woke up in the hospital again, to when she arrived.

When I finally finished reliving my adventures in Equestria, it was almost around midnight. I leaned back on my cushion, trying to suppress a yawn. The pain medication had long since stopped working, and my shoulder, back and legs ached horribly. Both Twilight and Sunny looked exhausted as well. Celestia just sat there on the couch, mulling over everything she had just heard.

“It would seem,” she finally said, her voice soft and gentle in the silence of the library. “That you have been through much during your time here. And it would also seem that I owe you a debt of gratitude for looking after my subjects.” I started to begin to sign out that she owed me nothing, but she waved her hoof, silencing me.

“You have defended my student against one who had nothing but anger in his heart, despite the risk that could possibly come to you. You show restraint when dealing with my little ponies, despite the fact that they would not show you the same. You put up with Rainbow Dash and her antics, and you’ve shown Ms. Lotus that not all humans are to be feared.

“Also, let’s not forget how happy you have made Twilight.” The mare in question blushed profusely, but Celestia just ignored her, focusing instead on me. “And don’t try to deny it either. I saw how sad she was when she first became a princess. It was not my original intent for her life to become difficult upon becoming an alicorn, but it was an unfortunate side effect. It was that sadness that convinced me to move her back to Ponyville and out of the political hurricane that is Canterlot, but even then it wasn’t enough. I had received several letters from her friends, informing me that they were concerned about her.”

A small squeak left Twilight, and she hung her head, trying to hide behind her mane, much like Fluttershy would.

A smile spread across Celestia’s face as she continued.

“That was the original reason I… bought you and sent you to Ponyville,” she said, pausing slightly at the word ‘bought’, almost like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “I was hoping that you might have been able to make her happier than she was, and I must say that you have exceeded expectations. Her mood has improved dramatically since you’ve arrived in her life, although now I see that it is for a different reason than I originally thought.

“And of course, there is the matter of today’s events. In the Everfree, you had the chance to abandon 3 fillies and save yourself, but instead you put yourself in harm’s way in order to get them out of there safely; risking your life to save theirs is an act of bravery that few ponies would’ve shown.” She smiled over at me, tears slowly trickling down her cheeks. Her voice cracked slightly when she spoke again, “It seems that my original fears about you were groundless; you have proven yourself a kind and caring soul, and I am deeply sorry for the horrid events you have found yourself a part of.” She was silent for several moments as she dried her eyes. Once she was done, she glanced up at me again, an inquisitive look on her face.

“There is one thing that has been bugging me since you began your tale, however,” she said, her voice stronger than before. “You said that you were able to talk before you arrived in Equestria, but you haven’t been able to since you arrived?”

“Yes, although we don’t know why,” Twilight said as I nodded my head up and down. “His throat isn’t damaged, and his vocal cords appear fine as he is able to grunt, groan, and growl, but he can’t talk. He has the ability to, but it’s almost like his brain and mouth aren’t connected.” Celestia cocked her head to the side as she looked at me.

“Could it be some kind of spell?” she asked, studying me up and down.

“I’ve checked, several times,” Twilight replied, her wings rustling at her sides. “There is no harmonious, griffon, changeling, zebra, elemental, or ambient magic at work on him.” I grimaced as I nodded in agreement; the whole experience of Twilight’s tests wasn’t a fun one for me.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Celestia asked me, rising to her hooves and taking several steps towards me. I just shrugged my shoulders and remained upon my cushion. Upon reaching me, Celestia closed her eyes, her horn lighting up with a golden glow. She lowered her head and gently touched the tip of her horn to my forehead. At first I thought that nothing was happening, but then gradually I felt warmth start spreading throughout my body, starting at the point of contact.

“If it is alright with you, I wish for you to try and speak,” she said, her eyes still closed. I didn’t know what good it would do, but tried to anyway. The minute I attempted to form the words however, pain immediately erupted in my throat, the burning sensation causing a coughing fit. What escaped from my mouth sounded like an animalistic shriek of pain. Both Twilight and Sunny flinched, covering their ears with their hooves. The entire time Celestia’s horn remained firmly against my forehead, her eyes closed.

It was several minutes before the glowing stopped and the warmth slowly began to leave my body. Celestia leaned back and opened her eyes. She stared down at me with a slight frown on her face.

“You’re right, Twilight,” she said, taking a step back. “None of those types of magic are present.” Twilight began to smile, the princess having confirmed that she was correct, but the smile faded at Celestia’s next words, “However, there is a massive amount of chaotic magic flowing through his body. More than I would have been expecting.”

“C-chaotic magic?” Twilight stuttered, looking at Celestia in shock. “B-but, I d-didn’t even… m-my machine… t-that can’t be… how can you tell?”

“Even though there is a large amount surrounding him, it’s expertly hidden. I could only sense it when he tried to speak, and only barely. You wouldn’t have been able to sense it unless you knew what you were looking for,” Celestia said, returning to her spot on the couch. “I don’t believe you have much experience with chaos magic, Twilight, so I wouldn't have expected you to have detected it.”

“Well, isn’t this a good thing?” Sunny piped up, speaking for the first time since Celestia had arrived. “Now that you know what’s affecting him, you can fix it, right?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Celestia said, staring hard at me. It was almost like she was dissecting me with her mind. “The only creature versed enough in chaos magic to undo this is currently a stone statue back at Canterlot. Yes, Twilight,” Celestia continued as Twilight opened her mouth to speak, “I had to return Discord to his stony prison. I won’t go into details why.” I glanced at Twilight, confused. Who the hell is Discord, and what does he have to do with me? Since Celestia said that the spell was something only he could take care of, I could hazard a guess that he was the one that brought me here, but beyond that I wasn’t sure.

“So, that means…?” Sunny asked, looking back and forth between the two princesses.

“It means,” Twilight said slowly, “that Max is stuck being mute.”

“At least until he is returned to his own world. Since there is no magic present there, the spell will dissipate immediately,” Celestia said, giving me a quick smile. I only returned it halfheartedly. My heart tightened in my chest, a cold sensation washing through my veins. The voice in the back of my head hissed. Beside me, I felt Twilight tense up slightly. She scooted closer to me, pressing her side against my leg as her wing twitched slightly. Celestia didn’t seem to notice, however.

“But, before we get to that, there is something I must take care of.” Sunny yelped loudly as she was instantly grasped in Celestia’s magic and lifted into the air. Twilight and I moved to help the trapped mare, but we both found ourselves restrained by magical bindings.

“Now, if I remember correctly,” Celestia said, her tone cold as Sunny drifted slowly over to float in front of the princess, “it was you that sold Max to me to begin with, and you are also part of the group of ponies that were recently arrested here in Ponyville.”

“Yes, but she—” Twilight began, but was cut off as Celestia held up a hoof.

“That being said, I should have you detained along with the rest of your cohorts.” Celestia’s magenta eyes glared down at Sunny, power radiating from her in waves. There was no warmth in her gaze. Once again I found myself staring into the face of a god, and my fear returned.

“Now, Twilight has informed me that you have been helping her around the library, as well as taking care of Max and Spike for her. She may think that those small acts of kindness have absolved you of your past sins, but unfortunately I do not.” I saw tears beginning to stream down Sunny’s face as she hung limply in the air, resigned to her fate. I strained against the magic holding me down, trying in vain to reach my friend. Pain flared up in my shoulder again, worse than before. I was pretty sure I was straining some of the stitches on my back as well, but I didn’t care. My friend was in trouble. You can’t do this! I mentally shouted at Celestia, although that too was in vain.

“However,” Celestia said, her icy tone cracking slightly as she tilted her head back. “There is one thing that stands out to me, more than any deed you have performed. That one thing is something that helped me make up my mind on what needs to be done.” Her eyes flicked in my direction as I tugged against my bonds again. “Despite all that you have done, despite everything you and your group has put him through, Max still sees you as a friend, and even now he is trying with all his might to help you.” Sunny cast a confused glance in my direction, her cheeks soaked with tears.

I relaxed slightly in confusion, but didn’t give up on my struggling. What are you up to, Celestia?

“With that in mind,” Celestia continued, her voice instantly becoming warm and motherly again, “I think I will allow him to be the judge here. If he is willing to forgive you and put aside the past so quickly, then so be it.” The magic surrounding Sunny dissipated and she dropped to the floor, a stunned look on her face. The bonds around Twilight and I also disappeared and we were on our feet in an instant.

Celestia leaned down and smiled warmly at Sunny, nuzzling the top of her head gently, “Sunny Breeze, you are hereby forgiven for your previous crimes, and are now a free mare again.” Before any of us could register what had just happened, Celestia smile turned into a smirk. “There is one catch, however.”

“And w-what might that be, your majesty?” Sunny stuttered, not bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes. The fear that had been on her face earlier was now replaced with uncertainty.

“You will be working with me and my personal guards to track down the remaining members of your old organization,” Celestia said, the smirk still on her face. “You will be paid for your efforts, of course, but think of it as a way to prove to me that you are sincere and to continue to atone for your past deeds.” All three of us just stared at her in stunned silence.

Eventually, Sunny regained the use of her voice, “H-help you?”

“Indeed,” Celestia said, nodding her head. “You know their hiding spots, as well as what cities would be the best to find them in. Plus, think of all the humans that you’ll be saving by helping us.” Sunny’s gaze fell to the floor, and she shuffled her hooves nervously as she thought. Taking a deep breath, she looked up and nodded at the princess.

“I… I’ll do it,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. She swallowed, then repeated with a stronger voice. “I’ll do it.” Celestia’s face lit up at this, her smile practically shining like the sun.

“Excellent!” she said as she stood up, wings flaring slightly. “In that case, I think that I have intruded on Twilight and Max’s hospitality for far too long. It is late, and I’m pretty sure that they are both exhausted.” She walked calmly to the door, her magic slowly encasing the door and swinging it open. Turning to look at Sunny, she motioned with her head, “If you would follow me, Ms. Breeze, we’ll get out of their manes.” Sunny took several steps forward before she faltered and glanced back at me and Twilight. Slowly, she turned and walked up to us, tears forming in her eyes again.

She first looked to Twilight, pulling the mare into a hug which Twilight returned immediately.

“Thank you,” Sunny whispered. “For everything you’ve done for me. I can never thank you enough.”

“This isn’t goodbye,” said Twilight, tears forming in her own eyes. “I’ll see you later, I’m sure of it.” They broke apart and Sunny turned her attention to me. I knelt down and she flung her hooves over my shoulder. I ignored the pain that flared up due to my injury. Instead, I returned the hug.

“I’m sorry for everything you’ve gone through,” she whimpered as I felt her hooves tighten around my neck. “Thank you for being able to forgive me. It means more than you can possibly know.” When the hug ended, I stood up, giving Sunny a sad smile.

“G-good luck getting back home again,” she said, returning the smile. My breath caught in my throat as she said that, but I managed to act normally. Why does it bother me so much whenever someone says that?

~Thanks for keeping me company on the train, and for everything else~ Sunny returned my smile half-heartedly before walking back over to stand beside the princess, who was watching everything with a soft smile on her face.

“Come, my little pony,” she said softly as she opened the door wider. “It’s time to go.” Sunny cast one last glance back at us before walking out the door and into the night. Celestia followed after her. Before she closed the door, she called back to us, “Oh, I almost forgot. The spell to get you home, Max, requires both my sister and I to perform it. If you could come to Canterlot tomorrow, we’d be more than happy to send you back to your home.” With that, the library door closed, leaving Twilight and I standing there by ourselves.

Slowly, my owner turned to look at me with a melancholic expression on her face.

“W-well, it looks like you’re finally going to be able to go home,” she said, her voice cheerful and false. “That’s good, r-right?” I nodded my head, just staring at the closed door that Celestia and Sunny just left through. My mind was abuzz with emotions and thoughts, so much so that I could barely focus on one before another took its place. One thought, however, kept coming back over and over again, echoing around in my head. I’m heading home.

I blinked at the door, before glancing down at Twilight who was looking at her hooves. Do I even get a say in the matter? I thought, a small frown slowly spreading across my face.

“Well, we better head off to bed,” Twilight said, the forced smile still on her face. “We’ve both had a busy day, and we’ll need to be well-rested for tomorrow.” Without waiting for my reply she turned and quickly made her way up the stairs. I watched her go, my frown deepening.

Sighing heavily, I hung my head and followed her upstairs. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight; the little voice screaming in the back of my head confirmed it.

Chapter 25: Homeward Bound

The monotonous sound of the train traveling down the tracks was slowly lulling me to sleep. I was fighting simply to keep my eyes open. It didn’t help that Twilight had insisted on waking up early in order to get to Canterlot in a timely manner. She must have forgotten what she had said about us needing energy for today’s events.

Since it was Princess Celestia who actually invited us to come to Canterlot, I didn’t see why we had to be early, but Twilight had insisted. So, after eating a quick breakfast that consisted of only a couple of apples, we had headed down to the train station.

We had no issues purchasing tickets, as Twilight decided just to use the Royal Coach again. There was a different pony behind the counter this time; a young pegasus mare with the attitude of a teenager. I don’t think she even said three words as she hoofed over our tickets with a bored expression on her face.

Now, here we were, on our way to Canterlot. I sat in the compartment, my face pressed against the cool glass of the window as I watched the scenery whip past, trying not to fall asleep again. Twilight sat on the opposite side of the carriage, resting her head against her own window. She had been abnormally quiet ever since we had gotten on the train, and was now quickly drifting off to sleep. Not that I minded, though; I had too much on my mind to be able to have a decent conversation with anyone at the moment.

Here I was, on my way to see the two people—or ponies as the case may be—that could actually get me back home to Earth. I should be happy; I should be thrilled. Instead, there was a lump slowly rising in my throat as Canterlot drew closer. When it came right down to it, I didn’t want to go back to Earth.

In the five months that I had come to call Equestria home, the place had slowly grown on me. It had a sort of mythical charm to it, the kind that Earth didn’t have. I mean, how many people on Earth could say that they watched as a bunch of ponies created a thunderstorm from scratch? That shit was awesome!

Don’t get me wrong, Equestria wasn’t perfect; the fact that I had almost died several times while living here could attest to that, but I still couldn’t help but be drawn to this exotic place. Here in Equestria, I was living with a princess and a national hero. On Earth, I was just a cook at McDonald's.

I reached up and rubbed my right eye as I tried to sort my thoughts, watching the land flash by. I knew I should return home, back to Earth and my friends and family. Back to the world I was born in, and back to where I belonged. The choice should have been easy; back home I would be treated like an individual, along with the rest of the human race. Here, I would be treated like a beast, just like every other human in Equestria. Why the hell would I want to stay in Equestria?

My gaze slowly drifted over to Twilight. Her head was resting against the window, her eyes closed as she breathed softly, her breath fogging up the glass. Her forelegs, folded against her chest, would twitch every so often as she dreamed. As I watched her sleep, a smile touched my face. I’ve never really realized how beautiful she is, I thought absentmindedly as a beam of sunlight hit her mane.

I continued to stare at her happily, until my mind registered what I was doing and thinking. I quickly returned my gaze to the window as a blush spread across my cheeks. Shaking my head, I went back to my musing as the train made its way further along the tracks, carrying us to Canterlot.

I wonder if the princesses would care that I want to stay? I mused. Princess Celestia had seemed rather adamant about sending me home. I wasn’t sure if it was because she felt bad about everything that happened to me while I was here, or if she just wanted me gone. I guess we’ll find out, I thought as the train continued its journey.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The train ride didn’t last long enough, and in no time at all we were pulling into the station at Canterlot. As the train slowed to a stop, I stood up and stretched, taking care not to strain my back or shoulder too much. My stitches pulled as I raised my arms.

Stifling a yawn, I shuffled over to Twilight and shook her shoulder gently. She woke with a start, muttering something about cupcakes.

She looked up at me questioningly, blinking sleep from her eyes. I jerked my head towards the window, indicating that we were at our destination. Sighing, she rose to her hooves and made her way to the compartment’s door. I followed behind her, and we both stepped out onto the platform.

The station was not overly crowded, considering it was a weekday. At least, I think it was a weekday; I had long since lost track of the days. Ponies were bustling to and fro, some getting on the train, others disembarking. Workers unloaded cargo for train, ferrying them into a side warehouse. There were several humans scattered throughout the crowd, their owners leading them along as they went about their days.

Standing there in the sea of ponies was a group of guards, their golden armor glinting in the light. When Twilight and I stepped off of the train, they perked up, their gaze locking onto us. It was apparent that they were waiting for us, and as we stood there blinking in the bright sunlight, they approached.

“Princess Sparkle,” one of them said, saluting. Unlike the other guards around her who wore golden armor, her armor was silver and decorated with several spikes, as well as an ebony symbol engraved into the surface of her pauldrons. It looked like a sun rising out of the horizon. Her coat was pitch black, as were the wings folded at her sides. She didn’t wear a helmet and her red, two-toned mane hung down over her face and withers. Her tail was cut short and looked ragged in appearance. She regarded both me and Twilight with icy blue eyes, “First lieutenant Avera Noctus. We’re here to escort you two up to the palace.”

“Why do we need an escort?” Twilight asked as Avera (I had to go back and check how the fuck you spell that in order to write it down. It’s pronounced “a-ver-ah”, but I couldn’t spell it worth a shit. Neither could Twilight, although she could tell me what it meant) lowered her hoof. “I know where it is.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I don’t have an answer to that. The only thing Princess Celestia told us was to 'make sure that nopony hits him over the head again before he gets here’,” Avera said with a smirk, waving a hoof in my direction. My eye twitched and I huffed indignantly. Beside me, a small smile flashed across Twilight’s muzzle. “We’ve been briefed about him and the situation, and have a good idea what to expect. Just go the route you’d normally go, and we’ll follow behind you.” Twilight nodded and, turning, head towards the station doors.

As we made our way out of the train station, the guards walked behind us, just far enough away that they gave us breathing room but close enough that they could spring into action instantly should trouble arise. Avera chose to walk beside me, scanning the crowd around us with a bored expression on her face. As she walked, her hooves made a weird sound against the cobblestone street. Unlike the typical clip-clop of pony hooves, it was more of a scraping noise, like claws against stone.

Some ponies would stop and bow to Twilight as we passed, but the majority of them just turned their noses up and continued about their business. Twilight just acknowledged those that showed her respect, while ignoring all the rest. The guards glared at the crowd, especially the stuck-up ponies, but that didn’t do much either. It was clear that most of Canterlot did not respect Twilight, and for some reason I found myself growing very aggravated about that.

At one point we had to stop as a bunch of ponies leading a pack of humans crossed the street in front of us. Our guards stopped the ponies in order to make sure that the handlers had the paperwork needed to sell humans. The ponies pulled out stacks of green paper and handed the forms to Avera, who quickly glanced over them.

Satisfied that everything was in order, the guards allowed the ponies to continue on their way. The entire time that the guards were dealing with the ponies, I was eyeing the humans. Most of them just stared idly ahead, or would glance around to see the source of some random noise. Some humans, however, were looking around with almost a disinterest, scanning their surroundings with an almost curious gaze.

My brow wrinkled slightly as I watched them. What are they doing? Most humans that I’ve observed never really cared about where they were, so why did these couple break that mould?

That was another reason I wanted to stay: something was happening to the humans here—I was sure of it—and I wanted to find out what it was. Hopefully it had nothing to do with my arrival, but somehow I had a sinking feeling that it did. I glanced over at Twilight, chewing the inside of my cheek. If it turns out that I have to return home, I’ll tell her to look into the humans for me.

As the pack of humans began to move again, the last human in the group glanced back at me, a strange expression on her face. Her hair was cherry blonde and hung down to her shoulders, and she gazed at me with intense blue eyes. She looked at me with a small frown on her face, her head cocked to the side. I watched her go, absentmindedly rubbing a finger along my right eyebrow.

“Looks like you caught somepony’s eye,” Avera snickered, watching the group move off. Snorting, I rolled my eyes and fell into step behind Twilight as we continued with our journey.

“You seem really calm about this whole thing,” Twilight said, glancing back at Avera. The mare nodded, the smirk still on her face.

“I was here for the original Discord incident, as well as when he was living in the castle. I’ve seen some weird shit,” she said, falling in to walk beside me again. Twilight just nodded, then continued walking.

We made our way to the palace without further distractions. As we entered, I looked around, my mind noting that not much had changed since I was here the first time. There were a few different pictures hung upon the walls. When I had first arrived, the paintings had a sort of summer theme about them; the pictures now were fall themed. I guess they change them to match the season, I mused as I studied the picture closest to me.

Avera stopped us in the main hall just off of the throne room.

“The princess is in the middle of day court at the moment,” she said as the other guards slowly dispersed. “Please wait out here while I go inform her that you’ve arrived.” With that she slipped into the throne room. When the door opened, the gentle murmur of voices emanated from the other side, accompanied by the soft rustle of paper. They were silenced again when Avera closed the door quietly behind her.

There were chairs placed along the walls of the hall that were meant for ponies waiting for an audience with the princess. Twilight sat down in one of them, staring at her hooves in silence. I moved to join her, but I stopped when a nearby doorway caught my attention. I’m not sure what drew me to it; there were several other ones that looked exactly the same. This particular one, however, captivated me.

After casting a quick glance at Twilight, I slowly made my way over to the arch. Peering through it, I saw that it was connected to a short passageway that lead to the castle’s gardens. Looking back at Twilight one last time, I turned and made my way down the hallway, following the pulling sensation.

As I stepped out into the garden, I noticed that the air seemed to be abnormally still. It was also surprisingly quiet, considering how close we were to Canterlot. I couldn’t hear any sounds of the city at all, almost as if a spell had been placed around the entire place. Instead, only the soft sound of birds chirping and insects humming could be heard. A small stream babbled quietly through the gardens, slowly working its way towards a still pond filled with lily pads and reeds. The whole place felt like it was cut off from the outside world.

I was making my way deeper into the garden when I realized that I didn’t really know where I was going. I was simply letting my feet take me where they would, although I knew I was on the right track as the pulling sensation was slowly growing stronger as I walked.

A small flock of hummingbirds flew around me as I made my way over the stream by means of a small bridge. They didn’t seem bothered by my presence, just curious. If only everyone was as accepting as you guys, I thought as one of them nestled on my shoulder for a brief second before flying off to a patch of flowers.

A rustling from one of the hedges caught my attention, and a family of rabbits emerged from the undergrowth and made their way across the path. I watched them go with a small smile on my face, scratching at my scraggly beard absentmindedly. Fluttershy would like this place, I thought, thinking back to how the yellow pegasus loved animals. I wonder if she’s ever been here before. Maybe I should ask the princesses if she could visit. Perhaps I could go with her if I’m still around…

I groaned, running my hands through my hair as I gritted my teeth. I was slowly beginning to get a headache.

Trudging deeper into the garden, I continued to watch the wildlife, especially the birds. I was too preoccupied looking up that I failed to see a protruding root sticking up in front of me. My foot connected with it and I fell unceremoniously to the ground. Grunting in pain, I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. I made to stand back up but froze immediately when I saw what was in front of me.

I had collapsed right in front of a statue. That in and of itself wasn’t alarming; it was what the statue was that chilled my blood. It was the beast from my nightmares. Its body was huge; easily over sixteen feet long. Its tail, coiled beneath its frame, acted almost like a chair and kept the creature upright. One of its hind legs was crossed over the other. The mismatched pair of wings on its back were flared slightly, keeping it balanced. It was its face, however, that was the most unnerving.

Unlike in my nightmare, the statue’s face actually appeared almost… normal. Stony eyes glared down at me, an evil looking smirk adorning its face. It looked smug, almost to the point of being arrogant. That, combined with the fact that its arms were folded across its chest, made it look as if the creature knew something you didn’t.

This doesn’t make sense, I thought, staring at the creature in horror and confusion. Why is the creature from my nightmare here?

Sense? a voice in my head chuckled. What fun is there in making sense?

Time seemed to stop as I sat there, staring up at the statue with an open mouth. Despite the fact that it looked like the horror from my nightmares, it was slightly different as well; more friendly, if only just. I was completely entranced by it; something about it just called to me, begged me to reach out and touch it. My body, however, was frozen, unable to move.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there staring at the statue, before the sound of something landing behind me with a soft thump snapped me out of my daze.

“There you are,” the new arrival said, their voice soft. “We wondered where you had wandered off to.” Tearing my gaze from the statue’s face, I glanced over my shoulder. Princess Luna stood there, her dark mane wafting in its non-existent breeze. A tiara made of black metal rested behind her long horn, glinting in the light of the sun.

As I studied her, I realized that she looked slightly different in the daylight than she had in the darkness of the hospital room at night. She seemed less intimidating, more royal and graceful. Her coat wasn’t black as I thought it had been before, but more of a darkish blue. She even appeared slightly smaller without the shadows concealing her form. She had a kind of alien beauty that couldn’t be matched, even by Celestia. Of course, that could just be me being biased, as I was more of a night person anyways.

As she drew nearer to me, I could feel the power radiating off of her, similar to Celestia’s, but instead of warmth, there was an icy chill. I shivered as goosebumps erupted across my skin. The chill only lasted a second or two, and then the area returned to its normal temperature.

“When the lieutenant told us that you were waiting, my sister suspended the rest of day court to meet with you,” she said as she came to a stop beside me, looking down at me with her cyan eyes. “When we came out into the hall to meet with you, we found only Twilight Sparkle. Needless to say she became quite distressed when she noticed that you were gone, but we knew you couldn’t have gone too far. Tia stayed with her to calm her while we searched for you.”

~We?~ I asked, hoping that, like her sister, Luna could understand hoof-language. Apparently she did, as she cocked her head to the side as I signed, an intrigued look on her face.

“Interesting,” she said. “We did not—” she paused briefly, an annoyed frown flickering across her otherwise impassive face. “Sorry, I did not realize that Twilight Sparkle had taught you the art of hoof-language. I can see though that it would benefit you, seeing as you cannot speak.”

~How did you find me so quickly?~ I asked as I stood up, brushing off my pants. When I looked back over at Luna, I saw that she was looking at me with a small frown on her face.

“I have been searching for nearly an hour,” she said, studying my face closely. “I was flying over the garden when I spotted you just sitting here, staring at Discord.”

~This is Discord?~ I turned back to look at the statue again, taking in the details for what was probably the hundredth time. For some reason, the strange creature just captivated me every time I glanced at it.

“Indeed it is,” Luna said, stepping closer to me and looking at the statue as well. “He is the one most likely responsible for bringing you here, to Equestria, and if what I saw was correct, he is also the one that was haunting your nightmares.” We both stared at the statue for a long moment before Luna turned and shook her head, snorting softly.

“Come,” she said, draping a wing over my shoulders and tugging me away from the statue. “My sister is expecting you. I believe it is time to send you back home.” I blinked and looked over at her, nodding weakly. Voices began whispering in the back of my mind, their words unintelligible. It sounded like two entities, fighting to be heard.

Luna withdrew her wing, tucking it neatly back by her side. I turned to head off towards the castle but was stopped when Luna placed a hoof on my cheek. Turning my head towards her, she gazed into my eyes, her brow furrowed. As she forced me to look at her, I realized that I was taller than her, but not by much. Her horn was at the same level as my eyes.

“Are you alright?” she asked, concern in her voice. “Your eye appears to be slightly hazy.” I raised an eyebrow at her, confused. I reached up slowly and covered my right eye with a hand. Luna shook her head at my movement, “Nay, I did not mean that eye. I meant your other one.” I moved my hand over to my left eye, rubbing the skin beneath it.

~I’m fine~ I replied as Luna continued to look at me, ~just a little tired~ She continued to study my face for several more seconds before removing her hoof from my cheek. Nodding slowly, she turned and began to lead me away from the stone statue of the one called Discord.

As we walked away, I couldn’t help but cast one last glance back at him. His stone eyes appeared to follow us, the smirk seeming to grow with each step we took. As we left the gardens, I could have sworn that the statue was laughing.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Celestia and Twilight were waiting for us in the throne room when we arrived back at the palace. Celestia just smiled when Luna lead me through the large double doors. Twilight, however, was a different story.

Her mane was disheveled and her eyes were bloodshot, as though she had just been crying. Upon seeing me enter the room, she let out a strangled cry and staggered forward, flinging her forehooves over my shoulders. My arms moved of their own accord and I wrapped them around Twilight to prevent her from toppling over. I looked over at Celestia with a raised eyebrow, hoping to glean some understanding as to Twilight’s current state, but was only met with a confused look in return.

Reaching a tentative hand up, I patted the top of her head softly. This caused her to sniffle into my shoulder.

“I thought you had left without saying goodbye,” she murmured in my ear, nuzzling my cheek. As she released me and dropped back down onto all fours, I gave her a half smile.

~I wouldn’t do that to you, my friend~ She blinked up at me, tears returning to her eyes. I turned to look back up at Celestia, and saw that Luna was now standing next to her. They were looking down at Twilight and I, a small smile on both their faces.

“I think,” Celestia said, “The time has come to send you home, my dear human.” Turning to Twilight, her smile turned sad. “Now is the time for any final words, Twilight.” Sniffing loudly, Twilight nodded and, tears beginning to drip down her face, she turned to look up at me. Her violet eyes glistened as she stared into mine.

“I realize that we didn’t get off to the best start all those months ago,” she said, her voice wavering slightly, “But I… I’m glad that I had the c-chance to get to know you. Also, t-thank you, for everything that you’ve done for me.”

~I didn’t do that much, Twilight~ I signed, shuffling awkwardly. After all, she had been mostly taking care of me for the past few months, providing food, shelter and comfort. I just lived with her, making her laugh and smile when needed, as well as providing manual labor when required.

“You did enough,” she sighed. Closing her eyes, she dragged a foreleg across her eyes, trying to dry them, yet the tears continued to come. She looked like she wanted to say something else to me, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. She continued to look up at me, and I could see her composure slowly slipping. That sight alone nearly broke my heart. The voices surged forward, the volume of their whispers increasing slightly.

Tell her you’re planning on staying. Tell her; make her feel better!

Before I could, however, Twilight seemed to give up on her attempts to speak. Instead, she turned quickly and trotted to the doors. Flinging them open, she rushed out of the throne room before slamming the doors shut behind her. I watched her go with a frown. I hope she doesn’t go too far.

The sound of hooves behind me snapped me back to the moment at hand. I turned to see Celestia slowly approaching me while Luna remained standing on the steps to the throne.

“Don’t worry too much about her; she’ll be fine,” Celestia said, draping a wing over my shoulders. “I’ll go talk to her after we are done here.” Releasing me from her wing, she turned and headed back up to stand next to Luna. I positioned myself at the bottom of the steps, gazing up at the two alicorns.

“Now then, this is a fairly simple spell,” Celestia began, her horn beginning to glow softly. “It requires nothing from you, other than for you to not move. Both Luna and I shall cast the spell, and you should feel a slight tingling sensation before you shall be transported back to your home. Although,” a sheepish smiled flashed across her muzzle, “we don’t know where exactly on your world you’ll end up.”

That means that if I go through with this, I might end up in some third world country with no way to get back to home. Or even worse: the spell could transport me to the middle of the ocean. All the more reason to stay here, where I’m safe. This whole process was leading to too many uncertainties, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it. There was no telling what was waiting for me back home, but now Celestia was telling me that they didn’t know where they were sending me. What if I ended up somewhere bad? I would have no money, no means to communicate back home. I could even end up in a country that spoke a language I didn’t even know.

And that was if I ended up on land. There was the large possibility that I could end up in the middle of the ocean. Good luck surviving that, the voice in my head chuckled. As I looked back up at the princesses, both of which had their horns surrounded by a magical glow and their eyes glowing white, I made up my mind on what I was going to do, although a small part of me disagreed with it. That last bit of information that Celestia provided me was the final nail in the coffin: I was sure of what I wanted to do.

“Alright, young one,” Celestia said, a smile touching her lips as the power radiated from her in waves. “Are you ready to go home?” It was at that moment that I felt a huge surge of… something deep within me. It welled up from within my very soul, coursing through my veins like molten metal. I felt my body react first, my mind close behind it. As I looked up at the princesses getting ready to send me back to Earth, I took a deep breath…

…and shook my head. I don’t think that either princess was expecting an actual answer, let alone that one in particular. So it came as no surprise that I caught both of them off guard. Instantly both of their magical auras disappeared, the power emanating from them ceasing to flow. Their eyes returned to normal and they gaped at me, shocked expressions adorning their faces.

“N-no?” Celestia stuttered, looking at me as though I had grown a second head. I shook my head again, more firmly this time.

“There is no need to fear,” Luna said. “This spell will not harm you in any way.” Still I shook my head. They both stared at me in confusion, unsure of what to do.

“Thou does realize that this spell will take you home,” Luna said in the same tone a teacher would use with a student who was having difficulty in class. “We can send you back to your own world.” Again, I shook my head, but this time I offered an explanation.

~I’m already home~ Now it was the sisters’ turn to shake their heads at me.

“No,” Celestia said, shaking her head slightly “You are not home. This isn’t your home world. We are trying to send you back—”

~What you are trying to do~ I signed, interrupting her, ~is kill me~ Celestia looked as if I had kicked her in the gut with a steel-toed boot. She gazed down at me, a shocked and hurt expression on her face.

“I thought I made it clear when we met yesterday that I mean you no harm,” she said, her voice low. “We are just trying to help you.”

“In what way could we possibly be trying to kill thee?” Luna asked, sounding slightly irritated at the accusation.

~You claim you can send me home, but that you can’t send me to a specific location~

“That is correct,” Luna sniffed, tilting her head up slightly. “We fail to see the problem with that.”

~Did you consider how large my world is? Or the fact that the surface of my entire planet is seventy percent water? That’s a very high probability that I will be ending up in the middle of a huge body of water, with no way to reach shore safely~ Both of them reeled back at that. I just stared at them incredulously. Seriously? Neither of them had thought of that?

“T-that may be true, but I don’t think—” Celestia began, but I cut her off again.

~Not to mention the fact that you can’t send me to my own country. There’s nearly two hundred countries in my world, and that’s not counting the land that isn't inhabited~ My mind immediately snapped to images of me landing in another desert, or a dense jungle, or possibly Antarctica. That would be a great way to die; standing around with a bunch of penguins. The two of them continued staring at me with wide eyes. Luna mouthed “two hundred countries” when I mentioned them, a look of awe on her face.

~If it’s all the same to you two~ I signed, looking up at the stunned princesses, ~I’d prefer to stay here, rather than risk dying back home~ They stood there, mouths agape as they stared down at me, their brains working overtime to figure out what had just happened. I could almost see the smoke coming from their ears.

Celestia was the first of the two to recover. Shaking her head, she blinked down at me, “But, what about your friends? Your family?”

~I’ve been gone for nearly five months now~ I replied, keeping my face neutral. ~There are no possible leads for any investigation to follow. I disappeared out of a busy location, and nobody saw me leave. My…~ I paused, trying to figure out a word to replace ‘car’ ~carriage was still there, so I couldn’t have left that way.

~five months is a long time to stay hopeful when there is no evidence to be had. By now everyone probably thinks I’m dead and gone~

“Even more reason to go back to your world,” Celestia countered. “You can alleviate their worries, make your family whole again!”

~And leave Twilight all alone?~ I asked before I could stop myself. My face lit up instantly as a smile quickly spread across Celestia’s face.

“Ah, I see. So there is another reason for you wanting to stay,” she said smugly, her eyes drifting towards the doors Twilight had just exited out of. “So it seems that you’ve become close to somepony during your stay here?” My blush deepened as Celestia laughed. “It appears that may be the case.” Leaning back, Celestia folded her wings as she looked down at me.

“It’s an odd request, given the circumstances around you,” she said, her voice calm. “Have you given this much thought? You do realize that you’re basically going to be living in a land where your species is less intelligent than what you are used to, right?” I nodded, keeping my eye locked on hers. “And you’re sure that you don’t want to return home?” I nodded again, a determined look on my face; I wasn’t budging.

“Even after almost dying several times?” Celestia asked suddenly, tilting her head slightly.

~No world is perfect~ I replied, a small smile on my face. ~My world is as dangerous as your world, except in different ways. Here I run the risk of getting attacked by a manticore. Back home, I’m at risk of getting in a fatal accident while going to work, or getting shot and mugged. There is always a risk wherever you live. It’s how you deal with it that matters~

Celestia studied my face for a few more seconds, a troubled look on her face, before she sighed heavily and giving me a small smile.

“Well, I can’t say that I was expecting this, but I guess if that is your wish, then I have no problem with it, so long as none of my ponies come to any harm because of it,” she said. Luna just continued to stare off into space, blinking every so often. “In that case, I have but one real requirement if you are going to be staying in Equestria, Max.” I looked up at her curiously, tilting my head to the side. “Please, I know that after all you’ve been through it’s not my place to make demands, but I must ask that you continue to make Twilight as happy as you possibly can—” her gaze turned icy and her voice steely as she glared down at me “—for if you cause her to become hurt in any way, I will make you wish you had returned to your world.” I gulped nervously, but nodded, trying hard to stop my entire body from shivering. There was that god again, staring down at me with all the authority of fate itself.

I clenched my fist, trying to steady my nerves. If she thinks I’ll go down without a fight, she has another thing coming.

~I wouldn’t dream of hurting her~ I replied stiffly. ~She means too much to me~

“Good. Now then, what do you think, Luna?” Celestia asked, turning to her sister. “You’ve been fairly quiet this entire time. Do you have anything to add?” Luna didn’t seem to hear her, however, continuing to stare at something just over my head. I glanced back to see what had fascinated her, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Luna?” Celestia asked, nudging her with a hoof. “Lulu, are you okay?”

“Two hundred countries…” Luna’s voice was so quiet that we could barely understand what she had said. Celestia looked back at me, and I just shrugged my shoulders.

“Could you repeat that?”

“Two hundred countries,” Luna said, a bit louder this time. “He said that there were nearly two hundred countries on his world.” She finally blinked, her eyes darting down to look at me. Swallowing, she cleared her throat before she spoke again, “Could you possibly tell us how many humans inhabit your world?” I blinked at the odd request, but couldn’t see the harm behind it.

~Last time I checked before ending up in Equestria, there were around seven billion humans estimated to be living on Earth~ This caused both of them to yelp in shock.

“Seven billion!?” Celestia asked, her voice cracking slightly. I frowned, unsure of what the big deal was.

~Yeah, that’s right. Why?~ Luna and Celestia looked at each other, sheepish smiles spreading across their faces.

“No wonder we underestimated his world,” Celestia said to Luna, who nodded in agreement. Turning back to me, Celestia smiled apologetically. “You see, my dear human, there are currently only around 4 million ponies alive on Equus right now, and we don’t exactly know the number of humans living here. We thought your world would be similar, so we didn’t account for it being as large as you claim.” I nodded, smiling as it all clicked in my head.

There was one thing, though, that I had to make sure of. Glancing up at the two princesses, I gave each of them a nervous smile, ~So, I can stay… right?~ Both of them smiled warmly down at me, calming my nerves.

“If that is what you wish,” Luna said, “then we have no problems with it. In fact, we believe that you might not be the only one who favors that decision.” Her eyes flickered to the doors, the same ones Twilight had exited out of. My blush returned and I glanced off to the side, causing them both to chuckle.

~I actually have two requests of my own~ They both looked at me curiously. ~First, I would like to know if the passage home is still open should I change my mind~

“At any moment should you wish to return home, you are free to do so,” Celestia said, dipping her head slightly. “We will not force you to stay in Equestria against your will, nor will we force you to return to your own world if you are uncomfortable doing so.”

~Okay, thanks~ I signed with a smile. ~And secondly, could you send a letter to my family back on Earth?~

“I don’t see why not,” Celestia said, cocking her head to the side. “But didn’t you say that you weren’t sure if you were going to end up anywhere near home? It will be the same for the letter.”

~I’ll put my family’s address on it when we send it through. If it gets to them is up to chance, but I would like to send one, just in case~

“I see no problem with that,” Luna said, moving to stand next to her sister. “When you have finished the letter, have Twilight send it to us and we will transport it back to your old world.”

~Thank you, your majesties~ I said, bowing slightly. Celestia giggled, which caused both me and Luna to look at her in confusion.

“Sorry,” she said, waving a hoof in the air. “It’s just, I think that’s the first time you’ve actually used the term ‘your majesty’ to either of us. I wasn’t expecting it.” Her eyes sparkled merrily as she continued, “Please be aware that if you are indeed staying here, you will have to live with the majority of the world treating you like an animal. Unfortunately, there is little either of us can do at the moment to change that. There are certain laws in place that help protect humans from neglect and abuse, but other than that we cannot do much more due to the fact that they are animals.

"That being said, I realize that you are a special case, and I promise that Luna and I will help you with any problem that may come up. Should anything happen to you, or should anypony treat you badly, please don’t be afraid to write to us. Either Spike or Twilight can get a hold of us quickly enough.” I smiled, nodding as she spoke. “Now then, if there is nothing else that you wish to discuss, I do believe that a certain pony needs a little comforting.” Her eyes flicked again to the door, a smirk on her face again. Rolling my eyes, I bowed again before turning around and heading towards the large golden doors.

Reaching them, I placed my hands on them and pushed. They swung open and I exited the throne room. I glanced back as the doors slowly began to close behind me. Luna was still standing there, smiling kindly at me. Celestia’s smile, however, was absent on her face. Instead, she was looking at me with a troubled expression, her eyes narrowing slightly as I looked at her. It wasn’t an angry look, or an accusing one. It was almost like she didn’t know what to think at the moment.

I locked eyes with her for a split second before the door closed and they both were lost from view.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I found Twilight lying in the center of the main hall, crying her eyes out. There were no guards around, so it was just me and her. As I watched her sob into her forelegs, I sighed softly, saddened to see her like this.

In her state, she didn’t appear to have heard the doors open behind her, or else she didn’t care who it was. Walking silently over, I stood beside her, trying to think about how to proceed. As I stood there, she obviously felt my presence, but mistook me for Celestia.

“W-why?” she asked, not raising her head. Her voice was broken, and she sounded as if the world itself was coming to an end. I didn’t know I meant that much to her, I thought, staring down at her. “W-why did this have to h-happen? Why d-did he have to l-leave me?”

Now, I knew that this mare lying there, sobbing, on the floor was crying because of me, and I knew that I should probably handle this delicately. Unfortunately, my inner jackass was acting up, and I just couldn’t resist.

~Don’t worry, Twilight. There are plenty of fish in the sea. You’ll find the perfect stallion someday~ Her ears twitched and she stopped crying as her brain slowly processed what she had just heard. Someone was standing next to her, using hoof-language to talk to her. Slowly, she lifted her head and turned to see who was standing by her side. When her gaze landed on my feet, her eyes widened. Slowly her gaze rose, her mouth hanging open till she was staring up into my smiling face.

She stared up at me, stunned, for several seconds before speaking. Her voice cracked slightly as she did so, “M-m-max? Is… is t-that really you?” I raised an eyebrow, still smiling down at her.

~You know any other human that’s this good looking?~ She gawked up at me, still not believing what she was seeing.

“B-but, I thought y-you were going h-home!”

~I am. Let’s get going, shall we?~ I reached down and picked her limp body up. Lifting her over my shoulder, I placed her on my back piggyback style, wincing as my stitches pulled slightly. She clung to me in disbelief as I made my way out of the palace, descending the steps into the city.

As I walked through the streets, ponies stopped and stared at us, whispering to each other behind their hooves. Some of them even looked horrified at their princess’s scandalous behavior, but I didn’t care. I don’t think Twilight did either, as she was too busy staring at me in confusion.

“B-but, I thought you were going home,” she repeated after several minutes. “To your own world!”

~Change of plans; I decided I like Equestria more. Looks like I’m staying~ I spotted the train station in the distance and began picking my way through the crowd towards it.

“B-but… why?” she asked simply, hooves shifting slightly on my back as she repositioned herself into a more comfortable position.

~Don’t question it. Just go with it~ She became quiet again, and I glanced over my shoulder at her. She was staring off into the distance, a blank expression on her face. Her fur on her cheeks were still wet, but her tears had stopped flowing.

“So, you’re staying here… with me?” she whispered, looking back at me.

~Yeah, you’re stuck with me~ I smiled, nodding my head. A smile slowly spread across her face. ~Besides, I did promise that you would have to put up with me for many years still, right? Don’t want Pinkie to think I’ve broken a promise~ Her smile continued to grow, tears of happiness starting to flow from her eyes. Suddenly, she leaned down and nuzzled the top of my head happily. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that as I reached up and scratched behind her ears. She murmured happily into my head as we continued towards the train station.

As we drew nearer to the station, I sighed happily, content with what had transpired in the throne room. I was overjoyed that the princesses had allowed me to continue living here, with Twilight, even if Celestia was troubled by something. I knew that it probably wasn’t going to be easy living in a world like this, but with Twilight by my side, I was sure that I would be ready for the challenges.

If someone else was in my shoes, they might have made a different decision. Hell, I was fairly sure that most people might argue that what I did was stupid.

I wouldn't care about their opinion, however, because in my heart I knew: I was homeward bound. Back to Ponyville, and the friends I’ve made there. I was pretty sure with their help, as well as the help of Twilight and the princesses, my life was going to start looking up.

As Twilight wrapped her wings around me, the scent of lavender surrounded me and I inhaled deeply. As we reached the station, a single, happy thought drifted across my mind, making me smile slightly as I reached up and stroked the inside of Twilight’s wings absentmindedly. The voice in the back of my head purred at the thought, but I chose to ignore it. After all, it was good to be home.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > ? ? ? < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I sighed happily as I watched Max walk back towards the train station, the Alicorn of Magic perched upon his shoulders. I feared for a moment that he would choose to leave, causing the poor alicorn’s heart to break. I didn’t want to think what would have happened to the Elements if that was the case.

I hovered in the air, keeping an eye on the silent human as he slowly disappeared into the crowd. I hadn’t been too sure about him when he had first arrived, but after watching what he had managed to accomplish in the time he had been in Equestria, my view of him had changed completely. It was because of this that I was actually willing to help him.

If it had not been for my intervention and assistance, he would be nothing but a blubbering mess of nerves, and a panic attack away from taking his own life. I had protected his mind from the worst of the horror he had went through, sheltering his sanity.

A smile touched my lips as I thought back to the moment we had first met; him lying there, dying, as his mind floated in the darkness. I had given him the spark needed to keep himself alive long enough to receive medical attention.

“He has such kind eyes,” I whispered to myself, “for one that has been through so much.” I blinked as a wave of pressure descended upon me. Turning my head, I glanced in the general direction of the Royal Gardens. There was only one creature I knew of that could cause that kind of magical pressure.

“Discord…” I breathed, my wings flaring slightly as I glared at the horizon. He was happy about something, but I didn’t know what it was. I knew that he had been manipulating the Sun Alicorn's mind yesterday evening, but I wasn’t sure what his endgame was.

It didn’t matter, however. We had beaten him twice before; three times if you count his current predicament, and we could beat him again.

“Although,” I muttered, turning my gaze back towards the train station. “We might need some help this time…"

Author's Note

End of Season 1 of Your Human and You

Chapter 26: Chasing Rainbows

Life returned to normal when Twilight and I returned to Ponyville, or at least as normal as you can get in Equestria. Twilight was overjoyed with the fact that I had decided to stay in Equestria and attempted to find some way to reward me. This lead to her doing everything from cooking me more meat (I never did ask her where she was getting it), to her offering to buy me anything I wanted. I told her, however, that I hadn’t stayed to be rewarded. Rather, I stayed because I wanted to.

When Twilight’s friends had learned about what had transpired, they were peeved that I had almost left without saying goodbye, but were also happy that I had decided to stay even if they didn’t understand the true reason for why I was staying. I think it had mostly to do with the fact that Twilight was happy whenever I was around.

Pinkie Pie wanted to throw a party for me, saying that she had yet to throw me one and I had been in Ponyville for six months now. “That’s like a record!” she had proclaimed, her eyes wide. “I’ve always thrown parties for new ponies, but you haven’t had one yet! That’s horrible!” We had managed to convince her to keep the party to just the six of them, Spike, and me; just a small one at Twilight’s library. I don’t know why she was so intent on inviting almost everyone in Ponyville.

The only pony that was more excited than Twilight about me staying was Rainbow Dash; her eyes lit up when she heard the news. That, combined with how she was behaving at the hospital, had caused me to become quite concerned. Fortunately, she didn’t try anything. At least, not yet.

Two weeks passed by without major incident, thankfully. My recovery went well as the days passed, my injuries healing quickly as I took it easy. My leg had healed up nicely, and my limp was barely noticeable anymore. In fact, I could walk and run just fine. Needless to say, I had a couple of new scars from my encounters. Namely, a huge cut across my face leading to my blind eye, a large scar across my chest, and one on the palm of my hand.

A couple of days after we returned to Ponyville, I finally sat down and penned out a letter for the princesses to send home. In it, I wrote to my family, telling them that I was alive, and happy, and not to worry about me. I tried to explain my situation in such a way that I wouldn’t appear crazy, although I’m not sure if they would believe that I’m living with alien ponies. That is, if they get this letter at all.

When I finally had the letter written, and my parents’ address on the front, I had Twilight send the letter to the princesses. Several hours later they sent a message saying that they had sent my letter through to my old world. Apparently, where it had been sent was very cold, as some snow had blown in from the portal during the brief time it was open. I’m not sure where the letter was sent, but the mention of snow renewed my belief that I had made the right decision.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders visited me constantly during my recovery, trying to make sure that I didn’t need help or require any assistance, although I think their sisters put them up to it to make up for the fact that they had nearly gotten me killed. Or maybe it was so they could get their “human helper” cutie marks.

Either way, most of the time they weren’t much of a help, but I enjoyed their company nonetheless. Sweetie Belle had even warmed up to me, and a majority of the Crusaders' visits had her either sitting in my lap, or perched on top of my head; she called it her 'safe spot'. Whenever Rarity would come over to pick her sister up, she would smile when she saw Sweetie upon her perch.

Another thing that changed was the way Twilight and I acted in public. We didn’t go out of our way to show that I was intelligent, but we also didn’t hide the fact I was anymore. I was still hesitant to reveal myself, although I could never really explain to Twilight why that was. Not many ponies noticed, however, and if they did, they didn’t say anything. They would just give us a weird look, then continue on with their day. Personally, I think that most of the ponies of Ponyville had come to expect weird stuff from their local princess. Not exactly what I was expecting to happen, but not unwelcome.

It was when those two weeks were over, and I was able to actually walk around without feeling stiff or uncomfortable, that I remembered what Rarity had offered when she visited me in the hospital.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to stay here, I thought, peeking around the corner of one of the buildings in the marketplace, breathing heavily. I looked around at the crowd of ponies who were going on with their day. None of them looked at me, but that was okay; I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I needed a place to hide and recuperate, after all.

I scanned the crowd, looking for the pony that had been tailing me, but couldn’t see her in the crowd. Nor above the crowd, as the case may be. It was a cloudless day, so she didn’t have any cover to hide behind. The fact that I couldn’t see her was both good and bad: good because it meant that I had a chance to catch my breath, and bad because I had no clue where she was.

When I had left the library to head over to the Carousel Boutique and meet with Rarity, I hadn’t taken five steps outside before I was sideswiped by a rainbow blur. When I had managed to stagger back to my feet, I had found Rainbow Dash standing there, a massive smirk on her face.

“You’ve been lying around too much, lazybones,” she had informed me, taking a step forward in my direction. “It’s time to get you back in shape again. Don’t worry; I’m the perfect mare for the job! You’ll be back to your old self in no time.” That was all the warning I had before she lunged at me, her wings spread wide. I had managed to free myself after a brief scuffle and had immediately made a mad dash for the marketplace, hoping to get to Rarity’s store and the safety it would provide.

Now, here I was, a few blocks from it, trying to spot Rainbow so I could avoid her. As I scanned the crowd again, I couldn’t help but smile. I was actually enjoying myself a little; it was like a game of hide-and-seek and tag combined, except my opponent was wicked fast and could fly. One last look and I figured I was good to go.

Stepping around the corner, I started to head towards the Boutique, only to freeze when someone spoke up beside me. “So, whatcha lookin' for, big guy?”

I slowly turned my head to the right, only to find Rainbow hovering there, a triumphant smirk plastered upon her face. “Thought you could get away from me?” We stared at each other for several seconds, neither of us moving a muscle. Then, as one, our bodies moved.

Rainbow dove, forelegs outstretched as she attempted to grab hold of me. I ducked underneath her, placing my hand on the ground to steady myself as my center of gravity shifted. My hair blew back as Rainbow flew over my head, missing me by inches, her tail brushing the top of my head as she passed.

Standing back up, I shot off into the marketplace, weaving through the crowd of ponies as I attempted to avoid my attacker.

“Oh no you don’t!” A shout behind me told me that Rainbow had already recovered and was already hot on my heels. Not wanting to look behind me to see how close she was, I instead decided to dive for another piece of cover.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack yelped as I dove behind her stand. She looked down at me as I laid there, a confused expression on her face. That was, until a rainbow blur shot by over head, nearly taking her hat off. Realization dawned on her face as she watched Rainbow bank around, coming in for another pass.

“Sorry, partner,” she said, a mischievous smile on her face. “She’s been talkin’ about this for a while now, and Ah have tah agree with Rainbow; you need tah get back into shape. You’ve been lazing around too much lately.” I looked from Applejack down to my stomach, a small frown on my face as I poked it. It was true that I had gained some weight while I was recovering, due to not being as active as before, but I wouldn’t say that it was that noticeable. I swear, these ponies could notice the most random things sometimes. Someone has a bad poker face while lying, nobody notices. I gain a couple of pounds, it’s the talk of the town. What the fuck?

As Rainbow streaked by for a second time, I pulled my notebook and charcoal out of the remains of my bag. Flipping to a fresh page, I scratched out a quick message, tore it out of the notebook, and handed it to Applejack.

+I was recovering from my injuries+ Applejack looked at the note, holding onto her hat as Rainbow passed by a third time. Smiling, she lowered the paper and shook her head.

“Sorry, sugarcube,” she said. “But you’re right as rain now, and it’s time tah work off that extra weight.” My eyes narrowed as I glared up at the mare. Why are they so interested in me losing weight? Still glaring at Applejack, I quickly scribbled out another note.

+Are you calling me fat?+ Applejack’s eyes opened wide and she backpedaled slightly.

“N-no, Ah was j-just—” I didn’t give her a chance to explain. Reaching over, I wrapped my hands around her barrel, causing her to yelp slightly. Picking her up with a grunt, I lifted her above my head…

…right into the path of Rainbow Dash, who was making her fourth pass over the apple cart. Unable to stop or change directions fast enough, Rainbow plowed into Applejack, knocking them both over the cart and onto the ground. Ponies were giving them weird looks as they lay there in a heap. Ignoring the stares, I leapt over the cart, as well as the pile of groaning ponies.

“Ow, what hit me?” Rainbow asked as I ran by, her eyes rolling in her head comically. I ignored her, choosing instead to make a beeline for the Carousel Boutique. Reaching the door, I flung it open and threw myself inside. Turning, I caught a brief glimpse of Applejack and Rainbow trying to extract themselves from each other, before I closed the door and locked it.

Smirking, I turned around to find Rarity looking at me in alarm and confusion.

“Darling, what’s going on?” she asked, eyeing me cautiously. My smile just grew as I held up a few stands of rainbow colored hair. “Ah, I see.” Her eyes sparkled as she returned my smile. My eyes narrowed and the smirk left my face. So, she’s in on it too.

“She caught you leaving the library, didn’t she?” Rarity asked as she waved for me to enter. I nodded as I slipped my ragged bag off. Placing it on the floor, I took a couple of steps further into the room. “Well good for her for trying to get you back into shape.” I glared at her as I opened my notebook again and pointed at the message I had previously written for Applejack.

+Are you calling me fat?+

“Oh, goodness, no. I would never be so uncouth,” she said, waving her hoof airily at me. “It’s just that you have put on some extra weight during your recovery. I know it’s not your fault, darling,” she added as she saw my eyes narrow further, “but you should really work it off before the Gala.” At that, she looked at me expectantly, as if that word was supposed to mean something to me. I just stared back at her with a blank expression.

“The Grand Galloping Gala?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. I slowly shook my head, keeping my expression neutral. I seriously had no idea what she was talking about.

“The big celebration in Canterlot that is happening in several weeks? We’re normally invited by Princess Celestia, but this year Twilight was able to get us all tickets instead. If you want to look your best at the Gala, you’ll have to work off those extra pounds, darling.” As Rarity talked, I just stared at her, an eyebrow slowly rising. She continued to talk on about how wonderful the Gala was for several more minutes before she realized I was staring at her with a look of amusement.

“What?” she asked, blinking up at me. Still smiling, I flipped my notebook back open.

+I don’t think that I will be attending the Gala, Rarity, because I’m a human+

“I fail to see the problem,” she said, rereading the message again. Rolling my eyes, I underlined the word ‘human’ several times. She snorted at this.

“Is that the problem? Darling, nobility is allowed to bring one human with them to the Gala if they wish as long as that human behaves, and since Twilight is royalty I know that she will insist that you come along with her.”

+How do you know?+

“She’s already asked me to make you a nice set of clothing for it,” Rarity said with a smirk, “And I know that you’ll want to look good for Twilight, won’t you?”

+I don’t know what you’re talking about+ I felt my cheeks redden slightly, but I was able to keep a straight face. Months of having to have a poker face in public helped immensely.

“Oh, come now,” Rarity said, smirking up at me. “I’ve seen how Twilight looks at you. Ever since you decided to stay in Equestria with her, she can’t keep her eyes off of you. Whenever you two are in the same room together she’s always looking at you with a smile on her face.” Crossing my arms, I turned my head and huffed. Great, now my friends are trying to set me up with my owner. I know interspecies relationships aren’t a big thing here, but I… I’m not sure if that would work between Twilight and me.

Rarity just rolled her eyes at me as I mused, a smile on her face.

“Deny it all you want, dear,” she said. “Anyways, come come. We have work to do.” Turning, she trotted over to a raised platform surrounded by mirrors. Picking up a long measuring tape with her magic, she looked over at me.

“Strip out of those… things, and I’ll get your measurements.” I glanced down at my 'clothes'. They were the same ones that Rarity had made for me my first day in Ponyville. I had cleaned them almost on a daily basis, since they were my only clothing. Hell, there were even days when I was just staying at the library that I didn’t wear them at all. I don’t know if it was a good thing or not that I no longer cared if I was naked, although I had caught Twilight staring a couple of times. That always made it awkward. Seriously, it’s not like she hasn’t seen another naked human before. They wander around Ponyville with their owners, after all.

As I studied them, however, I could see that they were on their last leg. They were ragged and worn, with holes scattered across the rough fabric. There were also several large slashes ripped into the shirt from my fights in the pit. Luckily, I had managed to wash the blood out. The lower back of the shirt was torn to shreds, courtesy of the manticores. The pants were in no better condition. The whole outfit looked like it had been through Hell and back. I guess I hadn’t realized the condition they were in, I thought as I stuck a finger through a random hole in my sleeve. I looked like a homeless guy, or maybe a caveman.

With Rarity still watching, I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it on top of my bags, exposing the large scar across my chest. I had just moved to remove the pants as well, when I cast a glance over at Rarity, frowning slightly. I paused what I was doing as I looked at her, before reaching for my notebook.

+No staring+ As I slid the notebook across the floor at her, I proceeded to remove my pants as well.

“Come now, darling,” she said as she read the note. “I may be a mare, but I know how to act like a lady as well—” Her voice died instantly as she looked up, her eyes locking onto the thing between my legs. Her face turned bright red, and her mouth dropped open slightly, her eyes widening. Facepalming, I groaned in annoyance.

I don’t know why this always happened. Other Equestrian humans were typically naked, and to satisfy my morbid curiosity—against my better judgment—I had gotten a good look at other human male genitalia. While it was true that I was typically bigger than most, I wouldn’t say that it was that noticeable. Apparently I was wrong. Goddamn it...

The sound of my groan seemed to snap Rarity back to reality. Shaking her head, she shot me a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, darling, but I wasn’t expecting—” her eyes flicked back down for a split second before returning to my face, “—well, I wasn’t expecting...” She didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she just shook her head again, before turning. She motioned for me to step up onto the platform, a small smile on her face.

“Now, come. Let’s get you something better to wear.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I exited the Carousel Boutique about an hour later. I had several new sets of clothing that Rarity had made for me, free of charge. I had offered to repay her anyway she wanted, but she said I had already given her enough by keeping Sweetie Belle safe and happy.

I had my old clothing on, as I didn’t want to ruin the new sets before I got back home, and with Rainbow still out for my blood that was a high possibility. So instead, I had the clothing in the new bags that Rarity had also made for me.

They were a pair of modified saddlebags. Instead of resting across the back of a pony, they were designed to wrap around my waist, each bag positioned on my hips. I had to give her credit, it was actually a clever design as it allowed me to reach a hand into the bag without having to take them off. It was like having two big pockets! The bags themselves were dyed black (she claimed it was dark purple, but it was clearly black), and had Twilight’s cutie mark emblazoned on both sides. The whole thing was rather comfortable, as the bags moved with me when I walked, instead of impeding my movement.

I had just finished adjusting the straps to the bags so that they wouldn’t fall off when someone coughed in front of me. Glancing up, I saw Rainbow stand several feet away, a smug expression on her face. I just stared back at her, a blank expression on my face. I really shouldn’t be surprised by this.

“I was wondering how long you were going to hide in there,” she said, lowering her head and spreading her wings. “I hope you’re ready for round two!” Slowly, I raised my hand up, palm facing away from her. Leaving it there for several seconds, I curled my fingers in several times, a smirk spreading across my face. Rainbow’s smile grew as a fire lit in her eyes.

My message was clear: bring it on!

Rainbow snapped her wings down, taking flight instantly as she lunged at me, hooves outstretched. She’s not a quick learner, is she? I thought as I ducked under her attack. She went sailing over my head and smashed into the closed door behind me. It burst open and she tumbled inside, causing Rarity to shriek.

Standing back up, I backed away from the open door, never taking my eyes off of it. After several seconds Rainbow shot out of the building, flying straight at me with a determined expression on her face. My eyes widened and I threw myself to the side, narrowly avoiding being tackled by the prismatic pegasus. Scrambling, I ran off down the street, Rainbow trailing behind me.

Sprinting hard, I dashed through the marketplace. Ponies dived out of my way, shouting at me as I sprinted past. The humans scattered around just tracked my movements, their eyes locked onto me. I ignored them all, trying to put as much distance between me and Rainbow as possible.

She chased me through the marketplace for several minutes, like a cat chasing a mouse. Skidding around a corner, I spotted Applejack back behind her cart, handing a customer a bag of apples. Smiling to myself, I made a beeline for her stand. A quick glance behind me confirmed that Rainbow was quickly closing the distance between us. Turning my attention back to the cowmare, I put on an extra burst of speed.

As I drew nearer, Applejack’s ear twitched, swiveling in my direction. She glanced up, looking around curiously. I saw her eyes widen and her pupils shrink when she saw me sprinting towards her.

“Ah, hay no,” she muttered, ears flat against her head, as I dove for her stand. Hitting the ground, I rolled under the cart, coming out on the other side. I immediately grabbed Applejack and stood up, just in time for Rainbow to fly over the cart and smash into Applejack for a second time.

As both mares hit the ground in a heap, for the second time that day, I pulled out my notebook. Scratching a quick note, I tore the page out and stuck it to Applejack’s forehead before making my escape, +That’s for calling me fat+

I had managed to make it halfway across the marketplace before something slammed into my back. Yelping, I felt a pair of hooves wrap around my shoulders before I was forced into the dirt. Luckily, I had managed to not bite down on my tongue, although I think I might have chipped a tooth. I’ll have Twilight look at that later, I thought as I lay there, eyes rolling in my head.

Reaching up quickly, I grabbed my assailant and with one quick pull removed her from my back. Rolling into a crouch position, I lifted Rainbow and flung her through an open window into Ponyville’s flower shop. There was a trio of screams, and someone shouted “The horror!” as a loud crash was heard inside. Smirking, I stood quickly and brushed myself off.

“Get back here, motherbucker!” Rainbow shouted as she leapt from the window. “I’m not done with you yet!” She dove for me again, but I quickly sidestepped, trying hard not to fall over. She lunged, and again I dodged. As I retreated some more, the back of my legs came in contact with the edge of the fountain. Rainbow smirked as she dove at me for a third time. Oh shit!

Reacting quickly, I ducked again, and Rainbow flew over me. There was a loud crunch behind me and I winced at the sound. A murmur went around the crowd of ponies watching us, all of them wincing as well.

“That’s another point for the human,” I heard a mare say. Rainbow and I fighting together had become such a common occurrence that the ponies of Ponyville had taken to keeping score. It was currently Rainbow: 113, Me: 123. Needless to say, Rainbow was not happy about that.

Standing up, I turned and saw that Rainbow had face planted into the fountain's statue. She groaned and fell backwards into the pool with a large splash.

I approached the pool tentatively, a little worried for my friend. I hope she didn’t hit it too hard, I thought as I looked into the water. My rippling reflection stared back at me for several seconds before Rainbow burst from the depths of the pool. Her mane clung to her face, the different colors mixing as the strands clung to her fur. One of her eyes was closed, a bruise already forming around it. Blood flowed from her nostrils, dripping down her muzzle and into the pool, where it slowly dissipated into a red mist. She glared at me, and I knew instantly that she was pissed.

Oh shit, was all I had time to think before her wings whipped open and she took to the air.

“OH, IT IS SO ON!” she yelled, diving towards me, her eyes alight with fury.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, I mentally chanted as I turned and raced down the road, Rainbow in hot pursuit. As I ran, I could feel her breathing down my back. For a second, I was reminded of the manticores before I was tackled for a second time.

I had a brief glimpse of the sky before an angry face appeared above me. Rainbow pushed her bloody nose into mine and growled, “You’re mine now, big guy.” Reaching up, I tried to push her off of me, but she dug her hooves into my side, snarling as she clung to me. Lifting a hoof up, she threw a punch at my face. Before it could connect, however, I quickly rolled to the side, taking her along with me.

She yelped as I rolled on top of her, and pinned her to the ground with my knees. I tried my hardest to ignore the position we were in: me on top with her spread eagle beneath me, her forelegs around my neck.

Using knowledge I had gained from reading the books in Twilight’s library, I slipped my hands underneath her and searched for the place where her wings met her back. Once I located it, I pushed two fingers into the flesh, causing her eyes to widen, her cheeks to darken, and her wings to immediately stiffen by her sides. Her grip on me loosened and I managed to tear myself from her grasp.

Before she could react further, I straightened up and dashed into the nearest building, which happened to be Sugarcube Corner. I burst through the door, startling Mrs. Cake who was behind the counter. Ignoring her gaze, I leapt over the counter and scurried into the kitchen. As I had hoped, Pinkie was inside, baking up a storm. Her eyes lit up as she saw me enter.

“Hiya, Maxie! What brings you in today?” she said, a huge smile on her face. Ducking down behind one of the counters, I glanced over it, back towards the main room. No sign of Dash. I have to figure out how to end this quickly; it’s getting out of control! I thought before turning back to Pinkie, a thoughtful look on my face. I need something to keep her tied up…

Pulling my notebook out of my new bags, I flipped it open. Keeping my eye on the entrance to the kitchen, I quickly scratched out a message.

+Hi, Pinkie. Listen, you don’t happen to have any rope around here, do you?+ She eyed my note as she removed a tray of muffins from the oven. Tilting her head to the side as she placed the tray onto a hot pad, she looked at me curiously.

“Why do you need rope?” she asked. I didn’t have any time to reply before a loud crack echoed in from the other room, followed by the sound of screams. Through all the chaos, I could hear Rainbow’s voice, loud and clear.

“WHERE THE BUCK IS HE?!” Pinkie’s eyes went wide and the smile fell from her face. She gave me a knowing look as Rainbow continued to shout.

“Oh, that’s why,” she said, as more screaming came from the other room. Her ears swiveled around to point at the kitchen door. “Wow, it sure sounds like you’ve made her mad.” I just rolled my eyes, causing the party pony to laugh.

Bouncing over to a random cupboard, she reached in and pulled out a coil of rope out of a pan. Hopping back over to me with the rope in her mouth, she deposited it into my hands with a giggle.

“Here you go,” she said as she went back to her cooking. “Have fun!” I looked back and forth between the rope and Pinkie, confused. Why the hell does she keep rope in the kitchen? I was expecting it to be in the shed or something.

I didn’t have much time to wonder about it, as Rainbow appeared in the doorway a few seconds later. I quickly dove back behind the counter, praying she didn’t see me. With rope in hand, a plan was slowly forming in my hand. Pulling out my notebook again, I scratched out a quick message, before tearing it out of my notebook as quietly as I could, and sticking it in my bag.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Rainbow’s said as she approached the counter I was hidden behind. “Have you seen Max at all today?” I glanced up at the pink mare. From where I was hiding, she could easily see me. Her eyes quickly flicked over to me before she looked back in Rainbow’s direction.

“Of course I have, Dashie,” she said cheerfully. I shook my head, silently pleading with her to shut up. She wouldn’t turn me in, would she? Her smile just grew as she continued to look at Rainbow.

“Great,” Dash growled, clearly pissed. “Where is he?” Again, Pinkie’s eyes darted over in my direction. I shook my head again, praying that she wouldn’t be so cruel. There’s no way she would be that cruel, right?

“Dashie, you silly filly,” Pinkie said, her smile insanely huge as she pointed a hoof in my direction. “He’s right there.” She would… The sound of hooves on the countertop above me caused my eyes to slowly drift up. A pair of rose colored eyes stared back at me, a victorious smirk on Rainbow’s face.

“Why, hello there, big guy,” she cooed. We stayed that way for several seconds, both staring into the other one’s eyes. She had a black eye forming around her right eye, the lid already starting to swell shut.

As I stared up at her, her smirk grew. Then, without warning, Rainbow struck. Diving off of the countertop, she let out a cry of victory as she descended upon me. I rolled to the side, her hooves missing me and striking the wooden floor. Standing up, I wrote Pinkie a quick note and handed it to her before I ran back into the main room, +You, madam, are a terrible pony and you should feel terrible about what you just did+ Her laughter followed me as I ran.

Mrs. Cake yelped again as I jumped over her back, heading for the door. The sound of wings behind me told me that Rainbow was in pursuit again. Slipping my notebook back into the saddlebags, I wrenched open the front door, causing the bell above it to ring. Rushing outside, I turned and shut the door right as Rainbow reached it. Her wings flared as she tried to slow down, but she was unable to do so in time and her face impacted the glass of the door. As we looked at each other, each on the other side of the glass, I couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of her with her face smashed against the glass. Sticking my tongue out, I shot her the bird before turning and walking away.

Uncoiling the rope that Pinkie gave me as I walked, I kept my ears perked for any noise coming from behind me. There was no way that Rainbow was going to let that insult pass, and I was going to be ready when she showed up. Sure enough, after several minutes, the sound of wing beats growing closer reached my ears. I just kept walking, trying to figure out how close she was just by the sound of her wings. When I estimated that she was right on top of me, I acted.

Spinning around, I braced for impact as Rainbow bored down at me. She slammed into me, knocking the wind out of my lungs as I flew backwards. Landing on my back, I winced as her hooves dug into my chest. Rolling with the tackle, I flipped us over so that she was once again on the bottom of the pile. Grasping the rope tight in my hands, I quickly began my work.

Grabbing her forelegs, I bound them together, making sure that she couldn’t move them. Next was her hind legs, which were more difficult, as she was bucking like crazy. Once I had them secured, I moved onto her wings, tying them to her sides. Several seconds after the fight had started, I was standing over a thoroughly bound Rainbow Dash.

“W-what the buck?” she growled, wriggling around on the ground. “What do you think you’re doing? This is so not cool! You better untie me now, or else!” Ignoring her threats, I stretched, my back popping several times as I worked out the kinks. Once that was done, I walked over to Rainbow. Reaching down, I grabbed her bound forelegs and lifted her up, over my shoulders. Holding on to her back legs, I positioned her more comfortably.

“H-hey, what’s going on?” She asked as I started to walk down the road. “Where the buck are you taking me?” Given the position I was in, I had no way to tell her; not that I was going to, anyways. As I made my way through the marketplace, everyone was staring at me. Or was it Rainbow they were looking at? I wasn’t too sure.

Spotting Applejack packing up her stall for the day, I turned and made my way towards her. She looked up as I neared, her eyes widening and jaw dropping when she saw Rainbow draped over my shoulder. Reaching the cart, I pulled out my notebook and placed it on the flat surface. Flipping it open with my free hand, I scratched out a message, tore out the page and handed it to Applejack, +I’m not fat+

She read the note quickly, before looking back up at me, stunned. I packed up my notebook, adjusted Rainbow, and continued on my way. As I walked, Rainbow fidgeted against the rope, struggling to get free. Unfortunately for her, I was a Boy Scout and knew my knots, having had them drilled into my head by my scoutmaster. Ponies continued to stare at us as we headed out of the marketplace. Out of the corner of my eye I saw several ponies passing each other bits as they watched us walk by.

I passed by a guard and she gave me a questioning look. I just rolled my eyes and continued on my way.

As I walked, I began to notice that Rainbow’s tail was twitching slightly every so often, with increasing frequency. I wasn’t too sure what that meant, but figured it was probably just a sign that she was embarrassed, as Twilight’s tail did the same thing whenever she saw me walking around naked.

Eventually, the library came into view and I made my way towards it. As we drew nearer to the library, Rainbow’s struggling increased.

“C-come on dude,” she whined, her voice sounding strained. “This isn’t funny anymore.” Reaching up with my free hand, I patted her back, smirking to myself. Her tail twitched every time that my hand touched her, and she moaned softly. Victory, thy name is Max.

Reaching the library’s door, I readjusted Rainbow one last time before reaching up and knocking.

“Coming,” came Twilight’s muffled voice from somewhere within the tree. The sound of hooves on wood grew louder before the front door swung open, revealing a smiling Twilight. When she saw me standing there, her smile grew, that is until she saw what I had on my shoulder.

“Um, why is Rainbow Dash tied up?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she looked between Dash’s flank and me in confusion. Reaching into my saddle bags, I pulled out the note I had written back at Sugarcube Corner. Lifting Rainbow up, I quickly stuck the note to her chest before flipping her around. Turning her so she was facing Twilight, I slipped my hands into her armpits and held her out to my owner, much like one would do with a cat.

Twilight’s confused look grew as she leaned in to read the note. The confusion was slowly replaced with amusement as she finished reading.

“I don’t know,” she said, stepping back and placing a hoof on her chin. “That’s a lot of responsibility. Are you sure you’re up for it?” I repressed my laughter, as Rainbow began to squirm in my hands.

“W-what’s a lot of responsibility? What’s going on, Twi? What does the note say?” she asked, her voice fearful. Twilight’s horn flashed and she levitated the note off of Rainbow, hovering it over to her face. Clearing her throat, Twilight held up the note and read.

“It says ‘I was out walking through the market today when she appeared beside me. I tried to lose her, but she continued to bug me all day. It got me thinking: all of you have pets of your own, but I don’t. This one seems pretty loyal, so I was wondering: since she followed me home, can I keep her? I’ll take good care of her, and we can call her ‘Skittles’.’” Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could tell Rainbow was blushing; her ears were turning red.

As she sputtered in my arms, Twilight and I looked at each other for a brief second, before we both burst out laughing.

“Y-yeah, yeah,” Rainbow huffed. “If we’re done laughing at me, can somepony untie me, p-please?” Turning her around slightly, I placed my leg under her flank and began untying her legs. As the ropes fell away, I lowered her onto the ground. Rainbow stood there, legs splayed, as she flexed her wings. Satisfied that they were fine, she shook her legs, and glared up at me. I just smirked at her, raising an eyebrow.

She continued glaring at me for several seconds before a grin spread across her face.

“Okay, I'll admit that was a pretty good prank,” she chuckled. Flapping her wings, she took the the air. Floating over to me, she got in my face, a determined glint in her eyes. “But don't think that I’ll be going easy on you the next time we tussle.” Turning, she flew off, but stopped after several feet. Glancing back at me, she chewed on her bottom lip. Her back legs squeezed together slightly as she silently debated something in her head. My eyes narrowed as she turned and flew back towards me.

Flying up to me again, she stared into my face for several seconds before she leaned in and nuzzled my cheek.

“Thanks for the fun day, big guy,” she said softly before turning, a blush on her face, and zooming off into the sky. As Twilight watched her go, she leaned towards me.

“What was that all about?” she asked, as we watched the rainbow blur slowly disappear into the distance. I just shrugged my shoulders, an amused expression on my face.

“Well, if you’re done fooling around for the day,” Twilight said, looking up at me and smiling. “Dinner is about ready.” Turning, she trotted into the library. I shot one last glance at where Rainbow had flown off to, before turning and following Twilight into our home. Before I entered, I looked down and saw that some of Rainbow’s feathers had fallen out. Reaching down, I picked a few up. I’ll give these to Scootaloo tomorrow, I thought, smirking slightly. It’ll make for an interesting story. I wonder how she will feel when she hears Rainbow lost to a human. Chuckling, I walked into the library, closing the door behind me.

Interlude: On the Farm (Guest Chapter)

*This chapter was written by Portal82.

It was early in the morning when I found myself eating breakfast with Spike. It was just the two of us, as Twilight herself was in Canterlot. She had left yesterday under the pretenses of getting some books from the Canterlot Royal Library, and she was likely not to be back until later today.

Before she had left for the train, she had had a small talk with me about the usual things, such as keeping myself out of trouble. Truth be told, she was acting like a mother hen, of sorts. I had just waved my hand at her and told her that I would be fine until she got back.

She seemed unconvinced, though, and had left me a checklist to follow.

I glanced down at it again as I sipped at my coffee.

[ ] Don’t hurt yourself

[ ] Keep the library clean

[ ] Don’t follow any mares home

[ ] Don’t follow Mrs. Cake home

[ ] Don’t, under any circumstances, go into the Everfree Forest (again)

…

The list had a few more of items with similar topics, but I was still too tired to read those, let alone care. Spike was beside me, happily munching on a topaz. As he finished off his current mouthful, he glanced up at me.

“So, what are you going to do today?” he asked, taking another bite. I just shrugged, giving him a bored look.

~Don’t know. Still too tired l to care~ I replied.

I had just picked up my cup to take another sip of coffee when the sound of someone knocking on the front door reached my ears. Or rather, more like banging on it, hard.

Spike turned his head towards the door, a small frown on his face.

“Wonder who that could be?” he asked around a mouthful of crushed gem. That question was answered when we heard the knocker speak.

“Twilight, ya there? Ah need tah speak tah ya!” A voice cried out. I recognized it instantly as Applejack’s.

Spike jumped down from his chair and wobbled up to the front door to open it. “Hi, Applejack. Sorry, but Twilight’s not here right now. She’s in Canterlot, getting some books from the Royal Library.”

“Horseapples,” Applejack said, scuffing her hoof on the welcoming mat. “Ah needed tah talk with her. Was wondering if she would let Max visit mah farm.”

“Well,” Spike said, tapping his chin with a claw. “Twilight might not be here, but Max is if you want to speak to him.”

Lowering the cup from my lips, I frown nervously as I saw Applejack walk inside the library, a large grin on her muzzle. She trotted towards me, an almost eager hop in her step. What’s got her in such a good mood?

“Heya, sugarcube. Ah was wondering if y’all would like to visit mah farm today. Maybe take a tour or do some testin’? Ah have some equipment that can test a human’s strength and endurance, and was hopin’ y’all could try it out!”

I stared down at the mare, my eyes narrowing slightly as I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I was unsure of how to respond; I was still a little nervous around Applejack as she was still a human breeder, and had even tried to get Twilight to breed me (before she had learned I was intelligent). Plus there was that whole incident I had witnessed with Sunny in the barn that one day. I knew she wasn’t like Mrs. Cake, but it was just close enough to make me uneasy.

Placing the coffee cup on the table, I picked up a piece of paper and scratched out my answer.

+No+

Upon seeing the written word, Applejack pouted but tried again. “Mind if Ah ask why not?”

+I don’t trust that you won’t try any funny business+ I replied bluntly. Her ear twitched and she scrunched up her face in a cute manner.

“Why all the…” she muttered before shaking her head. Looking back up at me, she gave me a hard look. “Ah’m the Element of Honesty, sugarcube. Doesn’t that count for somethin’?”

I sighed as I looked down at her. She stared back up at me, trying her best to give me those stupid puppy dog eyes that ponies seemed to love to give. She had one hoof in front of the other, and was trying her best to look cute. She could only pull it off about halfway. If it had been anywhere near what Pinkie and Fluttershy could pull off, then she probably would have succeeded.

However, she did look mighty cute and adorable standing there with her little stetson hat and big green eyes.

Finally, I looked away before releasing another deep sigh.

+Okay, okay. I’ll go. Just stop with the eyes+ I wrote before flinging the paper halfheartedly at her. Picking the paper up off of the floor, she glanced at it quickly before a large smile spread across her face.

Turning, she exited the library, a little skip in her step as she did so. Shaking my head, I gathered my things before following behind her. Before leaving, I turned and pointed at Spike.

~Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone~

Before he could reply, I reached out and closed the door behind me with a snap.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

We walked towards the farm in silence during the trip. Mostly because I couldn’t speak, and it was hard to write while walking, so Applejack’s conversations would have been one-sided the whole way.

The silence was fine by me, as I was still nervous about the whole thing. However, seeing Applejack’s happy expression, I was slowly beginning to think that this wouldn’t be so bad. She wouldn’t try anything funny, would she?

Passing under the wooden signed gateway, we continued walking down the wide dirt path at an even clip.

After a few minutes, Applejack suddenly turned and took a side path off of the main road, heading towards some buildings in the distance. Pausing, I gave the buildings a quick look before following after her. They looked like barns, but painted white instead of red.

We came to a stop outside of the first one. It was relatively small compared to the other barns I’ve seen on her property. It had an enclosed pasture, which appeared to hold some form of obstacle course inside. Bales of hay marked out different boundaries, while wooden obstacles provided ramps and hurdles.

As I studied the course, Applejack moved forward and unlocked the barn’s door. As the door swung open, she glanced back over her shoulder at me and called out, “Come along, sugarcube!”

Entering the barn, I saw that the inside was designed almost like a small gym of sorts. There were treadmills scattered around, as well as several dozen sets of weights.

As I studied the room, Applejack trotted forward before turning around and, with an almost coy smile on her face, said, “Alright then, big guy. Ah need ya tah take yer clothes off. Ah need tah take some measurements.”

I froze, my eyes widening in shock. Turning my head slowly, I gave the mare an incredulous look. Pulling out my notebook, I quickly scribbled out my reaction.

+Care to run that by me again?+

Applejack glanced at the note before looking back up at me, that damnable smirk still on her face.

“Yer clothes, sugarcube. Lose 'em.”

I stared at her for a few more seconds before slowly shaking my head. There’s no way that’s going to happen.

At my refusal, Applejack’s eyes narrowed and a playful smirk shot across her face.

“We can do this the hard way, or the easy way, hon,” she said. “Ya know those little love tussles y’all have with Rainbow? Well, Ah’m stronger than she is, so ya can probably figure out what Ah’m gettin’ at.” The smirk slowly turned into a coy smile as she purred, “Ah like it rough, too, by the way. So, what’s it gonna be?”

I raised an eyebrow at the ‘love tussle’ comment, but continued to stare at her with a blank expression on my face. If what she said was true and she was stronger than Rainbow, then I didn’t really have much chance of winning. However, I took solace in the fact that being stronger didn’t mean that she was faster. If push came to shove, I could probably get away from her.

Sighing, I grabbed my notebook.

+Fine, but no touching+ Applejack nodded and—reluctantly—I began to remove my clothing, feeling my face heating up.

It’s just like when Rarity measured you, I told myself. It’s not that big of a deal. Ponies are naked, other humans are naked. It’s not that big of a deal.

Soon enough, I was standing there, naked, with my hands covering my groin. My face heated up even more as Applejack ran an appraising eye up and down my body. Her tail swished back and forth as a smile spread across her face.

“Like Ah said before, you really are a fine breed of human,” she said as she began to circle me, reminding me briefly of a shark circling a swimmer. “Fine muscle tone, sturdy limbs, and fair complexion. The scars aren’t too bad on the eyes, either.

“Right,” she said, hip checking me as she passed. “Let’s get started!”

Applejack lead me around the room, stopping at each different station to collect some data. She measured my weight and height, had me lift weights to get a reading on my strength, and ran me through some stretches to test my flexibility. She seemed a little surprised to see that I lacked much in the latter, but I was just overjoyed that I could finally touch my toes, even if I was straining slightly to do so.

During the tests, Applejack kept a close eye on me. It was rather unnerving, and occasionally I had to snap my fingers in front of her face to get her to stop.

The worst had been during my time on the treadmill. I had been running at a steady pace for about thirty minutes and was showing no signs of getting winded. After being chased through Ponyville on an almost daily basis by Rainbow, this was child’s play. Applejack had been watching me run, a smile slowly spreading across her face the longer I ran. Glancing down at the clipboard in her hooves, she had muttered something that I couldn’t quite hear, but sounded pleased.

During all the testing, I was slowly becoming aware of a faint odor in the air. At first I had thought that it was just me sweating, but that idea was quickly ruled out when I realized that I didn’t recognize the smell. It was a weird, almost tangy smell with a bit of spice behind it.

Eventually we finished testing and Applejack sent me into the back to wash up. The shower was larger than I needed, but that was due to the fact that it was designed so that a pony could bathe the human.

Making sure that I was completely dry, I quickly put on my clothes before exiting back out into the main room again.

“Y’all ready tah go?” Applejack asked, cocking her head to the side. I gave her a quick nod of my head as I strapped my saddlebags back around my waist.

Exiting the building, Applejack lead me off down the dirt path again, heading towards the bigger of the barn-like structures. It was the same white color as the first, and as we drew nearer, I became aware of a gentle murmuring coming from within.

Applejack halted in front of the main door and glanced back at me in almost a shy manner. I slowly approached, eyeing the large building in front of me. If that last one was a testing facility, what is this one?

As I studied the building, Applejack scraped her hoof on the ground nervously.

“Alright, partner. Here’s the deal,” she said, glancing up at me. “This here is the barn where we keep all of our female humans. Further down, in the next building over, we have the males, followed by the other two buildings… which I’ll get to later, but first—” she paused, gesturing up at the building with a dramatic flourish “—allow me to welcome ya tah the Sweet Apple Acres Human Breeding Barn, or just SAA HBB for short. Or, as we like to call it around here ,the Applebucking Barn!”

Turning, Applejack shot me a large grin before pointing a hoof at the entrance to the building. “So, get yer sweet flank in there and pick a female that catches yer eye!”

I stared down at the smiling mare, my mind still trying to catch up with what was happening. Looking back, I probably should have realized what was gonna happen.

As my brain finally started working again, I started to sign out in hoof-language before I remembered that Applejack couldn’t understand it. Taking a step back, I flipped open my notebook and began to quickly write.

+You said there wouldn't be any funny business!+

Reading the note, Applejack’s ears splayed backwards and she looked to the side, scuffing her hoof as she did so.

“Well… Ah had mah hooves crossed so it didn’t count,” she muttered, trying to look serious but only succeeding in looking mildly adorable as she pouted. Looking back towards the barn, she scrunched up her face before glancing back at me. Her expression morphed from embarrassed to pleading.

“Please, sugarcube,” she muttered. “Ah'd be grateful if y’all would just consider mah offer and mate with a few of mah females. With your looks and body structure, ah’m sure that the offspring would be a fine breed. And of course, you’d get somethin’ out of it as well.”

+I’m not in a breeding mood right now+ I wrote, handing her the note with a deadpan look.

Looking up from the note, Applejack gave more of those goddamn puppy dog eyes. “Would ya at least go through and look at 'em? If ya see somethin’ ya like, you can always come back at a later date.”

I stared down at the mare, causing her to shuffle nervously under my gaze. Her back hooves kneaded into the earth beneath her as she looked up at me. After a few seconds, I sighed heavily. I can’t believe that I’m even considering this.

+I’ll look, but no promises+

Applejack 'squee'd before she quickly stepped behind me and pushed her head into my back, directing me towards the barn. As she pushed, she began happily talking about all the females she had inside, starting with their names, ages, if they’ve had any offspring before, and so on and so forth.

As she talked, I couldn’t help but feel the sinking sensation that I had made a terrible mistake. Even more so when she began listing off information about their hips, breast and their childbearing traits.

It got even more awkward when I saw that all the humans inside the barn were naked.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was another hour before we exited out the other side of the barn. My face probably looked like it had been sunburned with how much I had been blushing. As I stood there, staring off into the distance, the farm pony sat down beside me, looking up with a small pout on her face. “Y’all turned down every human Ah’ve shown ya. Did none of 'em strike yer fancy?”

Slowly, I shook my head, not looking down at her. There were some humans in there that were definitely in the ‘nope’ department. I don’t care if Applejack claimed they were mature enough to mate; some of those females could have passed for a twelve-year-old back home. That, coupled with the fact that every single human was naked, had made me feel uncomfortably like a perverted salesman browsing for a hooker.

That being said, however, there had been one or two humans in there that weren’t half bad looking, but I would never tell Applejack that. A mental image of Applejack locking me in a cell with the girls and telling me that she wasn’t going to let me out before I had bucked all of them hard and good had crossed my mind. Though, why Applejack had a black cape and false mustache in that image I would never know.

Blinking, I shook my head to clear it before glancing down at Applejack. Shrugging, I gave her a weak smile.

She stared back at me, her green eyes seeming to bore into my soul for a few moments before she sighed. A smirk slowly began to spread across her face as she stood up. Trotting slowly over to me, she bumped her flank against my hip in a teasing manner, her tail flicking slightly. That strange odor hit my nose again, slightly stronger than before.

“Ah understand,” she said, looking up at me with a coy smile on her face. “Ya want tah see the more prized females, don’t ya? The more exotic ones? Nothing but the best for you, right?”

I didn’t have time to respond before she grabbed a hold of my shirt with her teeth and began to drag me down the dirt path, towards the other two builds we had yet to see.

“Come along, partner,” she grunted through her teeth. She dragged me along, my sandals throwing up a dust cloud as we headed towards the smaller of the two barns. As she pulled me along, I eyed the new barn nervously, wondering if I could make a break for it when she released me.

Unfortunately, Applejack didn’t release me until we were inside the barn and the door was shut behind us. The inside was darker than the other barns, and I had to wait for my eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. Applejack trotted down the corridor of holding cells, her hips swaying from side to side. Against my better judgement, I followed her.

Just like the other barn, this barn was filled with cells of females. These ones were different though; more curves, some with darker skin tones, and different shades of hair. With the wider hips, and bigger busts, I couldn’t help my eyes lingering a little longer than was necessary as I walked past. This whole thing was making me really uncomfortable.

The females were looking at me as well, following my every movement closely as I passed them, walking further inside. Some were eyeing me with a neutral expression, sitting within their enclosures. A few, however, were looking at me with interest. One of them even turned around on all fours and presented her backside to me, looking back over her shoulder with a needy expression.

Oh, momma… Turning my eyes away, I blushed heavily before following after Applejack. Thankfully, she didn’t stop at any of the enclosures. She kept on walking down towards the end of the barn, heading for a door on the far wall. She stopped me before I could enter, holding up a hoof and shaking her head.

“Wait here a sec, partner. Ya can go in when Ah say so, okay?” Raising an eyebrow, I nodded my head slowly. As the door clicked shut, I thought about saying "fuck it all" and making a break for it. Curiosity stayed my feet, however.

After several minutes, a muffled voice called out from the other side of the door, “Y’all can come in now!”

Grabbing the door handle, I twisted and pushed the door open and entered. Immediately, my nostrils were hit by a large wave of the strange scent from before, causing me to feel slightly woozy.

Shaking my head slightly to clear it, I glanced around the room’s interior. It was a small room with lots of what appeared to be tools. Ropes, farm tools, saddles, horse whips (the fuck?!) horseshoes, brushes. Everything you’d expect to find inside of a barn. Several stalls lined the far wall.

I didn’t see Applejack anywhere within the room. Taking another look around, I saw some movement within one of the stalls. I swallowed nervously before tentatively approached the stall door. Slowly opening it, I glanced inside.

What I saw would unfortunately be forever imprinted within my mind.

Applejack was inside the stall. She had a saddle strapped to her back, the straps pulled tight against her barrel. Her front hooves were resting against the wall, a horse halter wrapped around her muzzle. Her tail, neatly bound around the base, was pulled to the side, giving me a clear view of her—obviously wet—marehood.

She was swaying her hips back and forth as she glanced over her shoulder at me, her green eyes hooded in a ‘come hither’ look. A sultry grin touched her muzzle as she said huskily, “Here’s yer breedin’ mare, ya stud.”

I stood there in the stall doorway, my brain unable to comprehend what my eye was seeing. I felt my right eye twitch once, twice, three times as I stared at the sight before me, looking like a deer caught in a pair of headlights.

Then, Applejack winked at me, but not with her eye.

Nope!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Big Mac < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Mac was in a fine mood, strolling lazily down the road, heading towards the farm. It had been a slow day at the apple stand, but that had been fine with him: the nice weather and the good company of the other ponies that were out and about had left him in high spirits.

Just as he was about to pass under the wooden signed entrance, he saw a human running towards him in the distance. His eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed for just a second as the human drew nearer. His cautious expression soon turned to confusion, however, when he saw the fear on the human’s face.

Stepping carefully to the side, Big Mac just chewed on his straw as the human rushed past him, not even sparing him a passing glance as he ran as through Cerberus himself was after him.

Now that he had gotten a good look at the human, Big Mac realized that he was Twilight Sparkle’s human. Glancing over his shoulder, the large stallion took a few moments to stare after the human, and the dust cloud that he was leaving behind him.

The sound of hooves pounding down the road towards him caused Mac’s ears to perk up. Turning, his eyes widened in shock as he saw his little sister—wearing a very questionable getup—gallop past him. “Git back here, ya varmint, and breed me!”

As Applejack disappeared into the distance, Big Mac stood there, blinking stupidly.
Shaking his head, he tried to remove the image of what he had just seen from his brain.

Sniffing, he moved the straw from one side of his mouth to the other before uttering a single word, “Nope.”

Continuing his way towards the farm, Big Mac decided that it was not his business who his little sister bucked.

Also, there was now a large bottle of hard cider calling his name.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I had managed to sprint back to the library in record time, reaching speeds that would have made Rainbow impressed, had she not been napping somewhere at the moment.

Reaching the tree, I saw that the door was open and proceeded to rush in, badly startling Twilight who appeared to have just arrived back from her errands.

“What the—” she yelped as I dove behind her.

~Save me!~

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking back over her shoulder at me, a confused expression on her face. Her ears perked up as the sound of galloping hooves drew near. Turning her head, Twilight glanced at the open door just in time to see Applejack rush inside.

Both ponies froze, each staring at the other with varying degrees of shock. Getting over the surprise first, Twilight blinked a couple of times, trying to understand what was going on. As her eyes landed on Applejack’s outfit, her cheeks instantly turned a lovely shade of red. “Applejack, what in Equestria are you wearing?”

Applejack glanced down at her chest before her own cheeks lit up. She had clearly forgotten what she had been wearing before she had chased me all the way from her barn.

Glancing back up, she smiled awkwardly, trying to act like nothing was wrong, but failing utterly.

“Well, howdy, Twi,” she said, giving her an awkward smile. “Fine weather we’re havin’ today, right?”

Twilight stared at Applejack for a few seconds before glancing back at me as I continued to remain crouched behind her, a confused look on her face. A few seconds later, her eyes lit up as she put two and two together.

“Applejack, we’ve talked about this,” she sighed, turning her head back to glare at her bashful friend.

Applejack gave her a sheepish smile, one of her front hooves kicking an imaginary pebble as she slowly lowered her head in shame.

“Ah know, Twi. Ah’m sorry. Ah couldn’t help myself.” Glancing off to the side, Applejack fidgeted slightly before returning her attention to Twilight. “Could… could Ah possibly get the two of ya tah reconsider? Ah'd be willin’ to pay ya a good sum o’ bits. Ah just think that it’s such a shame to let his genes go tah waste!

“I can even pay ya six hundred bits up front!” Applejack pleaded, giving Twilight a hopeful look. I couldn’t help but scoff softly at that. What was she going to do? Take my sperm out of her and use that?

Twilight glanced back and forth between me and Applejack, her face scrunched up in a cute manner.

“Applejack,” she said slowly, choosing her words carefully. “I don’t even know anything about this kind of thing, and Max and I have already told you that we aren’t interested. Besides, I’d have to look into this a little, and I don’t know how to calculate the cost because I don’t know what Celestia paid for him to begin with.”

Applejack just looked at Twilight, pouting slightly. “Can’t ya just send a letter to the princess then, and ask her about it?” Twilight chewed on her bottom lip, looking unsure.

“I don’t know if I should bother her with this…”

“Please, Twilight. Ah'm sure she’ll respond for you!”

I’m not sure if it was the weirdness of the situation, or the fact Twilight just wanted to get this over with, but she agreed to write the letter. As she did so, I made sure to keep as much distance as possible between me and Applejack. I didn’t care what Celestia’s answer was, I was gonna make a break for it if she tried anything again.

It took only a few minutes for us to get an answer. Twilight looked surprised as the letter flashed into existence right in front of her. Slowly uncurling the scroll, she began to read the letter aloud, her cheeks growing redder and redder as she continued reading.

Dear Twilight,

It always brings a smile to my face to receive a letter from you. I am doing well; thank you for your inquiry.

I was a little surprised to see that you’re even considering something like this. Not that it’s a bad thing; sharing is caring, after all.

To answer your question, I do believe that I originally bought Max for two million bits, despite the fact that the human trafficking ring—as you know—weren't a legal seller. Anyways, to finish your calculations, I would say that based on the average price range of humans, Max’s breeding price would be around twenty to eighty thousand, depending on the female and the situation.

If you want, you could have other mares mate with him. A couple of hours could cost upwards to fifteen-hundred bits. Of course, you could just do it for free. After all, he is your human.

I hope that this information helps. Have a splendid day.

Princess Celestia

Twilight glanced up from the letter, her cheeks glowing red. I was torn between being relieved that I had such a high price, and being annoyed that Celestia had implied that Twilight should go through with this.

Applejack’s cheeks were as red as Twilight's, although she had a thoughtful look on her face, chewing on her bottom lip as her eyes darted back and forth.

After a few seconds, she shook her head, muttering, “Dagnabbit, that’s way too expensive for mah taste.” Glancing up, she cleared her throat before tipping her hat to us. “Welp, sugarcube, Ah need to get going, sooo see ya!” With that, she was out the door and off down the street in a flash, leaving me and Twilight staring after her.

Slowly, Twilight turned to look at me.

“Do you think I should have reminded her of what she was wearing before she left?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Several days later found Twilight walking through the market, heading towards a spot just outside of Ponyville that was the decided location for a picnic with the girls.

As she walked, she caught a glimpse of a couple of mares looking at her, whispering quietly to one another, both sporting light blushes on their cheeks. This caused Twilight to groan inwardly, shaking her head.

Somehow, the content of Celestia’s letter had spread around Ponyville, and now mares (and a few stallions) had been gossiping about it. She even had a couple of mares come up to her and ask about the breeding fee. She had—naturally—declined them.

To make matters worse, Max had taken to barricading himself inside the library during the day, refusing to leave, much to Rainbow’s chagrin; her almost daily wrestling matches being put on hold.

Applejack also appeared to be in hiding, her brother having to take her place at the stall in the market for the past couple of days. Twilight had heard the stories about how she had chased Max through town, and she could see how Applejack would want to keep a low profile for a while.

However, she had promised that she would be there for the picnic.

Making her way through town, Twilight couldn’t help the twinge of jealousy she felt as her mind wandered to the fact that mares seemed to flock to Max. She knew he was one of the better looking humans, but that didn’t mean that he was going to act on the first raised tail he saw.

Speaking of such mares, Twilight realized that she had just passed by Mrs. Cake, out walking with her husband. She felt her eye twitch when she caught snippets of their conversation.

“Why are we trying to save bits again? We don’t have any debts to pay, do we?”

“Nothing for you to worry about, dear.”

Stopping for a quick moment, Twilight glanced back at the retreating form of Mrs. Cake. The feeling of anger and jealousy flared up inside of her. That mare…

Twilight shook her head, trying to clear it, before continuing on her way.

At least Max knows to stay away from that… that mare! Twilight thought. Suddenly, she paused, glancing back at the mare once again, a look of uncertainty on her face.

...he would stay away, right? If a mare presented herself to him, begging him, he would ignore them, right? Twilight eyed Mrs. Cake closely as the mare in question bought some goods from one of the stalls.

Mrs. Cake is far from ugly… but, there was what happened with Applejack the other day as well…

A pang of doubt wormed its way into Twilight mind, but as quickly as it came, she shook it free. A determined look spread across her face as she resumed walking.

I will not allow it. I won’t let them use him like that. He is my human, after all. With a loud snort, Twilight continued towards her destination.

As she crested the hill, she saw that Pinkie had already spread out a large red and white blanket on the ground. A quick glance around told her that she was the last of her friends to arrive.

As she trotted up, she called out to them with a smile, “Hello, girls!”

Each greeted her in turn, although Twilight instantly noticed that Applejack couldn’t meet her eye.

Sitting down on the blanket, Twilight placed the picnic basket she had been carrying down. As the mares began to dig into their food, Rarity glanced at Twilight, flipping her mane out of her eyes before asking, “Max not with you, darling?”

“No,” Twilight sighed heavily. “He still refuses to come out of the library.” Applejack winced, lowering her head, ears splaying back.

“Man, that sucks,” Rainbow huffed, crossing her forelegs over her chest. “I haven’t had a good scuffle with him in a while!”

“Well, it can’t be helped, I suppose,” Rarity said. A slow smirk spread across her face as her eyes narrowed. “Especially with that juicy piece of gossip flying around.” Twilight huffed before glancing at Rarity with an angry pout.

“What?” the unicorn asked, giving Twilight an innocent smile. “Don’t be like that, darling. It can’t be helped that it is the only thing the mares of Ponyville are talking about.” Her smile turned into a teasing smirk as she glanced over at Applejack.

“Although, it’s only slightly more popular than a rumor of a certain mare chasing a certain human around town in a scandalous and daring outfit.”

Applejack groaned loudly, her cheeks turning red as she pulled her hat down over her face.

“Ah’m never gonna live that down,” she muttered.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy gasped, blushing as well. Rainbow just looked surprised before bursting out laughing.

“Oh man, AJ. What, was it like your secondary heat time or something?” Another groan from the farm mare caused Rainbow to laugh even harder. “Oh my gosh, it was, wasn’t it!? Oh, that makes it even funnier!”

Rarity fanned her face with a hoof in a dramatic fashion, the smirk still on her face. It waned slightly as she glanced back over at Twilight.

“In all seriousness, though, I heard a group of three mares talking together last time I was at the spa. It sounded like they were thinking about polling their bits together to have a little fun with the ‘human that lives in the library'.” She then put a hoof on her rosy cheek, still looking at Twilight.

"Oh, I wonder if they will succeed?” she giggled. “Twilight, are those rumors true about the fees?"

Twilight glanced at Rarity, before stomping her hooves on the ground, growling angrily, "I will not use Max like that and let those mares get their hooves on him, fees or no fees!"

"Easy darling, your fangs are showing," Rarity said with a smile. "But I am curious. Wouldn’t it be a good source of income?”

Twilight paused at that, thinking a little about all those rare books she could buy. But then the thought of Max putting his arms around another mare flashed through her mind, or worse, him kissing a mare, or him and a naked female human or a mare. She shook her head, her cheeks red.

"No, it's not worth it." she said, those thoughts still dancing through her mind.

"A pity,” Rarity tsked, smirking slightly. “Well, I don't have the bits anyway, so it doesn't matter. Maybe in the future, though." Twilight glared at Rarity, her ear twitching.

"Ah don't have any bits to spare at the moment either," Applejack mumbling from behind her hat. Twilight quickly looked towards her, her eyes narrowing.

Rainbow just shrugged, before pulling out her money bag and turning it upside down. A few moths fluttered out as a cloud of dust erupted from it.

"I'm broke, but I will have enough bits when I become a Wonderbolt," she chuckled. She then pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, on the other hoof, has enough bits."

Twilight whipped her head around and gaped at the shy pegasus, who gave of a cute little 'eep' when she saw Twilight glance over at her.

"Y-Yes, I do,” she stuttered. “I have been saving those bits in case an emergency happened to one of my visiting animal friends... or to Max. That, and my parents tend to be a little generous." She 'eep'ed again and hid behind her mane, seeing the expression on Twilight’s face.

Pinkie leapt and twirled around her friends before stopping, mid-step.

“I have enough bits as well, but I don’t know why you have to pay so much just to have a few hours of fun with Maxie! I mean, wouldn’t it be better to hang out with your friend for free?” Twilight stared at Pinkie, a strained smile slowly spreading across her face as her eye twitched.

“I think our dear Max wouldn’t have any time for us if he was free, darling,” Rarity tittered from behind a hoof. "Also, based on the rumors, I think there will be a long waiting line as well.” Pinkie’s ears drooped as an unhappy expression flashed across her face.

“Awww, but that won’t be any fun! I want to play with Maxie!” she whined, sitting down and crossed her forelegs, a small pout gracing her lips.

“Speaking of free, have you been doing anything, Twilight?” Rainbow added quickly, smirking over at the flustered mare. Twilight froze instantly, her eyes widening as her cheeks burned red.

“W-what?!”

“You know, havin’ a little fun with him!” Rainbow snickered, elbowing Twilight in the side.

“N-no, I have not!” Twilight stammered, an ear flapping against her head.

“Eh, that’s cool,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “No need to rush, right? You can take your time.”

Twilight groaned loudly before slamming her head into the blanket, burying her face into her hooves as Rainbow roared with laughter.

Chapter 27: Your Family and Your Human, part 2

My restful sleep was interrupted unexpectedly by a beam of bright sunlight assaulting my face. I winced in pain as my hand came up to protect my eye. As I lay there, trying to figure out what was happening, a giggle beside me let me know that I was not alone in the living room. Tentatively cracking my eye open again, I glanced to my left to see Twilight standing there with a smile on her face, looking at me as a halo of sunlight shone down on her from the now-uncovered window. My gaze rose slightly as I looked at the clock on the wall behind her. Eight-thirty in the morning? It’s too damn early for this...

“Good morning,” Twilight said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. Her horn glowed as she closed the blinds partially, blocking the sunlight that was striking my face. “It’s time to get up, sleepyhead.” Closing my eye, I pulled the covers over my head, growling quietly. I snuggled back into the warmth that the blankets provided, hoping that sleep might forgive my transgression and welcome me back with open arms. However, it was not to be.

“Come on,” I heard Twilight murmur, gently shaking me with a hoof. “You can’t lie around all day.” Watch me, I huffed, pulling the blankets tighter around me.

“Come on, breakfast is almost ready.”

~Wake me up when breakfast has become lunch~ This earned a snort from Twilight, and even though I couldn’t see her, I knew that she was rolling her eyes at me.

“Come on, you need to get up.”

~Is Spike up yet?~

“This is Spike’s day off; he gets to sleep in,” Twilight said. “We, however, have stuff to do today, so up you get.”

~It’s my day off too~

“You don’t have a job; it’s always your day off! Now, get up. I’m not going to tell you again,” Twilight said, her tone indicating that there would be no further argument. With a heavy sigh, I relented. In my opinion, it was too early in the morning to be having a mental war with Twilight.

~You sound just like my mother~ I sat up with a groan, the blankets falling down around my shoulders. Running a hand through my shoulder-length, unkempt hair, I yawned loudly, my jaw popping slightly as I did so. Twilight just laughed again, before turning and heading down the stairs. I watched her flank sway back and forth as she walked, my tired mind not processing what I was staring at until she was already down the stairs. Great, I thought, as my cheeks heated up slightly, now I’m starting to become attracted to them.

I slowly stood up, my body protesting as I did so. I would have liked nothing more than to fall back asleep, but I had learned long ago that when Twilight said it was time to get up, you got up.

That mare could be scary sometimes.

I shuffled towards the stairs, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Descending the steps, I reached the bottom just in time to see Twilight close the front door, the mail hovering beside her in her magical grasp. As she looked through the pile of letters and magazines, I shuffled my way into the kitchen, doing my best imitation of a zombie. The smell of cooking food, especially that of pancakes, assaulted my nose, making my mouth water. I wasn’t sure who the better cook was: Twilight or Spike, but either way I got free, delicious food.

I took my spot at the kitchen table, my chair squeaking quietly as I sat down. Glancing over at the stove, I watched with slight amusement as a spatula floated around the stove’s range, flipping pancakes whenever they were finished cooking. It was always fascinating to watch Twilight cook like this, even if it was only for simple things, and only for a short period of time. If she did it for too long, there was a good chance that she would ruin the meal, or set something on fire.

Tearing my gaze from the spatula, I rested my head on the table and closed my eyes.

“You know, you wouldn’t be this tired in the morning if you went to bed earlier,” I heard Twilight say as she walked into the kitchen. I grunted at her, refusing to raise my head, earning me a giggle from her in response. I listened as she walked around the kitchen, her hooves making that signature clip-clop noise as she walked across the wooden floor. It was surprisingly relaxing.

“Are humans from your world nocturnal?” Twilight joked as she rummaged through the cabinets. I shook my head, my forehead still pressed against the table’s surface. After several seconds I realized that she wasn’t looking at me, so I was forced to actually move my arms.

~No, but typically humans around my age stay up later in the night than others~ There was a brief moment of silence as Twilight looked over at me. At least, I think she did. It’s hard to tell when your eyes are closed.

“Why is that?” Twilight asked, the sound of plates clinking together resuming. “Does it have something to do with your culture?” I snorted, lifting my head and finally opening my eyes. I looked over at Twilight, who was busy stacking pancakes onto a couple of plates.

~No, that’s not the reason~

“Then why would somepony of your age have a different sleep pattern than other age groups?” she asked as she pulled the syrup out of the pantry. Uncapping it, she quickly covered the two stacks of pancakes in the sticky substance. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I racked my half-awake brain, picking through my mental files of the random facts I know.

~No one really knows~ I began as she made her way over to the table, two plates stacked high with pancakes floating behind her head. ~but some scientists believe that it’s natural in origin. Typically infants tend to sleep whenever they want, but young children tend to go to bed early and wake up early. As they age, they tend to stay up later and later. This trend continues until around middle age, then it starts to decline again. This usually means that elders tend to have the same sleep schedule as young children~ It was hard to explain to her in hoof-language, as half the words I wanted to use don’t exist in Equestria.

“Interesting,” Twilight said, sliding a plate in front of me. I immediately picked up my fork and began digging into the fluffy goodness that was pancakes. “I wonder if the same can be said for humans here in Equestria.” She stared off into the distance for several seconds before shaking her head. “That’s an experiment for a different day,” I heard her mutter.

Looking down at her breakfast, she picked up a fork and began eating. While I was attempting to shove entire pancakes into my face hole, she ate daintily, taking small bites and chewing thoroughly.

~So, what’s the plan today?~ I asked as I tried to chew the five pounds of pancake now occupying my mouth. Twilight glanced up at me, an amused expression on her face.

“You forgot what day it is, didn’t you?” she said, laughing softly. I thought about it for a brief moment, then shrugged my shoulders and continued chewing. This just caused her smile to widen. “Well, Luna might have let it slip to somepony that you’re actually intelligent. And that somepony might have told her husband, and her husband may have asked his mother about it, and his mother might have sent a letter to me about it.

“Long story short,” she said, taking another small bite of her breakfast. “We’re going to my parent’s house for dinner… again. And they all know you’re intelligent this time.” I inhaled sharply, and immediately began choking as some pancake decided that my lungs would be a lovely place to visit this time of year.

Coughing and sputtering, I pounded on my chest with my fist, trying to clear my windpipe. Twilight just stared at me, a smug expression on her face. It slowly turned to worry, however, as I continued to hack up a lung.

“A-are you alright?” she asked, setting down her fork and starting to rise. I waved a hand at her, and she slowly sat back down. I eventually was able to extract the bits of food, and I took a quick swing of orange juice before staring at Twilight in horror.

~That'stoday?!~ I asked. The smile returned to her face, and she nodded as she resumed eating. I leaned back in my chair and groaned. I glared down at the remainder of my pancakes, pouting slightly. I stayed that way for several minutes.

“Oh, come now,” Twilight chided as she slowly finished her food. “It won’t be that bad. You’ve already technically met my mom, Cadence and Shining. You’ll just have to meet my dad, and have all of them ask you a ton of questions.” I grumbled, still glaring at my food. Eventually I looked up at Twilight, still pouting slightly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

~Your brother’s gonna beat me up again~ I signed, quivering my lower lip as I looked at her. This earned me a smack on the back of the head via Twilight’s magic. I chuckled slightly as I rubbed the sore spot.

“Just be on your best behavior, and I’m sure that nothing bad will happen,” she said, picking her plate up in her magic. Standing up from the table, she carried the dirty dish over to the sink. Stabbing the remainder of my stack of pancakes with my fork, I crammed them into my mouth. Chewing them happily, I stood and also brought my dishes to the sink.

My back cracked several times as I stretched, before turning to look at Twilight.

~Have you already showered today?~ I asked, stifling a yawn.

“I took care of it before starting breakfast,” Twilight called out as she walked into the other room. I followed her into the main room of the library, only to see that she was already seated in a chair, reading. I paused and glanced back into the kitchen before looking back at Twilight. There had only been ten seconds between the time she left the kitchen and when I did, so how did she get there so fast?

Deciding that it was best just to accept the weirdness that came with living with a magical being, I turned and headed towards the stairs.

~I’m going to go get cleaned up then~ I signed.

“Don’t take too long,” she said, not looking up from her book. “We need to be at the train station in an hour and a half.” I grunted once, then continued up the stairs.

Entering the bathroom, I shut and locked the door behind me. I approached the mirror and gazed at my reflection. The face that gazed back at me was so different from what I looked like when I first arrived in Equestria that, if I had actually gone back home, I doubt that any of my friends or family would recognize me.

My dirty blonde hair, which used to be cut short, was now shoulder-length. Strands hung across my face and in front of my eyes. I had a scraggly beard that gave me a haggard appearance. My skin was darker: with no video games to keep me inside and away from the sun, my once pale skin had become tan. I had a large scar running across my face, the white line standing out against my skin as it went from my left cheek, over my nose, and across the bottom of my right eye, which was milky white and useless.

All in all, I looked like a completely different person than the slightly overweight college student that was dropped into a desert six months ago.

Still staring at the man in the mirror, I opened up one of the drawers under the sink and pulled out the straight razor that Twilight had given me. Since I’m going to meet Twilight’s parents, I thought, thumbing the edge of the blade, I should probably look presentable. Turning the faucet on, I splashed water onto my face before lifting the razor and placing the cold blade against my skin.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Half an hour later, I wandered out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist, drying off my head with another one. Rubbing absentmindedly at my now smooth face, I slowly made my way back to the couch that had become my official bed. Tossing the towel aside, I reached behind the couch and pulled out one of the new sets of clothing that Rarity had made for me.

The shirt was a dark lavender color, almost the same as Twilight’s mane and tail, with her cutie mark emblazoned on the back. It was made out of a soft material that was extremely comfortable, and—according to Rarity—was tear-resistant. Rarity had even made me a long-sleeved version of the shirt, for when the weather got colder.

The pants were made of a black material that reminded me of sweatpants. It, too, had Twilight’s cutie mark stitched onto them, located on both thighs. When I asked Rarity why she had put them there, she had told me that it was to imitate human brands, without having to go through the horrid process of the real thing. “Oh, I wonder if I could sell these to other human owners,” Rarity had squealed. “It could be the next trend!”

I whistled softly as I pulled the clothing on, That mare knows her stuff! The clothing fit impressively; the shirt was slightly baggy, but I didn’t mind.

Grabbing my bags that held my notebooks and charcoal sticks, I exited the room, picking up my towels along the way. Throwing them into the laundry chute as I walked past, I headed down the stairs.

Twilight was still reading, humming softly as she turned the pages with her magic. As I descended the stairs, she looked up at me and did a double-take.

“Aww,” she pouted, looking up at me with sad eyes. I glanced down at myself before looking up at her, confused.

~What?~

“Oh… um, I kind of liked the beard…” she said, her voice trailing off as a small blush spread across her face. I chuckled as I reached over a ruffled her mane with my hand. Her ear flicked as my fingers brushed against it.

~Don’t worry, it’ll grow back~ I sighed as she closed her book and placed it back on her desk. ~I’ll make sure that I just trim it up next time~

“Why did you shave, anyway?” she asked as she stood and grabbed her saddlebags. Placing them across her back, she fastened the straps.

~Wanted to look presentable for dinner~

“Aww,” Twilight cooed, looking up at me with a smug expression. “You want to make a good impression on my parents.” I closed my eyes and stuck my nose in the air, huffing indignantly.

~I care not what you common ponies think! I don’t need anypony’s approval!~ Twilight just giggled, pressing a hoof to her mouth. I kept my pose for several seconds before dropping the act.

~Ready to go, boss?~ I asked as I double checked my bag’s straps.

“Yes, I’ve already left Spike a note, so we’re good to go!” Heading towards the door, I slipped on a pair of simple flip-flops. I had made them myself, with some help from Rarity, in order to have something to wear on my feet. With how long I had been walking around Equestria in bare feet, my soles had long since become callused. It still hurt when I stepped on a random root or sharp rock though, so I decided that I wanted something simple to protect them.

Grasping the door handle, I opened the door for Twilight. She flashed me a grateful smile as she passed. Taking one last glance around the library, I turned and followed Twilight out into the daylight.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“You’re telling me you’ve never seen that before?”

~What, ponies spontaneously bursting into song at random? No, can’t say that I have~ Twilight looked up at me as if I had two heads. We were walking through the streets of Canterlot, heading towards the home of Twilight’s parents. We had arrived in Canterlot about mid-afternoon, and had just recently passed by the marketplace, where a group of ponies were singing a song, complete with music. That wouldn’t bug me, except for several key things:

One, there was no source for the music. It was coming out of thin air; no instruments, no musicians.

Two, everyone seemed to know exactly when to pitch in, and what their lines were. There were even a couple of duets in the song, and nobody messed up once.

And three, everyone had gone back to what they were originally doing as if nothing strange had just happened. According to Twilight, this was a normal occurrence in Equestria. I’m calling bullshit. Then again, it still wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’ve seen living here. That honor goes to Pinkie Pie. I will never truly understand how she got three circus tents, two banquet tables covered in food, and a large swimming pool into her party cannon.

“You’ve been here for this long, and you haven’t seen or experienced the music of harmony?”

~Music of harmony? Nope, can’t say I have~

“You didn’t have anything like that back… oh wait, you didn’t have magic on your old world.”

~We have something similar to that, although it involves people spending several months learning the words and where they need to be at what time. We call them ‘musicals’ and they’re quite popular, although none of them happen spontaneously out of nowhere~

“Interesting, a world with no magic has organized moments of musical harmony,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin with the tip of her wing as she walked. She cocked her head to the side as she mused. “I guess compared to that, our way seems a little bizarre, doesn’t it?” she chuckled.

~You have no idea~ I replied with a smirk.

“You wouldn’t happen to remember any of them, would you?” Twilight asked, looking up at me with big puppy dog eyes. I couldn’t help the barking laugh that escaped my mouth, the sound causing a nearby stallion to jump and look at me in shock. Grinning down at Twilight, I narrowed my eyes playfully.

~I might remember one or two of them~ The look of joy that spread across her face was too cute; she grinned up at me, her eyes sparkling as she squealed happily.

“Eeeeee! Music from another world!” she squeaked, her wings fluttering happily. “Not to mention it’s your world’s version of our music of harmony! Oh, this is so exciting!” As she continued her fanatic ramblings, I was mentally debating with myself at what point her heart would give out due to excitement.

~You do realize that there are some things you won’t understand due to different cultures and history, as well as language, right?~ Twilight glared up at me playfully, a small smile on her face.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “It’s the thought that counts—” An ear-piercing shriek tore through the air, cutting Twilight off. Both of us instantly covered our ears as the strange, otherworldly cry caused everyone around to cringe in pain. Blinking back tears, I looked around, trying to locate the source of the scream.

Suddenly, Twilight pointed a hoof behind me, her face screwed up. Glancing over my shoulder, my eyes widened as I caught sight of the disturbance.

A human stood in one of the side streets, mouth open wide as he wailed loudly. His hair was hung around his face in wispy, black strands. He wore tattered clothing, the rags hanging off of him like wrappings on a mummy. From the skin that was visible, it was obvious that he was sickly, his ribs clearly visible. On his thigh was branded three roses.

It was his face, however, that was the most shocking feature. It was twisted in pure, unadulterated rage as spittle flew from his mouth. Fire burned in his eyes as he raised a hand and pointed a long, decrepit finger at me. He held the pose for a moment before turning and sprinting down the side street, still shrieking to wake the dead.

A shocked silence fell across the street, everyone just staring at where the human had once stood. Some ponies huddled together, confused at what had happened, while others just held their heads in their hooves, pained expressions on their faces. In the distance we could see a group of guards, drawn by the unholy shriek, galloping towards us, their golden armor clattering as they ran.

I was too stunned to move, images of the pit flashing in my mind, the tortured screams of the humans filling my ears. The scar on my chest twinged slightly. I could slowly feel myself tensing, getting ready to run somewhere; anywhere but here. I was about to bolt when someone spoke up beside me, causing me to pause.

“W-what was that?!” I glanced down at Twilight, who was shakily getting back to her hooves. Her ears were flattened against her head, her eyes watering slightly. Her whole body was trembling, and she was breathing heavily. I relaxed slightly at the sight of her. Calm down, Max. Twilight’s here, which means if something bad happens, she can help.

“H-have you ever heard a human sound like that before?” she asked, looking up at me. Running a shaky hand through my hair, I took a few seconds to compose myself before I replied.

~What, like nails on a chalkboard?~ She nodded, rubbing a hoof in her ear. ~No, never~ We both stared down the side street as the guards began investigating, some talking to the surrounding ponies, others heading down the alleyway after the human.

“Max, have you ever seen that human before, here or in Ponyville?” Twilight asked softly, moving to stand next to me. She leaned into my leg and I took comfort in her presence; that whole ordeal had startled me horribly, and my heart was currently trying to break free of its bony cage.

~No~ She wrinkled her nose, looking like she had smelled something offensive.

“Well, he seemed to know you,” she said. “It was pretty clear who he was pointing at.” I glanced down at her out of the corner of my eye, swallowing thickly.

~You saw that too?~

“Yes, and it’s that fact that’s troubling me.” I chewed on my cheek as my mind raced. Thousands of thoughts rushed through my head as my heart rate slowly returned to normal. Eventually, I just shrugged my shoulders, turned, and began walking again, my legs trembling slightly.

~I wouldn’t worry about it too much~ I signed as Twilight slowly fell into step beside me, looking back over her shoulder at the side street. ~It was probably a territorial thing~ I hope.

“How can you be so calm about this?” she asked, her voice tense. I snorted softly as I walked. I’m not; I just want to get away from here as quickly as possible. “That was not typical human behavior, and it was directed at you. Something is wrong here; we should go investigate!”

~Nope~ I signed, continuing to walk down the street. ~We have dinner with your family to get to. We’ll worry about this later~

“But he’ll be long gone by then,” Twilight huffed, glaring at me. I stopped and turned to look at her.

~Did you happen to get a good look at him?~

“Yeah, why?” Twilight asked, blinking up at me.

~Did you happen to get a good look at his thighs?~

“No, not really,” she said, scrunching up her face in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”

~He was branded with three roses~ I replied. ~Which means he has an owner. We’ll go to dinner with your family now, and then afterwards you can send your guards to track down the owner and get your answers. Besides, there are guards investigating right now. If they catch him, then that’s that~ Plus I don’t want to deal with an angry human again, even with Twilight at my side, I added silently, shivering as I remembered a mass of muscles descending upon me, with murder in its eyes.

Twilight just blinked up at me, a blank look on her face.

“I guess you’re right,” she said slowly, chewing on her bottom lip. She sounded unconvinced, but let it go, although she did walk closer to me than before as we headed down the road towards her parents’ house. I couldn’t help but glance back at the alleyway once more, troubled thoughts still running through my mind.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight was still so lost in thought when we arrived at our destination that she didn’t even realize we were both standing on the front step.

I watched her for several minutes as she muttered inaudibly to herself, her eyes darting back and forth as she mulled over what had happened earlier. Even when I waved my hand in front of her face, she didn’t seem to notice.

I leaned back, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I considered my next move. Slowly, my eyes drifted up to the door knocker. Shrugging my shoulders, I reached up and—grasping the knocker in my hand—banged three times on the door.

The sound of muffled hoofsteps grew louder before the door handle was wrapped in a magical glow, and the door swung open. Standing there, looking out at us, was Twilight’s mother.

Her lavender mane, striped with white, was similar to Twilight’s in style; the only difference was that her mother’s curled slightly near the end. Her coat was a milky white, with three purple stars upon her flank. Her fetlocks were longer than her daughter’s, but she kept them neat and trimmed. She stood slightly taller than Twilight, if only by a couple of inches. Comparing the two, you could see the family resemblance; if I had been color blind, it would have been like looking at an older version of Twilight, except with no wings.

“Twilight, so glad you could make it, hun,” her mother said, smiling at her daughter. Twilight didn’t say anything; just continued to stand there, muttering to herself. The smile slowly left her mother’s face and she cocked her head to the side. “Twilight? Sweetheart, are you alright?” When Twilight didn’t reply, she turned and glanced up at me in confusion.

“Um…” she began, but I held up a finger, silencing her. She raised an eyebrow as I slowly reached over and flicked Twilight’s ear with my finger. The action had the desired effect. Twilight jumped with a yelp, immediately clasping a hoof to her ear as she glared up at me.

“What was that for?!” she grumbled. I just pointed at her mother, who was watching the whole scene with a strange look on her face. When Twilight saw her mother standing there, a small blush appeared on her cheeks and she smiled sheepishly at her. “Heh, sorry about that; kind of got lost in thought.”

“I could see that,” her mother replied, her eyes glancing back and forth between the both of us. “Is everything alright, dear?”

“Yeah, just some odd activity from a human on our way here,” Twilight replied, adjusting her wings into a more comfortable position. “Nothing to worry about.”

“If you say so.” Her mother turned to look me in the eye. I noticed instantly that she had deep blue eyes which seemed to radiate motherly love and kindness.

“You must be Max,” she said, smiling nervously up at me. I gave her a quick bob of my head, a small smile on my face. “You can understand what I’m saying, right?” Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but I beat her to it by nodding my head again. Her mother just continued to stare at me, clearly at a loss at what to do next. Twilight looked back and forth between us, clearly nervous.

Finally, her mother spoke again, “I… I understand that we’ve, uh… met before, but I don’t believe that I have actually introduced myself.” She shifted uncomfortably from hoof to hoof before she slowly held out one to me. “My name is Twilight Velvet. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I glanced down at her hoof, before reaching out and gently grasping it in my hand. She flinched slightly as my fingers wrapped around her hoof, but she didn’t shy away.

Squeezing her hoof softly, I knelt down and gave it a quick peck before releasing it and straightening back up. Twilight Velvet just stood there, frozen, with her hoof still in midair. There was a small blush on her face as she gaped up at me with an awed expression.

“I didn’t know he was so chivalrous,” she said, turning slowly to look at her daughter, who was staring up at me with the same awed expression, her mouth hanging open.

~What?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She closed her mouth with a click, before shaking her head.

“N-nothing. It’s just, that’s not a very common greeting is all,” she said. “It’s typically only meant for nobles and royalty.” I glanced back and forth between the two mares before shrugging.

~I regret nothing~ I said, crossing my arms across my chest. Twilight rolled her eyes at me while her mother giggled at my antics, though I don’t think she could understand what I had said.

“Oh, I can tell he’s going to be a fun one,” she said before turning and waving us inside. “No point lurking on the doorstep. Come on in, you two.” With a smile Twilight headed in after her mother, with me following close behind.

“Dinner’s not quite ready yet,” Velvet called back over her shoulder as she headed towards the kitchen, “but we have snacks in the family room.” I kicked off my sandals and placed them beside the door, just out of the way of the walkway so that they didn’t trip anyone. With that, I followed Twilight out of the hallway and into the family room.

As we crossed the threshold into the room, we were instantly hit by a wave of heat. There was a fire crackling away in the fireplace, providing warmth for the entire room as the flames shot up into the chimney.

Three ponies were already in the room when Twilight and I arrived. Shining Armor sat on the couch, his foreleg resting on the armrest. Cadance was splayed out across the rest of the couch, her wings hanging lazily by her sides. She was lying on her back, her head in Shining Armor’s lap. Both were chuckling at some joke that had been told earlier, warm smiles on their faces. I blinked, staring at Cadance. It wasn’t that noticeable, but she looked slightly bigger than when I had last saw her, but when I looked again, I figured I had just been seeing things.

Across from them was a unicorn stallion I had never seen before, puffing away on a pipe. He had a gruff appearance, his coat a medium shade of blue, and his short mane and wavy tail were a darker shade. Golden eyes sparkled as he laughed along with the others. On his flank were two crescent moons, one nestled inside the other, facing opposite directions.

As he shifted in his seat, I could see muscles rippling underneath his fur, giving him a muscular, athletic look. Several small scars were scattered across his body, especially around his face. The horn on his head was long, with chips and scratches running across its surface.

As we entered the room, all the laughter ceased as heads turned to look at us—or more specifically—me. Suddenly the center of attention, I froze, doing my best impression of a deer caught in the headlights. Beside me, Twilight shifted uncomfortably, glancing around at her staring family members.

As all three of them continued to stare at me, I started to feel a little anxious. I wonder if I could make it to the train station before they caught me, I thought as I began to sweat. I didn’t like the intense gazes being sent my way.

Eventually, the stallion, who I was assuming was Twilight’s dad, reached up slowly and removed the pipe from his mouth. Rolling his tongue around the inside of his mouth, his golden eyes narrowed. When he spoke, his voice was deep and gravelly, “Damn son, what in Celestia’s name happened to your eye?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight stiffen.

~Hit my eye on a doorknob~ I replied automatically without thinking, a blank look on my face. His ear twitched as I signed. It was a few seconds before I realized that he probably couldn’t understand me.

I blinked in confusion as he burst out laughing, causing Shining and Cadance to look over at him instead. I looked down at Twilight with a questioning look. She looked just as surprised as me.

“Hit your eye on a doorknob, did ya?” he laughed, his eyes dancing with merriment. “Oh, I can tell I’m gonna have a great time with you.” Giving me a big grin, he continued to chuckle as he placed the stem of the pipe back into his mouth.

“Dad, you know hoof-language?” Twilight asked, looking at her dad incredulously. “Since when?”

“One of my squad members a couple of years back was deaf. Whole squad had to learn it in order to communicate. I’m a bit rusty, but I can still understand it fairly well.” Turning his attention back to me, Twilight’s dad took a long pull on the pipe before speaking.

“So, this is the human the princess was making a big deal about. She had my squad moving all across Equestria trying to find that Celestia-damned group,” he said, a smile still on his face. Pulling on the pipe again, he blew a quick smoke ring out of the corner of his mouth.

“Well, I would normally be hard-pressed right now to trust you, let alone like you, son,” he said. “But seeing as it was partly because of you that I received such a large bonus for running everywhere from Las Pegasus to Fillydelphia, I think I can make an exception.” Leaning further back into his chair, he gave me a brief look over before pulling the pipe out of his mouth and smiling.

“I’m Colonel Night Light of the Royal Guard, Search and Seizure branch to be precise. S’a pleasure to meet ya!”

~Max~ I signed, slowly moving further into the room, Twilight sticking by my side.

“You’ve caused quite a stir around here, boy; you’ve set a lot of wheels in motion. In fact, several laws have already been passed to crack down on human handlers to make sure that they aren’t doing anything illegal or unethical,” Night Light said as I removed my bags and placed them beside the couch, removing the notebook and charcoal as I did so.

I walked over and sat down in front of the fire. Placing her saddlebags next to mine, Twilight quickly ran over and gave her dad a hug.

“Hey there, pumpkin,” he said, ruffling her mane as they broke apart. “How ya doing?”

“I’m doing very well, thanks,” Twilight said, kissing her dad on the cheek. Turning, she trotted over and sat down beside me, snuggling up against my side. This earned her a confused look from Cadance. Shining Armor, however, was looking at me.

“So, you’re intelligent?” he finally asked. I nodded, never breaking eye contact. “You’ve been intelligent the whole time?” Another nod. “Even when we met the first time?” Flipping open my notebook, I quickly scratched out a message before holding it up. Both Cadence and Shining had to lean in slightly to read it.

+Ready for round two, you big wuss?+ Cadance giggled as Shining glared at me.

“I was taking it easy on you last time because I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” he said. I just nodded my head, giving him a mocking, knowing look. “It’s true!” Slowly, I let a large smile spread across my face. Everyone but Twilight flinched at the sight.

“Okay,” said Cadance, sitting up. “That’s pretty creepy.”

“It’s like staring into the face of a predator,” Night Light muttered, shifting in his chair. I just chuckled, the sound causing all of them to flinch again. I continued to snicker as I realized the situation I was in. I’m having dinner with a member of the opposite gender’s family. The last time this happened, I was being stared down by my girlfriend’s father.

My laughter continued to grow in volume until Twilight finally slapped me over the back of the her wing.

“Stop that,” she said, giving me a stern glare, “you’re making everypony nervous.” I gave her a sheepish smile before sticking out my tongue. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cadance cock her head to the side as she looked at us. She chewed on her bottom lip as her eyes darted between us.

“Don’t stick that tongue out if you aren’t going to use it for anything useful,” said a voice from the doorway. Looking over, I saw Velvet standing there, smirking at me. I looked at her in confusion until she gave me a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows. I raised my eyebrows when I realized what she was implying, a smile tugging on my lips. I think I might actually like these ponies.

“Mom~!” Twilight whined, looking at her mother in horror, her face red. I had to suppress my laughter at the look on her face; it was too adorable. My sides shook with mirth as Night Light snorted, a cloud of smoke escaping his mouth.

“That’s funny,” he said, his eyes twinkling mischievously, “she said the same thing to me during our honeymoon, though she also told me where I could stick it as well.” As both Twilight and Shining looked at their parents in horror, I was trying my hardest to keep my laughter in. This was just too good.

“You were a quick learner though,” Velvet said as she walked further into the room. Now, I wasn’t sure if it was the situation, or something else entirely, but at that moment I couldn’t hold back any longer. I burst out laughing, clutching my sides as I rocked back and forth.

Ever since I arrived in Equestria, I haven’t really laughed hard. Sure, I’ve chuckled, snickered, chortled, and even giggled, but I had never actually had a good long laugh. Now, here I was, rolling on the ground while laughing hard: a good old belly laugh. Tears rolled down my face as I clutched at my sides, gasping for breath.

After several minutes I slowly began to calm down. I sat up, wiping tears from my eyes as I continued to chuckle softly to myself. As I looked up, I saw that everyone was staring at me with a variety of expressions. Shining was looking at me nervously, as though he wasn’t sure what to think. Nightlight and Velvet were both looking at me, amused smiles on their faces. Twilight was staring at me, her mouth hanging open slightly, a small blush on her face. Her eyes sparkled slightly as she gazed at me.

The only one not staring at me was Cadance; she was too busy staring intently at Twilight, a knowing smile slowly spreading across her face as her purple eyes narrowed.

“I like him,” Nightlight said suddenly, putting his pipe back into his mouth. “He’s a keeper.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Velvet said, looking at me with a smile. “Although that laugh of his will take some getting used to. I’ve never heard anything like it before.” She continued to look at me for a moment before blinking, her smile softening slightly. “I was just coming to tell you all that dinner will be ready in around fifteen minutes.” With that, she turned and headed back into the kitchen.

“Well, while we’re waiting for dinner to finish up, can I interest anypony in some snacks?” Night Light asked, getting up from the chair and walking over to a table in the corner that was covered in a variety of foods. “We have chips, carrots, crackers, cheese—”

~Cheese?~ I asked, perking up slightly. Back on Earth, I was a cheese fanatic. I loved all kinds of cheese, and could never truly pick a favorite. It was that fact alone that earned me the horrible nickname ‘Max & Cheese’ back in the fifth grade.

“Eeyup,” Night Light said. “We’ve got Kashkaval, Caciocavallo, Oxaca, Colty Cheese, Colty-Jack Cheese, Farmer Cheese, Pinconning Cheese, Swiss—” My mouth was watering as he continued to list off the different cheeses on the table. Twilight just rolled her eyes.

~Sir~ I signed, eventually cutting him off mid-list. ~You had me at ‘cheese’~ Standing up, I walked over and stared down at the little slice of heaven, a happy smile on my face. Night Light looked up at me, surprised.

“You like cheese?” he asked, as if he couldn’t believe such a thing.

~Do I like cheese?~ I taunted, giving him an amused look. ~Sir, you’d be hard pressed to find a cheese back home that I haven’t tried~ A look of pure joy crossed his face when I told him that.

“Splendid!” he said, patting me on the back. “At last, somepony I can have cheesy discussions with!” Leaning in, he pulled me down and stage-whispered in my ear. “Just between you and me, most ponies don’t like cheese just by itself. It has to be in or on something, like a pizza. It’s so hard to find somepony that appreciates cheese just for the cheese.”

“Because it’s weird, dad,” Shining called from the couch. “I still don’t understand how you like that stuff plain.”

~But you have cheese in your fridge~ I signed, looking at Twilight. ~I’ve seen it~

“Yeah, it’s for cooking. You know, putting it on pizza, omelets and stuff like that. Not for eating,” she said, scrunching up her face.

~Oh~ I paused, just looking down at Twilight. ~On a completely unrelated note, you’re out of cheese~ With that, I turned my attention back to the table. Glancing over the different cheeses, I reached for one that was yellow and gold. I was assuming that this was the ‘Colty-Jack Cheese’.

“Are you sure about this?” Twilight asked as I picked a large piece of cheese up. “There is a good possibility that this isn’t the same as the cheese you have back home.” She blinked before lowering her head and grumbling, “I can’t believe I’m talking about the differences in cheese between worlds.” I just ignored her, popping the piece of cheese into my mouth and chewing. My eyes widened and a smile spread across my face. This is more delicious than the cheese back home!

As I murmured happily while I chewed, Twilight just shook her head and wandered off, muttering “weirdos” under her breath. As I reached for a second piece, Night Light smiled happily.

“Ah, a stallion after me own heart!” he said, placing a hoof against his chest. “Twilight,” he called after his retreating daughter. “I fully approve of this young man; consider him part of the family!” Twilight didn’t turn around; her ear flicking slightly in acknowledgement as she walked into the kitchen. Cadance stood quickly from the couch and followed after Twilight. Shortly after, Shining headed into the kitchen as well.

Chewing on my fifth piece of heaven, I turned to look at Night Light.

~So, what kind of recipes do you have for cheese?~

“Sadly, not many,” he said, hanging his head dramatically. “Not enough ponies care enough for that many recipes to exist. It’s a shame, really.”

~You ever tried placing slices of cheese on some chips and heating it up, melting the cheese?~

“Actually,” he said, his face lighting up. “I’ve heard that they do that down in Mexicolt.” Of course they do, I thought, repressing the urge to roll my eyes and facepalm at the horrible pun. Instead, I picked up another piece of cheese and placed it in my mouth.

As I chewed, a idea popped into my head. Turning slowly, I waved my finger absentmindedly at Night Light as a slow smile spread across my face.

~I might have a recipe for you~ I signed, heading over to the fireplace to get my notebook. Nightlight looked at it curiously as I flipped it open.

“What do you need that for?” he asked as he levitated a piece of cheese over for himself.

~Hoof-language doesn’t have all the right words~ I explained before I began to write.

+Deep Fried Cheese Curds: Take some flour, baking powder, and salt and stir it together with eggs and milk. Coat some cheese curds with it before dipping them in heated oil for one minute+ Tearing out the page, I handed it to him before picking up another piece of cheese. I shouldn’t be eating all of this cheese, but I can’t help it; it’s too delicious!

“This actually sounds pretty good,” Night Light said, looking over the note. “I’ll have to try this the next chance I get. Ha, I now have a recipe from another world,” he said with a loud, barking laugh. Rolling the note up, he walked out of the room. A couple of seconds later, he returned, minus the note.

“Sorry,” he said, flashing me a quick smile. “Went to put it with my other recipes. I didn’t want to lose it.”

Just then a shout came from the kitchen, “Dinner’s ready!” I had just taken several steps forward before my way was blocked by Night Light. He looked up at me, the cheerful expression his face replaced by one of stone.

“A quick word before we settle down to eat,” he said, his tone steely. “I’m a soldier, boy. I’ve been out in the field and seen many things that I probably shouldn’t have. I’ve fought with griffons, minotaurs, and changelings. Humans, too.” I swallowed nervously as he stared up at me, the warmth gone from his eyes.

“Now, I’m not telling this to scare you,” he continued, stepping back slightly. “I wasn’t lying when I said I approved of you. However, I want to make one thing clear right here, right now.” Smoke billowed out of his mouth as he sighed heavily, the end of his pipe glowing slightly as he pulled on it. “Twilight is my little girl, regardless if she is an alicorn or not, and I’ll be damned if anything bad happens to her. You do anything, anything at all, that could bring her harm, and I will break you. Is that understood?” I stared at him for several seconds before my gaze became a glare.

First Celestia, and now him, I growled. I was getting really annoyed with ponies assuming that I was the one that was going to do something. I had lost my eye and nearly died because of these ponies.

Night Light apparently saw the angry look in my eyes, because he took a step back, looking uneasy.

~I’m sick and tired of you ponies assuming that I’m some mindless creature that could snap at any given minute~ I signed, advancing towards the unicorn. ~I’ve been kidnapped, forced to fight in a pit, and nearly killed. The pit fight even cost me my right eye~ Bending down, I shoved my face into his, snarling slightly as I did so.

~I’m going to make this very clear right here, right now. You can even tell Celestia this if you want, because I’m pretty sure that she has you reporting to her. I have NO intention of hurting any of you ponies, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll just lie down and take whatever you dish out. If I have to defend myself, I will. With force, if necessary

~That being said~ I straightened back up, putting on a neutral expression. ~Twilight is very, very important to me, and I have no plans to allow any harm to come to her. She may be your daughter, but she’s mostly the reason that I stayed in Equestria, and I’m willing to defend her, no matter the cost~ I finished with a huff, staring down at Night Light. He stared back at me, a blank expression on his face.

He stayed that way for several tense moments, and for a brief second I thought that perhaps I had gone to far, but then suddenly a small smile slowly spread across his face.

“Boy, you just continue to amaze me. I’ve seen members of the Royal Guard with less backbone than you.” His smile grew and the warmth slowly returned to his eyes. “I’m glad that we have an understanding, because after seeing that look in your eye, I’d be just a little hesitant to come to blows with you. I haven’t seen conviction like that in a long time. There is just one thing I’m curious about though,” he said, cocking his head to the side, his eyes narrowing. “How did you know that Celestia wanted me to give her a report about tonight?” I blinked several times before a large smile crossed my face.

~You just told me~ Night Light eyes widened and his mouth opened in a small ‘o’, before he threw back his head and laughed.

“Years of keeping the crown’s secrets safe from enemies, and I’m outsmarted by a human,” he laughed, nearly choking on his pipe, which immediately went out. “Boy, if you keep this up, I’m going to have to talk to Twilight about having you move in here with us. I could do with the entertainment.”

~It wasn’t just a guess in the dark~ I informed him as he calmed down. ~I have the feeling she doesn’t exactly trust me~

“It’s not that she doesn’t trust you,” Night Light said, re-lighting his pipe with a flash from his chipped horn. “She just rather protective of Twilight, and wants to make sure that nothing bad happens to her. She’s almost like a second mother to her.

“Don’t let it bug you too much. She also values Twilight’s opinion, and Twilight speaks very highly of you. But enough about that; I do believe that dinner is ready. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving! I need some food in my stomach before I waste away!” Turning, he headed towards the kitchen, a trail of smoke following behind him as he walked.

I stood there, staring after him for a moment or two, before smirking to myself. I like him, I thought to myself as I made my way after him.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Weirdos,” Twilight muttered under her breath as she turned and walked away. Head hung low, she wandered towards the kitchen. Who makes such a big deal out of cheese?!

“Ah, a stallion after me own heart!” she heard her dad laugh behind her. “Twilight, I fully approve of this young man; consider him part of the family!” She rolled her eyes at this, but a small smile touched her lips nonetheless.

I’m glad dad likes him, she thought as she entered the kitchen. And to think, all that worrying for nothing.

A wonderful smell hit Twilight’s nose as she inhaled, making her mouth water. Glancing up, she found her mother standing by the stove, stirring a large, bubbling pot. Velvet glanced over her shoulder at her daughter, a surprised expression on her face.

“Twilight, what are you doing in here? Is everything alright?” Twilight just smiled at her as she took another sniff.

“Dad just found out that Max likes cheese as much as he does, so I thought I would come in here and get away from that.”

“Oh dear,” her mother laughed as she shook her head. “If there is one thing your dad loves more than family, it’s his cheese.”

“So, what are you making that smells so good?” Twilight asked, walking over to stare into the pot.

“Three-Bean Chili,” Velvet said, still stirring the pot. “It’s got some red bell peppers in it, as well as onions, red peppers, peeled butternut squash, tomatoes, pinto beans, cannellini beans, and red kidney beans. I accidentally added a bit too much salt, but we’ll just see where that takes us.” She winked at her daughter, causing Twilight to roll her eyes.

“Mom, humans aren’t affected by salt as much as ponies are,” Twilight chided. She was going to say more, but stopped when she felt somepony drape a wing over her back. Turning, she saw Cadance giving her a rather creepy smile.

“Twilight, may I speak with you for a second?” she asked, tugging at Twilight with her wing. She pulled her over to the far corner, away from her mother and the stove. Glancing over her shoulder to see if Velvet was listening in at all, she looked at Twilight and grinned.

“Okay, spill! What’s going on, here?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Twilight said, confused. Cadance’s smile just grew and she chuckled, as if Twilight had said something funny.

“What’s going on between you and Max?” she asked.

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat.

“N-nothing!” she said loudly, taking a step back. She winced and glanced back at her mother, but Velvet didn’t seem to hear her outburst. Turning back to Cadance, she hissed under her breath, “Why would you think something is going on between us? There is clearly nothing going on between us. We’re just friends. Yes, that’s it. Friends!”

“Oh, come on,” Cadance giggled, wiggling her eyebrows at the smaller alicorn. “I saw how you were looking at him. I know love when I see it, Twilight. You can’t hide it from me~~~!”

“Y-yeah, I love him just like I love Spike. What’s the big deal?!”

“Twilight,” Cadance tsked, shaking her head and smirking. “There is sibling love, then there’s this.” Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but Cadance cut her off by shoving a hoof in her mouth. “Twilight, come on. You were looking at him like a schoolfilly looks at her crush, especially when he was laughing his flank off. You were practically drooling over him. You can’t tell me that was sisterly love!”

Twilight gaped at her, her face heating up as she blushed horribly. Whenever her friends heard Max laugh, they always said it sounded extremely creepy to them, almost animalistic. Applejack described it by saying that it kind of reminded her of a timberwolf’s bark. Even Sunny Breeze had said that she just couldn’t get used to Max’s chuckling. Twilight, on the other hoof, liked the sound of his laughter immensely, even if she never heard more than a chuckle out of him at any given time. However, when she saw him rolling around on the floor, laughing that deep, guttural laugh of his, her opinion had changed. She didn’t just like his laugh anymore: she loved it. She wanted to hear more of it.

She needed to hear more of it.

That loud laugh had something that a pony’s laugh just didn’t have; something that sent shivers down the alicorn’s spine and caused her heart to flutter and beat wildly in her chest.

I’ll have to find out what he thinks is funny and see if I can get him to laugh like that again, she thought absentmindedly, as Shining Armor walked in and went over to talk to Velvet. Shaking her head, the younger princess returned her attention to Cadance.

“There is nothing going on,” she said quickly, her ears splaying backwards.

Cadance just laughed softly, giving her a soft smile.

“Twilight, you can’t deny it,” she said, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?” Twilight swallowed thickly, but couldn’t bring herself to contradict her sister-in-law. Lowering her head, Twilight sighed in defeat. This just caused Cadance to squeal happily, earning her an odd look from Shining.

“Oh, this is so exciting,” she giggled quietly. “Little Twilight is in love! Oh, I’ve been waiting for this day for a while! So, does he know? Have you told him yet?”

Twilight winced at the questions, and glanced away.

“No, I haven’t,” she confessed. “I haven’t had a, um… chance to tell him yet. Besides, I don’t think it’d work.”

Cadance’s smile vanished, and she looked at Twilight in confusion.

“Why?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves. “Oh no! He doesn’t have his eyes on another human, does he!?” Twilight shook her head, refusing to look her in the eye.

Cadance blinked in confusion. “Another pony?” Again, Twilight shook her head. Cadance just deadpanned at that. “Does he have his eyes on any other creature?” Another shake of the head.

Cadance’s face scrunched up as she gave Twilight an incredulous look. “Then why wouldn’t it work?”

“He’s a human,” Twilight sighed unhappily. She blinked in confusion as Cadance began to laugh. Glancing up, Twilight looked at her, trying to figure out what was so funny.

“That’s what’s bothering you?” Cadance asked, shaking her head as she laughed. “Twilight, I’m astounded by you.”

“Wha—?”

“That human in there, talking to your dad about cheese and making both of your parents laugh. Do you consider him a mindless animal?” she asked.

“No!” Twilight cried angrily. “He is not an animal! He’s an intelligent, caring person!”

“Then what’s the problem? Is it because he’s a different species? Because interspecies relationships are a pretty common thing, you know? We even have them in the Crystal Empire, although that one mare with the yeti that goes around calling everypony ‘George’ and trying to pet them is pretty creepy.” She shivered and stared off into the distance, a pained look on her face as she rubbed her chest. She muttered something that sounded strangely like, “No more hugging… or petting… or squeezing.”

“N-no, it’s not that,” the young princess said, chewing on her bottom lip. Cadance seemed to snap out of her trance and turned her attention back to Twilight. “I-it’s just that… he’s a human.” She tried to put emphasis on the word to get her point across; Cadance just looked at her in confusion.

“I... don’t see what the problem is…”

Twilight sighed heavily, not really wanting to have this conversation. “To the rest of Equestria, he looks like a human; a mindless animal. I know he isn’t, and you know he isn’t, but that’s what everypony else would see. What would they think of me if everypony found out that their new princess was in love with a human? There’s already a bunch of nobles trying to find any reason to strip me of my title. If word got out about this, there would probably be a line of ponies running out to the castle, all petitioning for Princess Celestia to remove me from power because of it.

“Plus, what would my friends say? Rarity didn’t even like him until he saved her sister! What if they found it disgusting and didn’t want to be my friends anymore? What would Mom and Dad say?! What—” She was silenced by Cadance placing a hoof against her lips. Twilight glanced up and saw that she was smiling at her warmly.

“Twilight,” Cadance said, her voice soft. “When it comes to love, don’t let other ponies dictate who you can and can’t love. Max is an intelligent creature, just like you and me. Hay, he’s smarter than some ponies out there. I know that many ponies would find it scandalous, especially the nobles. Why? I don’t know, since most of them are rutting their humans anyways.” She got a sour look on her face, but it was soon replaced with a smile when she looked back at Twilight.

“It shouldn’t matter to you what others think, and I’m pretty sure that your friends would be supportive. As for your parents, well…” A loud laugh came from the family room, Twilight’s dad finding something humorous. This just caused Cadance’s smile to grow slightly and she nodded her head smugly.

“I think that they would be overjoyed just to see you happy, no matter who it is you’re with,” she said. “Just listen to what your heart tells you, and act on it.”

“I guess,” Twilight said, glancing off to the side. “But I don’t want to scare Max away.”

“I don’t think that is something you have to worry about,” Cadance said, draping a wing over her. “I’ve seen how he looks at you as well. There’s kindness in his eyes that I have rarely seen, especially in one who’s had to endure such hardship. He cares for you deeply. Hay, according to my aunts, part of the reason he stayed in Equestria was because of you. He gave up going home to his old life, just to continue to stay in Equestria… with you. I highly doubt that anything you do could drive him away. Just be yourself, and I’m sure that everything will work out just fine.”

Twilight looked up and gave her a small smile.

“Feel better?” Cadance asked.

“Yeah, I do actually. Thanks, Cadance,” Twilight murmured, nuzzling her quickly. As they broke apart, her mom called into the other room.

“Dinner’s ready!” Turning, she looked over at them. “Alright you two, into the dining room. Shining’s already there, setting the table.”

Nodding, they both headed out of the kitchen and into the dining area.

“Don’t worry,” Cadance whispered to her as they walked, bumping Twilight with her flank. “If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to send me a letter. I’m always happy to help. Just take it slow, and you’ll have him eating out of your hooves in no time.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I stared down at the bowl of food in front of me, my head cocked to the side. Steam wafted up from its contents, and a pleasant aroma tickled my nostrils, causing my mouth to water. I knew what it was, and even though it didn’t have meat, it still looked delicious.

“Are you just going to stare at it, or are you going to eat it?” asked Twilight, who was sitting next to me. I glanced over at her, only to see her halfway finished with her own bowl. I just raised an eyebrow and sniffed haughtily at her.

~Food this delectable must be savored~

“Yeah, well, you savor it any longer and I’ll have to separate you two,” she said, waving her spoon at me before spooning another helping of chili into her mouth. I grinned at that, before picking up a chunk of cheese I had brought with me from the other room. Grabbing my knife, I proceeded to cut the cheese into smaller chunks before tossing them all into my bowl and stirring. I smiled as the cheese slowly began to melt, mixing with chili.

Glancing up, I saw that everyone was looking at me with curious expressions on their faces.

“You’re putting cheese in your chili?” Cadance asked, tilting her head to the side. “That seems like an… interesting combination. I don’t think I’ve seen anypony do that before.” I just shrugged before picking up my spoon and began to eat. As I lifted the spoon to my mouth, strings of melted cheese hung from the metal.

“So Max,” Night Light said as we continued to eat. “Anything exciting you’re looking forward to in the upcoming weeks?” I glanced up, my mouth full of chili. I looked between Night Light, Twilight, and the rest of the family, trying to figure out the best way to communicate with everyone. Writing would take too long, as the notebook would have to be passed around the table.

“Go ahead and use hoof-language,” Twilight said with a smile, seemingly realizing what I was thinking. “I’ll translate for you; it’s no problem.” I gave her a grateful smile before swallowing the food in my mouth with a loud gulp.

~Well, from what I hear from Twilight and her friends, Nightmare Night is coming up shortly~ I began after placing my spoon into my bowl. ~From the description they gave me, it sounds surprisingly similar to a holiday we have back on my world. Since I’ve been cooped up in the library for so long, I figured that I might actually try and make a costume and possibly partake in the festivities~

“Anypony in particular you wanted to do something with?” Cadance asked, a small smirk on her face. Beside me, Twilight shot her an alarmed look.

~Well, I was hoping to do something fun with Twilight here~ I replied, avoiding Cadance’s eye. Night Light had to translate for me because Twilight was too busy staring at me, mouth agape.

“W-wait… me? You want to do something with me?” she stuttered, blinking rapidly. “W-why?”

~You’re fun to hang out with~ I replied with a shrug. ~I like hanging out with you~ A blush spread across her face and she buried her face in her bowl. Across the table, Cadance’s smile grew.

“Well, you aren’t the only one who’s excited for Nightmare Night,” Night Light said. “Princess Luna has been prancing around, gushing about it. She’s talking the ears off of the Night Guard. It’s actually quite the sight to see; she’s like a filly in a toy store.” I frowned slightly as I tried to picture that. From what I’ve seen of Luna so far, she was rather reserved and collected. I couldn’t see her running around, giggling with glee.

“She’ll be visiting Ponyville again this year,” Night Light continued, sipping at his drink, “so you’ll both probably see her. Also, she said that she had something to tell you,” he said, looking at me. “But she also said that it was going to be a surprise, so I have no clue what you can expect from her. Nothing bad, though,” he added, seeing my alarmed expression. Twilight and I just glanced at each other, eyebrows raised.

“Well, that just made things more interesting,” Twilight commented, while I nodded in agreement. “I wonder what the surprise is.” I just shrugged and returned to my chili.

~We’ll find out come Nightmare Night~ We continued to make small talk as we ate, the gentle clatter of silverware filling the room. I was still trying to figure out what Luna wanted to talk about, and was content just to stare into my bowl, listening to the others talk. I was snapped out of my thoughts when something small struck my cheek.

Blinking, I glanced down at the object, and saw that it was a chili bean. I stared at it for several seconds before looking up. Everyone was busy talking about some big event coming up—I think I caught the word ‘Gala’ in there somewhere—but nobody seemed to notice that I had just been struck by a projectile. Nobody, that is… except for Shining Armor.

The stallion in question was staring at me, a triumphant smirk on his face. As I made eye contact with him, the smirk grew wider before he flicked another bean at me with his magic. The bean struck me on the other cheek this time, before falling to the table. I narrowed my eyes at my assaulter. He dares to attack me? That fascist pig! This is an insult to both me and my people and shall not be tolerated!

Subtly lowering my spoon into my bowl, I scooped up three beans that were covered in melted cheese. Still keeping my movements slow and deliberate, I raised the spoon to my mouth. Placing the edge of my spoon in my mouth, I pushed down on the spoon. Taking careful aim, I opened my mouth, releasing the spoon, and launching my own salvo towards the enemy.

Shining never even saw it coming. My attack hit him right on the nose, the melted cheese causing the beans to stick to his muzzle. He flinched slightly before glaring at me. I just smirked at him, sticking my tongue out quickly. That earned myself a bean to the nose.

As I rubbed the chili off of my nose, I placed my spoon on the table, the head facing Shining Armor. Picking up a small chunk of cheese, I placed it on the end of the spoon closest to me. Adjusting the spoon slightly, I lined it up perfectly with my intended target.

Quickly, I slammed my fist down on the head of the spoon, coughing loudly. The cheese flew through the air and landed with a splash in Shining’s glass. He glared daggers at me as I continued to cough, trying to mask my laughter. Twilight looked at me in concern.

“Are you alright?” she asked. I nodded, pointing at my bowl of chili.

~Spicy~ I replied before returning my attention to Shining, who was trying to fish the piece of cheese out of his drink without drawing attention to what he was doing. Twilight just shrugged before turning back to Cadance and picking up where she had left off.

After he had fished the soggy piece of cheese out of his cup, Shining placed it on his own spoon, and evil smile spreading across his face. Grasping his utensil in his magic, he raised it into the air slightly before giving it a quick flick, sending the soggy piece of dairy flying towards me.

Moving quickly, I pushed my fork off the table. As it clattered to the floor, I ducked under that table quickly. The projectile flew over my head and hit the wall with a “splat”. I peeked over the edge of the table, smirking at Shining Armor. He just glowered at me before lowering his head and huffing into his bowl.

“I hope you plan on cleaning that up, Shining,” Velvet said suddenly, not looking up from her meal. Everyone turned to look at Shining, who had a shocked look on his face. I threw my fists into the air, a victorious smile on my face. That earned me a confused look from both Twilight and Cadance, although I think Night Light gave me a quick wink.

“But Mom, he—” Shining began, pointing a hoof at me before his mother cut him off with a glare.

“Shining Armor, don’t you dare try and blame your antics on that poor, innocent human!” Velvet scolded, giving her son a disapproving look. I was biting on my lip, trying to stop myself from laughing at the look on Shining’s face.

“Besides, I do believe that it’s now two to one, Max’s lead,” Velvet continued, returning to her chili. “Really, Shining. I thought you would fare better than this. You used to be the Captain of the Guard. How embarrassing,” she tutted. I couldn’t help it anymore: that comment, combined with Shining’s horrified look, along with Cadance and Twilight’s looks of utter confusion sent me over the edge. Grabbing my sides, I fell out of my chair and rolled under the table, howling with laughter. I heard Shining grumbling something above me, which only made me laugh harder.

When I had finally calmed down, I emerged from underneath the table. Sitting back down in my seat, I glanced over at Twilight. She was staring off into the distance, a huge dopey smile plastered on her face. Across from her, Cadance was giggling into her hoof, her face red as she looked at Twilight.

I just looked back and forth between the two mares before shrugging and returning to my chili. As I ate, Shining glared playfully at me.

“This isn’t over,” he hissed, eye narrowing.

“Shining,” Velvet said warningly, not looking up.

“Sorry, mommy…” I nearly choked on my mouthful of food, earning another glare from Shining.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Ugh… I think I ate too much,” Twilight groaned as she collapsed onto the couch. Rolling onto her back, she held her distended stomach in her hooves, her tongue lolling out of her mouth comically. I smiled at her antics. I sat in front of the fireplace, enjoying the warmth of the crackling flames.

We had all retired to the family room after dinner, Night Light stroking the fire back to life. He was now sitting back in his chair, happily puffing away on his pipe. Velvet was sitting in the other chair in the room, a book held in her magic, while a pair of reading glasses were perched on her nose. As she read, she would write little notes in a notebook placed on the armrest. Shining and Cadance were both sitting on the couch with Twilight, Cadance leaning against her husband. As she snuggled further into the couch, she winced and rubbed her back with a hoof.

“Are you okay, hon?” Shining asked, looking at her in concern. She smiled at him, shaking her head.

“I’m fine. I’ve just been having a little back pain lately. Nothing a trip to the masseuse won’t fix.” I perked up slightly, looking at Cadance curiously. As I watched, she winced again as she shifted on the couch. Sucking on the inside of my cheek, I sat up straighter and waved to her. When she glanced over at me, I waved her over. Exchanging a quick look with Shining, who shrugged, she got up and trotted over to me.

“What’s up?” she asked as she approached. I didn’t reply. Instead, I reached over and grasped her forelegs in my hands. With a soft tug, I pulled her down across my lap. She turned her head, looking back at me in confusion.

“What are you—” she began before she stopped talking and let out a low moan as I dug my fingers into her back. As I kneaded my digits into her tense back muscles, she let out a happy sigh. She was putty in my hands within seconds.

“This is better than hooves,” she moaned as I worked my knuckles into her flesh in little circles, making sure not to push too hard. After working the knots out of one part of her back, I moved quickly to the next trouble spot. Cadance just murmured happily as I worked, lazily petting my knee with her forehoof every now and then. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and she had a large smile on her face. I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. I didn’t know I was that good at this.

“I didn’t know you knew how to give massages,” Twilight said, sitting up. It could have been my imagination, but it looked like she was giving Cadence an envious look.

~My mom suffered from chronic high blood pressure and headaches. She found that the back massages helped alleviate the symptoms~ I signed. Cadance whimpered, squirming in my lap when I stopped my massage to respond to Twilight. I chuckled as I returned to the task at hand.

“I’m pretty sure that the high blood pressure led to the headaches,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin with her hoof. “Is it genetic?” she asked before she yawned loudly.

~Yes, it was. Luckily, I did not inherit it from her~ I replied before quickly returning to massaging Cadance so she couldn’t complain.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, but I wasn’t complaining. The crackle of the fire was relaxing, and combined with the heat, I was fighting to keep my eyes open even as I continued Cadance’s massage. I was pretty sure that she had fallen asleep a while ago; she had a happy smile on her face.

I had just started to nod off when the clock above the fireplace started to chime nine o’ clock. I blinked, clearing the sleep from my eye as I twisted around to try and see the clock face. I didn’t know it was that late.

“I think it’s about time to send you two on your way,” Night Light said, looking at me. “The next train leaves in a half hour.” I slipped my arms under Cadance, causing her to twitch slightly. Slowly standing up, I walked over and deposited her gently on the couch with Shining. He smiled as she subconsciously snuggled up against him. Picking up my saddlebags, I strapped them on before turning my attention to Twilight, only to find her fast asleep as well.

The sight alone was enough to bring a large smile to my face and I mentally “d’awwww”ed. She was curled up, much like a dog, her head tucked slightly under her wing. Her side rose and fell as she breathed gently, quiet snores slowly escaping her mouth.

~I didn’t realize she was that tired~ I signed softly, turning to look at Night Light. He smiled down at his daughter, puffing on his pipe.

“We better wake her up,” he said, chewing on the end of his pipe. “We need to get you two to the train station.” He reached out a hoof to shake her awake, but I grabbed it. Shaking my head, I reached down and gently slipped an arm under the sleeping mare. Lifting her up, I flipped her over slowly, cradling her in my arms. She snuggled deeper into my embrace with a happy murmur, seeking the warmth my body provided.

Turning, I looked at Night Light. He just gave me an amused look, shaking his head slightly.

“Do you have train tickets already?” I nodded, motioning with my head towards Twilight’s saddlebags. Her dad picked them up in his magic, rifling through them until he pulled out the two tickets. Shifting Twilight slightly in my arms, I held out a hand for the tickets.

“I’ll take care of these,” Nightlight said, lifting the saddlebags and placing them on his back. “I’ll escort you to the train station.” Turning to glance at his wife, he continued “I shouldn’t be too long. I’ll just make sure they both get on the train to Ponyville safely before coming back.” Velvet nodded before smiling up at me.

“Take care, Max,” she said. “It was nice to properly meet you, and I hope we’ll see you again soon.” I gave her a smile and a nod before turning and heading out into the hall. Shining gave me a smile and a quick salute as I passed, sticking out his tongue afterwards. I just chuckled at that. As I slipped on my sandals, Night Light opened the front door. With one quick glance around to make sure that we weren’t forgetting anything, I followed the unicorn out of the house and into the night.

I shivered in the chilly night air. The temperature was beginning to drop more and more as autumn slowly came to a close; I could even see my breath as I exhaled. Twilight whimpered slightly in her sleep, nuzzling closer to my chest as she sought warmth. I wrapped my arms tighter around her before turning to Night Light.

“Come on,” he said, heading off down the road. “Train station is this way.” I fell in step behind him, and we made our way down the empty street. There were a few houses that still had lights on, but for the most part, the majority of the homes we passed were dark, the ponies inside likely already asleep.

As we walked, I couldn’t help but stare up at the night sky. Thousands of stars filled the night, twinkling happily against the blackness. Even with the street lights on, the view was so much clearer than back on Earth. The moon was larger too, glowing brilliantly against the dark backdrop.

As I stared up at the sky, Twilight nuzzled into my chest, inhaling deeply.

“Mmhmm...Max,” she whispered. I glanced down at her, blinking. A smile touched my lips as she continued to rub her head softly against my chest, a happy smile on her face. I looked up and saw the train station off in the distance.

I adjusted Twilight into a more comfortable position, the smile still on my face. Warmth welled up in my chest as I looked down at her again, the feeling keeping back the nip of the chilly night air.

Sweet dreams, Twilight, I thought, holding my dear friend close to my chest.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I landed in front of the human with a thud, my wings flared wide to either side. Neither him, nor the unicorn stallion walking next to him, responded to my presence. They kept walking with smiles on their faces.

I straightened up, looking at Max as he continued to approach.

“Max, we need to talk,” I said quickly, trotting forward to meet him. “It’s important.” He didn’t acknowledge me, nor what I had said. Instead, he continued to walk forward, passing through me with no resistance. I winced slightly at the sensation, before sighing heavily as I turned and watched him walk off. “I hate chaos magic.”

Flapping my wings, I flew around in front of him again, hovering a foot away from him as he walked, keeping pace with his strides. I glared into his eyes, pouting slightly.

“Come on, talk to me,” I whined, waving a hoof in front of his face. “I know I can communicate with you; I’ve done it before!” Still nothing. “What, do you have to be dying in order for me to be able to talk to you?” Not even a twitch. I swung a hoof at his face, just for it to pass through him.

Growling, I turned my attention to the elderly unicorn beside the human.

“Oi, Gramps! Can you hear me?” I asked. He didn’t say anything, just continued to walk along. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” A deep chuckle resounded around us, emanating from the direction of the Royal Gardens. I gritted my teeth, snarling slightly. Huffing, I turned my attention back to Max. He was currently looking down at the Alicorn of Magic, a warm smile on his face as he cradled her in his arms. I couldn’t help but smile as well, the adoration in his gaze warming my heart.

Sighing dejectedly, I flapped my wings and rose higher into the air.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” I grumbled as I flew off into the night.

Chapter 28: Nightmare Night

Twilight was flying through the clear summer air, the sunlight warming her wings. Hooves outstretched in front of her, she couldn’t help but giggle as the wind blew through her mane. It had taken her a while to actually learn how to use her wings, resulting in many, many crashes, but eventually she could fly like any pegasus, although not as fast as some of them.

“I can see why Rainbow loves this so much,” Twilight said to nopony in particular, spinning lazily in the air. “It’s better than any description I’ve read in my books!” With another flap of her wings, she turned and began to bank around a patch of clouds. Reaching out a hoof as she passed, she dragged it through the fluffy clouds and scooped out a hoofful, only to have it blown out of her hoof by the wind. As she watched the bits of clouds disappear, she hummed contently.

“It’s so peaceful up here,” she murmured happily as she closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth around her. It felt like she was wrapped in the warmest of blankets on the coldest of days. There was only one thing that could have made this all better, but he wasn’t currently here—

Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard a noise carried by the wind. Opening her eyes, she turned over, searching the sky for the source, but found nothing. Turning her attention to the ground, she tried to pinpoint the direction the breeze was coming from. Again she heard the noise, but still couldn’t detect its origin.

The alicorn was growing frustrated, ready to give up and return to her flight, when something below suddenly caught her eye. Hovering in the air, Twilight squinted, trying to make out whatever it was.

Her eyes widened when she realized what it was.

“No, it couldn’t be,” Twilight breathed, a smile slowly spreading across her face. Her ears perked up as she heard her name being shouted at her from a distance. The sound… it was coming from him!

“It is!” Twilight squealed, her smile growing and her eyes lighting up. Tucking her wings closer to her sides, Twilight immediately dove towards the ground, hooves held out in front of her as the air roared by her head. Flaring her wings slightly, she began to angle herself towards what had caught her eye. That wonderful creature that had captured her attention.

For the most part, he just stood there in that vast field, waving up at Twilight with a large grin on his face. As she drew nearer, he stopped waving. Instead, he just stood there, arms outstretched, inviting her into them.

She didn’t need to be told twice.

Flaring her wings at the last second, Twilight collided with him with a soft thump. They tumbled backwards, his arms wrapping around her as they fell into the field of flowers. Wrapping her hooves around his neck, Twilight stared down at him, her face filled with emotion. Love, longing, hope, and care; all of them filled her as she looked down upon the object of her affection. He returned the look, his one good eye sparkling with joy.

Twilight slowly moved her face down towards his. When they were but a few inches apart, she paused, staring deep into his glorious brown eye. She couldn’t help but breathe his name, “Max…”

With that, Twilight closed the gap between them, her eyes slowly shutting as she drew nearer to her target. Slowly, tenderly, the young princess lowered herself with the utmost care, and placed her lips on his...

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I froze, my entire body stiffening up as my mind went blank. My eyes widened as my heart screeched to a halt, the blood freezing in my veins. Time seemed to stop, and for the longest time the only thing my mind could register was the very warm, very soft lips currently pressing against mine.

Twilight’s kissing me...

I was currently in Twilight’s room, leaning over the mare in question as I attempted to tuck her into her bed. It was around two in the morning, and we had just arrived back home from dinner with Twilight’s family, and she was still fast asleep.

I had managed to carry her to the library with little trouble, only having some issue with the front door. Once we were inside our home, I had carried her up the stairs to her room. Making sure not to jostle her too much, I had pulled back the covers of her bed and placed her onto the mattress. I had reached down to pull the covers back up around Twilight’s body when it had happened.

Twisting around in her bed, she had thrown her hooves over my shoulders, pulling me down towards her. Before I could react, her lips had met mine, and now we were currently kissing.

Twilight’s kissing me…

She kept up the kiss for several long minutes, her eyes clenched shut, before she released her hold on me and flopped back onto the mattress, a huge, happy smile on her face. Sighing, she turned and snuggled deeper into the covers, her wings twitching slightly.

I fell backwards onto my ass, my mouth hanging open slightly as my brain tried to wrap itself around what had just happened. I just stared into the distance, blinking occasionally as my mind slowly began to restart itself.

Slowly, I reached a hand up and tenderly touched my lips; I could still feel her lips on mine. I felt my face slowly begin to heat up as I stared at the sleeping form of Twilight. D-did that really just happen? I thought as I slowly ran my fingers over my still-tingling lips. I just got kissed by Twilight.

After several seconds, I pulled my hand away and glanced down at my fingers, studying them. The tingling sensation was still present. I licked my lips, but it still remained. Slowly clenching my hand into a fist, I pushed myself up off the ground. Standing, I approached Twilight’s bed quietly.

I watched her for a while as she slept, her leg twitching ever so slightly. She’s too cute for her own good, I thought, rubbing my chin with a hand. Something was bugging me, tapping me on the shoulder and waving its arms around, trying to be heard. Scratching the back of my head, I tried to figure out what it was. After several minutes, I realized what the problem was.

I just got kissed by a pony. My eyes widened as the thought struck me. I paused for only but a moment before I snorted, shaking my head in disgust. I can’t believe I just thought that, I chided myself. Twilight isn’t like the mindless animals from back home. She’s one of the most intelligent creatures I know.

But she looks just like a pony from back home, a tiny part of me reasoned. It was immediately squashed by a massive hammer.

It doesn’t matter what she is, or what she looks like, I growled, pushing down the voice with all my might. To her, I look just like a mindless human, and yet she still cares for me. Besides—I glanced down at the sleeping form of Twilight, a small smile on my face—I think she’s rather cute. My face turned red at the thought, and I immediately looked away.

Awww, the voice purred, you’re in love!

It’s not love, I replied, crossing my arms with a huff. I just care deeply for her because of all she’s done for me.

You stayed in Equestria for her. I glanced at Twilight out of the corner of my eye, a frown on my face. Face it; you’re in love with Twilight. I bit my lip, but didn’t reply.

Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair before reaching down and pulling the blankets tighter around Twilight. As I did so, she wrapped her forehooves around my hand, holding it close to her chest. I could feel her heart beating in her chest, the soft thump reverberating through my palm.

Slowly pulling my hand out of her grasp, I stared down at her, debating with myself. Finally, I made up my mind. I’m in love… with Twilight. Smiling weakly, I leaned down and placed a quick kiss on Twilight’s cheek. She smiled, cooing softly at the touch.

Straightening back up, I turned and made my way out of Twilight’s room. Upon reaching the door, I glanced back at the bed, illuminated in the moonlight that streamed through her window. As I looked back, I frowned again. It would never work…

Why not? the voice asked softly.

She’s a princess, I thought with a sigh, and I’m nothing but a human. With that, I closed the door quietly behind me and headed off to bed.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Several days later, I was walking down the road towards the marketplace around lunch time. Twilight was currently back at the library, reshelving all the books with a little help from Spike. I had offered to help, but she had turned me down, saying that it wouldn’t take them that long to finish. Figuring that it would be best to stay out of their way for the day, I had grabbed my stuff, a bag full of bits, and had headed out the door.

It was a crisp autumn day, a slight breeze blowing leaves across the ground. The weather was getting colder, but luckily I had asked Rarity to make me a sweatshirt. It was a lavender colored fabric, with Twilight’s cutie mark on the back (whenever Rarity made me clothes, Twilight’s cutie mark was standard). It was quite warm, but I knew that it wouldn’t be enough for the cold winter months that were coming. I’ll need to see if Rarity can make me some warm winter clothing, I thought as I shuffled down the road, leaves crunching underneath my sandals. Especially some warmer footwear.

I walked through the marketplace, no real destination in mind. Around me, the ponies went about their day as always, smiles on their faces. Some even had scarves wrapped around their necks, keeping the autumn chill at bay.

As I walked, I let my mind wander, thinking about a variety of things. My breakfast was beginning to wear off, and my stomach was starting to send messages up the pipe to my brain, demanding sustenance. I had just begun to wonder what I should do about lunch when I was drawn out of my musing by the sound of someone crying.

It was soft and I almost missed it over the noise of the marketplace. Glancing around, I tried to pinpoint the direction it was coming from. Slowly, I began to walk towards the sound, the sobs becoming louder and louder with each step. I paused slightly when I saw that the crying was coming from an alleyway between two buildings. My paranoia started to act up again, thoughts of unicorns lying in wait filling my head.

My curiosity won out, however, and I cautiously poked my head into the alley. What I saw almost broke my heart.

Sweetie Belle was sitting in an old cardboard box, her face stained with tears. She was in a sorry state; her green eyes were red and puffy, her mane disheveled, and her white coat was covered in dirt. As I watched, more tears slid down her face, leaving streaks of dirt on her face as they dripped from her chin onto the ground. A small puddle had already formed around her.

My heart immediately went out to the filly, and without hesitation, I entered the alley and walked over to her. She was so out of it that she didn’t even notice me approach her until I was crouched next to her, my hand on her back. She gasped at my touch, flinching away. She looked up, tears in her eyes. When she saw that it was me, she gasped again and quickly rubbed her eyes with a foreleg. When she finished, she smiled up at me, trying to put on a cheery face. It didn’t work.

“H-hey, Max,” she said, her small voice cracking slightly. “What’s g-going on?” Reaching into my saddlebags, I pulled out my handy-dandy notebook and charcoal stick. Scratching out a quick note, I held it up for her to see.

+Why are you hiding back here, crying?+

“I… I don’t know w-what you’re talking about,” she said, refusing to meet my eye. I tapped the note with a finger, giving her a concerned look. She continued to look at the ground, biting her bottom lip as her eyes began to water again. Suddenly, she broke down, fresh tears streaming down her face as she threw herself at me.

“It’s j-just not fa-a-air!” she sobbed into my chest. “I can’t get my cutie mark, I can’t use magic, I can’t do anything!” As she continued to cry, I just wrapped an arm around her, leaning my back against the wall to keep from tipping over. I just held her there, letting her cry herself out.

Pulling my notebook over, I wrote out a message with one hand, +What happened?+

“It was those t-two bullies,” she sobbed. “D-diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. T-they were making fun of me again today.”

+Don’t let them get to you. You’ll get your cutie mark soon+ (Do you know how hard it is to write with one hand while comforting a small filly with the other?)

“It’s not… it’s not that,” she cried, choking slightly on the words. “They were making fun of the fact I c-can’t do magic! Everypony else in my class can, and even those in the younger classes can, but I can’t. They said that it was because… because…” Her body began to tremble and more tears began to flow down her face. Finally she choked out, “They said it was because the human that attacked me made it so I can’t do magic at all!” With that, she broke down completely, burying her face into my shirt as she cried her heart out. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth in anger.

I was no stranger to bullying, having been called ‘Pepperoni Face’ all through middle school. But this… this was a new low. Using her fear of being attacked by a human to make discourage her?What the hell were they thinking?! I’ll be talking to Twilight and Rarity about this later. Wrapping my arms around her, rocking slightly as I held her close to my chest, I ran my hand through her mane. We stayed that way for several minutes before Sweetie Belle began to calm down.

“W-why can’t they just leave me alone?” she sniffled, wiping her nose with a hoof. “What did I ever do to them?” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I just reached a hand over and scratched behind her ears. She leaned into my hand, her eyes closed.

She needs a pick-me-up, I thought as I continued to scratch behind her ears. Glancing up, my gaze fell up the large gingerbread house on the other side of the marketplace. My stomach gurgled, and thoughts of sweets danced in my head. That could work… An image of Mrs. Cake flashed before me, and I shivered involuntarily. Biting my lip, I glanced down at Sweetie Belle, a mental war being fought in my head.

Normally I wouldn’t go into that building unless two of the girls were with me. I knew it was crazy, but after that one incident, I just couldn’t look at Mrs. Cake without freaking out. She never tried anything again, but there was still the possibility. I always tried to avoid Sugarcube Corner as much as possible afterward. However, when it was a toss-up between making Sweetie Belle feel better and staying well within my comfort zone… well, let’s just say I was hoping that Mrs. Cake wasn’t working today.

My stomach growled in agreement.

Grasping Sweetie Belle in my hands, I stood up and placed her gently on the top of my head.

“Whoa,” she said as she tightened her grip on my head, sliding down slightly so that her back hooves rested on my shoulders. Placing my notebook back in my bags, I quickly exited the alleyway and made my way towards Sugarcube Corner. Sweetie Belle just giggled as she looked around from her high perch.

“I can see my house from here,” she laughed, bouncing slightly on my shoulders. I just smiled and continued my journey to Sugarcube Corner. Let’s see if we can take her mind off of her troubles.

The bell chimed as we entered, and I had to duck slightly as to not hit Sweetie Belle’s head on the doorway. As I straightened up, I caught sight of Pinkie behind the counter, a huge smile on her face as she looked at me. I gave a silent thanks to whatever deity was watching.

“Hiya, Maxie!” she said cheerfully, waving a hoof at me as I approached the counter. “What brings you in today? Did Twilight send you to pick up her lunch, or did she forget that she needs to eat… again?” I shook my head, pointing a finger up at the filly that rested atop it, who was currently trying to dry her face off with her hooves. Pinkie’s expression softened when she saw that. “Need some cheering up, huh?” she asked me in a normal tone, a sad smile on her face. I gave her a quick nod, making sure I didn’t smack Sweetie with the back of my head. “I have just the thing.” Turning, Pinkie trotted back into the kitchen, humming loudly to herself.

She returned shortly after, carrying a huge tray of cupcakes on her back. Sliding them onto the counter, she offered me one. Picking it up, I noticed that each cupcake had a silly face drawn on it with frosting. I lifted the cupcake up to Sweetie Belle, who immediately grabbed it and crammed the whole thing in her mouth. I chuckled as I looked up at her; with her cheeks filled with cupcake, she looked like a chipmunk.

“What?” she asked, spraying crumbs everywhere. “It’s good!” I just chuckled again and handed another cupcake up to her before taking one for myself. Unwrapping it, I popped the whole thing in my mouth. Instantly my tastebuds were assaulted by a mix of chocolate and cherry, the delicious combination sending my mouth on a one-way trip to Flavorville. Sadly, it didn’t last too long before the cupcake was on its way down to my stomach.

I eyed the remaining cupcakes before reaching out for another one. Better make sure that it wasn’t just a fluke. As I assaulted the second cupcake, Pinkie looked up at Sweetie Belle.

“So, are you ready for Nightmare Night?” she asked, her signature grin plastered on her face.

“Yeah!” Sweetie said through a mouthful of cupcake. “Applebloom, Scootaloo, and I tried to get costume-making cutie marks, although that failed and Rarity had to help out.” She gave a sheepish chuckle as she rubbed the back of her head. “We kinda set her sewing machine on fire.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

“While it was unplugged.” I snorted, nearly choking on my mouthful of cupcake.

“So, what are you going to be?” Pinkie asked, choosing a cupcake of her own. She popped it in her mouth, swallowing it in one gulp. I was pretty sure she didn’t even have time to taste it. Oh well, her loss.

“It’s a secret,” Sweetie giggled, bopping me on the top of the head lightly. When I glanced back at her, she opened her mouth, her eyes silently pleading for more. Chuckling, I reached down and picked up another cupcake and handed it to her. It was gone before I had even lowered my hand.

“What are you going to be going as?” Pinkie asked me, tilting her head to the side. I just grinned at her, placing a finger on my lips as I shook my head. “Awww, you guys are no fun,” Pinkie pouted, crossing her forelegs. I was about to pull out my notebook to answer her, when the door swung open, causing the bell to ring.

“There you are,” came Rainbow’s voice. Turning, I blinked as I saw the pegasus walking up to me. “I’ve been looking all over for you.” My eyes widened and I immediately reached up, ready to remove Sweetie Belle quickly. “I wasn’t looking for a wrestling match,” Rainbow scoffed, waving a hoof at me. “Though I would totally smoke you this time. No, I was looking for you because Twilight wants to see you back at the library. Something about a quick experiment to test something she’s been working on.” I scrunched up my face in confusion. Something she’s been working on? What could that be…? And why didn’t she do this when I was back at the library this morning?

“Well, come on dude,” Rainbow said, nudging my knee. “It sounded like it could be interesting.” Shrugging, I reached up and carefully extracted Sweetie Belle from my head. Setting her down on one of the bar stools, I pulled out my notebook before turning to Pinkie.

+Hey, Pinks. Do you mind looking after Sweetie Belle for a while? She’s kinda had a rough day+

“Sure thing, Maxie,” Pinkie said, bouncing in place. “Don’t you worry one bit; we’ll have tons of fun!” Nodding, I turned and headed towards the door, Rainbow close behind me. I had just grabbed the door handle when a voice called out to me.

“Max.” Pausing, I glanced back over my shoulder at Sweetie Belle. She had a shy smile on her face. “T-thanks,” she said, rubbing her hooves together nervously. “For, you know…” she waved her hooves in the air, trying to think of the words. I just smiled, giving her a quick wink before turning and heading out the door.

“What was that all about?” Rainbow asked as we headed down the road. She was hovering beside me, flying backwards with her hooves behind her head. Pulling out my notebook, I held it in the crook of my arm as I wrote.

+She was getting bullied today about not being able to use her magic. I found her crying behind the bookstore, and thought she could use a pick-me-up+

“What?!” Rainbow said, flipping around in the air. “You mean by those creeps that are always giving Scoots a hard time about her wings?” I nodded, stepping around a group of ponies as I did so. “We’ve got to tell Rarity about this. Maybe she could talk to Cheerilee, or something!”

+That was the plan+ As we continued walking, Rainbow just flew beside me, muttering under her breath what she would do to the bullies if she ever caught them. Judging by her reaction, I would say that she was also bullied as a filly. I wonder if it was because of how much she crashed, I thought, chuckling to myself. Maybe there’s always that one foal in the class that can’t fly or do magic until later on, like how there was always that one short kid in the class until High School. I blinked suddenly, cocking my head to the side, and idea forming in my mind.

I wonder if Twilight would know of a way to help Sweetie Belle with her magic. I’m pretty sure she can’t be the only one with problems. Hopefully the two fillies were wrong and it’s not because of the human attack—

I was brought out of my thoughts my a sharp tap to the side of my head. Glancing around, I found Rainbow Dash hovering by my side, an incredulous look on her face.

“Wow, you were really out of it,” she said. “I was calling you for, like, five minutes!” Shaking my head to clear it, I shot her a curious look.

+What were you asking?+

“What are you going to be doing for Nightmare Night?”

+Hanging out with Twilight, exploring the town+

“You got a costume planned?” Dash’s eyes lit up as I nodded my head. “Awesome! What is it?!” I gave her the same response I gave Pinkie and she groaned, rolling her eyes. “Come on, dude. Just a hint.” I shook my head, still smiling. She huffed and crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Fine, but at least tell me that you’re going to be doing some pranking.” I smirked up at her, giving her a knowing look before winking. That got her grinning again.

“This is going to be awesome!” she crooned, rubbing her hooves together. I just chuckled at her antics, perking up slightly as I saw that we were nearing the library.

Stepping up to the door, I knocked first before opening it. Rainbow flitted inside before me, a wing brushing the side of my head as she passed. Rolling my eyes, I followed her inside, closing the door behind me. I noticed right away that most of the furniture had been pushed against the walls, clearing up the center of the library. It kind of reminded me of one of the times back home when my mom got into yoga. Chairs were stacked upon chairs and the table was placed upon the sofa.

I blinked in surprise when I saw that besides Twilight and Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity were also there.

“Oh darling, there you are,” the fashionista said. “I must say, that shirt looks simply marvelous on you. Lavender is definitely your color.” A small blush appeared on Twilight’s face at Rarity’s words, and she coughed into her hoof. I just smiled, shaking my head at the unicorn. Removing my bags from my waist, I placed them on the couch before turning to Twilight.

~A little bird told me you were looking for me~

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head. “I’ve been thinking about your speaking situation, and I’ve actually been looking up some different spells that might be able to help. I’ve found one that I want to try on you, with your permission, of course.” I scrunched up my face, a look of displeasure flashing across it. That last time Twilight tested a spell on me, I woke up several hours later with a splitting headache and I could only see the color green for the rest of the day. Twilight noticed the expression on my face, and she rolled her eyes.

“Oh stop it,” she said, waving a hoof at me. “This time will be different, I promise.”

~What’s the spell supposed to do?~ I asked before running a hand through my hair.

“Well, since the chaos magic in your body is currently preventing your brain from connecting to your vocal cords, I’m going to try to create a way around it. Basically, the spell—with the help of a volunteer—will allow you to talk again, in a way.”

“So, who do you have in mind for the volunteer?” Applejack asked nervously as I looked around at the other ponies assembled. Both Rarity and Fluttershy took a step back, looking uneasy.

“Oh, I volunteer!” Rainbow said, waving her hoof in the air. “Pick me! This is going to be so awesome!”

“Sorry Rainbow,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “But the only way this spell will work is if the volunteer has a horn.” At that, all of us turned to look at Rarity, whose ears instantly folded against her head. She swallowed nervously, looking over at Twilight with a forced smile.

“S-surely you can do this,” she said, her voice tense. “I mean, you are an alicorn, so wouldn’t that be better than an unicorn?”

“Sorry, Rarity,” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly at her. “But I need to be the one to cast the spell, which means I can’t be the conduit.”

“So, when you say ‘volunteer’,” Applejack said, giving Twilight an amused look. The alicorn just gave her friends a nervous laugh, shuffling her hooves. After several tense seconds, Rarity sighed, hanging her head.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s just get this over with.” I placed a hand over my mouth and nodded.

“Alright!” Twilight clapped her hooves together, a smile spreading slowly across her face as her excitement grew. “Now, I’ll need you two to stand in the center of the room. Everypony else, please take a step back.” As the others moved to stand beside the furniture (or in Rainbow’s case, sitting upon a large tower of chairs), Rarity and I exchanged nervous glances.

“She didn’t put you up to this, did she?” she whispered, patting her mane nervously with a hoof. I shook my head, licking my dry lips.

“Okay,” Twilight began, moving to stand in front of the two of us. “This should be relatively painless—” my right eye twitched “—and I’m pretty sure that nothing bad is going to happen. At least, nothing that I can foresee. Now then… Max, for this spell to work, you’ll need to grab hold of Rarity’s horn.” I looked down at my hand, before turning to Rarity, raising an eyebrow in a silent question. She nodded and I reached out and wrapped a hand around her horn. It had a weird texture to it, almost like a bone, except there was also a thin layer of skin, fur, and flesh over it. Rarity flinched slightly as my fingers gripped her horn, but she relaxed quickly.

Twilight’s horn lit up as she began to cast the spell, “You both should feel a slight tingling sensation. That should be normal.” That was the only warning we got before Rarity and I were both hit by the spell. There was a blinding flash of purple light and I closed my eyes tight. The hand that was holding onto Rarity’s horn started to heat up before it went numb, a tingling feeling running up my arm. It felt like my entire arm had fallen asleep. There was a quick, intense spike of pain along the sides of my head, but it faded instantly. After a few seconds the purple light died.

I cracked open an eye and looked around. Everyone else was slowly recovering from the bright flash, blinking their eyes to clear their vision. Beside me, Rarity still had her eyes closed, a blank expression on her face.

“D-did it work?” Twilight asked. I just shrugged my shoulders. That earned me a deadpan look from her. “Well, try and say something!”

“W͞h̛at҉ ͏the͡ ͠he͘ll͏ am ̧I ̶s͏uppo̢s̴ed to ̢s̢ay̴?” I froze, my entire body stiffening in surprise. An audible gasp went around the room, everyone’s eyes widening in surprise. Everyone had heard it, but it hadn’t been me that had spoken; my mouth had never opened. Slowly, I turned my head to the side, my gaze falling upon Rarity. Her eyes were still closed, her expression unchanging.

“W̸h͝a̧t ̛t̕he̵ ́h̕ell..̛.?” Again, I spoke, but didn’t speak. Instead, Rarity’s mouth opened, and the words spilled forth from it. It was Rarity’s voice, with a second, deeper voice hidden in the background, as if someone was whispering whenever she spoke.

“Yes!” Twilight squealed, throwing her hooves into the air. “It worked! It worked, it worked, it worked!” The other’s just continued to stare at Rarity and me, their mouths hanging open. I just looked down at Rarity, sucking on my lip. This is rather creepy.

I agree, darling, a voice said, echoing around in my head. I flinched, looking around in surprise.

Rarity? I asked.

I’m here, Darling, the reply came, sounding nervous. There was a slight pressure in my skull whenever she spoke.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, noticing my discomfort.

“I̧ cán̡ ͏he҉ar ̸Ra̧r̀i͘ty͏'s ͏thoug̢ht͟s̶, ̨and s̨h͝e ́can ͟h͝e͝a͏ŕ mi̧nè,” I said as I tapped my head.

“Interesting,” Twilight said, a quill and parchment hovering over to her. “Can she hear what’s going on around her?” she asked as she began to take notes.

Yes, I can, Rarity said. I can also feel whenever my body talks. However, I can’t see anything at the moment. Her voice got a little panicky as she finished talking. I relayed the info to Twilight, who just nodded.

“Understandable,” she said, marking something on the parchment. “I wouldn’t worry about not being able to see anything, Rarity; your eyes are just closed.” I could feel the relief flow from the mare at Twilight’s words.

Oh, thank Celestia, she said, and I could almost see her smile in my mind’s eye. Twilight moved to stand in front of us, running an eye over our bodies as she continued to take notes.

“Okay, so there’s no discomfort anywhere, right?” she asked. I shook my head, and Rarity’s ear flicked slightly.

“Say more things!” Rainbow shouted from her perch, a gleeful look on her face. Applejack nodded in agreement, while Fluttershy just looked on with mild curiosity. I just shrugged, a slight smile touching my face.

“S̡he se͞l̴ls ́se̷as͡h́e̴l͠ls by̷ th̕e sea̵sh̕o̵r̀e,̧” I said. “T̨h́e s͘h̵ell̵s͏ ́she̵ ̵se͏l̵ls ҉a̵re̛ suŕel̴y ̴seash͜e͜lls.” Rainbow immediately burst out laughing, nearly falling off of her tower of chairs. Applejack snickered behind her hoof, and a small smile appeared on Twilight and Fluttershy’s faces. I smirked, knowing what the source of their amusement was. Every time I spoke, it was with Rarity’s voice, as well as her accent.

“Oh my gosh,” Rainbow gasped, blinking tears from her eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening.” My smirk grew as I had a brilliant idea.

“Węl̛l,͠ sho̵ot,̢ ̛sugarc̀ub̀e,” I said, the words sounding odd as they came out of Rarity’s mouth. “I͏ ͢d͝i͝dn͏'t t͠h͏i͢nk ͝y̕a'l̷l͜ ̛w̧o͢ul͞d ̶fi̶nd͢ ͠th͟i͜ś ͘tha҉t̛ f͞u͡n͝n͏ỳ.” And with that, Rainbow rolled off the top of the chairs, falling to the ground as she howled in laughter. Applejack was in the same state, rolling around on the ground, holding her sides as she gasped for breath. I could feel distress emanating from Rarity.

Darling, was that really necessary? she whined.

Yes, came my reply. I could feel her pout, which added to my amusement.

I suppose this is for all those times I treated you badly, right?

Yeah, pretty much, I snicker. But, I promise that I won’t do anything like that again, without your permission. I could feel her emotions change from embarrassed to surprised.

R-really? she asked, and I could almost see her blinking up at me. There was a brief pause, before she said softly, Thank you.

I returned my attention back to the real world just in time to see Rainbow and Applejack compose themselves.

“So, what do you think of the spell?” asked Twilight, the parchment still hovering by her head.

“I͠t҉'s ͘in̡terest̴in̛g͠,” I said, before pointing over at Rarity, “a̢l͢t͜h̡ou̢gh it ̵s̷ti̕ll ́l͏e͘áve̸s̨ ̶on͜e͡ ̢o̶f u͝s ͝o̴u̵t of th̸e͟ ̢con̵ve̵rsatio͘ņ.҉ ͞Is̶ ͏th̡ere anothèr ̕v̷e͠rsi̧on͡ ͞th͟a҉t w̸ill allow͢ ͜b͞ot̨h partie̴s̛ ͝tó ͡sp̢e͡a̵k?”

“Not that I could find,” Twilight said, chewing on her bottom lip. “I can do some more research and try to find a way to improve the spell, but I may need to visit the Royal Archives in order to do that.”

“No r̡us͏h̀,” I said, smiling. “It's ́am͝azi̢n̕g ͘t͏ha̴t yo̡u ́wer͏e ̡a͏bl̶e҉ ̢t̡o̕ find ͏thi͜s͢ ̛sp̴e͝l̵l t́o be̕gìn͞ wįt̵h͟!” Twilight blushed at my words, turning her head to the side slightly.

We spent the next hour trying out Twilight’s new spell. I had forgot what it had felt like to be able to talk, and it felt good to be able to speak again, even if it wasn’t my body that was doing the talking. It eventually got to the point where there was nothing more to test, and Twilight decided to call it a day.

“That’s enough for now,” she said, rolling up the parchment. It was covered front-to-back in notes, the writing getting smaller and smaller as she neared the end of the page. How she had so much written down, I didn’t know, although I didn’t take notes much back in school. “Now then, if you could let go of Rarity’s horn, we can see if the spell has any side effects when it fades.”

Tentatively, I released my grip on Rarity’s horn. Instantly the tingling sensation running through my arm ceased, and feeling returned to the limb. Flexing my fingers, I stared down at the digits. Making a fist, I cracked my knuckles before turning my attention to Rarity.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she took a deep breath before glancing around. She squinted slightly, her eyes not used to the light after being closed for so long. Blinking up at me, she gave me a small smile.

“Well, that was interesting,” she said, her voice sounding slightly hoarse. She coughed, rubbing her throat with a hoof. “If it’s all the same to everypony, I’m going to head home. Sweetie’s probably wondering where I am.” I inhaled sharply as I remembered what I was going to tell Rarity. Grabbing my saddlebags, I pulled out my notebook. Flipping it open, I wrote out the message as I walked over to Rarity. Tearing the paper out, I handed it to her. She took it in her magic, glancing at the words curiously.

+I found Sweetie Belle crying in the marketplace today. Apparently some fillies have been bullying her in school, and today they implied that her inability to cast magic could be due to her injuries. I took her to Sugarcube Corner and she seemed to cheer up a little, but I thought that I should let you know+

Various emotions flashed across her face: shock, anger, sadness, and relief. Looking up at me, she gave me a warm smile.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” she said, rolling up the message. “I’ll go have a word with Cheerilee tomorrow. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Also, thank you for looking out for my sister.” I nodded, flashing her a quick smile. With that, she turned and headed out the door, muttering under her breath as she walked.

“Well, seeing as the fun’s over, I’ll be leaving,” Rainbow said, stretching her wings before taking to the air. Flying out the open window, she called back over her shoulder, “See you all tomorrow for Nightmare Night!”

“I gotta get goin’ too,” Applejack said, heading for the door. “Gotta make sure Applebloom ain’t gettin’ into any trouble. Catch y’all later.” As she closed the door behind her, Twilight and I turned to Fluttershy.

“You leaving too, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. The shy pegasus scuffed a hoof against the ground, peeking out from behind her mane at us.

“I-if it’s all the same to you, I’d like t-to look for a book on animal care,” she said quietly, looking between the two of us hopefully.

“That’s no problem at all,” Twilight said, smiling at her friend. “Just ask if you need help finding something. Spike hasn’t been putting all the books back where they belong lately, so something might be in the wrong spot.” Fluttershy nodded before turning and heading over to browse the bookshelves not blocked by the stacked furniture.

Twilight moved to head into the kitchen, but I stopped her. She glanced up at me, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

“What’s up?” she asked.

~Sweetie Belle was getting bullied today about not being able to do any magic~ I told her, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I signed. ~The bullies implied that the human that attack her had made it so she could never use magic. Is that possible?~ Twilight looked down, frowning slightly. Her eyes flicked back and forth as though she was reading an invisible book before she looked back up at me.

“No, I’m fairly certain that that is not the case,” she said, nodding her head slowly. “There wasn’t enough damage done to her horn to prevent the use of magic. If there was, then the horn itself would have had to have been removed. A horn damaged enough to not be usable would cause severe pain to the unicorn.

“No, I think in Sweetie Belle’s case, she’s just a late bloomer. I knew a unicorn back in Canterlot who was like that. Her name was Starburst, and she didn’t start using her magic until five years after everypony else. Now, however, she works for the Royal Magical Research and Development team.”

~So Sweetie Belle will be able to use magic?~ I asked hopefully. Twilight nodded, a smile on her face.

“I’m fairly sure that Sweetie Belle's magic will manifest itself soon enough.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I adjusted the straps to my costume, making sure that they weren’t uncomfortably tight. Shifting my shoulders, the armor plating around me clattered together. I smirked at the sound, happiness welling up inside me. It was a childish joy, but I didn’t care; I was living out one of my biggest nerd fantasies from back home.

I still can’t believe that I’m doing this, I thought as I looked at myself in the mirror hanging in the hallway. My costume, a set of Alpha-Series Big Daddy armor, was custom made by hand to the best of my memory. There were a few small tweaks I had made so that I didn’t intimidate any of the ponies, but overall I was very happy with the results. I changed the color layout to better match Twilight’s color scheme, dark purple armor covering lighter lavender clothing. In place of Delta symbols, I had Twilight emblazon her cutie mark on the armor instead.

It took us a while to make the diving helmet, but after I explained what it was supposed to do, and gave her a rough sketch of what it looked like, Twilight was able to make a perfect replica. It even had the yellow glow coming out of the helmet’s porthole thanks to a creative spell Twilight found.

It was also completely air tight, which made for quite the interesting experience when I first tried it on. Apparently Twilight wanted it to be as authentic as possible. I had to drill some holes into it just so I could get some fresh air into the suit.

Of course, Twilight wasn’t too sure about the idea when I had first showed her my plans, but after seeing my excited face she agreed to help; her magic bent and twisted the metal plates into shape like silly putty. Spike’s fire also helped, as he was basically a mobile, living blowtorch and spot welder.

I also had Twilight craft me a steel cage ball. The inside was lined with cushioning, to make it more comfortable. Straps welded to the cage, as well as a harness, allowed me to carry it upon my back. With all my accessories on, I looked like a cross between Subject Delta and a Big Sister.

I think I fangasmed in my pants.

Of course, nobody in Equestria would know what I was supposed to be, but that didn’t matter. I was still happy with my costume choice.

I pulled on my gloves, wiggling my fingers as I got used to the bulk, the metal tips clinking together softly. Letting out a happy chuckle, I reached down and picked up my helmet. As I stood back up, I heard a gasp behind me. I glanced behind me and saw Spike standing there, dressed in a costume that made him look like a giant rock. I had asked Twilight about his choice of costume, and she had just rolled her eyes and told me that it was supposed to make Rarity like him. How she would find a gigantic boulder appealing I didn’t know, but I just dropped the subject.

Spike stared up at me, a look of awe on his face.

“Dude, that armor looks freaky,” he breathed, taking a tentative step forward. I just chuckled, shaking my head. Lifting up the helmet, I slipped it over my head, securing it in place. The spell activated and an eerie yellow glow filled the library. Spike’s eyes widened.

“Okay,” he said. “That looks cool. I can see why you wanted Twilight to make the helmet.” It was at that moment that the mare herself walked down the stairs. Her coat was completely black, a weird frill running down the back of her neck. Her wings were now transparent and tattered, looking almost like those of an insect. She had somehow magicked her hooves so that they were full of holes; I could look straight through them; I believe she called the creature a changeling.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she turned and looked over at us with eyes that were completely blue. It was kind of hard to tell if she was looking at me or Spike since she had no pupils.

“So, does the armor fit comfortably?” she asked, a smile touching her face. Ah, she’s looking at me, then. I nodded, the armor creaking as I moved.

~It’s lighter than I—~ All of us winced, Twilight and Spike covering their ears as my metal boots clattered loudly on the ground and my metal-tipped fingers clanged against each other. The sound echoed around the room, amplifying the noise.

As the sound slowly died down, Twilight rose shakily to her hooves.

“W-well… that was unpleasant,” she groaned, digging a holed hoof into her ear. “Looks like you won’t be ‘talking’ much tonight, huh?” I groaned inside the suit, my ears still ringing.

“Anyways,” she continued, coming to standing next to me. “I enchanted the suit to make it lighter. I thought you might appreciate that, seeing as you’ll be walking around in it all night.” I nodded my head weakly, flashing her a quick smile before realizing she couldn’t see it behind the helmet. I moved to pick up my notebook and charcoal, only to find that my gloves weren’t ideal for that either. I huffed, crossing my arms and pouting.

“Looks like we’ll just have to ask you yes and no questions tonight, huh?” Twilight snickered, covering her mouth with a hoof. I rolled my eyes, aware that she couldn’t see, but I chuckled nonetheless. Through my helmet it sounded metallic, almost like the hull of a ship creaking.

“Everypony ready?” Twilight asked, looking back and forth between me and Spike. We both nodded, Spike bouncing up and down happily. “Alright, then let’s head out,” Twilight said, trotting towards the front door. She opened it with a burst of magic from her horn. Turning, I grasped the iron cage in my hands and lifted it onto my shoulders. Buckling it into place, I lumbered towards the door, ducking down low to avoid hitting my head on the frame.

Emerging into the cool night air, I straightened up and glanced around at the ponies already out wandering around in their costumes. Most were already staring at me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at their looks. When Spike, Twilight and I were all out of the library, Twilight closed the door and locked it, making sure to leave a light on so that we didn’t return to a dark home.

“Our friends are probably waiting for us in the marketplace,” she said, her strange wings twitching slightly. Turning, we made our way towards the market, Twilight and Spike walking in front of me as I lumbered along behind them. We, or rather I, received a fair amount of attention, but thankfully nobody freaked out at my costume. They were probably just surprised, as most ponies didn’t dress their humans up for Nightmare Night. Then again, Twilight wasn’t like most ponies.

We arrived at the marketplace, which had been decked out in all sorts of decorations. Stalls and booths had been set up; some had games that offered prizes for the winners, while others sold food and snacks. There was even a station where one could go to carve a pumpkin.

Ponies milled around the market, laughing and chatting with each other. Costumed foals ran through the stalls, giggling as they chased each other. Some already had bags filled with candy clasped in their teeth.

I glanced around at the crowd of ponies, searching for a familiar face. It was hard to see any in the sea of costumes.

“There they are,” Twilight said after several minutes, pointing a hoof over towards the center of the market. I glanced over the ponies, and spied Applejack, dressed as a scarecrow, standing by a large tub filled with water and apples. I couldn’t help but groan. Really, Applejack? Bobbing for apples? Standing with her was Rarity, who was without a costume, and Fluttershy, who was dressed as a tree.

As we drew nearer, I noticed that the Crusaders were with them as well. Applebloom was dressed as a mummy, her usual pink bow replaced by a white one. Scootaloo had painted her entire body blue, and had on a rainbow wig; a miniature Rainbow Dash if I’d ever saw one. Hopefully she does not attack me like the actual Rainbow Dash.

Sweetie Belle’s costume, however, was the most creative in my eyes. She was dressed up as a cyborg, cardboard armor covering her body. Her leg with the limp was fully encased in cardboard, making it look like the limp was due to the mechanical leg. Her blind eye was covered in a piece of cardboard that made it look like it was a mechanical eye. She had even worked it so some of her scars looked like they were from surgery.

They all looked up as we approached, their eyes widening as they gaped up at me in my costume. The suit added an extra foot to my height, making me easily seven feet tall. Both Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy shrank back, shivering in fear.

“M-Max?” Applejack asked nervously, taking a step back. I raised a gloved fist, giving them all a curt nod. All of them instantly relaxed, though Fluttershy still seemed rather intimidated by my costume. At least she wasn’t cowering anymore. “Shoot, Sugarcube. That outfit of yours is a might terrifyin’!”

“Indeed it is,” Rarity added. “It’s positively ghastly. If it weren’t for the fact that it is Nightmare Night, I would have to relieve you of it.” Her gaze ran over my suit, her face scrunched up. Her blue eyes fell up the contraption behind me. “Um, darling… what is with the cage on your back?”

Behind my mask, I smirked. Slowly, I turned to the side and pointed a finger at my right shoulder pauldron, and what was etched on it. Everyone leaned in to read what was written on it.

“‘Foalsittin’: five bits per hour’?” Applejack said, leaning back and whistling softly through her teeth as she stared at the words.

“You’re willing to watch foals for only five bits an hour?” Rarity asked, her eyes lighting up. I nodded and she practically squealed in delight. “A normal foalsitter costs nearly twenty-five bits an hour! I don’t suppose…” she trailed off, her eyes slowly drifting down towards the Crusaders.

I just chuckled, my laughter echoing eerily in the helmet.

Reaching back, I unhooked the cage and lifted it off of my shoulders. Gently setting it down on the ground, I unlatched a small door on the side of the cage and swung it open. Resting an arm on the open latch, I looked up at the others. Applejack and Rarity looked like they were contemplating the offer. The Crusaders were looking at the open cage, large smiles on their faces.

“Well, I suppose…” Applejack began. Before the words were even out of her mouth, the three fillies rushed forward and jumped into the cage with a loud cheer. As they got comfortable on the cushion in the cage, Applejack and Rarity just shook their heads, smiles on their faces.

Closing the cage door and latching it, I hefted it back up onto my shoulders and secured it in place. The extra weight from the fillies wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was noticeable and I felt a little off balance. I compensated by leaning forward slightly.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” Applejack snickered. Her face turned sober as she looked up at my helmeted face. “You take good care of them, Sugarcube, ya hear?” I reached over and crossed my heart with a hand before raising it up and covering the porthole of the helmet. That seemed to satisfy both Rarity and Applejack.

“Well, that frees my evening up,” Rarity said, flipping her mane out of her face.

“Wait!” cried Scootaloo from behind me. “If we’re in here, how are we supposed to get candy?!” Glancing over my shoulder at them, I held up one of their bags in my gloved hand. Impossibly enough, their smiles grew bigger.

“This is gonna be the best Nightmare Night ever!” Applebloom cheered, throwing her hooves in the air. Poking her head out of one of the holes in the cage, Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof towards a row of houses.

“Onward to candy!” she shouted, the other two cheering happily. Chuckling, I turned and looked at Changeling Twilight. She was smirking up at me, shaking her head as she laughed quietly.

“I’ll meet you back here in an hour or so, okay?” she asked.

I nodded in response before turning and lumbering off down the road, groaning theatrically as I walked, causing ponies to look at me. We were probably a strange sight: a large, armored human carrying three giggling fillies in a cage ball on his back.

I had barely made it halfway across the marketplace before a green blur ran in front of me, causing me to stumble slightly. Luckily, I managed to keep my balance and the fillies in the cage just giggled louder as they were justled around. Glancing down, I found myself staring into a pair of large blue eyes.

“Hiya Maxie!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing in place. How she knew it was me in there, I wasn’t completely sure, but I decided just to roll with it.

Pinkie was dressed up in an alligator costume; the only part of her that wasn’t covered was her face. It was one of the most realistic costumes I had ever seen; each line, crack, crevice, and ridge was made with perfect detail. To add to the weirdness, there was a small alligator on her back, dressed in a Pinkie Pie costume. His large purple eyes just stared in different directions as he sat on Pinkie’s back.

“So, you’re trick-or-treating too? That’s awesome! That means that you’ll have loads of fun tonight, and get lots of candy. Well, not you in particular because ponies don’t give humans candy, but Twilight might be able to get some for you. Although with a cool costume like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch a ponies give you all their candy just to make you go away! It’s a rather creepy costume, especially when you imagine it lumbering towards you out of the ocean depths. Well I shouldn’t bother you for too long, or else all the candy will be gone, and that would be bad and make the Crusaders sad. Well, I’ll let you get back to your harvesting! Keep an eye on those fillies, would you kindly? Wouldn’t want any splicers getting ahold of them, would you?”

All of that was said in one breath before Pinkie turned and zoomed off, leaving me standing there, staring at the spot she used to occupy. I blinked, scrunching up my face as my mind registered what she had just said. Turning, I made to follow the pink menace, but changed my mind and turned to resumed my journey down the road.

Keep an eye on those fillies, would you kindly? I chuckled, shaking my head as I walked. I wonder if I could convince her to get the Crusaders to call me ‘Mr. Bubbles’ for the night.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Trick-or-treating was rather uneventful, except for the fact that I startled half the ponies that came to the door when I knocked. Luckily, all of them just took it in stride after the Crusaders spoke up from my back. I think the fact that Twilight’s symbol was all over my armor also helped calm their nerves.

Come to think of it, that’s probably how Pinkie knew that it was me in here…

...Anyways, the fact that I had three fillies in a cage on my back didn’t go amiss, and soon I had an unexpected customer. The local mailmare asked if I would look after her filly for a bit while she helped set up some more booths in the market. One thing lead to another, and somehow I ended up with five foals in the cage along with the Crusaders, as well as a small bag of bits.

I hadn’t realized how much this town had come to trust me until tonight. Each parent had been slightly hesitant to leave their foal in my care, until the Crusaders had told them who I was. After that, they all seemed to relax and become more comfortable with the idea. I even had one mare say to her husband, “If he can be docile after Rainbow attacks him, I don’t see any trouble having our foal around him.”

Gotta love pony logic…

With each foal added to the herd on my back, the amount of bags I was carrying grew. Soon, I was clearing out each house I arrived at, our little entourage descending upon Ponyville like an all-consuming candy plague. No household was safe from the eyes scoping out the scene from my back, and with the foals directing me where to go, we were gathering candy by the pounds.

The scene we caused was so ridiculous, that I couldn’t help but laugh behind my helmet. We are become Death, destroyer of worlds...

“Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!” came the chorus from my back. The mare in the door could only stare in awe, the bowl of candy hovering by her head, encased in her magic.

“Goodness! Dear, you have to come see this!”

No piece of candy is safe. We shall ravage the countryside, and all shall fear us…

“Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!”

“Sweet Celestia! The horror! The horror!” The elder stallion said, an amused smirk on his face.

We shall bring the world to its end, and all shall know pain and despair…

“Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!”

“Oh dear, I don’t think I have enough candy for all of you!”

We hit house after house, the candy piling up until each bag was near to bursting. My arms were beginning to grow tired hauling all that weight around. The foals on my back didn’t help either, although I was surprised I could carry them as long as I had been. I’m in better shape than I thought!

Soon enough we had drained most of Ponyville of its candy reserves and I turned, slowly lumbering my way towards the marketplace. Most ponies had become used to my costume by now, and all I received was a few waves from them as I passed.

Entering the market, I paused for a second, looking around for Twilight and her friends. I spotted them, still standing around Applejack’s apple bobbing station. Stomping forward, I groaned dramatically as I approached, the sound reverberating around me, sounding like the call of a whale. This caused the four mares to look up. As their eyes fell upon me, their smiles grew.

“I see you’ve gathered a few more passengers,” Twilight said as I stopped beside her. I groaned dramatically again, which earned me a slap on the knee. Chuckling, I dropped the bags of candy on the ground and reached up, carefully removing the cage from my back. As I lowered the cage to the ground, the parents of the foals materialized out of the crowd. I didn’t question how they found me so quickly, I stood out like a sore thumb in this crowd, especially with the glow coming from my helmet.

Crouching, I flipped the cage door open and released the foals upon their bags of candy. The adults laughed as each foal dived headfirst into their bags, searching the contents for their desired treats. Standing back up, I replaced the now-empty cage upon my back. As each parent retrieved their offspring, I did a quick mental check to make sure that the pony retrieving the foal was the same one that gave them to me. I knew that Ponyville was a friendly community, but I wanted to be careful nonetheless.

Pretty soon, there was only the Crusaders and one filly left.

“Where’s your mother, Dinky?” Twilight asked the filly as the young unicorn dug through her bag. Before the foal could answer, however, a pink unicorn mare with a two-tone purple mane trotted up.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said, smiling sheepishly. “Mom told me that I had to pick up Dinky, but she didn’t say where.”

“That’s quite all right, Sparkler dear,” Rarity said, waving a hoof. “We weren’t waiting long. Besides, I think she was too preoccupied to really care.” She nodded towards Dinky, who had most of her body buried in her bag of candy. This just caused Sparkler to roll her eyes.

“Come on, Dinky,” she said, grabbing the filly in her magic and lifting her out of the bag. “We need to go meet Mom by over by Sugarcube Corner.” Dinky pouted as she was denied her sugary treat. Chuckling at the look on her sister’s face, Sparkler placed the filly on her back before grabbing the bag of candy in her mouth and trotting off.

As they disappeared into the crowd, I turned and glanced at Twilight. She looked up at my helmeted face with her weird, blue eyes, a small smile on her blackened face.

“You ready to go try out some games?” she asked, wings fluttering by her side. I nodded my head, causing her smile to widen.

“If it’s okay with you guys, I think I’ll stay here,” Spike said, his eyes darting over to Rarity, who was currently chatting with Fluttershy.

“That’s fine, Spike,” Twilight said, already heading off into the sea of ponies. “We’ll meet up later, okay?” With that, Twilight and I headed off into the marketplace, looking for some fun.

“So, what do you want to do first?” Twilight asked, looking back over her shoulder at me. I just shrugged, trundling along behind her. She looked around at the assortment of games, sucking on her lip as she tried to decide what to do.

Eventually, she pointed a hoof towards one of the booths located near the edge of the marketplace. There was a group of catapults set up near the booth, all of them pointing towards a row of targets. Pumpkins rested beside the catapults, as well as on the table, ready to be launched.

“How about that one?” she asked, glancing up at me with an eager expression on her face. I gave her a quick shrug before making my way towards the station, Twilight hopping happily behind me.

The mare running the game looked up as we approached, her eyes widening slightly as they fell upon me. She recovered quickly, however, and was soon smiling.

“Hello, Twilight,” she said. “Are you here to try your hoof at the pumpkin launch?”

“Yes we are, Roseluck,” Twilight said, sidling up to the table. “How much is it?”

“Two bits per pumpkin,” the mare, Roseluck, replied with a smile. Twilight pulled out four bits and slid them across the table. Roseluck picked them up and placed them into a cash box before sliding two pumpkins over to Twilight. Picking them up in her magic, Twilight turned and motioned with her head toward the catapults.

“This looks like it should be easy enough,” she said as she placed one of the pumpkins onto the ground next to the catapult. Loading the second pumpkin onto the catapult, she turned to look up at me.

“Would you like to go first, or should I?” I motioned with a hand for her to continue. “Okay, but don’t get upset when I beat you,” she said with a smirk. Roseluck watched us with a curious expression on her face.

Twilight spent the next couple of minutes lining up her shot, moving the catapult side to side as she eyed the target. Once she was satisfied with the alignment, she grabbed the lever in her hooves and pulled, grunting slightly at the strain. The arm swung and launched the pumpkin through the air. It soared towards the target before impacting it with a large splat, dead center on the target.

“Yes!” Twilight cheered, throwing her hooves into the air. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Turning to look at me, she smirked. “Try to beat that!” Stomping forward, I picked the second pumpkin up in my hands. Grabbing the arm of the catapult, I pulled it back down and deposited the pumpkin into the scoop.

Eyeing the target, I nudged the catapult with a foot before reaching down and pulling the lever. My pumpkin flew through the air before impacting the exact same spot as Twilight’s. I turned to the stunned mare, crossing my arms smugly as I chuckled.

“Lucky shot,” she grumbled, glaring at me. I just shook my head, continuing to laugh softly. As I turned to look back at the targets, movement above caught my eye. A dark storm cloud was drifting slowly over the area, a pegasus hiding above it. A pegasus in a Wonderbolts costume. A pegasus, in a Wonderbolts costume, with a rainbow mane and tail.

As Rainbow slowly drifted by, peeking out from above her cloud as she eyed the ponies below, my gaze drifted down to the catapults. A wicked smile instantly appeared on my face as an idea assaulted my brain. She wants a prank, she’ll get a prank.

Turning back to the table with the pumpkins on it, I picked up a particularly large one. Ignoring Roseluck’s protests and Twilight’s confused gaze, I placed the pumpkin on the catapult and turned it so that it was aimed at the dark storm cloud. Lining up my shot, I had a quick prayer to whatever deity was listening that this would work before I reached down and yanked the lever back.

With a twang the catapult arm sprang up, launching the orange projectile into the air. It soared over the targets, as well as the heads of ponies in the crowd. Most of them noticed when a pumpkin flew over their heads. Turning their heads, they watched to see where it would land. Their eyes widened when they saw where it was headed, smiles spreading across dozens of faces.

As the pumpkin neared its target, almost all eyes were on it. All, except for the one mare who should have been paying attention the most.

Rainbow didn’t even know what hit her.

I gave a silent cheer, throwing my arms into the air, as the pumpkin hit its mark with a large, satisfying smack, followed by a yelp. Rainbow flipped into the air, rubbing her flank, which was now covered in pumpkin goop. She looked around, searching for whoever had launched the pumpkin. Her eyes landed on me.

If looks could kill… well, I’m sure that my armor would protect me, if only a little. She pointed a hoof at her eyes, then jabbed it at me. With that, she flew off, speeding towards the other end of the marketplace. As I watched her go, I smirked. The only thing that could have made that better was if it had been a flaming Jack O’ Lantern, and I was riding a horse and had no head.

Turning, I looked back at Twilight. She had both hooves over her mouth, trying hard not to burst out laughing. Roseluck was watching Rainbow fly off, a large, toothy smile on her face.

“I’m sorry about that, Roseluck,” Twilight gasped out, still trying to hold in her laughter. “I’ll pay for that pumpkin.” She moved to pull out two more bits, but Roseluck waved her down.

“It’s fine, Twilight,” she laughed, eyes twinkling. “After that display, it’s on the house. Rainbow got me earlier with her little lightning show, so it was actually pretty funny to see her get her just desserts.” With that, the mare dissolved into a fit of laughter.

When Twilight turned her attention back to me, I pointed a finger at her, then held up one finger. Pointing a finger at me, I held up three fingers.

“Rainbow Dash doesn’t count as two points!” she growled, her ear flicking slightly. I just continued to hold up three fingers as I started to dance in place. “Come on, we’ve got more games to play.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the games ended similarly to the first, except for the part with Rainbow Dash. Twilight and I continued to tie in each game, as they were kinda easy (at least for me). Twilight never seemed to mind, though. She just seemed content to be hanging out with me; the games were just a bonus.

The last game we played was like the first one: we had to throw a fake spider towards a spiderweb and try to get it to stick to the center. Kinda like underhand darts, actually. I had just thrown my spider when a voice piped up behind me.

“An excellent throw, my dear human.” Turning, I glanced behind me and saw Luna standing there, smiling softly.

“Luna, you’re finally here,” Twilight said, walking up to stand next to me. The lunar princess looked down at her, blinking in surprise. Her eyes narrowed as she looked over Twilight’s costume.

“That is a very realistic changeling costume you have, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. Twilight just rolled her eyes, chuckling softly to herself.

“Luna, please. Do you really think Max would be hanging out with me if I was a real changeling?” I blinked in confusion at that. How the fuck am I supposed to know if she’s real or not?

“We suppose not,” Luna muttered, relaxing slightly as she turned her attention back to me. “We are not sure what you are supposed to be, but it looks frightening all the same,” she said, having to crane her neck back to look up into my glowing helmet. I couldn’t resist letting out another low groan, shifting my weight from foot to foot. A shiver ran down Luna’s spine and she flinched.

“Quite,” she said with a sniff. Clearing her throat, she looked back down at Twilight, who had an amused look on her face. “We have something we wish to talk to you two about in private. Is there a place nearby where we shall not be disturbed?” Twilight nodded, before turning and leading the princess towards a side street which wasn’t being used. The crowds parted, ponies bowing before Luna as she walked. I followed behind the pair, my helmet illuminating the area as we left the lit part of the market.

We continued to walk for several minutes until Luna was satisfied that nobody would hear us, or accidently stumble upon our conversation. Ruffling her wings, Luna turned and looked at both me and Twilight.

“Now, do either of you know what we are about to say?” Twilight and I looked at each other before shaking our heads.

“No,” Twilight replied. “My dad said that you wanted to talk to us about something, but he didn’t say what it was.” Luna nodded, staring at the ground in front of us with a blank expression on her face; she seemed to be distracted by something.

“It actually concerns your human here,” she said, her eyes slowly drifting up until she was looking at me. “Nothing bad, we assure you,” she added at seeing Twilight’s alarmed expression. “My sister and I were talking, and we decided that we will be assigning you some personal guards. We know that Twilight has her own guards here in Ponyville, but we feel that it is in everypony’s best interest if you were given some of your own.”

“Why would Max need guards?” Twilight asked, sounding worried. “Did something happen?”

My eyes narrowed behind my mask as I frowned. You don’t assign someone guards unless you are worried that something will happen to them… or you are concerned that they will do something bad.

“No, no, nothing is wrong,” Luna said, trying to calm Twilight down. “Ugh, we told Tia that something like this would get you both agitated.” Rubbing her head with a hoof, Luna chewed on the inside of her cheek as she looked at us, trying to decide how to word her next sentence in such a way that wouldn’t alarm us.

“The guards are being assigned to you to help prevent such occurrences like what happened with the human fight from happening again,” she finally said, lowering her hoof back to the ground. “But they are not here to act solely as bodyguards. Think of them more as… friends, if you will.”

“Friends?” Twilight deadpanned, and Luna nodded her head. “How many guards are being assigned to Max?”

“Three,” Luna replied. “Each one a volunteer, actually.”

“They volunteered to look after a human?” Twilight asked, an eyebrow raising.

“They were informed of the special circumstances concerning Max. They know he’s intelligent and will treat him as such.”

“Where are they going to stay?”

“If you have space in the library, my sister and I were hoping that they would stay there. Otherwise, they would find lodging elsewhere.”

“And they are just here to make sure nothing bad happens to Max?” Twilight asked, shooting Luna a skeptical look.

I was silently glad that I wasn’t the only one that found this suspicious. Why the sudden interest in protecting me?

“Yes, although they will listen to you as well,” Luna said, frustrated. “Please, there is no hidden motive behind this. They are simply a precaution so that nothing bad happens in the future.”

“I understand that,” Twilight huffed. “What I don’t understand is why you think something bad MAY happen in the future.”

“Because he’s a human!” Luna roared, nearly reverting to her traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. Behind her, the wind whipped up, sending dust flying into the air. Twilight flinched at the volume, but I had it worse. The noise reverberated around in my helmet, and I gritted my teeth in pain. Luna seemed to realize what she had done, as she lowered her head, blushing as her voice took on a softer tone.

“We know that you are intelligent, but to the eyes of most other ponies, you are nothing more than a human. The guards are being assigned to you so that they may stop anypony from intentionally—or unintentionally—hurting you, nothing more. Tia and I both feel horrible that you had come to such harm without our knowledge, and we will not allow it to happen again.

“Please,” she added, lowering her head further. “Just give them a chance. If the guards don’t work out, we will have them removed from Ponyville, and both my sister and I shall leave you alone.” Chewing on her bottom lip, Twilight looked up at me.

“It’s your call, big guy,” she said. “What do you think?” I leaned back on the balls of my feet slightly as I thought. I wasn’t entirely convinced that there wasn’t an ulterior motive behind the princesses assigning guards to me, but the rational part of me pointed out that if they didn’t trust me, they would have sent me home the first chance they had. Luna gave me a hopeful look as I continued to muse.

With a sigh, I nodded my head. Luna squee'd, clapping her hooves together.

“Splendid!” she cheered, a large smile on her face. “This is most joyous of news!” She looked like she was about to give me a hug, but stopped when as she eyed my armor. “We shall inform Tia about this upon our return!”

“How soon will they be arriving?” Twilight asked.

“Within a couple of days,” Luna replied, the smile still upon her face. “They will check in at the library and introduce themselves.”

“As long as they don’t cause trouble,” Twilight muttered.

“Don’t worry, Twilight Sparkle. They shall be no trouble at all,” Luna said, waving her hoof in the air. “They were hoof-picked by my sister.”

“I thought you said that they volunteered,” Twilight said, her eyes narrowing.

“Nine ponies volunteered, Tia chose three of them,” Luna said, ignoring Twilight’s look. Twilight didn’t seem satisfied with the answer, but let it drop. We stood in silence for several seconds before the clock tower began to chime out the hour. Luna’s head whipped around as she looked up at the clock face.

“Oh buck, I’m going to be late!” A look of concentration crossed her face, and her horn lit up. Her coat rippled, the color slowly darkening to almost black as she grew taller. Her eyes turned turquoise and her pupils became slitted. Armor formed around her body, glinting in the moonlight. Once she was done, a different mare was standing before us. One that looked positively terrifying, yet awesome at the same time.

“Ah, that’s better,” the dark mare said, looking over her body. When she opened her mouth, I noticed that she now had a pair of long, dangerous looking fangs.

“Oh, Luna… I mean, Nightmare Moon,” Twilight giggled, rolling her eyes. “Before you go, we’re all meeting up at the library afterwards to tell some scary stories. Max has some from his own world he is willing to share with us.”

“Scary stories, you say?” the dark mare said, rubbing her chin. “We might have to take you up on that offer. Now, if you’ll excuse Us, We have some foals We must relieve of their candy!” With that, she spread her wings and took to the air, cackling madly.

I watched her go before glancing down at Twilight, my eyes narrowing. Why can’t you do that too?

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As Twilight closed the front door behind us, I unstrapped the cage on my back and dropped it gently to the floor. Rolling it into a corner, I removed my helmet and set it on top of the cage. It still glowed softly, casting a yellow glow around the surrounding area. Turning, I stretched, yawning loudly.

“Well, I had fun tonight,” Twilight said, her horn glowing slightly as she trotted into the library. Slowly her coat became lavender again as she returned to her normal appearance. She blinked her violet eyes, shaking her head slightly. “Ah, much better. It felt weird having holes in my legs.” She lifted a hoof up in front of her face, waving it back and forth as she smiled.

I just laughed at her as I collapsed into one of the library’s chairs. It creaked loudly under my weight, but held.

“Did you have fun?” Twilight asked, glancing over at me. I looked up and cracked a tired smile, nodding my head. “Good.” There came a knock on the door, and Twilight’s ear swiveled around to point at it. “Come in,” she called, turning to face it.

The door swung open and in walked Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, all of them out of their costumes. Spike and the Crusaders were draped across their backs, passed out cold, their bellies distended slightly. I snickered at the sight.

“Come on in, everypony,” Twilight said, waving her hoof at them. “Make yourselves comfortable. We’re just waiting for Luna before we start.” As the others moved to place the tuckered out fillies onto some of the cushion, Rainbow Dash glared over at me. Without her costume on, I could see a large bruise forming on her flank. I gave her a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of my head.

She continued to glare at me for several seconds before cracking a grin of her own.

“It was a lucky shot,” she mouthed at me, shaking her head. I just stuck my tongue out at her, laughing quietly.

With Spike and the Crusaders now resting in a corner, the others began to gather around me, pulling up chairs or sitting upon the couch. As they chatted with one another quietly, I closed my eyes, resting my head on the back of the chair. I was tired, but that wasn’t why my eyes were closed. I was trying to remember a couple of horror stories from back home. Come on memory, don’t let me down. All those hours spent on Creepypasta needed to come in handy sooner or later.

I flinched slightly as someone knocked loudly on the front door. Opening my eyes, I watched as Luna walked in, a large bag of candy held in her magic. She was currently chewing on what appeared to be a chocolate bar.

“We are here for the stories of horror,” she said, smiling at everyone who was assembled there. “We hope that we are not too late.”

“Not at all,” Twilight said, waving Luna over. “We were actually just waiting for you. Now that everypony is here, we can get started.” Luna walked over and sat down in an empty chair in front of me, still chewing on her treats. Where she got them, I wasn’t too sure, but Twilight had said something about the foals giving Luna some of their candy as a sort of Nightmare Night tradition or something like that. That meant that the candy she was eating was some of what I had been hauling around.

“Alright,” Twilight said, clapping her hooves together. “Now that we are all here, Max has informed me that Nightmare Night is similar to a holiday he had back home called… H-Halloween?” She looked at me to make sure that she had pronounced that correctly. I nodded my head and she smiled happily. “According to him, it was a tradition for him and his family to tell each other scary stories during that time, and he’s willing to try sharing some with us! Ohhh, this is so exciting!” With that, her horn lit up and parchment and quill hovered in front of her as her smile grew.

“Stories from a different world,” she squealed as both Rainbow and Applejack rolled their eyes.

“So, how are we going to do this?” Rainbow asked, lounging on the couch. “Not all of us can understand that clappy-stompy thing you guys use to talk to each other.” The smile vanished off of Twilight’s face at that.

“Well, uh… h-he could always write it down,” she muttered, lowering her head slightly as she frowned. “But that might take too long and…” Beside me, Rarity cleared her throat, causing me to glance over at her. She looked slightly nervous.

“Um, I might be willing to allow that talking spell you used yesterday if that would help,” she said, not looking Twilight in the eye.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, sitting up excitedly. “That voice is perfect for scary stories!” Twilight looked at Rarity, biting her bottom lip.

“I don’t want to impose,” she said, but Rarity cut her off with a wave of her hoof.

“Nonsense, darling. Let’s just do this before I change my mind.” Twilight turned towards be, her horn lighting up as she looked at me expectantly. I reached down and pulled off one of my gloves. Reaching up, I paused with my hand inches from Rarity’s horn, giving her a questioning look. She gave me a quick nod, her smile strained.

As I wrapped my hand around her horn, Luna looked on with a curious expression on her face. I closed my eyes as Twilight released the spell. There was a bright purple flash from Twilight’s horn and my arm started tingling again, the numb sensation slowly working its way up the limb. Invisible needles jammed into the sides of my brain for a brief second before disappearing.

The minute I felt the connection with Rarity, I opened my mind up, You know you don’t have to do this, right?

I know, Darling, but I am curious about these stories of yours. Just… don’t make me say anything I might regret.

I won’t, but these will be horror stories after all, so don’t get too offended. Opening my eyes, I saw that everyone was looking at us.

“Pray tell, what was that spell supposed to do?” Luna asked, tilting her head to the side. Before Twilight could answer though, I had Rarity open her mouth and speak.

“T͡esti͞ǹg̕, ́tes͘ting... ca͡n y̕ou͏ a̷ll hear me?” Luna jumped back at the voice, her eyes widening.

“Is… is he using dear Rarity to talk to us?” she asked Twilight, not taking her eyes off of me and Rarity. “That is truly an amazing spell, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight blushed at the compliment, hiding behind her parchment. Rainbow just rolled her eyes, waving a hoof in the air.

“Yeah, yeah, praise the egghead later. Let’s get to the stories,” she huffed, looking at me expectantly. As I settled into a more comfortable position, my hand still on Rarity’s horn, the others all did the same. Twilight looked at me excitedly, the quill in her magic hovering inches from the parchment, ready to record what I was about to say.

“N͏ow,̨ ͢befo͠r̛e̵ w̶e͏ s͏ta̴rt, I̷ j̷u̢st́ want͢ ̧yóu̕ ͢all͘ t̢o ͡k̢e̡e͞p͡ ͢in͏ mi͏n̵d ͠that͘ t͡he͜ c̴uĺtu̴re ̶I̷ c҉om̷e͟ ̕f̛rom ͞i̴ş s҉li̵g͝h̶t̶ly͠ ̷mo͘re m̧or̶bi̷d̸ ̢th̀an ýǫur͏s͜,͟ so̕ I ̷a͟p̷ologiz͟e in͏ adva͏nc̶e͢ i҉f͡ a̷n̸y҉t͏h͡iǹg ̴of̸fȩńd̶s a͞nyo̧ne,” I warned. When everyone nodded, I settled back and began. Hopefully I can remember these correctly.

I’m sure you’ll do fine, darling.

Coffins used to be built with holes in them, attached to six feet of copper tubing and a bell, I began, the sound of Twilight’s quill following close behind. The tubing would provide air for victims that would be buried under the mistaken impression they were dead.

In a small town, a local gravedigger, upon hearing a bell one night, headed into the graveyard to see if it was children pretending to be spirits again. Sometimes it was also the wind, blowing through the tombstones and causing the bells to jingle. This time it was neither. One of the bells attached to a grave was chiming, and a voice from below begged, pleaded to be unburied.

“Are you Molly Tasher?” the gravedigger asked, nearing the bell.

“Yes!” the muffled voice assured.

“You were born on September 17th?”

“Yes!” The gravedigger looked down at the gravestone.

“The gravestone here says you died on February 19th?”

“No,” came the hurried reply. “I’m alive, it was a mistake! Please, dig me up, set me free!”

“Sorry about this, ma’am,” the gravedigger said, stepping on the bell to silence it and plugging up the copper tube with dirt. “But this is August. Whatever you is down there, you ain’t alive no more, and you ain’t comin’ up!”

As I finished, Fluttershy let out a squeak, hiding behind her mane as she shivered.

“T-that’s not a true s-story, is it?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“We think that We’ve had to deal with somepony’s nightmare that was similar to that,” Luna said, rubbing her chin as she mused. “Except she was the one that was buried.”

“Pfft, it wasn’t that scary,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m gonna have tah agree with Rainbow on this one,” Applejack said, nodding her head. “Y’all got something scarier?”

I smirked at them both. “You ha͝v͟é n͞o id͠e̛a.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up and she dipped her quill into an inkwell, getting ready to write more. Fluttershy just whimpered, hiding deeper into her mane.

You normally sleep soundly, but the thunderstorm raging outside is stirring you from your sleep—

“‘You?’,” Rainbow asked. “Why are you talking like that?”

“Yo͘u͘'ŕe͘ ̡s̵up͞p̴os̴éd ҉t͜o ̢i͞ma̷gi̸n̶e ͠i̷t ͝happenin̕g to̴ y̨ours̸el̀f͝ ͏i͘n̷ ҉yo̡u̸r̢ h͘e̡a͝d̛. Now shu͝t ̸u͟p;͏ you̴'re͏ r̡u҉i͠nin͘g ͞the ̧sto͠ry̵.”

You normally sleep soundly, but the thunderstorm raging outside is stirring you from your sleep. Trying to ignore the sounds coming from outside, you begin to doze, but another loud crash jolts you awake. The cycle lasts most of the night, the thunder waking you before you can get back to sleep. So you lay there, eyes open and outward, looking at your room stretching out before in the darkness. Your eyes move from nameless object, to nameless object, until you reach your mirror, sitting adjacent to you across the room.

Suddenly a flash of lightning, and the mirror flickers in illumination. For a brief, scant second, the mirror reveals to you dozens of faces, silhouettes within its frame, mouths open and eyes blackened. They stare out at you, their black pupils fixed upon your face.

Then it is done. Are you even sure of what you have seen? Unsettled, you don’t sleep for the rest of the night. The next morning you remove the mirror from your wall and toss it into the trash. It didn’t matter if the vision you had seen was real or not, you wanted to be rid of that mirror. In fact, you scrap every mirror in your house.

Weeks pass and that event of that night falls into passive memory. You are spending the day at a friend’s house and it’s time to use the bathroom. While you are in there the faucet starts to run without you touching it. Taken aback by this, you do not act yet, trying to reason with your paranoia. The water starts to steam up the bathroom and a skin of moisture slowly covers the mirror up above. You watch in horror as words form: “Please… return the mirrors. We miss watching you sleep at night…”

Fluttershy was hiding under her chair, shivering horribly. The others were beginning to look uneasy as well. Pinkie’s mane looked less poofy, and Rainbow was eyeing the mirror in the hallway with a nervous gaze.

T-these aren’t true stories, are they? Rarity asked nervously. I just smirked, not answering her.

“We are not sure how we feel about that story,” Luna said, rubbing her hooves together absentmindedly. “Especially since we have a large mirror in our room,” she added under her breath.

“I-it wasn’t that scary,” Rainbow said, her voice cracking slightly. Applejack just nodded her head, looking slightly pale. Twilight licked her lips as she dipped the quill back into the inkwell.

I laughed silently as I moved on to the third story.

There was a small village near a dark forest. In the village, there was a haunted house that everyone was terrified to enter. Nobody dared to stay there overnight. Legend had it that, every night at midnight, a bloody severed head fell down the chimney.

One day, a rich man was passing through the village. After hearing about the haunted house, he offered a thousand… err, bits to whoever was brave enough to spend an entire night inside. None of the villagers would take him up on his bet until a young boy stepped forward and raised his hand. The boy announced that he would spend the night in the haunted house as long as he could bring his dog with him. The man agreed, and it was settled.

The next evening, the boy set off for the haunted house with his trusty dog following close behind. As he entered the dreary abode, he whistled a happy tune to calm his nerves. After doing a little exploring, he decided to make himself comfortable in the living room. He started a fire in the fireplace, then laid down on the couch with his dog and waited for morning to arrive.

For a while, nothing happened. Then, a little after midnight, he thought he heard a strange noise over the crackling of the fire and the creaking of the house. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere out in the woods. Someone or something was singing a haunting tune.

“Me tie dough-ty walker,” sang the eerie voice.

Everyone was tense, staring at me unblinkingly as I continued the tale. Each one had a look of fear on their face, and I was loving it.

The boy stared out the window and his hair stood on end.

“Maybe it’s just somebody taking a shortcut through the woods,” he told himself.

Then, his dog suddenly perked up and sang, “Lynchy-Kinchy-Colly-Molly-Dingo-Dingo.”

The boy could hardly believe his ears. His dog had never uttered a word before. Now it was answering the haunting voice in the woods. He pinched himself to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming.

A few minutes passed, and the boy heard the voice singing again, only this time it was closer and louder.

“Me-Tie-Dough-Ty-Walker,” sang the mysterious voice.

The dog answered again, “Lynchy-Kinchy-Colly-Molly-Dingo-Dingo.”

This really had the boy scared. He was afraid that whoever was lurking in the woods would hear the dog singing and come to get them.

Everyone was hanging onto my every word with rapt attention, each one with a look of absolute horror on their face.

A few more minutes passed, the the boy heard the singing again. Now it was in the backyard, and the song was the same.

“ME TIE DOUGH-TY WALKER!” it yelled. The boy quickly placed a hand over his dog's mouth, trying to keep him silent.

It was all for naught, however, and again the dog answered: “LYNCHY KINCHY, COLLY MOLLY, DINGO DINGO!” Soon the boy heard the singing again; now it was coming from the roof, echoing down the chimney.

“ME TIE DOUGH-TY WALKER!” Again, the boy tried to keep his dog quiet, but the dog sang louder than ever.

“LYNCHY KINCHY, COLLY MOLLY, DINGO DINGO!” Suddenly a bloody severed head fell down the chimney. It missed the fire and landed right in front of the dog. The dog took one look at it and fell over, dead from fright. Then, the head turned and stared at the boy. Slowly, it opened its mouth and…

Suddenly, I sucked in a deep breath and had Rarity release the loudest, shrillest, most horrifying scream I could muster. The room immediately exploded into chaos.

Rainbow shot into the air with a yelp, clinging to the ceiling in fright. Applejack and Pinkie fell off their chairs, covering their heads with their hooves as they shut their eyes tight. Fluttershy dived behind the sofa with a scream, moving faster than I have ever seen her move before. I felt Rarity’s body flinch, the fear radiating from her mind in waves.

At the scream, Twilight punched a hole in the parchment with the quill, her wings spreading wide as she jumped in her seat. Spike and the Crusaders leapt into the air, instantly and undisputedly awake.

Luna was the best, however. With a loud yelp that nearly shattered the windows, she jumped to her hooves, her chair flying out from beneath her. Candy went flying everywhere as her wings flared, a look of pure horror plastered on her face, her pupils the size of pinpricks. Her horn lit up instantly, energy crackling down the length before she released a burst of magic. My eyes widened in alarm as the bolt flew through the air at me.

I had just enough time to release Rarity’s horn and raise my arm up to protect myself before the spell was upon me. The world went black, and I felt a strong pulling sensation yank my body back. Pressure pushed down on me from all sides, making it hard to breathe. I felt like my entire body was being squeezed through a long tube.

Then as suddenly as it began, all the pressure ceased. With a large pop, the darkness disappeared and I was returned to the world. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the sense of vertigo. Opening my eyes, I froze instantly. I was no longer in Twilight’s library…

...I was in Celestia’s bedchamber, in her bed, with Celestia herself in it.

Luna had teleported me from the library to the palace, where I was currently straddling a very surprised Celestia. She was lying on her back, staring up at me with her mouth agape, a small blush on her face. I just sat there on her stomach, my legs on either side of her, staring back into her eyes.

To make matters worse, I slowly began to slide backwards until I was nestled between her hind legs, my back propped against her knees, my armor clinking together as my weight shifted. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like I was sitting in her lap.

A tense, awkward silence filled the room, neither of us making any noise. Both of us just sat there, staring at each other with large blushes upon our faces. Then, slowly, a lecherous smile spread across Celestia’s face and she winked at me.

“I know I said that I would help you any way I could, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind… though, I’m not complaining.”

Author's Note

None of the scary stories Max tells in this chapter belong to me. They are borrowed from Creepypasta and Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, and belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 29: The Plucking of a Lyre

“I know I said that I would help you any way I could, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind… though, I’m not complaining.” I sat there, frozen on top of Celestia, my mind trying to process what was going on. I was basically straddling Celestia on her bed, nestled snugly in between her hind legs. The bedroom eyes she was giving me weren’t helping the situation either.

I… uh, what…? I just continued to stare at her, mouth opening and closing slightly. I could feel my face starting to heat up as my cheeks flushed. Finally, I got my brain working again.

~This isn’t what it looks like!~ I scrambled quickly to get off of her, but was stopped by a hoof against my chest.

“Of course it isn’t,” Celestia said softly, gazing up at me with a seductive look. “We haven’t even started yet.” With that, she darted forward and slowly dragged her tongue across my cheek in a sensual manner.

…

The door to Celestia’s room slammed open and I thundered out, startling the two guards stationed there. They both moved, their horns lighting up and their spears raising to point at me. I froze instantly, slowly lifting up my hands in a submissive gesture. Between the guards and the princess, at the moment I’d take the guards, but the decision was unfortunately made for me.

“No, stand down!” Celestia commanded, stepping out of the room after me. I inhaled sharply as she approached, my body tensing. She looked at me, the predatory smile still on her face. “This one is mine!” The guards’ eyes widened and their mouths dropped as their princess lunged at me, hooves outstretched.

Turning, I sprinted down the hall, the clanking of my armor echoing down the corridor like thunder. Laughing, the princess chased after me, leaving the two speechless guards behind.

This can’t be happening! I thought as I raced down the hall. What the hell has gotten into her?!

“You can run, my little human~,” Celestia called to me in a singsong voice as I ran through corridor after corridor. “But you’ll just be tired in the end, and that’s not good for what I have planned~!” Aw, hell no!

I rounded a corner and saw a set of stairs leading down to the next level. Taking the stairs three at a time, I nearly stumbled halfway down, but managed to keep myself upright. I took a brief second to glance behind me, and groaned as I saw Celestia clear the stairs in one leap, her wings carrying her to the bottom. She saw me looking back and winked, giggling happily as she continued the chase.

I returned my attention to back in front of me just in time to smash into a small pillar with a vase resting on top of it. As I staggered, the vase fell to the floor, but was caught just shy of smashing by a golden glow. With a burst of light, the pillar and vase returned to their original positions.

“I don’t know what you mean to accomplish by smashing my stuff~,” Celestia sang. “But that won’t stop me~!” I just shot her the bird over my shoulder as I continued down the hallway, my boots crashing against the marble with each step. I don’t think she understood the gesture, but it caused her to laugh all the same.

The huge costume restricted my movement, but I was still able to run fairly fast as I shot past the doors and windows that sprinkled the hallway, moonlight illuminating the the area that the torches couldn’t. With all the noise I was making as I ran, I was pretty sure half the castle was awake by now.

I had almost made it to the end of the corridor when I was tackled from behind by something large and furry, “Gotcha!” I landed on the ground with a thud, my armor scratching the marble floor as I slid. My momentum carried me too far, however, and I grunted in pain as I smashed my head into the wall.

As I laid there, dazed, with my head pounding, I heard someone gasp above me.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to take it that far!” Shaking my head, I tried to push myself up, but was stopped by the weight of something on my back. “No, don’t move.” A white hoof slid carefully underneath me and tentatively flipped me over. I blinked, staring up into the magenta eyes of the princess. She looked down at me, a concerned expression on her face.

“Are you alright—”

“Ah, Auntie,” a voice said from down the hall, causing both of us to freeze. My blood ran cold as a shiver ran up my spine, causing my already throbbing headache to worsen. That voice… Above me, Celestia’s whole body tensed, her eyes widening.

Craning my neck back, I glanced down the hallway at the approaching pony.

“Auntie, I’ve been looking for you,” Blueblood drawled as he drew nearer. He paused slightly upon seeing Celestia crouched over something, but his eyes lit up when he saw what was pinned under her: me. The smile that spread across his face shall forever haunt my nightmares.

“Ah, what do have we here? Auntie, you do know how to make a stallion feel wanted,” he said, licking his lips. “I remember this human. Did you bring him back here, just for me? He looks a little worse for wear, though.” My heart rate increased, the organ thudding loudly in my chest. I made to move, to get away from the bastard, but a pair of large white wings descended around me.

“I’ve told you before, Blueblood,” Celestia said, her voice cold. “This human is not for you! He… belongs to Twilight Sparkle.” She paused slightly at “belongs”, probably trying not to insult me, but at the moment I didn’t care. I was fine with whatever got me away from Blueblood.

“Then why—”

“Not,” Celestia growled, her wings tightening around me. “For. You.” Blueblood’s smile vanished, replaced with a hard glare. He turned with a huff, stalking back down the corridor. When he reached the end and turned around the corner, he looked back, his eyes lingering on me for a brief second before he vanished from sight.

The white protective shield of feathers around me vanished as Celestia rose to her hooves. Her horn glowed as she used her magic to pull me to my feet. As I stood quickly, the blood rushed to my head, causing my headache to worsen. Groaning, I clutched at my throbbing head.

“Here,” Celestia said softly, leaning forward. Placing the tip of her horn against my forehead, closing her eyes as her horn began to glow. I sighed as a cool, tingling sensation ran through my head, dulling the pain and curing my headache.

I tensed again as she opened her eyes, ready to run if she tried to pounce. Instead, she just gave me an apologetic look.

“I’m so sorry about that,” she said, lowering her head. “Not only for Blueblood, but for my earlier behavior. I realize that the joke was in poor taste, but after seeing the look on your face, I could not resist playing with you a little.” She blinked, before her cheeks reddened as she realized what she had just said. “I-I mean… I couldn’t help but tease you a little—” The blush on her cheeks darkened even more. “W-wait, I mean…”

~You couldn’t help but prank me?~ Celestia nodded, giving me a grateful yet sheepish smile.

“Yes, that,” she said, refusing to look me in the eye. “After all, it is Nightmare Night, and it’s not every day that a human just falls into your lap; especially an intelligent one, like yourself.” An awkward silence fell over the hall, Celestia shuffling her hooves, searching for something to say. I just stared at her, waiting.

“Um, would you kindly explain to me how you ended up in my bed?” Celestia finally asked. I chuckled, causing her to give me a curious look. A smile on my face, I proceeded to tell her about telling the gang scary stories, and Luna’s over-enthusiastic response to the last one. At the end of the tale, Celestia had a smile on her face as well.

“I wish I could have been there to see her face,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s not often that a pony gets one over on Luna like that.” She looked over my body quickly, eyeing my armor, before she looked back up at my face. “How about we get you back to the library before everypony begins to freak out, okay?” I nodded, before my eyes widened as I realized something.

~Wait, you aren’t going to send me back—~ Celestia’s horn lit up, as she leaned forward, touching the tip of it against my chest. I caught a glimpse of a smirk on her face before there was a blinding flash of green and an invisible force grabbed me, pulling me backwards. I was immediately assaulted on all sides by an intense pulling and pushing sensation. I tried to breathe, but couldn’t get my lungs to expand as it felt like I was being forced through an incredibly tight tube.

Then all the pressure relaxed, there was a second flash of green, and a large belching sound afterward. I fell through the air, landing on my back with a thud. I stared up at the ceiling of the library, blinking slowly as the room spun around me.

I can’t believe she did that, I grumbled, swallowing to cause my ears to pop.

Suddenly, my vision was obscured by a mass of pink hair as a yellow face looked down at me with a worried expression on her face.

“Oh… oh dear,” Fluttershy said softly. “Are you alright?” I nodded my head weakly, the world still spinning slightly. With a little help from the soft spoken pegasus, I pushed myself into a seated position.

“Dude, you’re okay!” Spike cried, hopping up onto Fluttershy’s back in order to get a better look at me. “After Luna zapped you, we assumed the worse!”

~I got teleported to Celestia’s…~ I began, but trailed off as I got a good look at what was happening in the room.

Rainbow and Applejack were currently trying to hold Twilight back as she tried her hardest to get at Luna, an angry snarl on her face. Red sparks flew from her horn as she struggled to get out of her friends’ hooves.

Luna was in a similar situation; Rarity and Pinkie were holding the Princess of the Night back as she tried to get at Twilight.

Amidst the chaos, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting on the couch, munching on their candy as they happily watched the scene before them. Their heads turned left to right and back again as they watched the two princesses shout at each other.

“—SCARED YOU LIKE A LITTLE FILLY DOESN’T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BLAST MY HUMAN INTO OBLIVION!” Twilight screamed at Luna, her wings flaring as she pushed against Rainbow and Applejack.

“Calm down, Twi,” Applejack grunted, hooves digging into the floor.

“IT WAS NOT OUR INTENT!” Luna screamed back, trying to climb over Pinkie to get at Twilight. It was only Pinkie’s earth pony strength that was stopping her. “AND WHAT DOST THOU MEAN, YOUR HUMAN?! WE DID NOT KNOW THAT THOU HADST OWNERSHIP OVER HIM!”

“Friends shouldn’t fight!” Pinkie Pie cried, trying her hardest to hold onto Luna’s forelegs.

“CELESTIA SENT HIM TO ME!” Twilight retorted, trying to duck under Rainbow’s leg. “HE’S BEEN LIVING WITH ME EVER SINCE, AND YOU’VE JUST GONE AND KILLED HIM!”

“WE DID NOT KILL HIM! AND LAST WE CHECKED, HE WAS AN INTELLIGENT CREATURE! THOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO LAY CLAIM UPON HIM!”

“DON’T TELL ME HOW TO TAKE CARE OF MY HUMAN!” Twilight shrieked, her voice rising in volume as it neared “Royal Canterlot Voice” status. As the two of them continued to argue, Fluttershy and Spike looked up at me, tense expressions on their faces. They were probably worried about how I would take this particular conversation.

I couldn’t care less, actually. Twilight had been referring to me as “her human” for as long as I could remember, and in turn I had come to refer to her on occasions as “my owner”. Personally, I saw it much like a nickname. I knew Twilight didn’t think of me as a pet, so it didn’t bother me much when she used the term “my human”.

Pushing myself up off of the floor, I shuffled over to the couch. The Crusaders glanced over at me as I approached, their faces lighting up when they saw me. They scooted over, making room for me as I sat down next to them. Sweetie Belle held her bag of candy out to me, a small smile on her face as she offered me some of her candy. I nodded my head in thanks, smiling as I pulled out a chocolate bar.

Peeling the foil off of the chocolate, I munched on the candy as I watched my owner continue to struggle to get at Luna, the Crusaders snuggling up against me as they continued to snack on their treats from the night.

Sometimes a little chaos can be a good thing, I thought as I watched the two mares—completely unaware of my return—continue to fight.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Is that all of it?” Twilight asked, lifting the stack of paper up in her magic. She flipped through it quickly, eyes scanning the contents as they flashed by. The smile on her face practically split her head in half.

~All of it I could remember~ I signed as I tossed the used-up charcoal stick onto the table. ~My memory is a bit fuzzy, but the majority of it should still be there~ Twilight squee’d, clutching the stack of papers in her hooves like it was a newborn child. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked at me, the joy and happiness practically bursting from her.

“I can’t believe this,” she said breathlessly. “Actual organized moments of the music of harmony… from a different world!” I just leaned back in the chair, chuckling at her excitement. Stretching, I groaned happily as my back cracked several times.

“I’ll need to make several copies and send one to Princess Celestia. I’m sure that she would want to read this… ‘Phantom of the Opera’ musical,” she said, glancing at the front page as she looked for the title. “I’m sure that Luna would like a copy too, especially the part with the ‘Music of the Night’ bit.”

~Looking for a way to make up for that little fight you two had?~ I asked with a smirk on my face. Twilight just ignored me.

“I’m sure she’d appreciate that somepony actually thinks that way about her night; she doesn’t get enough credit for all her hard work. Most ponies just take it all for granted. I still can’t believe that we don’t have something like this here already! It’s quite an amazing piece of artwork. You said there’s more like this, right?” Her eyes focused on me with a predator-like gaze, the hunger evident.

I held up my hands, leaning back in the chair.

~Yes, but calm down. Be happy I was actually able to write that one out~

“Yes, yes… you’re right,” Twilight said, closing her eyes and taking a couple of deep breaths. I shook my head, laughing softly.

I had just spent the past couple of days after Nightmare Night (and my impromptu trip to Canterlot) trying my best to recreate—to the best of my memory—some of the musicals from my world. I had decided to start with The Phantom of the Opera, as it was one of my favorites, and probably the one I knew the best.

It was strenuous work, trying to remember each and every song and plot point of the play, as well as making sure that it was written in a musical manner. I didn’t even bother trying to change everything into pony form, figuring that I would deal with that later. For now, the script would read ‘someone’ not ‘somepony’. If anyone had a problem with that, they could fix it themselves.

When I had first sat down to write out the play, I had told Twilight that I could not, and would not, be able to write out the music itself. I could only give her the lyrics, nothing more. She had said that that would be fine, and that she didn’t need the music to appreciate the story.

Apparently the magic of harmony flowing through the land had other plans.

Twilight had decided to try and sing the first couple lines of the song Think of Me, just because she was curious and wanted to give it a try. After she had sung the first few words, music started playing from nowhere. To make matters stranger, it was the actual music from the play. I basically just sat there, jaw on the floor, as Twilight sang the song perfectly, complete with music and timing. I was about to call bullshit on all of that, but magic is as magic does, and I ain’t dealing with that shit.

Besides, at least I don’t have to worry about the score anymore. And I wasn’t complaining; I could listen to Twilight sing for hours. She has such a beautiful singing voice.

“I’ve got to go make copies before something happens to this!” Twilight chirped, quickly rushing out of the kitchen and heading towards her desk. From my seat at the table, I watched her work. She laid out a stack of blank parchment next to the original, her horn lit up, and somehow the text appeared on the blank paper as if someone had just written on it. As she worked, she hummed happily to herself.

It was basically a copy-and-paste spell, no matter what Twilight said about a Photocopy Replicator Spell. I’m pretty sure she was just making up a name to try and cover up what it actually was: Control + C, Control + V. That was fine by me, however. I didn’t have to write out the whole damn thing all over again.

As I watched Twilight copy page after page, a small smile touched my face. As she hummed, she would bob her head, swaying her flank gracefully back and forth in time with the song.

Laughing softly, I pushed my chair back and rose to my feet. Grabbing an apple on my way out of the kitchen, I bit into it happily, enjoying the wonderful taste.

Walking up behind Twilight, I watched over her shoulder as she finished up with the last few pages.

“There,” she said, wrapping a ribbon around the new stack. “I’ll send that to Princess Celestia along with my newest friendship report—”

knock knock knock

Blinking, I straightened up and looked at the door, the apple stuck in my mouth. Twilight leaned around me, staring at the door with a confused expression on her face.

“Did any of our friends say they were coming over today?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the door. I glanced over at the calendar.

~Nope~ I replied, before pulling the apple out of my mouth. There was a brief second of silence before the knocking resumed again.

“Come in,” Twilight called hesitantly. The door handle turned and the front door swung open, allowing two mares to walk inside.

The first one was a dark gray unicorn, her pink mane cut short, sticking out in the back. It kind of reminded me of Rainbow’s mane, actually. She was carrying a bulky pair of saddlebags on her back, filled with I-don’t-know what. She looked around the library, curiosity in her bright green eyes. As her gaze landed on me, she froze, her eyes going wide.

The second mare…

“S’up, tall stuff. Long time no see,” Avera said, smirking up at me, her blue eyes alive with mirth. She too had a stuffed saddlebag on her back. She slipped past the first mare and trotted further into the library, closing the door behind her. Unstrapping her saddlebags, she allowed them to fall to the floor with a thud.

The first mare just continued to stand there, staring at me with a disconcerting look. She mouthed something, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Slowly, her saddlebags slid off her flank and onto the ground.

“Avera?” Twilight asked, her eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”

“Princess Sparkle,” the black pegasus said, turning to salute Twilight, the smile still on her face. “Good to see you too, ma’am. First Lieutenant Avera Noctus of The Coming Dawn reporting for duty. We were assigned by the princesses to look after the human, Max.”

“Wait, you were one of the volunteers Luna spoke of?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side. “Why did you volunteer?” Avera just shrugged, glancing around the library.

“You guys were fun to hang out with, and I had nothing better to do.”

“And who’s your… um, friend here?” Twilight asked, turning her attention to the other mare. Avera glanced over at the mare in question, who was still staring at me. Chuckling softly, she nudged the unicorn with a hoof. She blinked, shaking her head before looking towards Twilight, a sheepish smile on her face.

“S-sorry, ma’am,” she said, hastily throwing a salute. “Major Ebony Rose of the Battlemages, reporting in. We were instructed to check in with you upon arriving in Ponyville.”

“Wow,” Twilight said, glancing between the two. “A member of the Coming Dawn and a Battlemage. I didn’t know Max needed that kind of protection. Is there something Princess Celestia and Luna aren’t telling us?”

“No, ma’am,” Ebony said as Avera chuckled. “Most of the other volunteers were just normal members of the Royal Guard, but Princess Celestia thought it would be good to send somepony who was overqualified, rather than under.”

“I still want to know why she thinks Max needs protection so badly,” Twilight muttered under her breath. She blinked suddenly, her face scrunching up slightly as she looked between the two mares. “Wait, Luna said that there was going to be three of you…”

“The third member of our entourage is part of the Lunar Guard. She’ll be arriving later this evening, after the sun sets,” Avera said. “Until then, you’re stuck with us.” She gave me a quick wink, a smirk on her face. I stuck my tongue out at her before taking another bite out of my apple. At least one of the guards is a pony we’ve met before. Avera’s not too bad, but we’ll have to see about the other ones.

“Well, it seems that the guards have arrived,” Twilight said, turning to give me an amused look. I just chuckled, shaking my head. Looking back over at the new pair, I flinched back when I found myself staring into a pair of large green eyes.

I jumped back with a small yelp, giving Ebony Rose an annoyed look. She just continued to stare at me, a large smile slowly spreading across her face.

“So, you’re the intelligent human,” she said gleefully. “There’s been rumors about you spreading through the guards ever since the human fighting ring was unearthed. Most didn’t believe it was true, but that changed after Celestia asked for volunteers to guard a special human, though I don’t think most ponies know the exact details.

“Oh,” she giggled, her eyes sparkling. “This is going to be so much fun!”

“Calm down, Major,” Avera snorted, flopping onto the coach. “You’ll scare the big lug off before he even gets to know you.” Ebony gave me a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. I just stared at her, unsure of what to think. She’s kinda like Twilight when she first learned I was intelligent. I hope I don’t have to answer a bazillion questions again.

“Sorry, got a little too excited there, but just think about it: the first ever intelligent human ever recorded!” she said, backing up several steps. “That’s got to at least intrigue you!” Avera just shrugged, stretching out across the couch. I sighed softly, shaking my head. Yep, exactly like Twilight when she first found out.

I looked at Twilight, cocking an eyebrow as I chewed on some of the apple.

~This is going to be interesting~

“That’s the spirit!” Ebony said, clapping her hooves together happily. Twilight and I both looked at her in surprise.

“You can understand him?” Twilight asked. Ebony nodded her head.

“We were briefed on the situation,” she explained. “Part of the briefing was the need for us to be able to communicate with ‘the human’ as quickly as possible. To that extent, we were all required to learn hoof-language, as well as human body language that indicates if he’s frightened, angry, hurt, or in danger.” After she said the hoof-language part, I sighed in relief. Oh, thank God. I really didn’t want to have to write everything down.

“Although, I think we’ll have to get used to his version of hoof-language,” Ebony continued, rubbing her chin as she looked up at me. “It’s slightly different than the standard version, though the concept appears similar.”

“He had to improvise, as he’s not exactly a pony,” Twilight explained. “It’s fairly easy to understand though, and I’m sure that you’ll pick up on it in no time. All you really have to do is—”

“Before we get too comfortable,” Avera interrupted, lounging on the couch, her hooves in the air and wings spread wide. “We need to know what you’ve decided about our housing arrangements.”

“Housing arrangements?” Twilight asked, giving the pegasus a confused look.

“Yeah, are we going to be staying at the library with you two, or do you want us to find lodgings nearby?” Twilight chewed on her bottom lip, her head tilted to the side.

“Well, the basement isn’t currently being used,” she said slowly. “Max was using it until… Well, let’s just say it’s free. Would that work for you?”

“Where is it?” Avera asked, pushing herself up off the couch. I pointed at the basement door, taking another bite out of my apple. Avera trotted over and opened the door. Glancing down the stairs, she hummed softly to herself before nodding and closing the door again.

“That’ll work just fine,” she said, returning to the couch, upon which she flung herself again. “We’ll just have to do some redecorating and it’ll be perfect!”

“Well, I guess that’s settled then,” Twilight hummed. “Any more questions?” Avera and Ebony looked at each other before shaking their heads.

“Nope,” Ebony said, lighting up her horn and lifting her bag into the air. “We’ll just unpack our stuff and take it down to the basement.”

Nodding her head and smiling, Twilight turned back to her desk. “Now, where was I—”

wapa-wapa-wapa-wapa-wapa-wapa

Everyone froze as we all turned to look at the door as someone on the other side hit it. That doesn’t sound like knocking; it’s more like someone slapping the door.

“Ugh, what is it now?!” Twilight groaned, clearly aggravated. Muttering something about too many interruptions, Twilight stalked over to the door, and flung it open, glaring at the pony on the other side.

Standing there, a blank expression on her face, was a mint green unicorn. Her mane was the same color as her coat, and had a white strip running down the middle. Twin golden orbs stared back at Twilight, blinking occasionally.

She looks familiar, I thought, absentmindedly scratching my chin. Where have I seen her before?

“Lyra?” Twilight asked, speaking slowly as she eyed the unicorn cautiously. “What are you doing here? Last I checked, you were admitted to Ponyville General’s Psychiatric Hospital after being arrested for human hoarding.” Ah, that’s where. She was the unicorn I saw get arrested my first day in Ponyville! Wait…

I looked over at Twilight, giving her an incredulous look.

~And you know that how?~ I asked her. She glanced over her shoulder at me, a sheepish smile on her face.

“I received the report from the local guards. I told them to inform me of any incidents in Ponyville, seeing as I’m currently a residing princess here.”

~Right~ I replied, nodding my head. ~It’s hard to remember that you’re actually a princess sometimes~

“What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked, her eyes narrowing.

~I’ve caught you snuggling with your books before~ I signed, a smug smile on my face. In the background both Ebony Rose and Avera snickered behind their hooves. A small blush appeared across Twilight’s face.

“Quiet, you,” she said before turning her attention back the the unicorn on the other side of the doorway. “So, Lyra, what can I do for you?” Lyra, however, was no longer looking at her.

Her gaze was now locked firmly on me. She stared up at me, unblinking, that blank expression still on her face. Her golden eyes were hazy and unfocused, her pupils mere pinpricks. I felt a chill run up my spine at the look, goosebumps slowly spreading across my limbs. What the fuck is her problem?

“Lyra?” Twilight asked again, waving a hoof in front of the unicorn’s face. She didn’t even twitch at the movement. “Lyra?”

I heard movement behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder, looking for the source. Ebony had dropped her bag back onto the floor, her green eyes locked onto Lyra. Avera had also moved, standing up from the couch, flexing her wings slightly. Both had serious expressions on their faces as they regarded Lyra. Swallowing nervously, I turned my attention back to her as well. If trained ponies are getting nervous, that can’t be a good sign…

Lyra still hadn’t moved; her gaze was still locked firmly on me.

“Lyra, are you alright—” Twilight began, but was interrupted when the unicorn finally spoke.

“... statues ...blood and… flesh to stone…” she muttered, her voice soft and emotionless.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, taking a small step back, her wings twitching nervously twitching at her sides. “W-what was that?”

“I have seen the statues. They chilled my blood and turned my flesh to stone,” Lyra repeated, louder than before. Her eyes were still locked on me, unwavering. “White on black; veins of stone, forever staring at nothing and succeeding.” The three other ponies in the library just looked at her in confusion, Twilight taking another step back.

However, at her words, I reeled back in shock. Instantly, an image of a black marble statue filled my head, white veins running through its entire body as its blank face stared into oblivion.

How does she know about the statues? I thought, fear slowly welling up inside of me. I didn’t tell anyone about those dreams!

“Lyra,” Twilight said nervously, still backing away from the unicorn. “Do the orderlies know you’re wandering around? Are you supposed to be out and about?” Lyra didn’t answer her; it didn’t look like she had even heard Twilight speak at all. Instead, she just took a step towards me, her hoof entering the library. Instantly Ebony and Avera were in front of me, Ebony’s horn glowing and Avera’s wings spread wide protectively.

“State your intention, or leave,” Avera growled, lowering her head slightly. Once again, Lyra didn’t reply, nor did her gaze waver: she had eyes only for me. She took another step into the library, and this time I matched the step, slowly backing up. I didn’t know what she wanted, but she was creeping me the fuck out. The little voice in the back of my head was back, and it was currently telling me that now would be a good time to run for it.

“Cease and desist—” Ebony began, but that was all she could say before Lyra moved.

“I CAN HEAR THEM SINGING!” she screamed, suddenly lunging at me. “THEIR SONG BURNS MY SOUL AND SETS MY RESOLVE ABLAZE!” Ebony’s horn lit up as Lyra flew threw the air. Avera leapt towards her, a snarl on her face. There was a loud bang, and the library was instantly filled with a thick cloud of smoke. Coughing, I heard movement all around me. There was a loud crack, followed by a groan as something hit the floor.

Staggering to the wall, I brushed my hand across its surface, searching for a window. Finding one, I threw it open and tumbled outside, into the chilly open air. Coughing as I tried to clear my lungs, I stumbled away from the library, blinking tears from my eyes. Another loud bang came from the library, followed by an inhuman scream. I didn’t have time to wonder what was going on in there before the beast was upon me again.

Leaping out the window after me came a disheveled Lyra, her coat smoking slightly and she had blood smeared across her forehead. I scrambled back, trying to avoid her, but I couldn’t move fast enough. I grunted as her hooves slammed into my chest, their rough, uneven edges digging into my flesh beneath the shirt. Unable to remain standing, I fell backwards onto the ground, grunting in pain as my elbows cracked against the hard ground.

“Their wordless screams, their sightless gazes, their unfeeling minds,” she cried, her face inches from mine. Tears streamed from her blank eyes, dripping down onto my face. “They scream in pain, in fear of the god that has abandoned them to the darkness! Forever lost they remain.” She was so close that I could smell her breath as she spoke, the minty scent tickling my nose and making me want to sneeze.

I gazed up into her eyes, fear gripping my body as her horn lit up, her magic coursing through it. For a split second, the world seemed to freeze, and instead of Lyra standing above me was Darkflare, his face twisted into a demonic grin. Then I blinked, and Lyra was back, her golden, blank eyes staring down at me.

She opened her mouth to spew more insanity, but was stopped when a rainbow blur slammed into her, lifting her off of me. Rolling over, I saw Rainbow lying on top of Lyra, her eyes rolling in her head. What Rainbow was doing near the library this fine afternoon, I had no clue, but I was happy to see her.

“M-max!” Twilight cried, coughing as she leaned out the window. Smoke was still billowing out of the library, wafting up into the clear sky. I prayed that a fire hadn’t been started, as I was pretty sure that tree would be gone in under a minute.

I tried to answer Twilight, but Lyra was already getting to her hooves again, shoving a dazed Rainbow off of her in the process. Her attention was on me again, her horn lighting up with a golden glow

What the fuck is her problem? Staggering to my feet, I barely had time to regain my balance before Lyra lunged at me again. Reacting on instinct, I threw a punch at the unicorn. Before my strike could land, however, my hand was encased in Lyra’s golden magic. There was a bright flash and the next thing I knew my arm was stuck to my side, unable to move.

I staggered backwards as Lyra finally reached me. She jumped up at me, her hooves outstretched, and latched onto my shoulders, causing both of us to fall backwards again. As I landed on the ground again, Lyra rolled off of me, her horn hitting the top of my head in the process. Almost like a switch had been flipped, the pressure around my hand faded and I was able to use my arm again.

I was immediately on my feet again. Not waiting around for Lyra to recover, I turned and sprinted towards the marketplace. The sound of pounding hooves behind me told me that the deranged unicorn was already in hot pursuit.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I tore down the road, Lyra breathing down my back. I tried to keep her out of my large blind spot, but that was rather difficult as I was also trying to see where I was going as well. When you only have one working eye, your coordination skills tend to take a nosedive. Where the hell are my guards? Isn’t it their job to protect me from stuff like this?!

Rounding a corner, I drew a lot of attention from the gathered ponies as I dashed for the crowded marketplace, hoping to lose Lyra amongst the crowd. Hopefully she would be tripped up by someone, or something, because I really didn’t think I could win this fight. Rainbow Dash I could take; hell, I could probably win in a fight with Applejack on a good day, but there was nothing I could do against magic.

Leaping over a couple of ponies, I heard a loud crack behind me. Instantly, Lyra was in front of me in a flash of light. Her expression was still blank as her golden eyes locked onto me. I tried to slow down before I crashed into her, but couldn't in time. As I tripped over her body, she wrapped her hooves around my leg, pulling me down with her.

My face smashed into the ground, a loud, sickening crack ringing through my head. Pushing myself up, I spat blood out of my mouth, wincing as a tooth fell out as well. Blood flowed out of my nose, running down my face. I barely had time for my brain to register the pain before I was flipped over by a burst of magic. Lyra loomed over me, her horn aglow.

“I hear the ancient voice from the void, whispering softly to me in my dreams,” she whispered, leaning down until her nose was pressed against mine. Pain flared across my nose as she touched it, causing me to wince. She continued, unperturbed by my pain. “Its words chill my soul and turn my loveless heart to ashes…”

What’s wrong with this mare? Is she high or something?! I gazed up at her, confused and afraid, as she stood over me, blocking out the sun. The shadows darkened her face until only her eyes were visible, twin golden orbs staring down at me with such ferocity that I feared I might burst into flame just from the intensity of her gaze.

My heart was pounding against my ribcage, screaming as it tried to escape. My face throbbed in pain, blood slowly trickling down my cheek from my nose. Lyra opened her mouth again, but was silenced as a lasso flew over her head and wrapped around her neck. She glanced down at the rope, a brief look of curiosity flashing across her face before the rope yanked her off of me.

“Whoa there, partner,” Applejack said around the rope in her mouth. “Now let’s just calm down and—” Lyra snarled, her expressionless face becoming aggressive as she turned her attention to the cowmare. “Whoa nelly!” Lyra leapt at Applejack, her teeth bared as the farmer scrambled backwards. A foot from Applejack, Lyra froze in midair, her body surrounded by a rosey glow.

“That—” Ebony growled, emerging from the crowd, her horn lit up with the same colored magic, “—is enough of that.” Lyra struggled in the air, flailing her limbs around as she snarled like a feral animal.

As I sat up and held a hand to my nose, Twilight emerged from the crowd as well. She gasped when she saw me, and quickly hurried to my side, a worried expression on her face.

“Oh sweet Celestia,” she breathed. “Are you alright?” I began to nod, but changed my mind and shook my head instead as blood slowly oozed from between my fingers. I was not okay: physically or mentally. I just had a deranged unicorn chase me halfway across town for no apparent reason, all the while reminding me repeatedly that I had no real defense when it came to magic. I was just glad that Ebony had shown up when she did.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the library and take a look at your wounds,” Twilight murmured gently, slipping under my arm and helping me to my feet. The crowd of ponies surrounding us backed up as I rose shakily to my feet, my hand still pressed against my nose.

“Major,” Twilight said, glancing at Ebony Rose, who still held the struggling unicorn in her magic. “Take Ms. Heartstrings here back to the psychiatric hospital. Make sure your inform the orderlies of what has happened here, and tell them to keep a better eye on her. This type of thing better not happen again.” Ebony saluted before turning and heading off towards the hospital, Lyra floating behind her. The crowd parted for them, ponies giving Lyra nervous looks as she floated over their heads. She struggled animatedly, trying to turn her body around in the air.

“Curse all of you! You are nothing more than pawns! Damned bones and cursed souls, doomed to tread the path to oblivion!” she shrieked, spittle flying from her mouth. “I have seen his hopes and fears and dreams. I have seen the past, the present and the future! I know what is needed, what is required, and what is wanted! The humans are the key!” Her voice slowly faded as Ebony carried her around the corner of a building, her rantings still echoing throughout the marketplace.

I stood there, blood seeping through my fingers as I stared after the raving unicorn, a look of trepidation on my face. Her last words echoed through my head, slowly sending a chill down my spine. The humans are the key! Beside me, I felt Twilight tense up. Glancing down at her, I saw by the look on her face that she was as troubled by what Lyra had said as I was. The humans are the key! The ponies around slowly returned to what they had been doing, chatting quietly with one another.

“Come on,” Twilight said softly, tugging on my hand with her wing. She looked up at me, a concerned expression on her face. “Library.” I nodded dumbly and let her begin to lead me back the the tree.

As we walked, the sky slowly opened up, and snow began to fall.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Stop fidgeting,” Twilight scolded, dabbing at my face with an alcohol-sodden ball of cotton. I hissed in pain, flinching away slightly at the sting.

We were back at the library after the strange ordeal with Lyra, and I was currently sitting on the couch as Twilight tried to clean the several scratches and scrapes I had acquired when I had high-fived the ground with my face. My nose—which luckily wasn’t broken—had only just stopped bleeding several minutes ago. My whole head felt sore and I had a headache slowly brewing.

I winced again as the cotton ball came in contact with another scratch, hissing through my teeth.

~It stings~ I signed. Twilight reached a hoof out, pushing my arms back down into my lap.

“I know it stings,” she said, a sympathetic look on her face. “But I need to clean out the cuts so they don’t get infected.” She bit her bottom lip as she floated the drenched white ball closer to my face again, gently cleaning another cut with great care. “Um, this might hurt a little,” she said before her horn lit up. Pain lanced through my cheek and I gritted my teeth as I felt something being pulled slowly out of my face. The feeling grew worse until finally a small bit of gravel, wrapped in Twilight’s magic, emerged from one of my cuts. Almost immediately the pain ceased, leaving behind only a throbbing ache.

“Sorry about that,” Twilight apologized, dabbing at the now bleeding scratch with the cotton ball. “Don’t want your skin to heal over that; it could’ve caused issues later.” She gave the cut another once over to make sure she got all of the gravel. Once she was satisfied that it was clean, she did a quick double-check over my face before floating the red stained cotton ball over to the trash. Picking up some bandages off of the coffee table, she began trying to patch up some of the more severe scrapes.

“Hopefully none of these create any scars,” she said softly. Her hooves were gentle against my skin as she worked, placing the bandages on the scratches. “You’ll start to look like you got into a fight with a timberwolf.”

“Not a timberwolf,” Avera groaned. “A demon. An insane little demon from Tartarus.” The black pegasus sat on the other end of the couch, an ice pack pressed against the side of her head, trying to reduce the size of the lump that was currently located there. From what she had said, she had gotten it when Lyra had smashed her head into Avera’s. It had knocked her silly for several minutes and given Lyra an opening to jump out the window after me.

Some guard, I chuckled, absentmindedly rubbing at one of the bandages Twilight had just placed on my face.

“By the Maker,” Avera groaned again, closing her eyes and leaning her head back on the couch. “What was that unicorn’s head made of, steel? I feel like I got hit by a freight train!”

“Oh, suck it up, you big baby,” Twilight smirked, not looking over at the distressed pegasus. “You’re lucky that her horn missed your eyes. If her head had been a few inches lower, it would have been more than just a large goose egg. Besides, you’re a guard; a member of the Coming Dawn. The best of the best. Isn’t it your job to protect Max? What happened?”

“I wasn’t expecting an insane unicorn with a head of titanium to headbutt me at a dead sprint,” Avera growled, cracking an eye open and glaring at Twilight. The was a brief moment before her blue eyes widened and a look of horror crossed her face. “I-I’m sorry, Princess Sparkle, I m-meant no disrespect,” she began to sputter out before Twilight raised a hoof. She just shook her head at the pegasus, a small smile on her face.

“Relax, Avera,” she said. “You don’t need to freak out. Actually, I’d much rather you treat me like a normal pony than a princess while you’re staying here, if that’s alright. I’m still not used to being treated like royalty, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t like all the attention that comes with it.” Avera relaxed, but still looked a little uneasy, ruffling her feathers as she readjusted herself on the couch.

Twilight returned her attention back to me, placing the remaining bandages onto the table, “Alright, open your mouth wide and hold it open, please.” My jaw cracked slightly as I opened it; the whole thing felt sore and stiff. Twilight leaned in, looking into my mouth and studying my teeth closely.

After several seconds, she leaned back, her face scrunched up slightly, “Yeah, she knocked one of your bicuspids out and cracked two of your molars. It shouldn’t be too hard to fix.” Twilight’s tongue poked out of her mouth as her horn began to glow softly, tendrils of magic flowing from its tip towards my mouth. “Now, this might feel funny, but just try to hold still, okay?” As I kept my mouth open, her magic flowed into my open maw. My jaw and gums began to tingle before there was a quick twinge of pain in my upper jaw. Almost immediately, I could feel a new tooth slowly beginning to grow into the empty spot, the feeling of the tooth pushing through the gum causing shivers to run down my spine.

Eventually the feeling stopped as the tooth fit into place with a soft ‘click’. I felt it shift slightly, moving back into the proper position, before two sharp cracks echoed from my mouth as Twilight’s magic fixed my cracked molars, mending them instantly.

“There you go,” Twilight said, stepping back as her horn stopped glowing. “Now, just like before, no eating anything hard or sticky for a few hours and they should be as good as new.” I nodded my head, smiling weakly as I ran my tongue over the repaired teeth.

As I tongued my teeth, Avera continued her conversation with Twilight, shifting the ice pack into a more comfortable position.

“What the buck was the deal with her anyways?” Avera asked. “I’ve fought against many ponies before, but that unicorn was a different story entirely. She acted like a possessed mare!”

“It’s complicated,” Twilight replied, chewing on her lip. “Lyra has always had a rather eccentric personality when it came to humans, but it wasn’t always that bad. Mostly it was just her going around making sketches of them. I’m not sure what changed, but she started to get more and more obsessed with humans. The obsession seems to have grown out of control, because last I checked, she was placed under arrest several months ago for human hoarding. She had a rather large number of them, too.

“It was during the investigation that the guards discovered she’s, well… she’s crazy,” Twilight deadpanned. “I know that’s kind of mean to say, but she is. She claims that she was collecting humans to ‘save them from the coming fire’, but couldn’t tell the guard what the ‘coming fire’ was, or when it would come. At first the guards thought she was just trying to talk her way out of trouble; you know, like saying you were simply holding that illegal substance for a friend? Well, after several days, it turns out that was not the case with Lyra.”

“You say that like there’s a story behind it,” Avera chuckled, wincing as she shifted the ice pack on her head. At the look on Twilight’s face, Avera raised an eyebrow. “Is there?”

“She attacked a guard when he was bringing a stray human in,” Twilight said, her expression blank. “She claimed that the human was screaming to be set free from his torment, and it was up to her to help.”

“Oh, I see...” Avera’s ears splayed backwards as she gave Twilight a sheepish smile. “Well, that would explain that—”

CRACK

Everyone in the library jumped at the noise as the room was filled with a burst of light. Ebony Rose blinked into existence in the center of the library, an exasperated look on her face. She was clutching a hoof to her nose, which was bleeding.

“Celestia damn it,” Avera hissed, holding her head in her hooves. “Warn us before you do that next time!” I nodded in agreement, trying to calm my heart which was trying to burst out of my chest; after today’s events, I was a little jumpy.

“How am I supposed to warn you if not I’m nearby?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side as she shot us a confused look, the hoof still pressed against her nose. Avera just grumbled, glaring at the floor with a small pout.

“What happened to you?” Twilight asked. Ebony lowered her hoof, glancing at the blood-soaked fur before returning it to her snout.

“The unicorn kicked me when I was handing her over to the orderlies. It’s nothing to worry about, though; just a little nose bleed. Anyways, the patient is back at the hospital. The orderlies didn’t even know she was missing. Apparently they had let some of the patients out into the yard after lunch and Lyra just happened to find a small hole in the fence that was big enough for her to slip through.” Ebony shook her head and sighed heavily. “The head doctor was very apologetic and told me that something like this will never happen again.”

“Unfortunately, I doubt that,” Twilight said, scrunching up her face. “They’ve had escaped patients before, but the worst was a mare who thought she was a dog.”

“Well, according to the head doctor, Lyra wasn’t even supposed to be allowed outside yet. Apparently there was a mix up with the nurses about her schedule, and she ended up somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. He told me that they sorted it out, so she shouldn’t have a chance to escape again any time soon.”

“That’s good,” Twilight said, breathing a sigh of relief. “We’re just lucky nopony got too badly injured.” Avera and I looked at each other, eyeing each other’s injuries before we both turned and looked at Ebony, who was still trying to stem the flow of blood from her nose. She looked back at us, before all three of us turned and gave Twilight a deadpanned look. She gave us a sheepish smile in return, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.

“Glad you care so much about us,” Avera muttered under her breath. I just shook my head, rubbing my right eyebrow with a finger absentmindedly. Ebony just removed her hoof, checking her nose, her eyes crossed.

“Oh, you know what I meant,” Twilight huffed, her ears folded against her head. “Anything else to report?” she asked, turning her attention back to Ebony.

“No, nothing at all,” the unicorn replied.

“Did they happen to mention what is wrong with that mare?” Avera called from the couch. Ebony just shook her head.

“No,” she said, collapsing into one of the chairs. “They just know that there is something up with her brain, but they don’t know what.”

“Probably smashed her head into too many hard objects,” Avera muttered under her breath as she closed her eyes again.

“Yeah, well, whatever is wrong with her, she sure can shout just fine,” Ebony grumbled, rubbing an ear with her free hoof. “She wouldn’t stop shouting the entire way to the hospital. Always the same thing, though. Something about how the humans were the key, or some kinda crap like that.” At that, Twilight and I exchanged uneasy looks, which did not go unnoticed by Ebony.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking back and forth between us, her green eyes narrowing slightly. “Do you know something about what she was talking about?”

“It’s not what she was saying, but the context,” Twilight said, sucking on the inside of her cheek. I nodded slowly, licking my dry lips.

“What do you mean?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Well, a little over a week ago, while we were walking through Canterlot to visit my family, we encountered a human that displayed some… non-human-like behavior. Max tried to write it off as a simple territorial display, but I don’t believe that that was it,” Twilight explain. “It’s just unsettling that something like that would happen just before Lyra goes and does this.”

“Non-human-like behavior?” Avera asked, opening her eyes and sitting up slightly, the pain in her head temporarily forgotten.

“He screeched like a banshee before fleeing the scene,” Twilight replied. “However, it wasn’t that fact alone that disturbed us. It was the fact that the entire time he was screaming, he was focused solely on Max. He was even pointing at him.”

“And now the insane unicorn comes and is only focused on Max as well,” Avera said, nodding her head thoughtfully. “Interesting.”

“What happened to the human?” Ebony asked, leaning forward in the chair.

“We don’t know, actually,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Some of the local guards chased after him, but as far as I know, they never found him. Max managed to get a look at the brand on the human's thigh, so I sent a request to the princesses to track down his owner, but I have yet to receive word from them on the situation.”

“Well, let’s not blow this out of proportion,” Avera said, waving a hoof. “We don’t know all the details yet. There might be something simple that explains what happened. Is it at all possible that the human was infected?” Twilight shook her head, chewing on her lower lip.

“No, he wasn’t displaying any of the typical signs,” she said. “He wasn’t coughing, wheezing or staggering around. His eyes looked normal and there was no sign of any darkening of the veins. I’m pretty sure this was something else entirely.”

“Any idea what it might be?” Ebony asked, her ears perking up.

“No,” Twilight said slowly, rubbing her chin with a hoof. This caused Ebony’s ears to droop and she slumped back in her chair. Twilight didn’t seem to notice her disappointment, however. Her eyes became unfocused as the gears within her head began turning. I knew that look well; it was the look she got whenever she began to try and figure something out.

The sound of the door handle clicking drew my attention to the front door, which slowly swung open, allowing moonlight to flow into the library. There was a brief pause before a mare slowly walked in.

She had a thick gray coat, her fetlocks long and shaggy. She had a bulky pair of saddlebags on her back, indicating that she was possibly the third guard. Her mane was dark purple and messy, hanging around her face in long strands. She was a pegasus, but instead of feathered wings, she had a pair of batlike wings by her side. She walked slowly, a tired look on her face, almost like she had just woken up.

As the door closed behind her, she paused and took a look around with heavy-lidded red eyes, taking in the scene before her: Ebony, sitting there with a hoof pressed against her bleeding nose. Twilight, who was staring off into the distance, a blank expression on her face. Avera, sitting on the couch with an ice pack on her head and her eyes closed.

When her gaze landed on me, with my face covered in scratches and bandages, she blinked owlishly, “What the buck did I miss?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Will you stop fidgeting?” one of the guards growled, trying to adjust the strange device strapped to Sunny’s helmet. As he tugged on the device, it pulled on her helmet, which in turn pulled on her head and neck, causing Sunny to wince. “Sweet Celestia, if you’d just stay still, we’d have been done already!”

“Sorry, this armor feels weird. I’m not used to it,” Sunny muttered, ruffling her feathers nervously, the unfamiliar weight of the armor adorned upon her body. The floor beneath her hooves vibrated as the engine rumbled, pulling the train along. As a pegasus, she didn’t like being cooped up in small places for long periods of time, and they had already been on this train for several hours. Her wings were twitching, eager for the open air.

The guard just rolled his eyes, muttering something about “civilians” under his breath before double checking Sunny’s helmet. Satisfied that everything was in place, he released her head and stepped back, huffing.

“So, what is this exactly?” Sunny asked, raising a hoof up towards the device. It looked like a small, clear crystal wrapped around an ebony piece of metal. Every few seconds, a small red light on the side blinked.

The guard slapped her hoof away, an annoyed look on his face.

“It’s a camera,” he growled, reaching up to adjust his own, his grey eyes glaring up at it in distaste. “It records what’s happening around you and allows for the higher-ups to know what’s going on in the field. It’s being transmitted back to Canterlot in real-time.”

“I’ve never seen the Royal Guard use them like this before,” Sunny said, tilting her head slightly as she tried to get a better view of the device attached to her helmet, but it was always just on the edge of her vision. As she moved her head around, she heard somepony clear their throat. Glancing back at the guard, Sunny blushed as she realized how foalish she looked.

The guard just continued to glare at her.

“That’s because we’re not the Royal Guard,” came a voice from behind them. Sunny turned her head and glanced over her shoulder, only to see another guard standing there. She was staring at Sunny with a cold, calculating look in her red eyes. Her light gray mane fell across her face, parting only for her horn. Her coat was stark white, or at least the part that wasn’t covered by her dark gray armor.

The guard who had put the camera on Sunny’s helmet saluted this new guard before turning and trotting away, leaving Sunny alone with this new pony. She shuffled her hooves timidly.

“Ms. Breeze.” Sunny’s eyes flicked up to hers and she swallowed nervously. “I am Second Lieutenant Ivory Pyre, and I’m currently in charge of this entire operation.” Sunny nodded dumbly, not sure of what to say. “We normally don’t allow civilians on ops, but I received word from the Princess about your special… circumstances. That being said, I was hoping that you could give me more information about where we are currently headed and what to expect,” Ivory said, motioning behind her with a flick of her head.

Sunny nodded again, and fell in line behind her, stumbling slightly at the unfamiliar weight on her back. Why the buck do they make this armor so heavy?

Reaching the end of the compartment, Ivory’s horn lit up and she swung the door open before stepping through into the adjacent coach. The door closed behind Sunny as she followed her in.

This new compartment was more roomy than the previous one. Guards sat on benches that lined the walls, chatting quietly with each other. There was even a pair playing with a deck of cards that one of them had pulled from her armor.

Each guard was dressed in similar gray armor. Unlike regular guard armor, which gleamed and sparkled, this armor appeared to have a matte finish. Small pockets covered parts of the armor, filled with a variety of accessories needed to complete any given mission. The cloth under the armor appeared to be a darker gray, almost black. The entire outfit appeared to have been designed with stealth in mind.

As we passed by a small group of guards, Sunny noticed that each of their pauldrons were branded with the black symbol of a sun rising out of the horizon. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw that. That particular symbol indicated that these ponies were Celestia’s finest; the best of the best. Hoof-picked by the princess herself, they were only known by one name: The Coming Dawn.

Sunny felt her heart rate skyrocket as she stared at the emblem, her head lowering and ears flattening against her scalp. When she had agreed to help Princess Celestia track down the rest of Darkflare’s crew, she didn’t know that she would be working with The Coming Dawn. She felt way out of her league here; they were professionals, and she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.

Ivory lead Sunny over to a large table centered in the middle of the compartment. Pictures, maps, and blueprints of buildings covered the surface. As Sunny leaned over to get a better look at some of them, Ivory cleared her throat. Glancing up, the pegasus felt her throat tighten as she saw that all the guards were beginning to cluster around the table. The guard with the cards was returning them to one of the pouches on her armor as she approached.

Sunny could barely stop her knees from trembling slightly as they closed in around her. Her heart began to beat faster in her breast, and she could feel sweat begin to accumulate on her brow. I’m an ex-convict surrounded by the best guards in Equestria; what’s the worst that could happen?

“Alright,” Ivory began, her voice echoing slightly around the silent compartment. “Here’s what we’ve been briefed on so far. This particular hideout is located several miles south of Dodge City, near the border to the Badlands. Since there is no real town near the warehouse, we are unsure of how Darkflare’s crew were transporting humans in and out it.”

“That’s easy,” Sunny said, trying to keep her voice steady as she picked up a photo and absentmindedly looked at it. It showed a skeletal human, nothing but skin and bones, lying on the bottom of a cage. She shivered slightly at the sight, bile rising in her stomach. How could I have ever been a part of this?

Swallowing, she continued, “The warehouse itself is right by the train tracks. Darkflare just paid the conductors to stop at the warehouse, had them unload the cargo, and then train would resume its journey.” Silence fell around the compartment, causing Sunny to glance up. All the guards were looking at her, their expressions blank. Her ears splayed back as she found herself the center of attention, and she swallowed nervously. Her inner pegasus was telling her to fly, to escape the confining space and soar away from all of the stress.

“W-what?” Sunny stuttered, her eyes darting around at the blank faces.

Ivory motioned with her hoof, urging her to continue talking.

“W-well,” Sunny continued, licking her suddenly dry lips. “W-we… I mean, they used the warehouse as a type of storage building.” That earned her several eye rolls from the guards, and she shrank back a little. “They would house humans there that were either too sickly to be sold, or too violent to pass for pets. I believe that those humans would later be used in fighting rings, although many of the sickly ones never lasted that long.

“The warehouse is also used to store any valuable items we might find—”

“What kind of valuable items?” Ivory asked, her red eyes boring into Sunny.

“A-anything we found that could have been worth a few bits,” Sunny stuttered. The atmosphere was tense, and she wasn’t liking it at all. Relax, Sunny. This is probably the princess’s way of making you pay for your crimes. She wouldn’t put you in a position that would cause you harm, would she? “We spent some time in the desert and Badlands, so we would sometimes come across artifacts that could be worth a fair bit of money. Darkflare would store them here, until such time as he found a pony willing to buy them for a high price.”

“Anything that could be considered dangerous?” Ivory asked.

“There wasn’t anything like that the last time I was there,” Sunny said.

“And how long ago was that?”

“Just over five months ago,” Sunny said quietly, lowering her head and blushing. This caused the surrounding guards to grumble, some shaking their heads while others just sighed heavily. Sunny’s blush darkened.

“So you’ve got no useful information for us whatsoever,” growled the guard who put the camera on Sunny’s helmet.

Sunny lowered her head further, nearly hiding under the table.

“Sergeant Cutter, that’s enough,” Ivory snapped, glaring at the stallion. “We are very lucky to have Ms. Breeze here with us. Any information—any at all—that she can provide is useful and appreciated.” The sergeant grumbled under his breath, and Ivory’s glare intensified.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked, her voice deathly calm.

“Nothing, ma’am,” the guard growled, not looking up.

“That’s what I thought,” Ivory huffed before turning her attention back to Sunny. Her expression softened slightly. “Thank you for the information, Ms. Breeze.” Lighting up her horn, Ivory pulled a large building blueprint out of the pile of paper on the table. Laying it out flat, she looked around at the guards, all of whom were glancing down at the building’s layout.

“Now then,” Ivory began, her tone professional. “We’ll be arriving at the destination in a few minutes. We don’t expect there to be anypony there when we arrive, but everypony be on your guard, just in case. We’re going to want to move fast to try and capture anypony that might still be lurking inside the warehouse, so I want Sergeant Stacker—” she motioned to a gruff-looking, steel gray pegasus standing next to her, “—to take his squad and enter through the upper windows—”

“Um… e-excuse me,” Sunny said hesitantly, raising a hoof up. Everypony turned to look at her, most of them glaring. She could tell they were annoyed at her interruption, and that didn’t help her self-esteem.

“Yes?” Ivory asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“Y-you… you don’t want to do that,” Sunny muttered, staring at the table. She didn’t want to look up and see their angry expressions. I really, really don’t belong here.

“And why is that?” Sergeant Cutter growled again, gritting his teeth. Sunny wasn’t sure what she did to anger him, but he didn’t seem to care for her one bit.

“B-because, Darkflare probably has the windows rigged with booby traps,” Sunny stuttered, ears flat against her head. “H-he was rather paranoid, and made sure that nopony would accidentally s-stumble upon the hideouts without some f-form of repercussion.”

“And you’re just telling us this now?” Sergeant Cutter snarled, his eyes blazing.

Sunny whimpered, lowering her head down onto the table. I wish I was back in Ponyville with Max and Twilight, she thought, blinking tears from her eyes. I miss my friends.

“Sergeant, that’s enough!” Ivory roared, slamming her hoof on the table. “One more word out of you, and I’ll see to it you are sent back to Canterlot in a crate!” Turning her attention back to Sunny, she said in a much softer voice, “So, you’re telling me that Darkflare liked to booby trap the windows?” Sunny nodded, still not looking up. “Does that mean that the whole place might be one big trap?”

Sunny shook her head, glancing up at Ivory briefly.

“No, Darkflare despised pegasi greatly, and would set traps that would only affect a pegasus: explosives by the windows, as well as razor wire and nets near the ceiling. Unicorns and Earth ponies would have no problem coming and going from the warehouse without setting anything off.”

“So, how would you have us proceed?” Ivory asked, her voice neutral.

Sunny was suddenly aware of all the eyes on her, and she felt her cheeks warm up again.

“A-as long as no p-pegasi take to air while they’re nearby or in the warehouse, then there shouldn’t be any problems,” Sunny said weakly, her head still resting on the table. “Oh, and make sure to watch any and all cages, especially covered ones. Darkflare liked to keep infected humans as a kind of… security measure.”

Ivory nodded at this, rubbing her chin with a hoof. Turning to Sergeant Stacker, she cracked a smile.

“Okay then, change of plans: looks like your squad is going around the back and coming in the rear entrance,” she chirped. Stacker gave her a brief salute.

Sunny blinked, surprised that Ivory was actually listening to her advice. It seemed that she wasn’t the only one that thought this way either.

“I can’t believe we’re listening to her,” Cutter muttered, grinding his teeth together.

Ivory’s eyes flashed as she glared down at the stallion.

“The crate, Cutter. The crate,” she said, her tone ice-cold. Cutter just growled before slinking off, his tail between his legs. Ivory watched him go before turning to the rest of the guards assembled around the table. A loud screeching noise filled the air, and they lurched forward slightly as the train began to apply its brakes. “Okay, we’ve arrived. Stacker’s squad will be heading in the back. The rest of you are with me; we’ll be going in the front entrance.”

One of the guards leaned closer to the pony next to him.

“That’s the best entrance,” he whispered, earning a snicker from his friend. Ivory’s ear twitched, but she just ignored the pair.

“Ms. Breeze,” she said, glancing over at Sunny. “You’ll be going with Stacker’s squad and providing them with any help you can. I want you to be on your hooves, though. At the first sign of trouble, you are to get the buck out of there as quick as you can. Stacker and his guards will cover you if need be. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Sunny nodded weakly. “Alright then, let’s roll out!”

The train slid to a stop, the compartment’s side doors opened, and the guards began to jump out.

Sunny pushed herself up, off the table, and followed them out.

The sky was overcast, gray clouds hanging low over the land. It was drizzling lightly, the frozen rainwater pinging off Sunny’s helmet and armor. Her breath came out in a cloud of vapor in the cold air. She closed her eyes for a brief second, enjoying the feeling of the chilly wind on her face, before returning her attention back to the job at hoof.

Sunny’s outfit felt bulky and heavy as she moved, more evidence that she was completely out of her element. She followed her supposed squadmates towards the warehouse, circling around the large building that sat right next the the train tracks. It stood nearly three stories tall, completely in disrepair. Some windows were boarded up, while others were cracked or busted. Paint was peeling off of the walls, and half of the wood was rotten. The structure creaked ominously whenever the wind blew, swaying slightly side to side. The whole place looked like it was about ready to collapse.

Everypony was quiet as they stalked forward, using every bit of cover they could find. Sunny stumbled after them, trying to be quiet, but failing horribly as she nearly fell flat on her face several times. The last time, she nearly collapsed because of her armor, but one of the guards grabbed her at the last second, picking her up and placing Sunny back on her hooves. She blushed and hung her head, embarrassed, but the mare just patted her shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile.

It’s nice to know that not all of them hate me, Sunny thought as the guard ducked back into cover.

As they neared the back loading bay, Stacker slipped up next to Sunny, causing her to jump at little. How these ponies could move so silently in their armor, she’d never know.

“Somepony needs to put a bell on you,” she hissed, holding a hoof to her chest as she tried to calm her pounding heart. He just chuckled at that, shaking his head.

“That would defeat the purpose, ma’am,” he whispered, casting a quick glance around the area as he walked. Sunny noticed that, unlike the rest of them, he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Instead, he was wearing a cap, the brim of which came down low over his blue eyes, one of which had a small scar under it.

“Nervous?” he asked, turning back to her. She nodded stiffly, her wings ruffling on her sides. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We know your background; the Princess informed us of that personally. Don’t let that bother you, though,” he added, noticing the fear on Sunny’s face. “No matter what, we’ve got your back. Nothing bad is going to happen to you while you’re with us.” He patted her back with a wing, winking at her. She gave him a small smile.

“Thanks,” Sunny said softly.

“Just stick by us, and if things get hairy, keep your head down and we’ll make sure you get out alright,” he said. His face then became stoic and his eyes took on a steely look.

Motioning to his troops, Stacker moved to take his place beside the closed bay door. “Breaching position,” he hissed to the rest of the squad and they all formed up around the door.

Nervously, Sunny fell in line behind them, trying hard not to get in the way.

“Wait for the signal,” Stacker muttered, holding up a wing as he grabbed the handle. There were several seconds of silence before a shrill whistle sounded from the front of the warehouse. Stacker slipped the door up several inches before slipping in a small cylindrical device. He closed the door quickly and there was a loud thump from inside. Stacker paused briefly before flinging the door open with a grunt. Two guards slipped inside the room before the door had even finished opening.

“Clear,” one of them called out. Stacker motioned with his hoof, and the rest of the squad slipped into the warehouse. Sunny moved to follow, but Stacker stopped her with a wing. She looked at him, confused.

“Count to ten, then follow us in,” he said before following after his squad.

Sunny stood there by the door, silent and alone. From the front, Sunny could hear the sounds of Ivory’s forces beginning to search the place.

Sighing heavily to calm her nerves, she hung her head, closed her eyes, and began to count, “1… 2… 3…”

“Spread out,” she heard Stacker bark from inside, his voice muffled. “Search for anypony that could still be here. Once this place is clear, we’ll do a room-by-room search for anything important.” There was a collective murmur of understanding from the guards.

“7… 8… 9… 10.” Opening her eyes, Sunny straightened up and slipped inside the warehouse. By the time she found the guards again, it was all over.

The guards were quick and professional. They had managed to search the entire warehouse and had given the all-clear by the time she had entered the building. Once she had regrouped with Stacker’s squad, they were headed into the main room. Ivory Pyre was standing in the center, barking orders at her guards as they milled about, searching crates and boxes. As they approached, Stacker gave her a brief salute. “Back rooms are all clear, ma’am. No sign of anypony or any human.”

Ivory returned the salute, nodding her head.

“Very good,” she said, looking around the warehouse. “It appears that nopony has been here in a while, if the inch or so of dust is anything to go by.” Sunny looked around and saw that she was right; nearly everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. As Ivory and Stacker conversed, one of the guards ran up, saluting.

“Ma’am, we found seven humans on the second level, all in cages. Five of them appear to have died of starvation, but two are still alive and very weak.”

“Have the medic take a look at them. If they can be saved, get them onto the train and start caring for them immediately. If not, put them out of their misery as quickly and painlessly as possible,” Ivory said. The guard nodded before trotting off. Ivory sighed, removing her helmet and running a hoof through her cropped mane. “It appears that there is nothing left here that could be valuable,” she said tiredly. “They seem to have cleaned this place out before moving on.”

“Orders, ma’am?” Stacker asked, still at attention.

Ivory sighed again, before placing her helmet back on her head and tightening the straps.

“Get everything that could be considered useful back on the train, double-check each room thoroughly, and then burn this place to the ground. No point in letting them keep any place that could be of use later on.” She had just turned to walk off when another guard approached, this one carrying a small dark box in her magic.

“Ma’am,” the guard said, saluting. “We found this on the third floor inside of a broken safe located in an old records room. We’re not exactly sure what it is, but it looks like it could be important.” Ivory’s horn lit up and she took the box gingerly in her magic. Moving it in front of her face, she cast a scrutinizing eye over it.

Sunny leaned in close as well, trying to get a better look.

The box appeared to be made out of a dark wood, silver trim running around the edge. It had a steel clasp on the lid, keeping it shut tight, although there didn’t appear to be a lock. The box itself seemed to be in good condition, compared to the rest of the warehouse.

“Why would they take everything else, but leave this behind?” Ivory muttered, her brow furrowed. Raising her voice, she addressed the guard, “Has anypony tried to open it yet?”

“No, ma’am,” the guard said, shaking her head.

“You think it could be booby trapped?” Stacker asked, staring suspiciously at the box. Ivory nodded, rotating the box in her magic. As Sunny watched it float in the air, she frowned, something nagging at the back of her mind.

That box looks familiar, Sunny thought, rubbing her chin with a hoof. Where have I seen it before?

“What do you think we should do with it, ma’am?” Stacker asked, tilting his head to the side. Ivory was silent for several seconds as she thought.

“Get it on the train and get a magical dampener on it,” she finally said, levitating the box over to him. “We’ll have the unicorns back at Canterlot take a look at it. Hopefully they can determine if—”

Reaching out, Sunny grabbed the box out of Ivory’s magic, ignoring her protest. Stacker jumped forward to stop her, but was too late. Sunny grabbed the lid of the box and, with a flick of her hoof, flipped it open. Both Stacker and Ivory flinched, but nothing happened.

“What the buck were you thinking?” Ivory hissed, glaring at her. “What if that had just exploded in our faces?” Stacker nodded in agreement, giving Sunny a hard look.

She just ignored both of them and looked into the box. It was lined with crimson velvet, a small, strange object resting in the center. Reaching tentatively into the box, Sunny picked the object up in her hoof, examining it closely.

“What is it?” Stacker asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I don’t know,” Ivory answered softly, cocking her head to the side, a small frown on her face. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” They both gathered around the object in Sunny’s hoof, all three of them staring curiously down at it.

It was a small, black rectangular object made out of a material Sunny had never seen before. The surface of the object was slightly glossy, almost like a mirror. A long, thin crack ran across the face of the object, splintering off into small cracks near the edges. The sides of the object were silver and had small ridges and bumps running across it at random intervals.

Flipping it over slowly in her hooves, Sunny saw that the back was made of the same material as the front. It was in slightly better condition than the front, however, as there was no cracks on it. Two small circles were located in one of the corners, one slightly smaller than the other. Engraved onto the back as well were some words in a language she had never seen before. The one symbol she could make out, however, was a silver apple that had a bite taken out of it.

Interlude: Sunbutt ☼

ALERT! Non-canon chapter

~ Sunbutt ~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Side Story: Part One: All Hail Sunbutt!!! < < ~ ~ ~ ~

ALL HAIL SUNBUTT!!!

“You know, when Max said that the humans wanted to give me a nickname, I didn’t think that it would be this,” Celestia said, staring up at the vandalized tower in front of her. The ivory tower was covered in those three words, repeated over and over again in differing sizes. Though painted in yellow, the graffiti was clearly visible as her setting sun cast a red hue over the tower.

Beside her, her sister shifted on her hooves, trying hard to suppress her laughter.

“Aw,” she cooed as she looked up at the tower. “They like you!”

“How did they even get up there?” Celestia muttered under her breath, eyeing some of the words that were hundreds of feet off the ground.

“Mayhaps their faith in the glorious ‘Sunbutt’ kept them aloft?” Luna snickered into her hoof.

“This is serious, Luna!” Celestia snorted, stomping her hoof in frustration. “The Griffon ambassador is coming tomorrow! I shudder to think what she will think when she sees this!”

“That she should join the Cult of Sunbutt?” Luna suggested, barely keeping her face straight as she spoke. Celestia just sighed, hanging her head in defeat.

“Oh, come now, Tia,” Luna said, patting her sister's back with a wing. “We’ll have the guards clean it up tomorrow morning before the ambassador arrives. A good rainstorm should be able to clear the paint right off. Is that satisfactory, sister mine?”

“I guess it’ll have to do,” Celestia groaned, lifting her head back up, eyeing the offending letters with a small pout.

“Excellent!” Luna chirped happily. “Now, my dear Sunbutt. Please remove your sun from the sky! It is time for our moon to rise!” With another sigh, Celestia raised her head. Closing her eyes, she pushed her magic down her horn, reaching towards her fiery orb in the sky. Embracing it, the Solar Princess gingerly lowered it down, beneath the horizon. Beside her, Luna did the same, only instead of lowering her moon, she raised it high into the sky.

Both of the sisters relaxed at the same time as they cut off the flow of magic from their horns.

“Go and get some rest, sister,” Luna began, opening her eyes as she addressed Celestia. “We shall…” The words died on her tongue, however, when she returned her attention to the tower. Her jaw dropped as her eyes widened in mute horror.

“Luna?” Celestia asked, giving her sister a concerned look. When Luna didn’t say anything, Celestia turned her head, following her gaze. The Solar Princess's jaw dropped as well, and they both stood there, mouths agape, as they stared up at the tower.

With the sun no longer illuminating the ivory structure, the yellow words painted there were almost invisible against the white background. That fact, however, was not what had left them speechless. With the sun no longer shining upon the tower, a new feature, previously hidden to them, was making itself known. Slowly, words painted with a green luminescent paint were beginning to shine in the moonlight. Having been charged by Celestia's sun, the glow-in-the-dark paint was now glowing in Luna’s night.

“No,” Luna whimpered, slowly shaking her head. “No, no, no, no. How could they do this to us?”

“Oh, now you’re upset,” Celestia grumbled, shooting Luna an annoyed sideways glance. “When it was just me, you were all for the humans.” She returned her gaze back to the ivory tower, which was now covered from base to spire in glowing pale green words, repeated over and over again.

ALL HAIL MOONBUTT!!!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sitting on the roof on the far side of the courtyard, I looked out at Celestia and Luna eyeing the humans’ work. Sipping my drink through the straw, I watched as Celestia lowered her sun, and Luna lifted her moon. A grin crossed my face as they saw the special surprise the humans had left for the Princess of the Night.

Lowering the cup, I leaned towards my companion, not taking my eyes off of the horrified alicorns, “You think they were expecting that?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, turning to look at me, her own straw stuck in her mouth. “The glow-in-the-dark paint?” I nodded my head, taking another sip through the straw. “Nah,” she smirked, leaning back and placing her hooves behind her head as she enjoyed her beverage. “They never saw it coming!”

As I watched the princesses for several more seconds, I chewed on the inside of my cheek before leaning towards Rainbow again, “How long do you think it’ll take before they realize the paint has a waterproof spell cast on it?”

“Any second now.” I gave Rainbow a confused look before turning back to the princesses, only to find Celestia’s horn lit up and a stream of water flowing from it to the tower. My smile grew as—in her desperation—more and more water gushed from Celestia’s horn.

“Dude, this is by far the best prank we have ever pulled,” Rainbow crooned. “I can’t believe you convinced them to do this!”

“I know, right? I’m just glad we opted for the extra glow-in-the-dark paint; we barely had enough of the yellow.” Below us, Celestia and Luna were trying to burn the paint off with magical fire. This, however, just caused the paint to glow brighter, and even spark a little, making the words look like they were actually neon signs.

“What did you do with all the extra paint?” Rainbow asked, taking her eyes off of the scene before us to look at me. I gave her a sideways smirk.

“Let’s just say I may have let slip where one Princess Twilight Sparkle lived in Ponyville,” I said, taking another sip of soda. “And the humans were more than happy to show ‘Sparklebutt’ their respect.”

“You didn’t,” Rainbow cooed, the glee clear on her face.

“Twilight should be getting back from Pinkie’s party right… about…”

“MAX!!!” A scream split the night air, echoing up from the small town of Ponyville below. The castle shook at the sheer force of the shout.

“...now,” I grinned, sitting back against the roof. Rainbow rolled around, laughing her flank off.

“Oh, this is too rich,” she choked, barely able to breathe due to laughing so hard. “I don’t know how we’re going to beat this!” I opened my mouth to respond, but froze when a shadow fell upon us as something large blocked out the light of the moon. Rainbow stopped laughing instantly; her eyes going wide as she stared up at something just over my shoulder. By the look of horror on her face, I knew it couldn’t be good. Swallowing nervously, I slowly turned my head around and glanced over my shoulder.

Celestia loomed above me, her wings spread wide as she hovered in the air. Her eyes glowed pure white as she glared down at me and Rainbow, her horn pulsing with golden energy. My blood ran cold as I stared up at the angry sun goddess.

“Here,” she growled, her voice causing the very air around us to thrum with power. “Allow the Glorious Sunbutt to help… enlighten you!”

“Aw… buck.”

::part one ~ part two ~ part three ~ part four::

Chapter 30: The Health of Your Human

It was a chilly day in Ponyville, a thin blanket of white snow covering the ground and buildings. The sun poked its head out from behind a layer of clouds, providing a soft warmth that just barely kept back the chill of winter. Ponies ventured forth from their homes; parents to finish their errands quickly in order to return to the warmth of their homes, foals to play out in the snow. The whole town was truly a wonderful sight to see.

The beauty of it was lost on me, however, as I was currently stuck in the library with a sea of wires running from various places on my body to a group of large machines. Twilight had gone all out for this particular ‘experiment’.

There was a sensor resting just inside of my nostril that was reading the amount of carbon dioxide I was breathing out with each breath, as well as the amount of oxygen I breathed in. A group of sensors placed around my lungs listened in on the organs as they worked.

A sensor placed over my heart recorded my heart rate, while a special sleeve that was strapped around my left arm recorded my blood pressure levels. A special glove on the hand of the same arm registered the amount of sweat I released, and somehow used that information to figure out my stress level (which was pretty high given what was happening; I really hate experiments). Twilight had even broken out her weird spaghetti strainer, with various lights and gizmos on it, and it was currently strapped to my head, beeping every now and then as it recorded my brain activity.

Twilight and Ebony flitted from machine to machine, checking and double checking that everything was working correctly, and hooked up properly, before the experiment took off. They muttered quietly together, each picking the other’s brain about what still needed to be done.

~Why are we doing this again?~ I asked, glancing at the odd contraption strapped to my left arm. It kinda reminded me of something off of a science fiction game.

“We need to get a read on your vitals,” Avera replied, not looking up. Instead, she eyed the two cards under her hoof. Sucking on the inside of her cheek, she tapped her chin with her other hoof as she contemplated what to do.

~But why are we doing this now?~

“Well,” Avera said, finally looking up at me. “We were going to do it later on in the week, but after you got your flank handed to you by that psychotic unicorn yesterday, we figured we should get it out of the way as soon as possible.”

~Why?~ I asked again, before flexing my fingers.

“For your benefit, as well as for our use,” yawned Primrose, the batpony that had shown up last night. She was the third guard that Luna and Celestia had provided, and a member of the Lunar Guard. She was an interesting pony; instead of the normal pegasi wings I was used to, her wings were leathery, similar to a bat’s.

The two mares were positioned around a small table beside me, and the three of us were currently playing Texas Hold’em while we waited for Twilight and Ebony to finish with the preparations. We didn’t have a dealer, but Avera just flipped the cards when needed.

I was surprised that these ponies knew the game, but I wasn’t unhappy with this revelation. It had been a long time since I had last played, and it felt good to be able to play something so familiar. Although, it didn’t help that I was hooked up to several machines, most of which could detect if I was lying just by looking at my vitals.

~Your use? What would you use this information for?~

“We’ve been trained in administering first aid to humans, AKA, you,” Avera said, tossing a few more bits onto the pile before jabbing a hoof at me. “In order to make sure we do our job properly, should anything ever happen, we need to have your vitals.”

~Couldn’t you have just gotten the information from a human in Canterlot before coming here?~

“No,” Avera replied, shaking her head. “That wouldn’t work, now would it?” Upon seeing my confused look, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “You aren’t a typical human, stupid,” she explained. “According to the princesses, you came from a different universe, which means that you might not be the same as the humans here in Equestria. With that in mind, they theorized that your vitals might be slightly different than the average Equestrian human, so that’s why we’re doing this. We need your exact vitals if we want to do our job right.”

~So, you’re my guards, as well as my medics?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Affirmative,” the batpony said, closing her eyes and leaning back in the chair. I hummed thoughtfully at that. Taking one last glance at the machinery attached to my arm, I returned my attention back to my own pair of cards: a pair of Lunas. I chewed the inside of my cheek, thinking. Reaching into my small bit bag I had acquired on Nightmare Night, I pulled out three gold coins and tossed them onto the slowly growing pile in the center of the table.

Avera took another look at her cards, her ear twitching as she mulled over her next move. Sighing, she tossed her own bits onto the pile, scratching her chin with a hoof as she did so.

“How long have they been at it?” she asked, glancing over at the huddled Twilight and Ebony.

“For too long,” Primrose sighed, opening her eyes again and throwing bits onto the pile as well; it had grown quite large during this round. The batpony stifled another yawn as she looked at the clock. “By the moon, I’m not use to being up this late in the day,” she grumbled. Her eyes then flicked to the nearest window, which she eyed closely. I didn’t know why; all the window blinds were down and you couldn’t see outside.

“I was going to ask you about that,” Avera said, glancing over at the batpony. “Why are you up this late? As I understand it, most of the Night Guard are asleep by now.”

“Oh, trust me, I’d like to be,” Primrose grumbled. “But I wasn’t about to leave you two by yourself with those two eggheads. No telling what they might get up to. Plus, I kinda need to know this information as well.”

“Yeah,” Avera sighed before straightening up slightly. “Alright you two, let’s see what you got.”

“Two pair,” Primrose said, flipping her cards over. “Nines and Celestias.”

“Three of a kind, eights,” Avera said with a grin. Primrose crossed her forelegs and leaned back with a huff, an annoyed look on her face. Looking over at me, Avera waggled her eyebrows. “Can you beat that, tall stuff?” I kept my face blank as I flipped over my cards. Both mares leaned in to get a closer look. Avera groaned loudly and fell back into her chair. Primrose just smirked.

“Three Lunas. He’s got you beat, lieutenant.” Laughing softly, I leaned over and quickly slid the coins towards me.

Avera had just gathered all the cards back together and was shuffling them when Ebony Rose suddenly appeared beside me.

“I think we’re ready to get started,” she said, a large grin on her face. “Everything’s set up, the recording crystal is in place, and the machines are on!”

“Swell,” Avera said, not looking up as she dealt out the cards.”It’s about time. I was beginning to think that we were never gonna get started.” Primrose nodded in agreement as she took a look at her cards. Ebony just shook her head at the pair, rolling her green eyes before glancing down at a clipboard that was encased in her magic.

“We had to make sure everything was calibrated correctly. We don’t want to get the wrong information; that could cause problems in the future,” she said. Keeping her eyes on the clipboard, Ebony moved towards one of the machines. As she glanced over the display, Twilight trotted up to me.

“I know I convinced you to go through with this,” she began, shuffling her hooves nervously. “And I really do appreciate this, but if, for any reason, you start to feel any discomfort or pain during the checkup, just knock three times and we’ll stop immediately, okay?” I nodded, flashing her a quick smile which she returned before turning to look at Ebony, “Alright then, let’s get started.” Ebony nodded, then reached up and pressed one of the dozen of buttons on the face of the machine.

Instantly, a slightly tingling sensation flashed across my body as all the sensors sprang to life. The device around my arm began to glow softly with a blue light. The tingling sensation grew and my eyes widened as I saw the veins in my arms slowly beginning to glow as well.

“You doing okay there, tall stuff?” Avera asked as I held up my arm, eyeing the veins worriedly. I nodded dumbly, running my fingers carefully over the surface of my hand. Looking at Twilight, I held out my arm.

“That’s normal,” Twilight said, glancing at the arm. “At least, I think it is. It might feel weird, but there shouldn’t be any pain, so speak up if it gets too uncomfortable.” I nodded again, before slowly lowering my hand, placing it on the table. As Twilight and Ebony continued playing with the machines, Avera, Primrose, and I returned to our game.

As Avera dealt the cards out, Twilight and Ebony approached the table.

“Alright, while the sensors do their jobs, let’s go over what info we have gathered already,” Twilight said, fluffing her wings.

“His height is six feet exactly,” Ebony said, eyeing the clipboard as she spoke. Avera’s ear twitched, indicating that she heard her, but her gaze remained locked on her cards. “That’s slightly above average for a typical human, but not unheard of, though it is rare to see a human above five feet nine inches nowadays.”

“Applejack has a couple of six footers working on her farm,” Twilight piped up, picking up a mug of cider and taking a sip. “She breeds them specifically that way, because she uses them to reach the upper branches of certain trees.”

“Interesting,” Ebony said. “I wonder if they have an knee troubles?”

“I couldn’t tell you that,” Twilight said, setting her mug down. “You’d have to ask Applejack.” Ebony just nodded, flipping through the papers on the clipboard, eyeing the data.

“His weight is currently one hundred and eighty three pounds. Once again, above average when it comes to humans, but not unheard of. Might have to start watching what you’re feeding him, though, Twilight. Don’t want him getting too chunky.” I jerked my head up, growling as I shot Ebony an angry glare. Is she calling me fat?! Watch it, mare, or you’ll end up on my shit list.

“I believe he’s a healthy weight, thank you. I have no idea why you, or my friends for that matter, believe that he needs to lose weight,” Twilight grumbled, shooting Ebony a displeased look. “Most of it’s probably muscle mass anyways,” she added in a quieter tone, a small blush spreading across her face as her ears splayed backwards.

“Right, muscle mass,” Ebony said, snickering as she looked at Twilight. “Anyways, continuing on. Subject’s teeth appear to be sharper than Equestrian humans', with more pronounced canines and incisors. This may indicate that, whatever the subject’s species is, they typically have a more meat rich diet than Equestrian humans.” Avera’s eyes flicked up and she looked at me with mild curiosity.

“‘Subject’s species’? You do realize that he’s a human, right?” Primrose asked, not looking up from her cards.

“He may look human, but there are certain differences between him and the humans of Equestria, so what’s to say that he isn’t a different species, or at least a subspecies of human!” Ebony replied heatedly. I blinked, scratching my chin as I let the idea float around my head.

I never really thought about it like that before, but I guess that’s a possibility. Although, wouldn’t the humans in Equestria be the subspecies, seeing as I’m apparently more evolved than them? As I mused silently to myself, Ebony returned her attention back to the results.

“As I was saying, the teeth also appear to be in better condition than normal, as there are no signs of cavities or a large amount of plaque built up. The teeth also appear to be straighter than average as well.”

You can thank four years of braces for that, I thought, tossing more bits onto the pile as I returned to the conversation.

“Subject’s penis length, while flaccid, is around four inches. Was not able to get a measurement on it while it was erect, however.”

~Damn right, you didn’t~ I growled, my face glowing red. When they had told me that they needed to do some quick measurements, I had foolishly agreed without asking what all they were measuring. My pants had been around my knees and Ebony had been studying my member closely before I knew what was happening.

Needless to say, I hadn’t let any of them near me for several minutes afterwards. Every time one of them tried, I hit them with the handle of a broom.

“I don’t really see how studying his schlong will help us take care of him if he’s injured,” Avera snickered, flipping some coins onto the ante pile. I nodded my head in agreement, my face still red.

“I didn’t see you complaining when it was visible,” Ebony shot back. Avera just shrugged, eyeing her cards again.

“What? It was a rather impressive piece of meat.”

~Can we not talk about this, please?~ I groaned, before holding my head in my hands. This just caused that black pegasus to laugh.

“What, feeling a little insecure?” she snickered. “Don’t worry about it; you have nothing to worry about. You’re pretty big for a human.” I groaned again. Ebony and Avera laughed at my discomfort, while Primrose rolled her eyes. Twilight just blushed and looked away, her tail twitching slightly as she chewed on her bottom lip.

Thankfully, the machines took the exact moment to ding, and start spitting out results. Ebony glanced back at the printer, a surprised look on her face.

“That was faster than expected,” she said, glancing at the clock as Twilight moved to retrieve the data.

“Alright,” Twilight said, her cheeks still tinged slightly red, her ear twitching madly. “Let’s see what we got here.” Her eyes darted back and forth across the page, her face scrunching up slightly. “Huh, fascinating,” she muttered under her breath before she continued in a normal voice, “It appears that most of his vitals are completely different than those of an Equestrian human, to the point where they shouldn’t even be considered the same species, just as Ebony said.” Ebony shot Primrose a triumphant look, but the batpony just gave her an unamused glare, as well as flicking her wing at the unicorn in a weird gesture.

“Whatcha got?” Avera asked, ignoring the two other guards and glancing up at Twilight from her cards.

“Well, his heart rate is currently seventy two beats per minute,” Twilight replied.

“Wait,” Primrose interrupted, looking at Twilight with a worried expression on her face. “Doesn’t that seem rather low for a resting human? Are you sure you’re all right, Max?” she asked, directing the last part at me. I just nodded, eyeing the cards I had been dealt. A nine and a Celestia, can’t do crap with that. Sucking on my lip, I flip a single bit onto the pile, trying not to sigh.

“Could something be wrong with the machines?” Ebony asked, glancing over at Twilight. The alicorn just shook her head.

“The machines are fine, as are the sensors,” she huff. “What did I just say? Max’s readings are not the same as a normal human's.”

“Alright then,” Ebony muttered, marking off something on a slip of paper clasped in her magic. “No need to get all snippety.” A quick glance around told me that the other two had similar papers on hoof, and they were marking down the information as well. Chuckling, I returned my attention back to the card game, I go from being kept in a cage to having my own personal medics. Who would have thought.

“Blood pressure reads one hundred and seventeen over eighty-two,” Twilight continued, followed by a scratching sound as the mares wrote down the info.

“Weird,” Avera commented. “The average blood pressure for a resting human would be a systolic reading of one-twenty and a diastolic reading of seventy. Wonder why there’s a noticeable difference.”

“Probably something to do with his physiology,” Primrose guessed, tossing her cards into the middle of the table, a disgusted look on her face, before marking the information down on her own paper. “His ancestors probably grew up in a different environment than the humans of Equestria.”

“So it would actually appear that he can be classified as a different breed of human,” Ebony said, checking the info on her scrap of paper with the information in Twilight’s magic. “That would explain the variations with his vitals, as well as also explaining why he looks slightly different than other humans.”

“So we have Equestrian humans, and what… Earthian humans?” Avera asked, a smirk on her face. “According to your letters to the princess, that’s the name of his home planet, right? Earth?”

“Heh, Earth humans,” Primrose chuckled. “Kinda like Earth ponies.”

“I’m pretty sure that we could come up with a scientific name for what he is,” Ebony added.

~Can we try not to make me sound like a science experiment?~ I huffed, tossing my own cards into the middle of the table. A grin flashed across Avera’s face as she leaned forward and scooped up the pile of coins.

“Sorry,” Ebony said, shooting me a sheepish smile. “Just want to make sure we got all the information correct.”

~In that case, humans where I’m from already have a scientific name~

“What is it?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side. I just shook my head, waving a hand at her.

~I’ll tell you later. Hoof-language doesn’t have the right words~

“Just spell it out,” Primrose said, glaring at the snickering Avera.

~H-O-M-O S-A-P-I-E-N-S~ I signed.

“Homo sapiens?” Twilight asked, scrunching up her face. I nodded as she pronounced it correctly. “What does that mean?”

~Wise man~

“Well, we obviously can’t use that,” Avera said as she gathered the cards. “You aren’t all that wise to begin with. I think ‘Earthian Human’ sounds better.”

~That isn’t a word though~ I countered, glaring at the pegasus. ~The proper term would be Terran, or…~ I blinked, scrunching up my face for a second before reaching down and picking up a spare piece of paper and charcoal stick on the table. I quickly stretched out the word before flashing it towards the ponies so that they could see it, +Earthling+

“Wait, did you say ‘terran’?” Twilight ask, looking at me sharply. “Are you sure that’s the word you use for humans on your world?” I nodded, giving her a confused look.

~Yes, but the other one is more popular~ I signed, motioning at the paper I had written on. ~Why?~

“Terran is ancient Equestrian. Translated, it means ‘one with the earth’. A terran dragon is dragon that burrows underground. Even the diamond dogs are sometimes referred to as Canis Terran, due to their underground habitats.”

“Blah blah blah,” Avera interrupted, rolling her eyes at Twilight. “Long story short, we’re calling him a terran human now, okay? Don’t need the lesson in the scientific classification of certain species.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the scathing look Twilight gave Avera as she started to deal out the cards again, the smug smile still on the pegasus’ face. As she dealt, I scratched at the cuff on my arm; it was beginning to itch. A quick glance told me that my veins were still glowing a slightly blue.

~Is this gonna take much longer?~ I asked. ~This thing is starting to get rather annoying~

“We’ll try to finish this up quickly,” Twilight said, calming down from Avera’s comment. She patted my arm with a hoof. “Just hang in there.” Returning her attention to the data, she continued running through the results. “Respiratory rate is eighteen breaths per minute.”

“That’s a little high as well,” Ebony said offhandedly, marking down the numbers on her paper. Twilight’s ear twitched at the interruption and she took a deep breath before she continued speaking.

“Lung capacity is five point two--”

“Also high.” Avera said, not looking up from her own paper. Twilight gave the pegasus a sour look, gritting her teeth slightly.

“Lung volume has an inspiratory reserve volume of three point zero,” she continued, raising her voice slightly, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. She glared at Primrose, obviously daring the batpony to say something. When she didn’t, Twilight returned her gaze back to the paper in her magic.

She had just open her mouth to read off another piece of data when Primrose looked up.

“That sounds rather high as well,” she said, scratching her ear absentmindedly. Twilight threw back her head and groaned loudly. “Sorry,” Primrose said, giving Twilight a sheepish smile. “I couldn’t resist.” Shaking her head, Twilight just turned to look at me.

“Max, does all the information sound right so far?” she asked. I couldn’t really remember what is considered average for human back home, so I just shrugged and nodded, scooping some bits out of my bag and throwing them onto the table before looking expectantly at Avera.

“This is crock of shit,” she muttered, taking a swig out of her own mug of cider. Lowering the mug back to the table, she tossed her own bits into the pile. Primrose’s bits joined the pile soon afterwards, and Avera flipped a card over. Another Celestia. Looks like I’m gonna win me some more bits.

A sharp inhale from Twilight caused all of us playing cards to glance over at her. She was looking at the paper with a wide-eyed, stunned look. Swallowing, she blinked several times before she found her voice.

“Max, please tell me this is the correct body temperature for you, and you aren’t dying,” she said slowly, levitating the paper over to me. Grabbing it out of the air, I ran my finger down the info, searching for the numbers that indicated my temperature. It took me a second, but I found it. Ninety-eight point six. That sounds about right.

I glanced back up at Twilight, who was giving me a nervous look, and nodded, handing her back the paper. She breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh, thank Celestia.”

“What’s up?” Avera asked, glancing between me and Twilight with a confused look on her face.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Twilight said. “Just double checking to make sure that everything is fine.”

“So, what’s his body temperature at?” Primrose asked, tossing some bits onto the pile. This caused me to smirk slightly. Yes, put more bits for me to win onto the pile.

“Internal body temperature is ninety-eight point six marenheit,” Twilight read off. This caused all three of the guards to snap their heads up, shocked expressions on their faces.

“Y-you sure that’s correct?” Ebony asked me tentatively. I rolled my eyes and nodded my head. I think I’d know my own body temperature.

~Yes, it’s correct~ I replied. ~Why is everyone making a big deal out of it?~

“The average Equestrian human body’s temperature is eighty-six point three degrees,” Primrose explained, sipping at her mug. “If their temperature falls below eighty degrees, or above ninety-seven degrees, it can cause the internal organs to begin to shut down.

“But, if you say that ninety-eight point six is normal for you, then we’ll just have to take your word for it,” she said, shrugging as she finished. I scrunched up my face at that information.

~Wait a minute~ I signed, sitting up straighter. ~I’ve been to the hospital twice. How come the staff never said anything about this? If my body temperature is dangerously high for an Equestrian human, shouldn’t the doctor have done something about it?~ This question got me a sheepish look from all the mares.

“Well, you see,” Ebony began, rubbing the back of her head. “Most doctors don’t take the temperatures of the humans they treat; that is usually done by a veterinarian, and I’m assuming that you’ve never been to one during your time in Equestria.” She looked at Twilight to confirm.

“He has not been to a veterinarian,” Twilight confirmed. “On his first day in Ponyville I took him to one of my friends, who is good with animals, for a checkup. After he revealed that he was intelligent, I just didn’t think that was necessary.

“And, that would explain why, when he hugs, he feels so much warmer than other humans,” Twilight continued, blushing madly.

“A nice, warm human blanket, eh?” Avera snickered. “Anyways, it’s probably a good thing they didn’t check your temperature. They probably would have killed you trying to get it back down to what is considered normal. Consider yourself lucky.” With a flick of her hoof, she flipped over her cards, revealing two Lunas. Primrose grinned, flipping her own cards over and showing that she had three tens.

Throwing my arms up into the air, I threw my cards onto the table.

“Luna buck me with the moon,” Avera growled, slamming her head on the table. “How the buck did you get three Celestias?!”

~I consider myself lucky~ I shrugged my shoulders, a grin on my face as I gathered up my bits.

“Well, I’m done,” Primrose said as she stood up from the table. “I just lost all my bits to a human. I’ll never hear the end of this if the other Night Guards find out.” I just chuckled as I threw my hard-earned bits into my bitbag. Pulling the clasps closed, I threw the bag towards my saddlebags. The bits clinked together loudly as it landed beside the bags.

“I’m broke as well,” Avera grumbled. Standing, she slinked off to the basement, saying that she had stuff to take care of.

~Is this going to take much longer?~ I asked, turning to look at Ebony and Twilight. ~I’m getting rather hungry~ As if to confirm my statement, my stomach took that exact moment to growl loudly. This got a chuckle out of Ebony.

“We’re just about done,” she said, levitating a medical bag over to Primrose. “We just need to get some of your blood, and we’ll be all set.”

“What do you need his blood for?” Twilight asked, eyeing the bag in Primrose’s hooves.

“In case we need to do a blood transfusion,” Primrose replied, rooting around in the bag with a hoof. “The best place to get extra blood is usually from the original source. We’ll take some now, and some later, so that we have a decent stock.” The batpony’s eyes lit up and she withdrew her hoof, pulling out three empty blood packets, as well as a needle and hose. I flinched slightly as I saw the long, thin metal object. I hate needles.

Getting everything situated, Primrose turned to look at me.

“Alright, big boy,” she said softly, using the same tone of voice a nurse would. “Hold out your arm.” I held out my right arm and she took it gingerly in her hooves. Rolling up the sleeve of my shirt, she glanced over my arm.

“Oh, you have some very lovely veins,” she murmured, her eyes flashing as she stared down at my arm with an almost predatory look on her face. She ran a hoof slowly over the vein, almost longingly. I shivered slightly at her touch.

“Alright,” she breathed, turning her gaze away from my arm. “This will only take a second.” I flinched slightly as she rubbed an alcohol swab across my arm. Once she was finished, she lifted the needle up in her hoof.

“Take a deep breath,” she instructed, moving the needle till it hovered over the vein. I did as she asked, closing my eyes and turning my head away as I did so. “You’re going to feel a slight pinch in three… two… one.” I felt a prick as the needle entered. “There you go,” Primrose cooed. “Just relax, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

"How much blood are you taking?" Twilight asked, eyeing the bag nervously.

"Each bag only holds half a pint," Primrose said, not taking her eyes off of what she was doing. "We're taking about a pint and a half right now."

For the next forty five minutes, I sat there, a needle stuck in my arm as my blood slowly filled the bags. Ebony wandered down into the basement with Avera, while Primrose and Twilight tried to involve me in a conversation, but stopped when they realized I couldn’t sign with one arm incapacitated. After that, Twilight just gave me a book, before wandering off to write a letter to Celestia about her findings. So, for the duration of the procedure, I just sat there, reading one of the Daring Do books that Dash seemed to love so much.

Even though I hate needles, and never really felt comfortable giving blood back home, everything went better than I expected. The only disconcerting thing was the fact that every time I glanced over Primrose, she was eyeing my blood with a strange expression on her face. She would look away, blushing, whenever I caught her at it.

“Sorry,” she said after the third instance. “It’s just so… pretty, you know? Watching the blood flow. It’s almost poetic. Sorry if this is creepy.” Her ears splayed back as she blushed.

While I knew that she wouldn’t do anything to me (Luna and Celestia wouldn’t send a guard that would attack me, right?), it still made me uncomfortable. I only relaxed when Ebony came back up from the basement to see what was going on.

Eventually, Primrose was able to fill all three bags with my blood. Pulling the needle out of my vein carefully, she wrapped and bandaged the arm.

“I’ll go get these on ice,” Primrose said, picking the blood packets up and placing them into the medical bag. “You can hit them with the preserving spell later,” she said to Ebony before she turned and descended into the basement.

“Alright, let’s get this off you,” Ebony said, her horn lighting up as she began to remove the cuff around my left arm. The minute my limb was released, my veins stopped glowing blue. Once I was free, I pushed myself up, out of the chair. I felt slightly light headed, but it passed soon enough. Stretching, I groaned happily as my back cracked.

As I worked the circulation back into my stiff limbs, Twilight walked back into the room, a scroll held in her magic.

“Ebony, I’ve just about finished my report to Princess Celestia. Is there anything you need to add?” As the two mares chatted, I slipped into the kitchen to get my poor stomach something to eat. Don’t worry little guy; I know exactly what we need!

Rummaging through the cabinets and pantry, I discovered that Twilight had just enough ingredients to make a plate of nachos. With a large smile on my face, I got to work. Pouring out a bag of tortilla chips onto a plate, I pulled some cheese out of the fridge.

Only uses it to cook with, I laughed to myself as I sliced the cheese, covering the chips in it. Popping some cheese into my mouth, I warmed up the oven to a moderate temperature before sliding the plate inside. After several minutes, I checked to see if the cheese was melting.

Once I was satisfied with how it looked, I carefully pulled the now warm plate out of the oven and placed it back onto the counter. Cutting up lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, I sprinkled them over the nachos, causing them to sink into the melted cheese.

Picking up an avocado, I cut it open and began scooping out the inner flesh. After a few minutes, I had some homemade guacamole, which I proceed to smear onto the nachos. A dab of sour cream, and my master piece was finished, steam wafting off of the heavenly dish. My mouth was watering just looking at it.

I walked back into the main room, munching happily on my nachos. As I entered, Twilight glanced up at me, a smile touching her face when she saw me.

“Hey there, I see you’ve gotten something to eat,” she said, motioning to the plate in my hands. Nodding, I placed the plate down on a nearby table as I replied.

~Yes, and I’m going to take them upstairs to eat before taking a nap, okay?~

“Sounds fine to me,” Twilight said, nodding her head. “We don’t have anything else planned for today.” Picking up my plate again, I proceeded to head towards the stairs, fully intent on enjoying my cheesy treat.

“Wait!” I stopped, my foot on the bottom step. Glancing back, I looked at Ebony, who had cried out. I blinked in confusion when I saw she was looking up at me in horror.

“Is… is that guacamole?” she asked, pointing a trembling hoof at the plate in my hands. I glanced down at the plate before nodding. “But, that’s made out of avocado!” I raised an eyebrow, giving her a confused look. With one hand, I motioned for her to continue.

“Avocados are extremely poisonous to humans. They have an enzyme, persin, in them that, if consumed by a human, will kill them!” Behind her, Twilight blinked several times before facehoofing, groaning slightly as she did so. I just gave Ebony a deadpanned look. First, it was that humans couldn’t smile, then it was humans couldn’t swim. Now they are trying to tell me that eating an avocado will kill me? When will these ponies learn that I know what is, and what isn’t, going to kill me?

Slowly reaching down, I grabbed a chip that was covered in a fair amount of guacamole. Keeping the same blank expression, I raised the chip to my lips. Shoving the whole thing into my mouth, I chewed the chip slowly, keeping my eyes locked with Ebony. As I swallowed, she fell back onto her flank, her mouth hanging open.

“I… I don’t believe it,” she breathed, shaking her head slowly. “That’s… that’s not possible. Persin...” Picking up another chip and popping it into my mouth, I turned and made my way up the stairs, flicking Ebony the bird in the process. Bitch tryin’ to tell me what I can and can’t eat? I don’t think so!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The Archmage stared out his office window, humming softly to himself as he watched as the snow slowly began to cover Canterlot Castle. Sitting at his desk, he reclined back in his chair, watching the white flakes of frozen water dance haphazardly through the air. Poetically chaotic as they drifted on the breeze; it was almost hypnotic. Behind him, a fire crackled merrily away, warming the room against the bitter, winter chill.

Tearing his gaze from the window, he glanced down at the large desk in front of him. There were piles of paperwork scattered across the oaken surface that need to be read and replied to, but at the moment he couldn’t muster the motivation necessary to do so. It had already been a long day, and with Luna’s night fast approaching, he wanted nothing more than to be finished with all this boring paperwork.

Rubbing his eyes with a hoof, he fought back a yawn. He was just contemplating standing up and stretching his stiff, weary limbs when there came a light tapping at his door, as if somepony gently rapping.

“Come in,” he called, glancing at the clock with a frown. Who could it possibly be at this time of day? I thought everypony went home already. He returned his gaze to the door as it swung silently open on oiled hinges. A small smile touch his face and he perked up as a light-gray unicorn mare with white hair poked her head in, glancing around the room. As her eyes landed on the Archmage, her ears perked up and a small smile spread across her muzzle.

“Monochrome, I didn’t know you were still here. I thought everybody had gone home for the day. Come in, come in,” he said, waving a hoof at the mare and motioning for her to enter. “What can I do for you, my dear?”

“I’m sorry for intruding,” she said, giving the Archmage a sheepish smile as she trotted forward. “I hope I haven’t interrupted anything.”

“Of course not,” he chuckled. “One of the benefits of being the Archmage is you can set your own hours. I was actually just wrapping up for the day when you came calling.”

“Well then, I won’t keep you long,” she said, smiling softly. “I just stopped by to drop off a couple of reports. Nothing major,” she added as the Archmage pursed his lips in annoyance. “None of them are urgent, so you can take care of them tomorrow if you wish.”

“Very well, let’s see these reports then,” he sighed, giving the mare a weary smile. With a nod of her head, Monochrome turned and levitated some folders out of her saddlebag, her horn glowing softly.

“These are the reports from the labs, concerning the recent experiments done with the humans,” she said, laying one of the folders down on the desk. “They contain the weekly updates, as well as the personal notes of the scientists. Nothing major to report, although Dr. Song believes she might be on to something big.”

The Archmage cracked the folder open, flipping through the papers with a curious gaze.

“Something big? Did she elaborate on that at all in her report?” he asked, glancing up at Monochrome.

The mare just scrunched up her face.

“Unfortunately, no,” she replied, shaking her head. “She’s rather mute on that point. Just like everything else she does, she’s playing this one rather close to the chest. I tried to get some information out of her, but she just smiled and winked at me, before saying ‘spoilers’. I swear, sometimes she acts like a foal.”

“Might be worth keeping an eye on,” the Archmage muttered, closing the folder and slipping it into one of the drawers of his desk. “What else do you have?”

“The reports from the dig site,” Monochrome said, slipping the stallion another file. “They say that they’re making good progress with the mining, and are actually ahead of schedule. Apparently the humans are working faster than anticipated, and the battlemages believe that we should be at the mysterious magical object some time in the spring. Still no clue on what it is, but it appears that the magical output from the artifact has plateaued for the time being.”

“Very good,” he nodded, taking a quick peek in the folder before placing it on the first.

“And the last folder,” Monochrome said, laying it in front of him, “is something from the guards. Apparently they were under the impression that they needed to inform you that the unicorn known as Darkflare, as well as his captured gang members, have all been successfully transported to the holding cells in Canterlot.

“If I may ask, sir,” she continued as the Archmage opened the folder and pulled out Darkflare’s file. “Why is the Academy taking an interest in criminals?”

The Archmage didn’t say anything at first, instead choosing to flip through the papers of the other ponies listed. His brow crinkled slightly when he came across the files for one Golden Ingot, his eyes narrowing. What’s an earth pony doing with a group of unicorns? Tapping his chin with a hoof, the elderly stallion leaned his head back as he ran an eye down Mr. Ingot’s file. He might be of some use, actually.

“Sir?” the Archmage blinked, glancing over at Monochrome who was giving him a worried look.

“Sorry,” he chuckled, closing the folder. “I was lost in thought there for a second.” Leaning back in his chair, he scratched his ear with a hoof as he eyed the mare. “To answer your question, while it is true that the Academy doesn’t usually involve itself when it comes to Equestria’s judicial system, this is a special case. Due to the interest from both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both of whom have asked me to look into the matter personally, we are making an exception for this particular case.”

“Anything to be concerned about?” Monochrome asked, her ears splaying back.

“No, my dear,” the Archmage said, smiling as he shook his head. “Nothing for you to worry about. Now, is there anything else you need from me, or can I assume that this was all?”

“Sorry, no more presents for you,” Monochrome said with a laugh. “Why, do you have a date with a very special somepony?” She smirked at him, waggling her eyebrows.

“If only,” the Archmage chuckled. “I’m a bit too old for that sort of thing. No, I have an appointment with Princess Luna before I can go home. The poor dear has been getting rather stressed lately, what with her being in charge of the Gala this year. I remember her sister saying something about the Lunar Princess being rather fond of games, so I thought I might pop in to see if I couldn’t help her relieve some stress,” he said, waving a hoof towards a large, marble chessboard in the corner of the room, the black and white glass pieces already in place on the board. It seemed to glow softly in the firelight.

“Well then, I won’t keep you waiting,” Monochrome said, nodding her head. “That, and my coltfriend is waiting for me back home, and I want to beat the snowstorm the weather team has planned for tonight.”

“Of course,” the Archmage said, turning his chair and glancing back out the window. “Do be careful, you hear? It looks rather slippery out there already, I would hate for you to slip and break an ankle.”

“Yes, sir,” she said as she walked to the door.

“Oh, and Monochrome,” he said, not taking his eyes off of the falling snow. “You might want to pack an umbrella.”

“An umbrella, sir?” she scoffed, and the Archmage could see her look back at him and roll her eyes in the reflection of the window. “It’s winter; I highly doubt that I will need an umbrella!” Laughing, she proceed to open the door and exit the room.

“True,” the Archmage said softly as she closed the door behind her with a soft 'click'. He smirked at his reflection, a gray unicorn stallion smiling back at him. The mane was dark gray, streaks of white running through it; the same white that colored the hair of his goatee.

As he watched his reflection, its blue eyes flashed red for a brief second.

“But you never know when we might be due for a big old storm of chaos.”

Chapter 31: The Grand Galloping Gala

I adjusted the cuff of my sleeve, fidgeting with the material as I stared at myself in the mirror. True to her reputation, Rarity had exceeded expectations when it came to my outfit for this Grand Galloping Gala thing that everyone was so excited about. She had made me a dark lavender overcoat, with a lighter lavender shirt underneath. A simple pair of dress pants, the same color as the overcoat, completed the outfit. Twilight’s cutie mark was, as with all my clothing, embroidered on the back of the jacket, and on the thighs of the dress pants.

The only part of the outfit that clashed was my brown sandals, which I wore in order to provide comfort for my feet. Marble flooring was nice and all, but after walking on it for a while in bare feet, my soles were beginning to get sore.

And if there was one thing that Canterlot Castle had a lot of, it was marble floors.

Sighing, I ran a hand through my shortened hair. I had gotten a haircut the other day…

...let me correct that: Two days ago, Rarity had ambushed me when I had been wandering around town on my own. Pulling me into the Carousel Boutique, she then proceeded to use her magic to hold me still and attack my head with several pairs of scissors, claiming that she was going to make me fabulous! Needless to say, my shoulder length hair was no more.

Apparently I had needed the haircut, as I had to look my best for the Gala.

It’s actually not half bad, I mused, turning my head from side to side. My hair was now short enough that it no longer hung in front of my eyes. I no longer had to brush it out of the way to see out of my one good eye anymore.

Keeping with the theme that I had to look nice for this event, I had cleaned up my facial hair as well. Instead of shaving off the beard and mustache, I had just trimmed them up a little. After all, Twilight had said she had liked the look, and who was I to deny her what she wanted. That, and I was just too damn lazy to get rid of it.

I thought I looked pretty good, all things considered.

“You clean up nicely, tall stuff,” Avera called from the large, four-poster bed, where she was currently splayed out on her back, her wings were flared by her side as she warmed herself in the heat coming from the fire in the fireplace. Like me, she too was dressed up for the Gala. She had on a military dress uniform, the white material contrasting against her black fur. A patch on either shoulder of the coat bore the same symbol she had on her armor the first day we had met: a black sun rising out of the horizon. Several medals adorned the breast of the coat, polished metal gleaming in the firelight.

“Although, I’m not sure you have enough of Princess Sparkle’s cutie mark on you,” she snickered as she looked at me upside down, her head hung over the edge of the mattress. I just glared over my shoulder, sticking out my tongue at the mare.

We (Twilight, the girls, Ebony Rose, Avera, and I) had arrived at Canterlot Castle early yesterday so that Twilight could meet up with the other princesses to discuss the Gala. Twilight said that she wasn’t expected to do anything during the Gala, but she still wanted to make sure that everything was running smoothly. The only one who wasn’t with us was Primrose, who had stayed behind in Ponyville to look after the library, and Spike, who was staying behind to have a sleepover with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

As I returned my attention to the full-length mirror, bells began chiming in the distance, tolling out eight o’ clock.

“Well, looks like it’s almost time,” Avera groaned as she pulled herself up, into a seated position. She ran a hoof over her red mane, making sure that it was still done up in a bun. Satisfied her mane hadn’t been messed up, she jumped off the bed, turned, and trotted towards the door. “We better go meet the others before they get upset. You know how Sparkle likes to keep to a schedule.” I nodded, glancing over myself one last time in the mirror. Satisfied, I turned and followed the pegasus, closing the door behind me as I stepped out into the hallway.

Ever since we had arrived yesterday, the entire castle had been a beehive of activity; the staff had worked hard to make sure that everything was going to be perfect for the Gala. Decorations littered the hall; banners and streamers of dark blues and violets as well as midnight black were thrown practically everywhere. It could only really be described as organized chaos.

I glanced out the window as we traversed down the hall. It was a beautiful night; a thin layer of clouds hung in the sky, promising snow later on. Through the holes in the cloud cover, tens of thousands of stars shone down upon the castle. Even the moon seemed bigger and brighter than usual.

“You excited for tonight, tall stuff?” Avera asked as we walked.

~Not so much excited, as nervous~ I replied. This earned a chuckle from the pegasus.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” she said, bumping me with her flank. “It’s a party; try to relax and have fun!”

~That’s easy for you to say; you don’t have mares trying to get into your pants!~

“You’re still going on about that?” Avera asked, smirking up at me. “So one of the servants tried to seduce you into one of the broom closets, big deal. It’s not like she was trying that hard!” I gave her a deadpanned look.

~She about ripped my pants off!~

“Hey, I stopped her in time, didn’t I?” Avera said indignantly, placing a hoof on her chest.

~You were laughing your flank off~ I signed, growling at the pegasus. ~That’s what scared her away~

“Yeah, well, it worked, didn’t it?” Avera snickered, the memory still bringing tears to her eyes. “Besides, the look on your face was priceless!” I just grumbled as we approached the end of the hallway and reached the stairs. As Avera and I descended the stairs, I could see ponies putting the finishing touches on the decorations.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about a pony trying to seduce you at the Gala,” Avera said after she got her laughter under control. “It’s a public event, so that should dissuade most ‘fanciers’ from doing anything. Although, there is always those strange few,” she muttered, chewing on her lip as she walked. “I really don’t think you’ll have a problem tonight. Your friends are here, as are your guards and three princesses. You’ll be just fine.

“Besides,” she added, frowning slightly. “I think that maid was in heat.”

~If you say so~ I signed, chewing on the inside of my cheek. I dropped the topic, however, and we walked in silence down the remainder of the stairs. Wandering down the corridor, Avera lead me towards the main ballroom where the Gala was being held.

Turning around the last corner, I spotted the others waiting for us by the side entrance door. As Avera and I drew nearer, I could see that each of the girls was dressed up in a magnificent dress, each of which seemed to complement the wearer perfectly.

Pinkie Pie had a dress that was as pink as she was, with blue and white accents. The white frill on the dress had stones shaped like bits of candy sown into it, giving it a festive look that went perfect with Pinkie’s bubbly personality.

Fluttershy’s dress was a lovely green, with flowers sewn into the material, giving it a very natural look. The front of the dress made it look like she had several butterflies perched on her chest, and she even had butterfly earrings. Her pink mane was brushed, and had several white and blue flowers scattered through it. Her whole appearance reminded me of the description of a nymph or elf.

Rainbow’s outfit looked like something out of Greek mythology. Her dress was as prismatic as she was, each color of the rainbow flowing down the fabric only to end in a frill that looked like it was made of cloud. She wore what could only be described as Roman sandals on her front hooves. Her normally messy mane had been brushed and styled, causing her to look nothing like the tomboyish mare I was used to. How the others had gotten her to comb her mane I didn’t know, but it actually looked good on her. As an accent to the outfit, she even had a golden laurel wreath around her head.

Applejack’s dress was more akin to something out of a western movie than an actual formal ball. She had on her signature hat, as well as an actual saddle. She had a pair of green cowboy boots on her forehooves. Her golden mane and tail, like Rainbow’s, had been brushed and done up in a braid. She had a green bandana around her neck, held together by an apple-shaped clasp.

Rarity, the mastermind behind all of the girls’ outfits, was dressed in an outfit that looked fit for royalty. Her pink dress had yellow accents, as well as several dozen jewels sewn into it, to the point where it almost sparkled on its own. She had a necklace that bore her cutie mark, as well as a small golden tiara with a single ruby embedded in it.

And then there was Twilight…

I think my heart stopped at the sight of her, but I couldn’t be too sure. I know my cheeks turned red as a large blush flared across my face.

She was wearing a blue dress that hung down her hind legs, completely covering her cutie marks. The dress continued up her back, where it reached a collar that wrapped around her neck snugly. A light blue saddle rested across her back, hugging her sides and causing the dress to poof slightly. All over the dress, star-shaped gems sparkled every time she moved. Silver hoof guards adorned her hooves, and seemed to sparkle as well, shining in the lights of all the torches that dotted the hall. Her mane was done up in a bun, her tiara resting on top of her head, polished to perfection. She looked every part the princess she was.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, staring, but I was snapped out of my daze by the sound of muffled laughter beside me. Closing my mouth, which had fallen open, I glanced down and saw Avera biting down on her hoof as she looked up at me, her cheeks red as she tried to hold in her mirth.

“See something you like?” she managed to choke out, smirking up at me. I turned my head away, still blushing.

~Shut up~ Blushing, I kneed the pegasus, causing her to stumble slightly. With Avera falling in step behind me, still snickering, I turned and headed towards the others. Twilight was the first to hear our approach. Perking up, she turned and glanced over at me and Avera. She blinked, a small blush spreading across her face before she smiled and waved. This caused the others to halt their conversation and glance over. Rarity’s eyes instantly lit up when she saw me.

“Oh my,” she cooed, a smile spreading across her face as she looked over me. “I must say, your outfit turned out better than expected, darling. Truly magnificent!”

“I’ll say,” Pinkie chirped. “You look like you’re ready to party!” Rainbow just nodded, her cheeks as red as an apple.

“You look very good,” Twilight said softly, her wings ruffling at her sides. “Very… handsome.” My face lit up again, and Avera jammed her hoof into her mouth again, trying to stop from howling in laughter.

“Was it something I said?” Twilight asked, looking at the black pegasus in confusion.

~No~ I replied, shaking my head in annoyance. ~She’s just being stupid~ As Avera slowly composed herself, the ballroom’s door swung open and Ebony slipped out.

Like her companion, Ebony was also wearing a military dress uniform, only, instead of the rising sun, the patches on her shoulders bore a symbol of a fireball with the silhouette of a unicorn’s head inside. Her pink mane was pulled back with a white headband that matched her uniform.

Ebony opened her mouth to say something, but paused when she caught sight of Avera’s face.

“What’s her problem?” she asked, glancing up at me.

~The usual; she’s being stupid~ I responded, giving Ebony a deadpanned look.

“Ah,” she said, nodding her head before returning her attention to Twilight. “If everypony is ready, we’re allowed to enter now. The princess has declared that the Gala has officially started.” This earned a cheer from everypony present, and they began moving towards the door.

As her friends filed forward, slipping into the ballroom, Twilight turned to look up at me. She had a nervous look on her face.

“Um, I’m really sorry about this,” she said quietly, her ears splaying back as she spoke. “But, it’s required that all human wear a collar during the Gala, and that includes you.” She trailed off, her voice getting softer and softer as she looked at the floor. With a flash of her horn, my old collar was floating in front of me in Twilight’s magic. I glanced from the collar to her, but she refused to meet my eye.

~I need to wear this?~ I asked, before pointing at the collar. Twilight just nodded, still not looking at me. Reaching forward, I pulled the collar out of the cloud of magic and examined it. It was the same collar that I used to wear, except for one modification: it had a clasp in the back where Darkflare had snapped it off my neck. This now allowed me to remove the collar on my own without the use of magic.

Studying the collar for a few more seconds, I just shrugged before reaching up and securing the collar around my neck. It fit snugly into place as the clasp clicked.

“Y-you don’t mind?” Twilight asked, looking up at me as I adjusted the collar.

~I wore this thing for five months straight with no problem~ I smiled down at her. ~I don’t think a single night will be a big deal~ At that, she flashed me a grateful smile, although she still looked ashamed.

“Sorry if it’s degrading.”

~Just don’t make me do any tricks and we’ll be fine~ Twilight chuckled before turning and heading towards the door to the ballroom. One last tug on the collar, and I followed behind her. The doors swung open, and my owner and I stepped into the ballroom.

As we stepped through the doorway, I couldn’t help but feel like we had stepped into a different world entirely. Dark blue banners hung from the high ceiling, emblazoned with Luna’s cutie mark. Lanterns floated high in the air, flickering slightly, looking almost like stars glowing in the blackness. Blue torches dotted the wall, giving the entire room a cool, calming feel to it. A thin layer of fog covered the floor, giving the whole room a supernatural feel.

The ballroom was full of ponies clad in elegant dresses and suits. The other girls had already merged with the crowd, heading off to do what they wanted. A gentle murmur filled the air as ponies talked with each one other. Humans also dotted the crowd, standing by their owners and glancing around with uninterest. They were dressed in clothing, although none of them seemed to be as classy as I was. A human nearby gave me a curious look before returning his attention back to his owner, who was slowly feeding him some food she had gotten from the buffet table.

Twilight looked around the large room, a small smile on her face. I just stood there, frozen.

There’s so many unicorns here, I thought, my heart rate slowly increasing. Ponies were coming and going through a set of doors on the other side of the room, wandering here and there as they socialized. As I watched them, my right eye twitched and I had to clench my fist in order to stop my arm from trembling.

“I think the decorations turned out wonderfully,” Twilight said, standing beside me. “Luna was worried that it would be too much. She didn’t want anypony to think that she was trying to be overbearing.” She glanced up at, smiling until she saw my face. “Are you alright?” I nodded, swallowing thickly as I looked down at her.

~I’m fine~ I signed, my hands trembling slightly.

“No, you aren’t,” Twilight replied, frowning slightly. “Max, what’s wrong? You can tell me.” Before I could respond, a unicorn mare walked by, a little too close for comfort, and I flinch involuntarily. Twilight’s gaze darted between the mare and myself before a look of dawning comprehension flashed across her face.

“Nopony’s going to hurt you tonight,” she said softly, leaning against my leg. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Yeah,” came a voice from behind us. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Ebony standing several feet away, smiling at me. “We got your back, Max. Just relax, have a good time, and we’ll deal with anypony who tries to give you trouble.” I nodded, licking my lips nervously as I returned my attention to the crowd, eyeing the mass of ponies. Twilight sighed, shaking her head with a small smile on her face.

“Tell you what; let’s do something calming first to get you comfortable,” she said.

~What do you have in mind?~ Twilight looked away, her ears splaying backwards as a blush spread across her face.

“We could always dance,” she whispered, doing her best Fluttershy impression.

~What?~ I asked, not hearing her. She bit her bottom lip before looking up at me, her small blush growing darker. Clearing her throat, she swallowed nervously before she spoke again.

“W-we could always dance,” she said, giving me a nervous smile. “Cadance always said that when she is stressed, dancing helps calm her nerves, so I figured that it might work for you as well. I-I mean, if you want to.” I blinked down at her, confused.

~Dancing?~ I asked. ~You think dancing will help?~ Twilight nodded. ~And you want to dance… with me?~

“Only… only if you want to,” Twilight said, not looking at me. I chewed on my cheek, as I looked down at the adorable mare. That beautiful mare that wanted to dance.

~What would the other ponies think about one of their princesses dancing with a human?~

“I don’t care what they think,” Twilight said, scrunching up her face. “They can gossip all they like. You need to relax. Plus, I just want you to have a good time tonight, and thought you might like to dance.”

~Why do you want to dance with me, though?~

“I just thought it would be a fun thing we could do together,” Twilight huffed, stomping her hoof. “If you didn’t want to dance with me, you could have just said so!” She lowered her head, her ears splaying backward. Tears began forming in the corner of her eyes, and she sniffed slightly. The sight caused me to wince, instantly regretting my careless response to her request; she just wanted to help me feel more comfortable. Great going, Max.

~I wouldn’t mind dancing with you~ Twilight perked up instantly, giving me a small smile as she wiped tears from her eyes.

“R-really?” she asked. I nodded, smiling down at her.

~I have to warn you though, I can’t dance~

“Well, that makes two of us,” Twilight said, giving me a sheepish smile. “I’m pretty sure we can figure it out as we go along, though.” This earned a snicker from Ebony, who remained in the background like a watchful shadow.

“Come on,” Twilight said, motioning with her head towards an open space in the crowd, which I assumed was the dance floor. As we made our way through the crowd, I tensed, trying to keep myself calm. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Ebony following us, keeping her distance but never straying far. When she saw me looking, she gave me an encouraging smile, which I returned halfheartedly.

We had just reached the edge of the dance floor when we were stopped by a unicorn guard.

“I’m sorry, miss, but no human allowed out on the dance floor,” he said, blocking us with a hoof. Twilight looked at him in shock.

“What? Why not?”

“From past experience, we’ve learned that some humans confuse the dancing with a mating ritual. In order to prevent… embarrassing or inappropriate situations, there are no humans allowed out on the dance floor.”

“You can’t be serious,” Twilight muttered darkly before glaring at the guard. “Can’t you just make an exception for us? I am a princess after all!” The guard just shook his head.

“Sorry, your highness, but no exceptions,” he said, his expression unchanged. “By order of Princess Celestia. If you have any issues with that, take it up with her.”

“I’ll do just that,” Twilight growled before storming off in search of Celestia. I made to follow her, but my path was blocked as a group of ponies moved out onto the dance floor. By the time the path was cleared again, I had lost sight of Twilight in the crowd. I could feel my heart rate slowly beginning to rise again. Don’t panic, I told myself, trying to keep my breathing steady. You still have Ebony with you. I turned to glance at the unicorn, but she wasn’t behind me anymore. I inhaled sharply, head darting around as I looked for her, but just like Twilight before her, the mare had disappeared. As I slowly began to panic, only one word came to mind: fuck!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Even in this crowded environment, it didn’t take me long to find Princess Celestia. She was standing off to the side of the ballroom, siping at a glass of champagne and nodding at nobles who greeted her. She didn’t engage any of them in conversation, however; simply smiling and nodding whenever somepony tried to talk to her.

Dressed in her normal royal attire, she actually looked a little bored as her eye drifted over the sea of ponies in front of her. She perked up when she saw me approaching, a small smile touching her face.

“Ah, Twilight,” she said as I drew nearer. “It’s good to see you again, my faithful student. I do hope you are having a good time so far tonight; Luna put so much work into the Gala that she has barely slept for the past few days.”

“I was,” I said curtly, stopping in front of the princess. My anger had slowly died down, and now I was just slightly annoyed at the inconvenience. “That is, until a guard informed me that my human wasn’t allowed out onto the dance floor with me.”

“Ah, I see,” Princess Celestia said, taking another sip of her champagne, her smile never wavering.

“He said that I had to talk with you about making an exception for Max,” I continued, ruffling my wings slightly. “So, if you could please give him permission, we can get back to enjoying the Gala.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes, sipping again at her glass. I waited patiently for her to swallow the champagne.

Lowering her glass, she opened her eyes again and looked at me.

“No.” I blinked, scrunching up my face slightly in confusion.

“What?” I asked, sure that I had misheard her.

“No,” she repeated, her smile turning sad. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I truly am, but I can not make an exception for Max.”

“Why not?” I asked, trying to keep myself calm; there had to be a sound reason behind her answer.

“Because if I allowed you to take your human out onto the dance floor, I would have to allow others to do so as well. You know how the nobles get with this sort of thing, and I would rather like to avoid confrontation tonight.”

“But, Max isn’t an equestrian human! He--”

“I know that, Twilight,” the princess said, interrupting me. “But others don’t, and I’m afraid that to them, if I let one human onto the dance floor, I have to let all of them, regardless of how intelligent some of them might be.”

“But… but…” I tried to think of something, anything, that might change her mind, but I couldn’t. I lowered my head, defeated.

“However,” Princess Celestia continued, causing me to perk up. “That doesn’t mean that you can’t take him out to the gardens. I hear that they are quite lovely to dance in.”

“The gardens?” I asked, scrunching up my face. “But it’s winter; it’s cold and snowy out there, isn’t it?”

“It would be,” the princess replied, smirking as she took another sip of champagne, “if it weren’t for the fact that Luna and I placed a heating spell over the area for the night. That should keep back the chill, don’t you think?”

“I guess that could work,” I said slowly, chewing on my lip.

“Speaking of the human, where is he?” Princess Celestia asked, looking around. “I would have thought he was going to be hanging out with you this evening.”

“Of course he is,” I said, waving a hoof behind me. “He’s right here--” I froze as I glanced behind me. Max was nowhere in sight. “Wha.. but he was right behind me! Where could have gotten off to?” I suddenly realized that in my haste to find the princess, I had lost track of Max. Ears splaying backwards, my eyes darted around the crowd, searching for my human, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. Glancing back at the princess, I gave her a sheepish smile.

“Heheh… I’ll just go find him.” Turning, I hurried off into the crowd. How the hay did you forget about your human, you silly pony!

Working my way around the other ponies, I searched around for any signs of Max. I spotted Fluttershy hovering in the corner of the room, smiling as she held a whispered conversation with Philomena, Princess Celestia’s phoenix. Rainbow was chatting animatedly with the few Wonderbolts that had come, gesturing with her hooves as she regaled them with one of her tall tales. Rarity was discussing business with one of her Canterlot associates; Fancy Pants, I think his name was. Applejack and Pinkie were at the buffet table, sampling the different foods that covered the long table.

No sign of Max anywhere. The only thing that kept me from truly freaking out was the fact that I couldn’t find his guards either. Hopefully they’re both with him. Stupid Twilight, stupid. You knew he was uncomfortable with all these ponies around; you should have kept a better eye on him!

“Hey, Applejack, Pinkie Pie,” I called out, trotting towards the buffet table, and my friends located there. “Have either of you seen Max around here?” Pinkie tried to answer, but with her mouth crammed full of cake, it was impossible to make out what she was saying. Applejack gave Pinkie a deadpanned look, slowly shaking her head. Turning to look at me, she gave me an apologetic look.

“Sorry, sugarcube. We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him in a while.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, chewing on my lip nervously.

“Sure as sugar,” Applejack nodded. “Don’t worry; if’n I see him, I’ll send him your way.”

“Thanks, Applejack,” I said before slipping back into the crowd. I was able to traverse the crowd easily. Luckily, most of the snobbish nobles didn’t want to speak to me, so I wasn’t stopped as I crossed the room in search of my human.

After several more minutes of searching, I still hadn’t located either Max, nor his guards. Reaching the far end of the room, I climbed up a couple of steps to get a better vantage point. Glancing around the room, I ruffled my wings nervously, “Oh, I hope I can find him before something bad happens, or somepony bad finds him--”

“Well, well well,” a voice spoke up behind me. “What do we have here?”

“Scratch that,” I growled under my breath, my ears splaying backwards. “Somepony bad found me.” Slowly, and with great trepidation, I turned to face the unwelcome sight behind me. “Hello, Silver Steam.”

Behind me stood a white unicorn stallion dressed in a black suit. His red mane was slicked back with copious amount of what could only be grease. The expression he bore on his face gave him the appearance of looking down on most ponies: a typical expression for any noble of Canterlot.

“Now, now,” Silver Stream said, a smug smile on his face. “Is that any way to greet a friend?”

“I didn’t realize we were friends,” I said coldly, taking a step back.

“You wound me with your words, Princess Sparkle,” he said, placing a hoof over his chest in mock distress. I resisted the urge to growl, gritting my teeth in annoyance. Silver Stream was one of the reasons that I had been glad Princess Celestia had sent me back to Ponyville. Scratch that: he was one of the main reasons. I don’t have time for this; I have to find Max!

“Do you mind? I’m rather busy.” I said to him with a frown, slowly backing back down the stairs.

“Of course not, your highness, I find that I always have time for you,” Silver said, winking flirtatiously. I had to resist the urge to vomit. Turning, I made to walk away, but was blocked by Silver Stream stepping down and blocking my path.

“Come now, Princess,” he said. “Why the hostility?”

“I’m not in the mood, Silver,” I growled, having to take a step up the stairs in order to distance myself from him.

“Then how about you and me get a few glasses of champagne, and start setting the mood?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“Not interested.”

“Come now, just imagine it,” he continued, unperturbed. “Our two families could benefit greatly from our union. Why, together we could be one of the richest herds in Equestria, neigh all of Equus, especially with your status as Princess and the Element of Magic. With my family’s silver mines and your family’s ties to the guard, it would be perfect!

“And just think of the foals,” he smirked, his eyes running over my body, causing me to shiver. “Why, with my looks and your power, they would be the positively gorgeous!”

“I believe the mare said ‘no’, scumbag,” a voice growled, causing both Silver and I to jump slightly. Looking around, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw who had spoken up.

“Avera.”

The pegasus stepped up beside me, glaring at Silver Stream with a ferocity that could make a Ursa Minor cower. Her teeth were bared and her wings were flared.

“What did you just call me?” Silver asked, outraged.

“Scumbag, tumor head, blowhard, human blanket,” Avera said, shrugging her shoulders. “You take your pick.”

“How… how dare you,” Silver snarled, his cheeks flushing rage. “Do you know who you are talking to?!”

“No,” Avera said, coldly, not taking her eyes off of Silver, “and I don’t really care.” Leaning towards me, Avera nudged me with a wing. “Lady Applejack said that you were looking for Max?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I thought you were suppose to be watching him.”

“I was preoccupied checking the perimeter,” Avera replied. Silver’s eyes darted back and forth between us as we talked, a confused look on his face. He mouthed Max’s name, blinking several times.

“Don’t worry,” Avera said, giving me a small smile. “I’m sure Major Rose is with him.” Giving Silver Stream one last glance, Avera turned and motioned for me to follow her, “Come on; let’s go find your human.” Giving the pegasus a grateful smile, I turned followed her into the crowd, leaving Silver Stream standing on the steps, seething in anger.

“A human,” I heard him mutter as I walked away. “A human?!”

“Thanks, Avera,” I said as the pegasus shouldered her way through the crowd.

“No problem,” she said, looking back and giving me a smug grin. “You looked like you were about to smack him out anyways, so I thought I’d intervene before you did something you’d regret.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered under my breath. I thought I had seen the last of him ages ago. Looking around at the sea of ponies and humans around us, I ask, “Do you have any clue where Max might be? I’ve been from one side of this ballroom to the other, and I haven’t seen him.”

“No clue,” Avera said, shaking her head, “but I’m sure that wherever he is, he’s doing something weird and or stupid.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The music; it was beautiful. How a group of ponies, who had hooves instead of hands, could create such wondrous sound with instruments clearly designed with hands in mind I had no idea, but it was beautiful nonetheless. The cellist was the most impressive, in my humbled opinion; the way she held her instrument, the way she played with such conviction and such devotion. It was like watching a master at work.

And that was nothing compared to the music that she played! Oh, to describe it in mortal words would not do it any justice whatsoever.

The beginning was simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - piano and basset horn - like a rusty music box. Then suddenly - high above it - a harp, a single note, hanging there unwavering, until the cello took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight and wonder! This was no performing monkey! This mare, this musician, was playing music like I had never heard before. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing and want, it made me tremble. It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God himself.

I had not played my cello in several years, not after graduating from high school, yet this gray pony, with blackened mane, was bring back that desire, that burning lust, to put bow to string and bring forth the symphonies I had been taught in school as a boy. To put my heart and soul into my instrument, so that the world might feel just a sliver of what I was feeling.

She was a conductor of souls, and I was but a lowly observer. I did not deserve to be in her presence, let alone listen to the music which she crafted--

“Hey, Octavia. Don’t look now, but I think you have an admirer.” At her companion’s remark, the gray cellist cracked her eye open, glancing down at me as she continued to play. From her place on the stage, she was just barely a foot taller than me, and that was with her standing on her back hooves to hold her cello.

“Wonder what he wants?” the pianist said softly as he turned a page of music.

“He seems quite content to just listen at the moment,” the harpist said, smiling slightly as she continued plucking the strings of her harp. As her eyes landed on my collar, they widened and her smile grew. “It appears he belongs to Princess Sparkle.”

“Look at that, Octavia,” the pianist said with a smirk. “The human of royalty likes you. What an honor!” This earned a chuckle from the other musician. The cellist, Octavia, just continued to stare at me for several more seconds before a small smile touched her face and she closed her eye again. The song slowly came to an end, and there was a brief pause before the band began its next piece.

I huffed, chuckling softly to myself as I turned and headed back through the crowd. After I had become separated from Twilight and my guards, I about had a mental breakdown, surrounded by all those unicorns. That was, until the music had started. I guess what they say is true, I thought with a smirk as I slipped between a group of human. Music soothes the savage beast.

Sighing heavily, I glanced around the crowd, eyeing the many unicorns. I’ve got to find Twilight. Standing on tiptoe, I scanned the crowd carefully, but no sign of Twilight. As I fell back off the tips of my toes, someone tapped me on my shoulders, causing my to jump. Whipping around, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Luna standing there.

She was wearing a black chest plate, a white crescent moon glowing softly on the surface. She had a blouse-like article of clothing underneath her chest plate, the dark blue material sparkling in a similar manner as her mane and tail. Her hoof covers were black as well, a layer of dark blue cloth running from the covers, up to her knees, trailing off into a smoke-like substance. Her black crown, perfectly polished, was perched just above her long horn, shining dimly in the light of the blue torches.

Two of her guards were positioned just behind her, their lavender-colored armor gleaming softly in the low light. Both had dark gray coats and black manes, their tufted ears reminding me vaguely of Primrose. A quick glance to their sides confirmed that they also had batlike wings. Both guards were staring straight ahead, their cat-like eyes narrowed slightly. I noticed that one of them appeared to have an eyepatch over his left eye.

“We are sorry,” Luna said softly as her blue eyes stared at me. I noticed that she had a hint of makeup on, accenting her eyes and cheeks. “We did not mean to scare you, dear human.”

~That’s okay~ I signed, giving the Lunar Princess a quick smile. ~No harm done~

“We have just managed to escape the throngs of nobles wishing to talk to us,” Luna explained. “We were going to meet our sister, but saw you in the crowd and decided to stop for a brief chat.

“Are thou enjoy thyself tonight?” she asked, her tone hopeful. I winced inwardly, a sheepish smile on my face.

~The music’s nice~ With the hopeful expression on her face, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was uncomfortable around so many ponies. Luna nodded her head, looking out over the sea of ponies milling about.

“We have been working hard these past few nights, trying our best to prepare the festivities,” she said softly. “We did not have this kind of merrymaking back before our banishment, so it has taken a great deal of effort on our part to get everything ready. Our sister offered to help, but we declined her; we had to do this by ourselves, and prove to ourselves that we can do this.

“Although, had we known that it would be nothing but nobles trying to earn favor with us, we wouldn’t have tried so hard,” she huffed under her breath, glaring at a passing noble. The mare squeaked and hurried along, trying to avoid the princess’s eye. “We swear, it wasn’t this bad one thousand years ago. It’s been nothing but a nightmare, and I know nightmares; I work with them every evening.” I chuckled softly, running a hand through my hair. I inhaled sharply when her words finally registered in my brain.

Chewing the inside of my cheek, I cocked my head to the side slightly, glancing at Luna.

~Luna, can I ask you something?~ She perked up, giving me a quizzical look.

“Certainly,” she nodded, a small smile on her face. “How may we be of assistance?”

~You’re the princess of dreams, right?~

“Yes, it is my job to enter the dreams of our subject’s and make sure that none are suffering any night time terrors,” she said with a nod. “Why?”

~Do you remember the nightmares I was having before you discovered me?~ I asked hopefully.

“We are afraid not.” I sighed, sagging my shoulders. “We were tracking your nightmares for several months, but were unable to actually enter them. The night we found you, we punched through the cloud of darkness surrounding your dreams. The minute we stepped hoof into your nightmare, however, the dream disintegrated and you awoke. We were just in your dream long enough to pinpoint your location in the real world before we were forced out.”

~I see~ I signed, frowning slightly. Luna gave me a puzzled look.

“Prithee, why are thou concerned about it?”

~About a week ago, I was… roughed up by a crazed unicorn mare~ I began, but was cut off by Luna.

“Roughed up? But, what of the guards we sent to you?” she asked worriedly, a frantic look flashing across her face. “Did they not protect you? Are they not satisfactory?!”

~They’re fine!~ I signed quickly, taking a step back. ~We just got surprised is all~ This seemed to calm Luna down; she took a deep breath, nodding slowly.

“Sorry,” she breathed. “We apologize for the interruption. We were just worried; we assigned the guards to look after you; they are supposed to be the best of the best we have to offer, and to hear that you were attacked while under their watch was very… disconcerting.”

~If it makes you feel better, I don’t think they were even there for five minutes before it happened~

“Do you wish to return them?” Luna asked, her ears splaying back. I shook my head quickly, smirking slightly.

~No, I’m not done testing them out yet~ Luna snorted, a smile flashing across her face.

“We see,” she said, before sobering. “We are sorry for getting off topic. You were saying?”

~I was roughed up by a crazed mare, who seemed to have a thing for humans. She seemed to have a screw loose as well. Anyways, seeing as she was an escapee from a mental hospital, I didn’t think much of her~

“What does this mare have to do with your nightmares?” Luna interrupted, nodding at a passing noble, a small frown on her face.

~That’s the part that bothers me~ I signed, scrunching up my face. ~Before she attacked me, she started spouting what some might consider rubbish~

“But you don’t think the same, do you?” I shook my head.

~No~

“And why is that?” Luna asked, ruffling her wings as she cocked her head to the side.

~Because she was describing things that had happened in the nightmares~ I signed, giving Luna a blunt look. Her eyes widened in surprise, her wings flaring slightly.

“Have thou told anypony about your nightmares?” she asked.

~No~ I replied, shaking my head. ~I’ve told no one~

“What exactly did this mare say to you?” Luna asked, her eyes narrowing. As quickly as I could, I explained to Luna my dream of the statues, as well as Lyra’s words. When I finished, she was looking out at the crowd, a thoughtful look on her face. Eventually, she returned her gaze back to me.

“We are not sure of how things work on your old world,” she began slowly. “But here, in Equestria, dreams tend to have… links to the real world.” She frowned, before shaking her head. “No, that’s not correct. It’s more like the real world and the dream world is linked. One can affect the other, and the other way around.

“We are not entirely sure what your dream means, or if it has a meaning at all. From what we could tell, your nightmares merely stemmed from Discord trying to torment you, but if this mare has knowledge of your dreams, that might not be the case anymore.” She fell silent, her eyes darting back and forth as she thought. Behind her, the two guards remained motionless; neither one having moved a single muscle during our conversation.

“We would tell Twilight Sparkle if we were you,” Luna said suddenly. “She might be able to help uncover this mystery. Perhaps she’s come across the mention of something similar to your dreams in her research.

“Also,” she continued, her blue eyes boring into mine. “We would have you tell Twilight of any more dreams you have that seem… weird or unsettling. She can help you figure them out, or at least send a letter to us so that we may help as well.”

~Okay~ Luna nodding, smiling softly.

“Excellent,” she said, before turning her attention to a point on the far side of the room. “Now, if you have nothing else to talk of at this time, we simply must go talk with our sister.” I gave Luna a bow of my head, stepping to the side so that she may pass. She took several steps passed me, before stopping and glancing over her shoulder.

“Pray tell, where are your guards now?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. When I gave her a sheepish smile, she just sighed, shaking her head and giving me a small smirk. “I see.” She moved to turn back around, but paused, her ear perk up slightly, almost like someone was talking to her. A smile touched her lips as she glanced back at me again.

“You know,” she said, a teasing tone in her voice. “The gardens are lovely this time of year. We placed a heating spell upon it this evening, so the snow and cold shouldn’t be a problem.” She gave me a playful wink, her smile growing slightly. “Might be worth checking out.” With that, she turned and slipped off into the crowd, her two guards following silently behind her like twin shadows.

I stared after the Lunar Princess, blinking occasionally. What was she implying? Glancing towards the double doors that led to the gardens, I scratched my chin, thinking. Well, it might be better than being in here, I mused, chewing on my bottom lip. Might as well give it a try. Who know, maybe I’ll find Fluttershy out there; that would be better than being on my own with all these unicorns.

Making up my mind, I had just turned to head towards the gardens when another voice spoke up behind me; a voice that chilled my bones and instantly set my heart rate skyrocketing.

“Hello, hello, hello,” the voice said, dripping with smugness. “This is an... unexpected surprise.” Slowly, my heart rising into my throat, I turned to look behind me. My pupils shrank as my fears were confirmed. Aw, hell no.

Blueblood smirked up at me, a hungry glint in his ice blue eyes. He had on a white tuxedo that seemed to blend perfectly with his coat. His blonde mane was slicked back, falling down over his shoulders. He gave me a predatory smile, his teeth showing as he stepped forward.

“And here I thought this night would be uneventful,” he purred. “This is a stroke of good fortune, isn’t it?”

Not from my point of view, I thought, taking a step back. This just caused Blueblood to chuckle.

“Now, now, don’t be afraid,” he cooed in what I could only assume was suppose to be a seductive manner. “You and I are going to have some fun tonight.” Like hell we are. Taking another step back, I glanced around at the surrounding ponies, desperately looking for a friendly face.

“Such a shame that Princess Twilight Sparkle left you all alone,” Blueblood tsked, shaking his head. “Oh well, that’s no skin off my muzzle.” His smirk grew, and his horn lit up. I felt something clip onto my collar suddenly, yanking my head down. I reached my hands up in an attempt to remove the collar, but was stopped when something wrapped around my wrists, binding my hands together. Looking down, I saw, to my horror, that Blueblood had attached a leash to the collar, and had bound my hands with it as well. Panicking, I struggled against the leash, trying to break free.

“I see you have some fight in you,” Blueblood giggled, actually giggled. “Good; I like them feisty.” I tried to attract some attention to what was going on, but unfortunately we were far enough to the side of the room that no one seemed to notice. God damn it! I opened my mouth to try and cry out, to make any noise, but another flash of Blueblood’s horn and my jaw clicked shut.

“Come along you,” Blueblood sneered, dragging me through a nearby door and out into an empty hall. I dug my heels in, trying to fight back, but Blueblood just increased the amount of magic he was using, causing me to slid down the hallway effortlessly. God damn it! I fucking hate magic!!

“Oh, I can’t wait to break you in,” Blueblood said, a skip in his step. “We are going to be busy all night long, and possibly into the morning!” We had just about reached the end of the corridor when I managed to wiggle my wrist around enough to loosen the leash’s grip around my arms. Ripping a hand free, I pulled it back…

...and smashed my fist straight into the back of Blueblood’s head with a oh-so satisfying ‘crack’. Pain flared up in my knuckles, but I didn’t care.

He keeled over instantly, yelping in pain as his muzzle smashed into the marble floor. Instantly his magic ceased, and the leash fell limp. Quickly freeing my other hand, I ripped the leash off of the collar and tossing it to the side. I turned to sprint back down the hallway, planning on finding Luna again, but was tackled to the floor by an enraged Blueblood.

“You horrid beast,” he snarled, blood pouring from his busted muzzle and mouth. I could see, with some satisfaction, that several of his teeth had chipped upon impact with the floor. “You dare to attack me--” he began, but was interrupted when I brought my fist up again and punched him in the throat. Gagging, he fell backwards, clasping at his throat, his eyes wide. Scrambling to my feet, I took off down the hall.

I had only taken a few steps when something wrapped around my ankles, bring me to the floor again. Rolling over with a groan, I saw a blue aura around my leg, holding me down.

“You’re not going anywhere, you freak,” Blueblood hissed, his voice raspy as he struggled to his feet. “You’ll pay for this, you… you… human, you!” His horn lit up, and with a flick of his head he sent a burst of energy flying down the hall towards me. I brought my arms up to shield myself, readying myself for the impending attack. The bolt drew nearer, causing the air around me to crackle ominously. Before I could do anything, the burst of energy descended upon me…

...only to splash harmlessly across a red dome of magic that surrounded me. Both Blueblood and I could only stare at the red dome in shock.

“I thought you were more intelligent than that, Bluey,” a feminine voice spoke up from behind me, the sound of hoofsteps echoing through the hall. “Abducting the personal human of a princess? What the buck were you thinking?” Craning my neck backwards, I glanced back at the mare who was now walking towards us.

She was a unicorn, the horn protruding from her forehead slightly longer than Twilight’s. Her coat was bright white, glimmering in the dim lighting of the hall. Her mane was short and disheveled, the two-tone blue hair covering half her face. A black shortcut dress hugged her body, just barely covering her cutie mark. She had several earring running up her ear in a helix piercing, the iron studs glinting as her ears twitched. The thing that stood out the most, however, were the dark purple shades she wore over her eyes.

“Ah, Lady Scratch,” Blueblood said through gritted teeth, clutching a hoof to his bleeding nose. “I didn’t realize you were attending the Gala this year.”

“My marefriend is playing in the band; of course I’m going to attend,” the mare, Scratch, huffed, moving to stand next to me as the magic dome dissolved. “Now, run along, Bluey. Better go to the medical wing to have your muzzle looked at; don’t want it sticking that way.” She stuck her tongue out at the prince, chuckling slightly. I had to give it to the mare; she had a cocky attitude.

“Not before this beast is taught a lesson,” Blueblood snarled, staggering to his hooves. “Now, out of my way!” He stepped forward, but Scratch moved calmly to stand slightly in front of me, her horn glowing softly. Blueblood bristled visibly.

“How dare you stand in my way,” he growled, eyes narrowing. The mare just huffed, flicking her mane out of her face.

“Hate to break it to ya, Blue, but we’re the same social rank,” Scratch said, cracking a large smile. “There’s no threat you can use against me.”

“Please,” scoffed Blueblood, spitting blood out of his mouth. “I’m a noble by birth; royal blood flowing through my veins. You are simply where you are by the grace of the gods!”

“S’not my fault Luna likes to party, dude,” Scratch said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Indeed,” Blueblood said, his eyes narrowing. “Now, if you’d excuse me, I have a human to take care of.”

“I don’t think so,” Scratch said, her voice suddenly becoming cold. “You touch a hair on this human’s head, and I’ll torch you so badly that they will need a chisel to remove you from the floor.”

“You wouldn’t!” Blueblood took a step back, his bloody mouth agape.

“Yeah, your right,” Scratch said nodding her head. “I’d just inform Celestia about what you were up to.” Blueblood’s face instantly paled, which was impressive seeing as he was already white to begin with.

“You wouldn’t,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“What,” Scratch teased, cocking her head to the side. “Don’t want your auntie to find out you were messing around with her student’s human? I can’t blame you: that’s not a smart move on your part, considering that he has the protection of four princesses.” Blueblood just stared at the mare, hatred clear in his eyes, before turning with a flick of his tail and storming off down the hall.

The mare and I watched him go until he was around the corner. Once Blueblood was out of view, the mare turned and looked up at me, her eyes hidden behind her shades. As she studied me, she clicked her tongue absentmindedly.

“Yeah, totally telling Celestia about this,” she suddenly said, a grin spreading across her face. Turning, she trotted quickly back towards the ballroom, cackling madly to herself. Glancing over my shoulder in the direction Blueblood had stalked off, I took a shaky breath and followed after the mare quickly. Better her than Blueblood.

When we entered the ballroom, Scratch paused, looking back at me. Raising a hoof, she waved it at me in a general shooing motion, “Go on, get! I got nothin’ for ya, stud.” Turning she slipped off into the crowd, disappearing in the mass of ponies.

I just stood by the door, gazing out across the ballroom. Sighing heavily, I shook my head, frowning slightly as my heart slowly began to calm down. When am I suppose to start having fun again? My eyes fell upon the doors to the gardens again, and with another sigh, I slowly made my way towards the doors.

Hopefully there’s no ponies out there at the moment, I thought, rubbing my sore back. I can’t take much more ‘fun’ tonight.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is?!” I growled, glaring at Ebony Rose. The mare shrunk back, pawing at the ground nervously as her eyes darted between me and Avera. We had found her wandering around near the dance floor, looking for Max as well. She seemed as surprised as us to find that he was missing, which didn’t help with my mood.

“I thought he was with you!” she said, holding her hoof in front of her defensively. “When you found out he couldn’t go out onto the dance floor, you headed off to see the princess. He started to follow behind you, didn’t he?”

“Started, maybe, but he wasn’t there when I arrived,” I huffed, flicking an ear in irritation. “You were in charge of watching him. How could you have lost him?”

“It’s not my fault,” Ebony said, her ears splaying backwards.

“How is this not your fault?” Avera growled, glaring at her partner as she hovered in the air, her back hooves scraping the marble floor.

“Prince Blueblood told me that the Archmage was looking for me! He said it was important. When I saw you and Max heading off to see the princess about getting permission for Max, I thought it was the perfect time to go see what he wanted. Max would be with you and Princess Celestia, so we wouldn’t have to worry about him!”

“Well, was what the Archmage wanted as important as watching Max?” Avera asked, her voice cold.

“Well n-no,” Ebony said, dropping her gaze. “When I found him, he told me that he didn’t need to see me, and he hadn’t talked to Blueblood at all. He was surprised I was even here tonight.”

“Some guard you are,” Avera huffed, crossing her forelegs over her chest. I winced slightly at the cold tone in her voice. That might be a bit much.

“W-well, what about you?” Ebony cried, pointing at Avera with a trembling hoof. “You’re in charge of guarding him as well!”

“I was checking the perimeter, like I was supposed to,” Avera snarled, pushing her face into Ebony’s. “Don’t you dare try and push this off on me. The Coming Dawn doesn’t allow for screw-ups like this!” The unicorn stumbled back, blinking tearily up at the angry pegasus. Lowering her head, she looked off to the side, biting her bottom lip.

I sighed heavily, lowering my head as well, feeling my anger slowly dissipate. I shouldn’t be yelling at her, I thought, looking at the teary-eyed mare. I’m as much at fault as she is. Lifting my head, I swallowed before opening my mouth, “Look, Ebony, I--”

“I’m sorry, okay?” she cried, causing several nearby ponies to glance over at her curiously. “I know, I bucked up; is that what you wanted to hear? I--” I silence her by placing a hoof over her mouth. She blinked, tears running down her cheeks as she gave me a confused look.

“You didn’t ‘buck up’ anything, Ebony,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. This whole thing is just a huge case of miscommunication. I’m nervous about Max, but that doesn’t give me the right to take it out on you.” I glanced over at Avera, who just continued to hover there, her hooves crossed. When she caught me looking, she just raised an eyebrow.

“I ain’t apologizing,” she huffed. “There was a job that wasn’t done here, and it’s not my fault.”

“Avera!” I scolded, but was stopped by Ebony.

“It’s fine,” she sniffed, wiping the tears from her eyes as I turned back to look at her. “She’s right, anyways; I was suppose to be looking after Max, and I lost track of him. Sorry for getting all emotional about it. It’s just… well, watching Discord was my first big assignment, my first real chance to prove myself, and we all know how that turned out. This was my chance to make up for that mistake, but it seems that I can’t do anything right.”

“That’s not true,” I said, walking up and draping a wing over her back. “Tonight was just a snag, that’s all.” She just hung her head, unconvinced. Think, Twilight. Think! My eyes fell upon the doors to the gardens.

“Tell you what,” I said, raising my voice slightly. “How about we put this all behind us for now, and you two work together and continue to look for Max in here, okay?” Ebony nodded, a small smile touching her face. Removing my wing, I turned and started to trot off into the crowd.

“And where are you going?” Avera called after me, cocking her head to the side. I glanced back over my shoulder at her as I continued to walk away.

“I’m going to the gardens to look for him.”

“What makes you think he’ll be there?” the pegasus asked, finally uncrossing her legs. I flashed her a quick smirk.

“It’s the only place where there are no ponies to bother him!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As I stepped out into the gardens, the first thing I realized was just how quiet it was. The only sound I could here was the gentle murmur of music that drifted in from the ballroom, filling the gardens with the soothing sound of the band.

Despite it being winter, the gardens were surprisingly warm due to the spell the princesses placed on the area. I could see the snow forming around the edges of the garden as flakes slowly drifted down from the overcast sky, but no snow could be found within the gardens.

The gardens were beautiful, full of winter flowers that were in full bloom. Flowers of purples, reds, and blues were scattered everywhere, waving in the soft breeze that blew through the hedges and bushes. Blue torches hung from a set of wooden rafters that were suspended out over the garden, providing shelter from the elements (for when the spell wasn’t in effect, I believe).

Walking slowly down the pathway through the hedges, I made my way towards the fountains. Unlike the statue gardens, the fountain located here was just a simple thing, nothing more than a seapony blowing a stream of water from her mouth.

As I rounded the corner of a hedge, I paused, my heart skipping a beat. There, seated on one of the many benches, was my human. He had one his arm resting across the back of the bench, leaning his head onto his hand as he stared out at the fountain, a blank look on his face.

I smiled upon seeing Max, and made a beeline for him, “There you are!” He perked up upon hearing my voice, turning his head to look in my direction. I blinked, the smile dropping as I noticed he had a bruise growing across the side of his jaw. “What happened to you?”

~I don’t want to talk about it~ he signed, sighing as he looked back at the fountain. I bit my bottom lip but didn’t say anything. Instead, I climbed up onto the bench and sat next to him, my wings fidgeting slightly. Silence descended upon us as we stared out at the fountain, broken only by the sound of the band starting another song. The music was slow; the cello playing out above the other instruments.

Eventually, I felt the need to speak up.

“Max,” I said, wincing as my voice came out sounding strained. “I… I want to apologize for how this night has turned out, and for abandoning you at the beginning.” I heard him laugh softly beside me.

~It’s not your fault~

“But, I--” I began, but was silenced when I felt his fingers begin to scratch behind my ear. I felt all the tension slowly leaving my body as his digits dug gently into my head, and I soon found myself unable to stop from leaning into his hand, a happy smile on my face. Oh, that feels wonderful!

My ear twitching slightly, I fought to formulate my words, “But I wanted you to have a good night tonight. With all the stuff you’ve been through, I thought it would be a nice change of pace. Instead, I left you all alone in the middle of a room full of nobles.” I whined softly as he drew his hand away from my head, already missing the feeling.

~I don’t blame you~ He smiled softly at me, wincing slightly due to the bruise on his jaw.

“But why?” I asked, looking up at him, my ears splaying backwards. “I can see from here that you’ve been injured tonight,” I indicated the growing bruise on his jaw, which he reached up and touched gingerly. “How can you be so forgiving?”

~Because it’s you~ I froze, inhaling sharply as my heart seemed to stop. I could only stare up at my human in shock at what he had just said.

He was no longer looking at me; instead he was gazing out at the fountain, bobbing his head gently to the soft music playing. He hummed along, a small smile on his face. I felt my cheeks beginning to warm up as the words echoed around in my head. Because it’s you.

I tore my gaze away from him, biting my bottom lip, my mind a whirlwind of thoughts. Come on, Twilight; just tell him how you feel, I thought, trying to work up the courage. Remember what Cadance said: ‘When it comes to love, don’t let other ponies dictate who you can and can’t love’. Just tell Max how he makes you feel!

This is hardly the time for that! I reasoned with myself, frowning slightly. I’m pretty sure that he’s not in the mood to deal with my feelings right now.

You’re both alone, there’s music, the atmosphere is perfect.

But what if he doesn’t like me the same? I rubbed my hooves together nervously, mentally fighting with myself. Oh, why does it have to be so hard!

I flinched, squeaking slightly when Max returned to scratching behind my ears. Just tell him already!

But what if he has his eyes on somepony else? My ears drooped slightly, although that didn’t stop Max from giving them attention. I know I’m not as physically fit as Applejack and Rainbow, and I’m not as good looking as Rarity or Fluttershy, and I’m not fun like Pinkie… oh, sweet Celestia. Max’s fingers had just hit a particularly sensitive patch of nerves, and my left ear was now twitching madly.

Pushing all of my thoughts into the back of my mind, I bite down harder on my lip. Come on, Twilight.You’ve faced down Nightmare Moon, Discord (twice), Queen Chrysalis and her horde of Changelings, and King Sombra. You can surely tell Max how you feel. You’re a princess of Equestria, for Maker’s sake! Stop making excuses!

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Slowly opening my eyes again, I glanced up at my human, my heart aflutter.

“Max, I--” At that exact moment, I was interrupted as a shrill scream rent the night air.

Chapter 33: In the Depths of the Archives

“I wish you had told me about your nightmares sooner,” Twilight chided as we walked down the hallway. Bright sunlight streamed in through the stained glass windows as the noonday sun shone proudly down on the snow-covered palace. Last night’s snowstorm had been cleared by the weather team earlier this morning, leaving behind a good five inches of snow. Fires blazed in the fireplaces that dotted the palace’s many rooms, fighting to keep the cold at bay. Even so, the hallways still had a nip to them, and I silently gave thanks that I had remembered to pack a sweater that Rarity had made me.

It was the day after the Gala, and Twilight and I were still at the palace, staying behind so that Twilight could visit the Canterlot Archives. After the incident at the Gala, Celestia had received word from the guard that something had happened in the dungeons. She had excused herself and hurried off quickly, taking most of the royal guards with her, leaving Luna and her Lunar Guards to work on returning the humans to their owners.

I didn’t see the point in that, seeing that their owners had abandoned them in the first place, but apparently it was the “right thing to do”.

After Celestia’s sudden departure, I decided that I had had enough ‘excitement’ for the evening. Bidding the others good night, Twilight, along with Avera and Ebony, had escorted me back to our room. Once there, Twilight had started to grill me about what had happened while I was by myself at the Gala. I had given her a brief rundown of the events, including my run-in with Blueblood, which made Twilight… bristle.

We had to crack a window open for a few minutes to clear the smoke out of the room.

After calming down, and hearing about my discussion with Luna concerning my nightmares, Twilight had decided that we needed to visit to the Canterlot Archives after breakfast in order to research what exactly the statues Lyra and I saw were.

It was well past two in the morning before Avera and Ebony left for their own rooms, and I was finally allowed to collapse upon the couch. I could hear Twilight muttering to herself as she got comfortable in the bed. I was out like a light within minutes.

Breakfast was a quiet affair; neither Celestia nor Luna showed up, but they sent their apologies for not being able to attend. I wasn’t sure why they were so busy, but I figured it had something to do with what had happened at the Gala. The palace was practically crawling with more guards than normal. When I asked Twilight why that was, she just shrugged and said that maybe it had something to do with what happened to the humans at the Gala.

I hoped that they would be able to find the unicorn responsible for that whole collar fiasco; my neck was killing me.

After breakfast, the rest of the gang said their goodbyes and caught the early train back to Ponyville, leaving me, Twilight, and my guards at the palace. Twilight had sent a quick letter to Spike, explaining that we would be staying in Canterlot longer than expected, and to behave for Primrose while we were gone. With that taken care of, we had headed off towards the archives. However, the four of us had some… unexpected company.

Three unicorn guards were accompanying us on our journey. According to their leader—a mare that had a white coat and yellow mane—they were ordered by Princess Celestia to follow us around while we were on the palace grounds.

“For added protection,” the mare said while staring up at me. Twilight had questioned her further, but the mare wouldn’t elaborate. However, she had an order from the princess, so Twilight reluctantly allowed them to follow us.

“I don’t see why we need escorts,” she had grumbled as we left the dining room.

These guards were unlike any of the guards I’d seen before. The trio wore light sets of cobalt armor that seemed to have an eerie aqua gleam to them, even when hidden in the shadows. Underneath the armor were dark purple caparisons, which almost looked like robes. Adorned upon their heads were cobalt helmets that had silver circlets attached to them; a hole in the forehead allowing for their horns to protrude. Their manes stuck out from the top of the helmet, giving each a unique crest color. The back of their armor bore the same emblem as Ebony’s dress uniform: the symbol of a fireball with the silhouette of a unicorn’s head inside.

Upon questioning why they had the same emblem, Ebony had explained to me that it was the insignia of a group of guards called the Battlemages, which she was a member of.

“Basically,” she had said as we walked down the hall, “we are part of the magical branch of Canterlot’s defense. We answer to the Archmage, as well as the princesses.”

~So, why aren’t you wearing the same armor as them?~ I had asked. ~It actually looks kinda cool~ Ebony had just given me a sheepish smile while she blushed.

“It’s back at the library, actually,” she explained, chuckling. “Primrose has been making some modifications to it over the past couple of days. Say what you will, that mare is a natural when it comes to ironwork.” I asked her about the modifications, but she just shook her head, smiling, “It’s a surprise.”

Twilight and I led the rest of our group down into the archives. Avera floated lazily through the air, her eyes slowly scanning the hall for anything out of the ordinary. Ebony walked with the Battlemages, chatting softly with one of them, a dark stallion with a light green mane.

“I knew you weren’t sleeping well your first few months here, but I thought it was due to stress; I didn’t realize it was that bad,” Twilight continued as we rounded a corner. “You should have told me!”

~I didn’t realize that dreams were so important here~ I signed with a shrug. ~Back home, they didn’t hold that much power~

“Of course dreams are important here,” Twilight tsked, shaking her head. “They have a special mystical power. Why else do you think Luna would need to patrol them?”

~Cause she’s bored during the night and has nothing better to do with her time?~ Twilight paused, shooting me a blank stare. I gave her a confused look. ~What?~

“There once was a mare from Manehattan, who dreamed she was being flattened. She awoke with a start, and in a beat of her heart, she discovered that it had actually happened.”

I gave the alicorn an incredulous look. ~So you’re telling me that if I have a dream about Rarity sticking a needle in my good eye, I should stay away from her the next day?~

“No, I… what?” Twilight asked, scrunching up her face. “That doesn’t even… I don’t know...ugh.” She closed her eyes, shaking her head as she sighed. “Look, I concede that not all dreams are mystical here, but that doesn’t mean that certain dreams don’t hold power over the dreamer. Especially if the dream was anything like the nightmares you were having.”

~I feel like you’re making this more complicated than it needs to be~ I replied, scrunching up my face slightly in annoyance. From behind us, Ebony spoke up.

“That’s because you come from a world without magic.” —I looked back to see her smirking up at me— “There was nothing to mix with the dreams of your world. I guess it would be like having soda without any fizz to it; it would just taste flat.”

“I guess that’s one way of putting it,” Twilight muttered as she resumed walking. Ebony just chuckled before continuing her chat with the other Battlemages.

A few minutes later, we rounded another corner and came into view of the Archive’s entrance: a pair of large gilded doors at the end of the hall. There were vines carved into the dark oaken door frame, and a golden bust of a unicorn was perched just above the door, looking out upon the corridor with glistening ruby eyes.

A pair of unicorn guards stood at attention on either side of the doors. They were dressed in gold-trimmed crimson robes, that hung down to the floor. Large golden decorative collars rested on their withers and wrapped around to their chests. The top of the collars jutted out from their necks, designed to look like the rising sun. Golden livery rings clasped the robes together. On their heads were helmets that covered most of their face, but left their bottom jaws untouched. They both held large golden halberds.

As we approached the doors, one of the guards looked up. His dark brown muzzle was striped with the white of age. His dull gray eyes traveled over our group slowly, his face expressionless. When he spoke, his voice was deep and hoarse, “Princess Sparkle, what brings you down here today?”

“Good day, sir," Twilight said cheerfully, stopping just in front of the guard. “We’re here to do a little research and need access to the archives, if you would be so kind.” She motioned at the door with her hoof, beaming at the guard.

“I take it your entire group wishes to enter the archives?” the guard asked slowly, ignoring Twilight’s smile as his eyes slowly drifted over our group.

“Yes,” Twilight confirmed with a nod, keeping the smile on her face.

“Humans are not allowed within the archives,” the second guard spoke up. By the sound of the voice, it was clear that this one was a mare. Her coat was the same color as her partners, tinged with white as well. Her silver eyes were locked on me, but her face remained expressionless.

“Can’t you make an exception for him?” Avera asked as she landed beside me. “It’s not like he’s going to cause trouble!”

“Humans are not allowed within the archives,” the mare repeated, her gaze not wavering. “He will have to wait outside until you return, or you may take him back to your room and leave him there.”

“But he’s the whole reason we need to get into the archives in the first place!” Avera shouted, waving her hooves in the air. “You can’t seriously be telling us that he can’t come in with us!”

“Why do you want him to enter with you?” asked the male guard, turning his dull eyes to the black pegasus. “Humans can neither read or understand. I doubt that he will be of any use to you in there.”

“But Max isn’t like other humans,” Avera growled. “He’s as intelligent as a pony!” The moment those words left her mouth, both of the guards gazes locked on me. I winced, a drop of sweat trickled down my neck as they both stared at me intensely. As if sensing my nervousness, Twilight stepped closer to me, leaning her shoulder against my leg.

Eventually the mare’s expressionless face cracked, a small smile playing across her muzzle, “So, this is the human that was causing Princess Celestia trouble several months ago.”

“She spent several sleepless nights browsing the archives, looking for any reference she could find of an intelligent human,” the stallion spoke up with a small smile of his own. Both guards stared at me for several seconds, before turning and sharing a look between the two of them.

“One second please,” the mare finally said, turning back to us. She closed her silver eyes, and her horn began to glow slightly. As we watched, she slowly began to whisper to herself, almost as if she was having a silent conversation with someone who wasn’t there.

Several minutes later, the light around her horn died out, and she opened her eyes again.

“I have consulted with the Solar Princess,” the guard said. “She has vouched for him. He may enter. But be warned, human,” she added, her silvery eyes glaring up at me in such a way that I was reminded of my grandmother whenever she got angry, “take only what you need from the archives, lest it takes something from you as well.”

Raising his halberd into the air, the stallion banged the butt of it against the ground. As the echoes died down, there came a loud grinding sound from the other side of the archive’s doors. With a lurch, the double doors slowly swung open, creaking loudly as they did so. A blast of cold air blew up from deep within the inner sanctum, causing me to shiver slightly and pull my hands deeper into the sleeves of my sweater. The musty smell of old paper and dust filled my nostrils. The inside of the archives was cloaked in darkness; not a single light could be seen inside.

“Take as long as you need,” the stallion said as the doors came to a stop. He leaned on his halberd slightly, a tired look in his eyes as he smiled softly. “Please try not to get lost.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said with a nod as she led our group through the doors and into the blackness of the archives. As the last of the Battlemages entered, large gears hidden behind the doors began to turn again with a groan. Slowly, the doors to the archives began to swing shut again. With a loud thud, the doors sealed and plunged us into darkness. There was complete silence for several seconds before Twilight spoke up. Even though she whispered, her voice carried loudly through the gloom.

“Hang on a second, let me get us some light.” There was a brief jingle as Twilight began to push magic through her horn. A dim lavender light sparked to life, the source coming from the tip of Twilight’s horn. “There, that’s better,” she said with a smile.

~What’s with the darkness?~ I asked, glancing around. Even with Twilight’s spell, it was difficult to see our surroundings. I was getting an uneasy feeling as thoughts of my nightmares, and the encroaching darkness, returned.

“Light can damage some of the older works, and causes fading over time,” Twilight explained, looking around as well. “The archives are always kept dark and cool to help preserve the information stored here for as long as possible.” Beside Twilight, Ebony lit up her horn as well, casting a pink hue over herself and the surrounding area. The other unicorns followed suit soon afterward, bathing our group in a swirl of multicolored light.

~So what do non-unicorns do when they want to visit the archives?~ I asked.

“Well, usually there are a couple of lanterns around here… ah!” Looking around, Twilight grabbed a medium-sized metal object that had been resting beside one of the pillars. Picking it up with her magic, she handed it carefully to me.

Grabbing it in my hands, I studied the object closely, having to squint slightly to see the blackened metal in the darkness. It was a simple lantern, blackened with age, with a shutter covering the opening for the light. A handle on top of the lantern gave the carrier something to hold. By the shape of the wooden handle, it was designed to be held with the mouth. It even had teeth marks in the wood.

Opening the lantern’s cover, it became instantly and painfully clear that it wasn’t lit. Turning, I held it up for Twilight to see, giving her a bemused look.

“Hang on,” she said, scrunching up her face in a cute manner. The light on the tip of her horn grew marginally brighter. There was a soft click before a dim red light sputtered to life within the depths of the lantern.

“There you go,” she said with a smile as the light on her horn returned back to its original brightness. I gave her a quick smile and a nod. With that, I held the lantern up and finally got a look at the surrounding area.

Just like the other side of the doors, large pillars adorned either side of the entrance. Instead of being made out of gold, however, these seemed to be made out of a unique black metal. Thorny vines ran up the frame of the doors, reaching up towards a large black bust of a unicorn, this one with eyes of sapphire.

Turning on the spot, I shone the red light around. Our group was in a small circular clearing just on the other side of the door; several small chairs and tables rested around a motif of what appeared to be the night sky, with several strange symbols carved amongst the stars. Just on the edge of the reading area, the rows of bookshelves began. At first I thought it was just the darkness playing tricks on my eyes, but as I took several steps forward, my eyes widened when I saw that wasn’t the case.

My god, I thought, exhaling softly in shock as my head craned backwards. Those are huge! Each of the surrounding bookshelves were at least twelve feet high, the tops of them disappearing into the darkness above us. Each shelf was packed full of scrolls, books, tomes, journals, and other countless pieces of information. The shelves ran down several aisles, the ends of which disappeared into the gloom.

“Come on,” Twilight said beside me, snapping me out of my daze. She started forward, her lavender light cutting into the darkness as she delved further into the archives. “Let’s get started.” Where would we even get started? I thought, looking around at the bookshelves as I followed after her. The clop of hooves filled the air as our group moved forward.

As we walked, I sidled up next to Twilight.

~So, what was up with the guards in front of the archives?~ I asked, awkwardly looping my arm through the lantern’s handle so that I could sign.

“They’re called Sentinels,” Ebony spoke up from behind me. I glanced down at her as she sped up to walk beside me. “There are only four of them in active service at the moment, and you just met two of them.”

~Why are there only four of them?~ I asked, the lantern swinging slightly as I moved my arms.

“Because Sentinels are unique,” Ebony explained, her quiet voice carrying in the still air. Her eyes sparkled as a large grin spread across her face. “When a unicorn enlists in the Academy, they have two paths that they will end up eventually taking. One path is that of a Cleric, while the other path is that of a Battlemage.

“If a unicorn chooses to become a Cleric, or medical spellcaster, they spend most of their time learning about healing magic, as well as counterspells. The healing magic allows them to fix maladies such as burns, poisoning, diseases, and physical injuries; anything you might go to the hospital for.

“As they get older and get more experienced in the art of healing, a Cleric might get the opportunity to become a Healer, one of the elite unicorns who work in the Royal Infirmary. It’s the Healers that take on the extreme cases of magical accidents, injuries, and ailments, as well as oversee the health of the princesses themselves.

“It takes many, many years of dedication and study in order to become a Healer, and even then they must prove to a board of directors every few years that they are still versed enough to remain Healers. There is even a test they must take, which can last up to three days long.” I blinked, looking over at Twilight as Ebony spoke. She was staring at the unicorn, engrossed by what she was saying.

“On the other side of the spectrum is the Battlemages,” Ebony continued. “We focus most of our time and energy into learning about offensive magic, as well as training with actual weapons and deep meditation. While we can be versed in many different forms of magic, most Battlemages choose one particular type of magic to train solely on. Fire, water, ice, wind, earth, and energy are usually what they are good at. For instance, just like my Cutie Mark indicates, I focus solely on plant-type magic,” Ebony said, motioning with her head towards her flank, on which was adorned the picture of a black rose surrounded by a cloud of pink-colored magic.

“Battlemages have ranks, same as the other branches of Equestrian military. As we get older and gain more experience, we can rise through the ranks.”

~I think I get where this is going~ I signed, wincing as the lantern slapped against my hip. Ebony just nodded, a smirk on her face.

“I figured you’d catch on,” she said. “Much like with the Clerics, once a Battlemage has enough experience, they have the chance to become Sentinels. Unlike becoming a Healer, however, becoming a Sentinel is the ultimate honor for a Battlemage.” As she spoke about the Sentinels, Ebony got a dreamy look on her face.

~Why’s that?~ I ask, confused. ~Don’t both sides work just as hard for the same reward?~ Blinking, Ebony shook her head before replying.

“That may be the case,” she said. “But there can be any number of Healers running around the Royal Infirmary. However, there can only be four Sentinels at any given time. It’s a tradition that has been passed down since the first Sentinels were chosen over a millennium ago. Princess Celestia chose two, and Princess Luna chose the other two.

“When one of the Sentinels passes away from old age, or is killed by other means, there is a week-long period of mourning before the next one is chosen. There are rules, however, for deciding who may become a Sentinel. The Battlemage must be over the age of seventy, must have a clean record, and must have passed a psychological exam.

“Once a candidate has been chosen, the decision is voted upon by the remaining Sentinels, the princesses, and the Archmage. Should the candidate receive the majority of the vote, they become a Sentinel, and the only ways to be relieved of that title are to lose their ability to use magic, no longer be able to perform their duties, or die.”

~So, you’re telling me that those ponies we passed to get in here were the best of the best of the Battlemages?~

“Exactly,” Ebony said with a large smile and a nod. “And it is that reason that Princess Celestia entrusted them to keep all the knowledge locked within the archives safe.”

~That seems like a waste of talent~ I signed, cocking an eyebrow.

“Given the knowledge that could be buried deep within the archives, it’s probably a smart choice on the princess’s part,” she said with a shrug. I hummed thoughtfully as I returned the lantern to my hand.

We walked in silence for several more minutes after that. I sighed in relief as I saw the end of the bookshelves come into view. Thank god we reached the end, I thought, a smile on my face. There are a lot of books here, although I thought there would be more by Twilight’s description…

I trailed off, the smile slowly falling from my face as something new emerged from the darkness as we neared the end of the aisle. Is… is that a railing?

Sure enough, emerging out of the darkness was something that looked like a railing one would use on a set of stairs. There was several feet between the end of the bookshelves and the railing. It almost looked like another reading area.

Confused as to why the railing was there, I approached it hesitantly. As I drew nearer, It became apparent that there was more railing than I originally thought. It ran along the length of the floor, disappearing into the darkness on either side of me.

As I reached the railing, I saw there appeared to be something on the other side. Raising my lantern higher, I tried to get a better look, but the light wasn’t strong enough for me to see.

The sound of hooves on the floor drew nearer as Twilight moved to stand next to me. Lifting her head higher, she increased the light shining from her horn.

My jaw dropped when I saw what was revealed by the light.

What I had thought was the back wall of the archives wasn’t that at all. The railing we had reached wrapped around a massive hole in the floor, nearly fifty feet in diameter. A set of double spiral staircases emerged from the hole, rising into the air to another hole in the ceiling. Surrounding the hole on all sides were more bookshelves, which ran away from the hole like rays from the sun.

Leaning over the railing slightly, I glanced down into the pit. My eyes widened as I saw that there were several more floors beneath us, each filled with shelves of books. After three floors, the stairs disappeared into the darkness, Twilight’s light no longer able to illuminate the depth of the room.

Glancing up, I saw the exact same thing applied to the ceiling as well; the spiraling staircase rising several floors up before disappearing into darkness.

The archives weren’t just huge; they were enormous!

“Over two million books,” Twilight spoke up from beside me. I glanced over at her and saw her staring out upon the sea of bookshelves in front, above, and below us with a dreamy expression on her face. Sighing happily, she turned to look at me, giving me a large smile, “Welcome to the Archives.” My hands shaking slightly, I placed my lantern on the floor.

~This is the Archives?!~ I asked, shaking my head slowly. ~How the buck are we supposed to find anything in here?! It’ll take months just to search one floor. We don’t even know where to start looking!~

“Sure we do,” Twilight said with a smirk. I gave her a confused look, unsure how she could possibly know where anything was in this place.

“There’s an entire section just for information concerning humans on the bottom floor,” she explained, pointing a hoof down into the void. “Since the statues in your dream were human shaped, any mention of them will be within that section.”

~How many floors down do we have to go?~ I asked, gazing into the pit before us.

“We’re on the fifth floor,” Twilight said simply before turning and heading towards the stairs. I looked over at the rest of our group. Ebony glanced up at me and shrugged before following after Twilight. Sighing, I picked up my lantern and fell into step behind them.

“Be careful on the stairs,” Avera snarked as she spread her wings to take flight. “See you losers at the bottom.” She made to take off, but was stopped when five different clouds of magic grabbed her.

“No!” Twilight cried loudly, her voice echoing around the massive archives. The resulting echoes made it seem like hundreds of Twilights were shouting at once. “You can’t fly in here; the disturbance from your wings could cause potential damage to some of the older content! Until we leave, you have to remain on the ground!”

Grumbling, Avera refolded her wings and sulked as she was forced to take the stairs with the rest of us.

Descending the stairs, we passed floor after floor as we sunk further into the earth. I finally was able to see why the Sentinels told us to be careful not to get lost. How could you even find someone in this place? It’s like a miniature city! I thought, sticking close to Twilight so I didn't lose her and become lost within the labyrinth of shelves.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, we followed Twilight as she began to snake her way through the shelves. I didn’t know exactly how she knew where she was going, but I had a sneaking suspicion that she might have been here before.

As we walked, I suddenly got the eerie feeling that we were being watched. Glancing over my shoulder, I searched for any signs of movement, but couldn’t see anything in the darkness that was creeping in behind us. I swallowed nervously as I recalled the warning the mare Sentinel had given me.

Turning back to Twilight, I inched closer to her, the feeling of being watched only growing stronger.

~So, there isn’t anything living in here, is there?~ I asked, casting another nervous look around. The question caused her to snort in laughter.

“Of course not,” she chuckled, sounding as if that was the stupidest idea she had ever heard. “There’s nothing living within the archives!” As she looked up at me, she blinked in confusion. The smirk vanished from her face, replaced instead by a look of concern.

“Are you okay?” she asked, leaning her shoulder against my leg as we walked.

~It feels like something is watching us from the shadows~

“Are you sure you’re not just being paranoid?” Avera whispered loudly. Even though she sounded skeptical, she still glanced around at the surrounding darkness, her ears perked.

~I’m not sure~ I replied, chewing on my lip. We continued down the aisle, but I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder every couple of steps. As if sensing my unease, the ponies slowly began to close ranks, walking closer and closer together the farther we walked.

After several tense minutes, Twilight halted suddenly, causing me to almost trip over her. Her ears perked up and her muscles tensed. She stared into the gloom in front of us for several seconds before turning to look back at the group.

“Increase your lights a little,” she hissed to Ebony and the Battlemages. “Not full power though, just enough to give us a little more breathing room.” The four Battlemages nodded before doing as instructed. With a low hum, the area around us was suddenly bathed in a flood of multicolored light.

With the increase in visibility also came a sound that caused my heart to skip a beat: the sound of something scuttling quickly across the floor. Instantly, the Battlemages closed rank around me.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Avera hissed, her flank pressing into my leg as she glared at the darkness behind us. Her wings were spread and she was crouched, ready to leap.

~My paranoia~ I snarked, keeping my head on a swivel as I tried to peer through the darkness. Whatever it was, it sounded close.

“Shut up,” growled one of the Battlemages. She glared over her shoulder at me. “If you don’t have anything helpful to contribute, then keep quiet!”

“Hey!” Twilight whipped her head around. “Don’t talk to him like that!”

“Everypony shut up!” Ebony hissed, her eyes darting to and fro. Silence fell over our group, everyone’s ears staining to hear even the slightest movement. There was only silence. Whatever had been there was now gone.

“I thought you said nothing lived in here,” Avera whispered to Twilight, keeping her eyes locked behind us.

“Nothing’s supposed to,” Twilight replied, her wings trembling slightly. “The only creatures allowed in here are those that the Sentinels have let in! Nothing could have gotten in without them knowing. There’s a spell placed upon it that will alert them if anything enters without their permission!”

~Could it have been another pony?~ I asked.

“There was no way that was a pony,” the stallion Battlemage said tensely. “That didn’t sound like hooves. It had to be something else.” An uncomfortable silence fell over our group as we all stared into the darkness.

“Well, whatever it was, it’s gone now,” Ebony said slowly.

“How much further do we have to go?” Avera asked, not raising from her crouched position.

“The section we’re looking for is actually the next shelf down,” Twilight answered as she slowly began to inch her way forward. “About a minute’s walk.”

“Let’s get this over with as quickly as possible,” Avera growled.

“Agreed,” Twilight said. “Everypony stick together. If you go anywhere, for any reason, make sure you tell the group, and that you have a partner. Nopony goes off on their own, got it?” A murmur of agreement came from the Battlemages.

Placing the lantern onto the ground, I reached down and picked Avera up. She yelped as I lifted her off of the ground, “What are you doing?” Flipping her around, I placed her on my back. As she wrapped her hooves around my neck, I glanced at Twilight.

~I’ve got my partner~ Twilight just shook her head, a small smirk playing across her muzzle, though she quickly raised a hoof to hide it. I reached back down and picked up the lantern, opening the shutter again as the light from the unicorns’ horns dimmed. With that, our group continued on, albeit at a slower pace as everyone kept their ears perked.

When we reached the end of the aisle, Twilight stopped again. Motioning with her hoof, she indicated the shelves just in front of us, “These three shelves hold all the information we have on humans. If the information we are looking for isn’t here, it won’t be anywhere else.”

I glanced at the shelves in question, a lump forming in my stomach. Each of those three shelves were twelve feet high, and if they were anything like the other shelves we passed, were three hundred feet long as well. With each shelf packed full, there was a fair amount of content we were going to have to look through.

This is going to take a while, I thought as the others slowly began to make their way down the shelves.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I sighed heavily as I flipped absentmindedly through the pages of a large tome, skimming each page quickly as I looked for anything that mentioned statues.

I was relaxing in the reading area located on the far side of the human section along with Avera and the stallion Battlemage, Zen Glory. Sitting at one of the desks, I had the lantern placed upon the tabletop. It cast a red hue around the surrounding area, and gave me enough light to read by.

It had been nearly six hours since we had ventured into the depths of the archives, and we had yet to find anything at all related to the statues in my dreams. Despite the massive amount of books related to humans, most of them were just the same information repeated by a different author.

Another difficulty we were running into was that most of the information was old, meaning that much of it was… well...

“Hey,” Avera called out, flipping through a book of her own as she lounged in a chair. “Did you know that it was thought that if a male human mated with a pony mare while she was in heat, she would become pregnant with a human-pony hybrid? Any other time and she didn’t have to worry.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Zen snorted, rolling up a scroll with his magic. “Nopony’s thought like that in years. What are you reading that gives you that information?”

“The buck if I know,” Avera snickered, closing the book with a snap. Glancing at the cover, she snorted before tossing it onto the growing pile of rejects. “Some book called ‘The Mating of Humans and Ponies’ by Aged Mind.”

“She had an aged mind, alright,” Zen chuckled, picking up another scroll. “Probably had a touch of dementia as well.”

As I reached the end of the book, I closed it with a sigh. Leaning back in my chair, I rubbed my eyes as I fought back a yawn. I glanced over my shoulder as the sound of approaching hoofsteps reached my ears.

“Any luck?” Twilight asked as she emerged from the darkness, her horn bathing the reading area in a lavender glow. She had a stack of books hovering beside her head. Ebony trailed behind her, holding a smaller stack.

~Nothing~ I signed, shaking my head.

“Hey, Twilight,” Avera said, still snickering. “If you want some human-pony hybrid foals, just have Max here bump uglies with ya when you’re in heat!” Her laughter increased as Twilight blushed furiously.

Glaring at the pegasus, Twilight placed her stack of books onto the desk in front of me.

“Yes, well, dated information aside, hopefully some of these might hold what we’re looking for.” As Twilight settled down into the chair next to me, I picked up the book on the top of the stack. The cover was blank, made out of thick, dark blue leather-like material.

Cracking the aged book open, I glanced at the first page. ‘Journal CCCXCIV’ of Star Swirl, I read as I scratched my beard. Grabbing the yellowed pages, I turned them gently and began to sift through the content. About halfway through the book I found something that looked interesting.

It was during the expedition to the Lonely Mountain when we first came in contact with the creatures that Princess Celestia of the Sol had named ‘humans’. I was a member of the team dispatched to the mountain in order to observe and catalog the different fauna and flora located there. The Solar Princess was interested in moving the Capital, and wanted to make sure that there was nothing dangerous that might be a threat to her ponies.

Nine of us left from the Capital, heading off into the wilderness. Three earth ponies, three pegasi, and three unicorns, including myself. I feel that I must mention that amongst us, only four were actually ponies of science: the other two unicorns, myself, and one of the earth ponies. The others were a mixture of both the Diurnal and Nocturnal guards.

I know not why I agreed for them to come with; we would be faster on our own. I fear that these imbeciles might accidentally kill any living specimens of a new species we find. They tend to think with their stallionhoods more so than with their brains. Each wishes to score the next ‘big kill’ to impress some mare back home.

I haven’t the heart to tell them that that isn’t what mares look for in a stallion. Their eager smiles are too much, and I simply let them think what they wish. Stallions will be stallions.

That occurrence, however, did not come to pass. During our trek to the base of the mountain, we ran across neither new species nor unexpected circumstances. The only issue we encountered is hardly worth mentioning: a simple rainstorm that was easily banished by the pegasi of our group.

One particularly hotheaded Nocturnal Guard, a pink-coated mare named Firefly, boasted that she could clear the skies in just under ten seconds. I was skeptical at first, but after witnessing her brilliant display of acrobatics, I can safely say that the mare can back up her boasts. She is possibly the fastest pegasus I have seen to date.

It also helps that she is quite loyal to our expedition and its crew. Anything I ask her to do, she does without question, although I have yet to keep her attention during one of my explanations. I feel that she finds joy more in flying than science.

Not that I hold it against her. Each pony has a different love than the next. My heart is for science; hers is for the sky.

It had been nearly a fortnight since the expedition began its journey to the Lonely Mountain when we ran into the creatures. Trapped halfway up the mountain, stranded upon a narrow path, we were hit by a massive ice storm the likes of which not even Firefly could clear.

We were forced to take shelter within a shallow cave, barely protected from the elements. It was as we huddled together, trying to keep the warmth within our bodies, that we discovered them.

Having been shoved against the back wall of the cave, I noticed that the rock began to shudder slightly and a soft echo came from the stone. I tapped a hoof against the rock and got the same response.

Working on instinct, I immediately ordered one of the earth ponies to turn and buck the back wall.

My hunch was correct: it crumbled instantly, creating a hole in what was revealed to be a thin rock wall. Through the hole, we could see a tunnel that descended into the depths of the mountain. Looking to relieve ourselves of the ice and cold, we ventured into the darkness.

I was leading the group down into the tunnel with my illuminated horn. After several minutes of descent, we came across a small cavern, possibly twenty hooves wide by twenty hooves long, and thirty hooves high.

The strangest thing about this cavern, however, was the fact that it appeared to not have been made naturally; something had carved this cavern from the stone, possibly to have made a den of some kind.

When I voiced that idea to the rest, they grew uneasy. Whatever possibly needed a den of this size, we had no clue. It wasn’t a diamond dog burrow; the lack of gems was a clear sign. So what in the name of the Maker had made it?

We got our answer a few seconds later.

As if drawn by our mere presence, the owner of the den returned. The ground shuddered beneath our hooves, causing most of the guards to jump back, raising their spears. Rocks crumbled as a hole opened up near the far side of the cavern. A claw-like appendage appeared, grasping at the stone as the creature pulled itself up into the cavern.

Oh, this mysterious creature. It was like nothing I had ever seen before! It looked like a cross between a diamond dog and minotaur, but even that did not do justice to describe it.

It was a tall being, standing on two legs as tall as the Solar Princess, if not higher. It had a long, shaggy mane of brown hair atop its head and around its face. Small beady eyes surveyed us with animalistic curiosity. Its body was nearly bald; a thin layer of hair covering its pale flesh. I could now see that what I had first mistaken as claws on the end of its arms were actually much too blunt to bear that name. I believe the correct term would be ‘fingers’, if I am to base them off of the minotaurs. From the look of its genitalia, I was positive that this specimen was male.

A very healthy male, at that.

After studying us for several seconds the creature let out a loud chirp, turned and crouched, digging its claw-like appendages back into the dirt. With speed surprising for such blunt appendages, the creature burrowed into the rock, disappearing from view as quickly as it had appeared.

Snapping the rest of the group out of their shocked stupor, I ordered them to follow the creature, but to bring no harm upon it. Firefly was the first one down the hole after it.

We followed the creature for what seemed like hours, descending deeper and deeper into the depths of the mountain. I was just about to call off the hunt and return to the surface when we stumbled upon them: an entire pack of the creatures.

There had to be at least thirty of them living in this massive cavern. Some of them were thinner than the original creature, and had bulging chests. It reminded me rather of a cow’s udder. The longer mane of hair on their heads, as well as the lack of visible genitalia made it clear that this was a possible female of the same species. Several of the females were holding what appeared to be infants.

An underground river provided them with water. I don’t know what they were doing for food, but they all appeared healthy. Or as healthy as a new species could look. For all we knew, they could have been starving.

Our sudden appearance within their den drew their attention to us like moths to a candle. Thankfully enough, they did not respond towards our disturbance aggressively. In fact, they appeared more curious than anything else.

When one of the females, a small, petite thing with reddish-brown hair, approached us, the guards grew nervous. Their fear was unfounded, however, as she snuggled up against Firefly and cooed softly. I think she liked the feel of Firefly’s fur against her bare skin.

As more of the creatures ventured forth to investigate, I knew the world would never be the same. Some guards laughed, the scientists cried in joy. I remained silent.

Something about these creatures made me feel uneasy; a nagging feeling at the back of my mind, as though I was forgetting something important. I felt a chill fall over my bones, as if I had walked upon sacred ground.

As I stared at the creatures, I couldn’t help but remember something I had heard the Solar Princess say once, when I had caught her outside one night; she was staring up at the moon, a faraway look in her eyes, as she exclaimed, ‘Now I have saved lives, but destroyed gods in the process’.

I’m not sure why I thought that at this particular moment, but a stirring in my mind told me that it was correct. May the Maker have mercy on my soul for what I did next.

As I watched those new creatures huddle around us, I found myself longing for home. The faster we could herd these creatures together, the faster I would be able to return to the comfort of my home, and the warmth of my hearth...

I yawned as I reached the end of the paragraph. Turning the yellowed page, I blinked in surprise when I saw it had no writing on it. Instead, it bore rough sketches of several different humans, some male, some female. Flipping through another couple of pages, I saw that the writing continued later on, but it had nothing more to do with humans.

Sighing heavily, I closed the book and placed it on the pile of ones I had already read. Looking around, I saw that when I had been reading, the other two Battlemages had returned, and had their muzzles buried in books of their own.

“Find anything in that one?” Twilight asked me as she looked up from her book.

~Nothing useful~ I responded with another yawn. ~It was interesting though. It was a written account of when ponies first discovered humans~

“Oh, really? Who was it by?” Twilight asked, perking up.

~Someone named Star Swirl~

“Star Swirl?!” Twilight gasped, grabbing the book in her hooves. “I didn’t realize he was one of the ponies that discovered humans! Ohhhh… this is amazing!” She squealed happily as she flipped the book open and began to read.

Chuckling, I pushed myself away from the desk and stood up. I stretched, groaning happily as my back cracked several times. Satisfied that I had worked the kinks out of my spine, I turned and picked up my pile of already read books.

“Need to return those?” Ebony asked, rolling up a scroll. When I nodded, she stood up and grabbed a stack of her own. ‘I’ll go with you then.” Picking up the lantern, Ebony and I headed off.

“Hey, I was using that!” Avera called after me, earning a chuckle from Ebony. Walking together quietly, we headed back to the human section, each of us keeping our ears perked up from any sound that could indicate the thing from before was approaching.

There was no clear method of organization within the section, so I just started putting books back wherever I could find an open place. A ladder attached to the bookcase allowed us to reach the higher shelves.

I had just replaced the last book and was heading towards Ebony when something on the shelf caught my eye as I passed. Backing up several steps, I lifted the lantern to get a better look at the object. It was a small thing; looking more like a booklet than an actual book. It was leaning up against a large tome, and the only reason I noticed it was because the cover was white.

Picking up the book, I placed the lantern on the ground. Crouching so that I could use the light, I flipped the small book open and began to read. It appeared that the book was actually a group of letters bound together. It didn’t list who the recipients were, but the writer was a pony by the name of Mystic Melody.

Flipping to a random letter, I began to read.

I know it has been a while since I have last written to you, and I apologize for that. It was not by my own choice that this came to be, but I take responsibility for it nonetheless.

When I first heard of what the expedition team had found during their journey to the Lonely Mountain, I could not believe my ears. When I first saw one of these so called humans in real life… well, let’s just say that I know not what fascination ponies find with these humans, but I could have done without them.

The thing that baffles me the most, however, is just how Princess Celestia came up with a name for the species. I don’t know how she knew what ‘human’ means, or where she got the name from, but it oddly fits the creature.

Now, for the real reason I am writing to you.

Today I witnessed something that downright befuddles me. In the market, I saw a pony attempt to seduce a lone human, possibly a wild one that had wandered into town. They’ve been becoming more and more common in the wild for some reason.

Anyways, while she was trying to seduce the human, it suddenly grew aggressive and attacked the mare. By the time the guards had arrived and taken care of the human (despite the ability to dig through the mountain, a simple spear to the neck is enough to kill them) the mare was already dead.

Do you know what ponies did after seeing that horrific display? All those ponies who claim that humans would make great pets?

They said that it was simple a misunderstanding between the human and the mare; a misunderstanding! The creature can’t even understand us, how can there be a misunderstanding?!

What is it about these creatures that brings such appeal to ponies? They are aggressive creatures, I don’t care what Firefly has to say about first contact, and I don’t care how ‘awesome’ that female human of hers is. They are aggressive and violent creatures, and there is no way to breed that out!

They eat meat for Maker’s sake! All it would take is you forgetting to feed them once and then you’d be on the menu. You don’t see the nobles clamoring over each other to get manticores as pets, so why are they fighting tooth and hoof for the ‘best’ humans?

If it weren’t for the fact that they appear to have no magic attuned to them, I would believe that they had the ability to brainwash ponies.

They’re aggressive, they eat meat, they destroy any household by beginning to dig into the earth. You can’t even train them! They do not respond to any orders, they do not understand us, and they show no interest in learning. A dog has more intelligence than the humans!

The only saving grace they have is the fact that they appear to be great at pleasing a mare, and I don’t even want to know what possessed the first mare to try that, or why it spread so quickly. I had a mare in the market tell me I should try it, because apparently I looked stressed. I proceeded to chew her face off in front of everypony, and the worst part is I couldn’t even tell anypony why I responded the way I did.

Sometimes this curse condemns me to a darkened world of despair…

Anyways, I must change the subject before my emotions overwhelm me. I was talking with Sunbeam the other day, and she told me that she was…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight blinked in surprise when I tossed the collection of letters down in front of her. Before she could ask me anything, I flipped it open to the letter I had read and pointed at it. Leaning forward, she began to skim the page, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Reaching the end, Twilight glanced up from the page, a mystified look on her face, “What was it I was supposed to see again?” The others were now gathered around the desk, each trying to get a look at the small open book that I had brought back to show Twilight.

~The way she described humans~ I signed, trying to hold in my frustration. How can she not see this? It’s spelled out quite clearly.

“What about it?”

~You told me that humans could be trained, such as what Applejack does~ I replied before pointing at the book. ~The author stated that humans can’t be trained~

“What does that have to do with anything?” Avera asked, rubbing her temple with a hoof. “We’re trying to find any information about those strange statues, not on how humans behaved hundreds of years ago.”

~Humans went from not being able to be trained, to being able to be trained? There has to be something going on~

“Yeah, it’s called selective breeding!” Ebony chuckled, stepping back from the desk and stretching. “Any human that showed signs of listening were more likely to be bred by breeders than those who were more ‘wild’. That, combined with the use of positive and negative influences, allowed for us ponies to domesticate humans. These letters appear to have been written over nine hundred years ago, so it’s probably safe to say that back then it was harder to train humans than it is now, due to the lack of experience.

“Plus, by the sound of things, I think this mare didn’t like humans that much, so this is probably a bit biased,” she added, eyeing the small book. I turned to Twilight, looking for help.

~Please tell me that you don’t think the same thing~ I signed, giving her a small pout. ~You have to see that something strange is ahoof here. Remember that weird human in Canterlot? You said he wasn’t acting like a typical human. Something has to be affecting them~ Twilight just yawned, her tongue poking out of her mouth in a cute manner as she stretched her wings.

“What I think is that it’s about time for us to get going,” she said, wincing as her wing popped softly. “We’ve been down here for a while, and none of us are having any sort of luck finding anything about those statues Max and Lyra saw.” As the others mumbled in agreement, I shook my head, sighing in disgust.

“So we’re giving up? Just like that?” Avera asked, cocking an eyebrow. She glared down at the large pile of books in front of her. “I had to read all of these for nothing?!” Twilight shook her head, chuckling as she began collecting books.

“No, we aren’t giving up. Even though we found nothing here, we’ve still got one more source to check out.”

“Really?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side. “What source is that?”

“When we get back to Ponyville, we’ll be paying Lyra a visit. Hopefully she will be able to shine some light on this.”

“Great,” Avera grumbled, crossing her legs. “We get to go visit the nut. Remind me to pack my armor.” Gathering up the books we had been sorting through, our group slowly moved through the human section, returning the books to their shelves. With that completed, we began to make our way back towards the stairs.

I wasn’t sure if it was the darkness, or the still atmosphere, but I was having difficulty keeping my eyes open. Yawning loudly, I leaned against Twilight as we walked. She gasped slightly when she felt my hip press into her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her glance up at me, a small smile on her face. I felt her lean into my hip as well as we continued walking. We stayed that way as we snaked through the massive bookshelves and up the stairs.

When we finally reached the massive double doors, I closed the lantern’s shutters and placed it back by the pillar. Twilight knocked on the doors, canceling her light as she did so. There was a brief moment of silence before the gears groaned to life and the doors began to slowly swing open.

As we stepped out into the hall and the doors closed again, a soft chuckle came from behind us. Turning, I blinked in surprise when I saw that the Sentinels had changed during our excursion into the archives.

Unlike the pair before, this new pair were dressed in dark blue robes with silver trim. Their collars and helmets were silver as well, and the top of the collar looked like the moon. The halberds clasped in their hooves were silver as well, the heads designed like a crescent moon.

“You were in there quite a while, weren’t you, Princess Sparkle,” one of them, a gray mare, said, a smirk on her aged muzzle. “The day has gone, and the night now reigns. Did you happen to find what you were looking for?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “We couldn’t find anything that could help us.”

“Ah, pity,” tsked the second guard, another mare with a dark blue coat. She looked up at me with dull green eyes, “It’s good to see that your human heeded our warning. It would be horrible if his experience was… less than pleasant.” I blinked in surprise, giving the mare a curious look. How did she know about that?

“The other Sentinels probably told them about us when we first arrived,” Ebony explained in a whisper upon seeing my confused expression. “They may be old and wise, but the Sentinels have been known to have a rather playful streak from time to time. It doesn’t help matters that there appears to be some form of telepathy between the four of them.”

“Careful, Major,” chuckled the first guard. “You don’t want to give away all of our secrets to this human, do you?” Ebony just gave the mare a sheepish smile.

“Is there anything else we can help you with tonight, Princess Sparkle?” the second guard asked kindly, the small smile still on her face. Unlike the day Sentinels, these two seemed more relaxed.

“Yeah,” Avera said, stretching her wings. “Did you guys know you’ve got something living in there?” She jabbed a hoof at the closed archive doors, causing both Sentinels to stare at her.

"No, there’s not,” one of them said with a chuckle. “You probably just ran into one of the good doctor’s drones. It entered the Archives a few hours before you, and is still inside at this very moment. Why he sends them down here to do his research, I don’t know, but it’s nothing for you to worry about. It was probably just curious as to your presence.”

“Why didn’t the other Sentinels tell us it was in there?!” Avera growled, flickering her ear. “If it hadn’t been for Max sensing something was up, we wouldn’t have even known about it!”

“What did I tell you,” Ebony snickered. “Playful streak.” Avera grumbled, but backed off.

“I can’t believe we were in there with one of those nasty bugs,” Avera growled softly, flicking her tail in annoyance.

“I think we’re good here,” Twilight said, nodding to the Sentinels. They both returned the nod, their faces returning to their original blank expressions.

“Have a good night, Princess Sparkle,” one of them said as we began to walk off down the hall. “Sleep well, and sleep deep.”

As we walked back towards our rooms, I crossed my arms, shivering slightly. The temperature had dropped within the halls now that the sun had gone down, and I could see my breath each time I exhaled. None of the ponies seemed bothered by the chill, however.

“So, what are you guys gonna do now?” Avera asked the three Battlemages as she hovered through the air, happy to be able to spread her wings again.

“We’ll escort you to your rooms for the night,” Zen Glory said. “And tomorrow we’ll escort you to the train station, as per Princess Celestia’s orders.”

As the others chatted quietly together, I focused on walking. I was exhausted, and my neck and jaw were beginning to hurt again. I wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the couch and pass out.

Beside me, Twilight giggled as I fought to keep my eyes open, “Somepony’s tired, aren’t they?” I chuckled softly, nodding my head. “Well, we’re almost there. Our room is just around the corner.” Rounding the corner in question, I immediately ran into another human walking in the opposite direction. With a yelp, we both stumbled backwards.

Regaining my balance, I glanced over at the human, who was rubbing her forehead where it had bumped into my shoulder. She had poofy light brown hair that reminded me of Pinkie’s mane, only slightly tamer. A lock of it hung down in front of her face, covering one of her blue eyes. She had on a simple-looking white night shirt that hung down to her thighs, which I noted dimly, weren’t branded.

I also noted, with a blush, that it appeared that the night shirt was the only thing she had on.

Shaking her head to clear it, she gave me a curious look. Approaching me tentatively, she stood upon on her tiptoes to get a better look at me. Murmuring to herself, she ran an eye over me as she slowly circled.

My guards had stopped, and were eyeing the human with guarded curiosity. Avera had a small smirk on her face as she watched the female study me.

Eventually, the human stepped back, cocking her head to the side as she stared at me. Suddenly, she leaned forward and nuzzled my chin, cooing softly. She inhaled deeply, taking in my scent. I jerked my head back, confused. What the heck?

At my sudden movement, she leaned forward and nipped at my chin with her teeth before dropping down and backing away. Chirping quietly, she slipped past me and continued down the hall, leaving me feeling slightly confused.

“What was that about?” Looking down, I saw Twilight was staring at the female, her ears splayed backwards.

“Looks like you’ve caught somepony’s eye,” Avera snickered, biting on her lip to stifle her laughter. Twilight’s tail flicked at her words, and her eyes narrowed. I chewed the inside of my cheek as I watched the human walk down the hall, swaying her hips as she walked. I felt my cheeks heat up as she walked, and continued to stare down the hall even after she turned the corner.

I was snapped out of my daze by someone bumping forcefully into my hip. Twilight was glaring up at me, an annoyed look on her face.

“I thought you were tired. Weren’t we heading back to the room?” she grumbled, her ear twitching as she pouted. I nodded dumbly and started walking again, but not before glancing down the hall one last time. She wasn’t that bad looking, actually…

The rest of our journey was uneventful. Arriving at the guest room where we had been staying, Twilight and I bid the Battlemages and my guards goodnight. Avera and Ebony retreated to their own rooms, while the Battlemages headed back down the hall, letting us know that they would be back in the morning to look after us.

Closing and locking the door behind me, I sagged against it, exhausted. I yawned, wincing as my jaw cracked loudly. Smacking my lips, I pushed myself off of the door and shuffled into the room. A servant had been in during our absence, and the fire crackling softly in the fireplace heated the room against the winter chill.

As Twilight occupied herself in the bathroom, I kicked off my sandals, sighing happily as I wiggled my toes against the warm carpeted floor. When Twilight walked out of the bathroom, I yawned again and made my way over to the couch. I had insisted that Twilight take the bed, as I was used to sleeping on the couch back at the library. Compared to it, the couch here at the palace was enormous.

I had just moved to lay down when something grabbed hold of me. I yelped as I was lifted into the air. Looking around, I spied Twilight looking at me, her horn lit softly.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, a small smile on her face as she held me in her magic. “There’s plenty of room on the bed for both of us.”

~I’m comfortable on the couch, thank you~ I sighed, my cheeks warming up again. This just made Twilight laugh softly.

“Nonsense.” She levitated me over to the bed and dropped me down onto the mattress. I bounced once before sinking into the soft comforter. With a flap of her wings, Twilight jumped up onto the bed with me. A burst of magic later, and the lanterns in the room dimmed before flickering out. Only the light from the fire remained.

She snuggled under the covers, a happy sigh escaping her lips as she got comfortable, “There, that’s better, isn’t it?” I chuckled, lifting a hand and scratching behind her ears as I slipped under the comforter as well, keeping some distance between Twilight and myself. She purred happily as she leaned into my hand.

The warmth of the comforter, combined with the heat from the fire, had me fighting to keep my eyes open.

“I hope you weren’t too bored today,” Twilight murmured. “I know not everypony likes sorting through dusty old books.”

~It wasn’t that bad~ I signed, a content smile on my face. ~It was actually kind of fun~ I tried to form more words, but sleep was digging its claws into me, and I was drifting off quickly.

With darkness slowly claimed me, I felt Twilight shift next to me, closing the gap. She tentatively placed her head on my chest, sighing happily when I didn’t move to stop her. I smiled, not opening my eyes. My arm seemed to move on its own and I wrapped it around her. She snuggled in closer, draping a wing over my stomach.

“You are warm,” she whispered softly, nuzzling my chest. With that, we both fell silent, and were soon fast asleep.

Chapter 34: White Pawns on the Move

*Note: Max is not in this chapter, but he is mentioned near the end. Just getting that out of the way now so no one is butthurt later… even though there will be somepony who is butthurt about it anyways...

Sunny was jerked awake by somepony touching her shoulder. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she looked around blearily. A soft smile touched her lips when she saw Stacker standing next to her, shaking her shoulder gently.

“How’re you doing, ma’am?” he asked, keeping his voice low, a kind smile on his face.

“Tired,” Sunny replied, stifling a yawn. She stretched, unfurling her wings. “Where are we?”

“Just west of Baltimare. We’ll be stopping soon, so you best get ready.” Sunny nodded and stood up from the train bench, running a hoof through her mane. She dimly noted that it was getting rather long. I’ll have to see about getting a manecut next time we’re in Canterlot.

As her hooves touched the metal floor, it rumbled beneath her hooves, indicating that the train was speeding along the tracks.

Stifling another yawn, she rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “What time is it?”

“Around two in the morning,” Stacker said. Sunny winced; she had only been asleep for three hours. “Come on, you should get suited up. The second lieutenant wants to brief everypony before we arrive, and that includes you. Your armor is in the locker over there,” he said as he gestured at a locker on the far end of the compartment. “Just head into the other car when you’re ready.”

Sunny nodded and Stacker left the car, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Walking over to the locker Stacker had pointed at, Sunny lifted the latch and swung the door open. She blinked in surprise when she saw the armor inside. Sometime during her brief nap a unicorn had come along and changed the color of her armor. Instead of the gray-beige color it had been before, the armor was now pure white with splotches of light gray here and there. The inner layer was a darker shade of gray.

Winter camouflage, Sunny mused as she donned the armor, struggling to strap the gear onto her body.

“How do they make this look so easy?” she growled as she fought with a particularly troublesome strap located at the small of her back. When she finally managed to get the armor on, she shifted her shoulders, trying to get it to settle on her back comfortably. She gave her wings a couple of experimental flaps, just to make sure that they weren’t restricted in any way. Picking up her helmet, she hooked it to a clip located on a side plate of her armor.

Satisfied, Sunny closed the locker and headed towards the other end of the train car. Opening the door, she quietly slipped into the next car.

As the door closed behind her, she saw that all the other guards were already there, dressed in similarly colored armor. Most of them were just standing around, whispering amongst themselves.

Second Lieutenant Ivory was standing with her back to the door, crouched over the large table in the center of the car. As the door clicked shut, her ears perked up and she turned her head back to glance at Sunny. When Ivory’s red eyes landed on her, a small smile spread across her muzzle. “Ah, Ms. Breeze. I was just about to come and get you. We’ve almost reached our destination.”

“So I hear,” Sunny said as she walked up to the table. Glancing at the papers scattered across the surface, she noticed that most of them were blueprints of another warehouse, slightly larger than the one near Dodge City.

As Sunny studied the papers, the other guards began to gather around the table as well.

“Alright,” Ivory began when everypony was in position. “Here’s what we know so far. Our intel indicated that a hideout has been located within Baltimare’s market district. It is believed that Darkflare used this particular warehouse to ship humans up the coast to Manehattan, and vice versa. Our job is to go in, search the place and seize any and all assets we can find. If any humans are still alive, we take them as well.” Turning to look at Sunny, Ivory inclined her head towards the blueprints on the table. “Would you happen to know anything about this particular warehouse, Ms. Breeze?”

Sunny leaned over the table, taking another look over the blueprints.

“I’ve been to this warehouse only once,” she said, shaking her head, “and I stayed outside for the visit.”

“So you can’t tell us anything useful?” the pegasus, Sergeant Cutter, growled, glaring at Sunny.

“She didn’t say that,” Stacker said, eyeing the other pegasus coldly. “Don’t put words in her mouth.” Cutter glowered at Stacker, but kept his mouth shut.

Turning back to Sunny, Stacker motioned for her to continue with a small smile on his face. Out of the corner of her eyes, Sunny saw Ivory smirk. Well, it’s good to see that some of them are starting to warm up to me, she thought, smiling inwardly to herself. Returning her attention to the table in front of her, she picked up a photo.

“If I remember correctly, Darkflare booby-trapped the upper windows, just like the other warehouses, but he also booby-trapped some of the doors.”

“Are there any doors we can use?” Ivory asked.

“I believe that the front door was left untouched, mostly to avoid suspicion from the dock manager. One accidental death and the guards would be all over that warehouse. The bay side entrance was also left untouched so that the ships could enter and leave even when Darkflare wasn’t there. That was also the entrance we used when we visited, so it should be relatively safe. Some of the side entrances may be safe as well, but I couldn’t actually tell you which ones.”

“Anything else?” Ivory asked.

“Not that I can think of at the moment.”

“Alright then.” Turning her gaze from Sunny and back to the table, Ivory pulled a manila folder out of a side pocket underneath the edge of the table. Throwing it onto the table, she flipped it open and began sorting through the paper.

“Right, here’s the deal,” she said, glancing up at the surrounding guards. “We don’t expect to run into any of Darkflare’s crew while we’re here, but that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. Changelings have been spotted in the area.” A collective shiver went around the group of guards at the mention of the creatures that had attacked Canterlot. Sunny felt her pulse quicken and she swallowed nervously.

“I thought we had taken care of those bastards when we got their queen,” one of the guards muttered, her ears splaying back.

“These particular changelings are believed to be part of a splinter group, rogues that were flung far away from the main horde. Even so, we should be very careful not to let our guard down,” Ivory said, tapping a hoof on the table. “That being said, I had sent a request to Canterlot. They graciously sent us Sergeant Major Barricade to help us.” Ivory motioned to a pony on the far side of the table. Sunny glanced over at the pony in question.

Sergeant Major Barricade was a small unicorn mare, standing nearly a half head shorter than the rest of the guards. She had a pale yellow coat and a bright red mane that hung down in front of half her face. She was adorned in cobalt blue armor that glowed with a faint pink light in the dark train car. Sunny didn’t know how she had missed the mare when she had first entered the car; the glowing cobalt armor stood out horribly against the new white armor of the Coming Dawn.

“She’s on loan to us from the Battlemages to help combat any changelings we may run into,” Ivory explained as Sunny eyed the new mare. “Stacker, you’ll be taking your squad, and Sergeant Cutter and his squad, through the side entrance here.” Ivory pointed at one of the small doors located on the side of the warehouse. “I want you to be careful and watch for booby-traps. Basher, Chaser, your squads are with me. We’ll be going in the back entrance. The rest of you will be heading in the main entrance with Barricade. She’s in charge during this operation.”

The train lurched slightly when Ivory finished giving directions, and it began to slow down. Ivory glanced up before returning all the papers to the file and slipping them back under the desk. Grabbing her helmet, Ivory strapped it on. Wordlessly, the guards began to group together within their squads, everypony double checking their armor and supplies.

Ivory moved to stand beside the compartment’s side door, but was stopped by Sunny.

“I-I’m sorry,” Sunny stuttered, her ears splaying back, “but, um... I didn’t catch who I was supposed to go with.” She trailed off, wringing her hooves nervously.

“Ms. Breeze,” Ivory said softly, causing Sunny to glance up. When she saw the white unicorn was smiling warmly at her, she blinked in surprise.

“I apologize, I thought you had been told,” the white unicorn said, chuckling. “You’re part of Stacker’s squad now.”

“I am?” Sunny asked, confused.

“Yes,” Ivory nodded. “He asked specifically for you to be made part of his squad. I had no problem with it, so I agreed.” Sunny stared at her, shocked. Ivory just chuckled again, shaking her head. “Welcome to the crew, Ms. Breeze. Don’t let us down.”

With that, Ivory turned and made her way to the side door’s handle, leaving Sunny standing there, a stunned look on her face. She blinked when she felt somepony bump her shoulder.

Glancing over, she saw Stacker standing there, a twinkle in his blue eyes as he chuckled, “You alright, ma’am?”

“You requested for me to be in your squad?” she asked quietly. “Why?” He shrugged, the smile still on his muzzle.

“The rest of my squad seems to like you, and I was asked by Corporal Windbreaker over there if you’d been joining us for this mission.” Sunny glanced at the pony he was pointing at and realized it was the same mare who had kept her from tripping back at the first warehouse. She smiled at Sunny and waved. Sunny returned the wave, a blank look on her face.

“You weren’t expecting a warm welcome when you first started working with us, did you?” Stacker said, chuckling at Sunny’s expression. She shook her head, still dazed.

“No,” she said softly, tears welling up in her eyes. “I figured me being an ex-criminal would cause you all to hate me.” Stacker’s face softened, and he draped a wing over Sunny.

“You may have been part of Darkflare’s gang originally, but the fact that you left and are now trying to make up for your mistake is enough for us. Well, maybe not some of us,” Stacker added, shooting a dark look over at Sergeant Cutter, who was playing around with his helmet on the other side of the compartment.

Sunny sniffled slightly, a small smile on her face. “Thanks.”

“Alright,” Ivory called out above the noise, catching everypony’s attention. “Get ready, everypony. We have a short walk to get to the warehouse.”

“Better cut this short,” Stacker muttered, slipping a hoof into one of his many pouches. He pulled out a small iron device that looked similar to a hoof guard one of the princesses would wear. It glowed softly with a yellow aura.

He handed it to Sunny, who took the device and looked at it curiously.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s called an ‘Iron Hoof’,” Stacker explained. “It’s used for close combat situations. It’s been enchanted to release a kinetic pulse whenever you hit something, increasing the power of your strike threefold.”

“Why are you giving this to me?” Sunny asked, glancing up from the device and looking at Stacker.

“Just in case,” Stacker said quietly before giving Sunny a wink and slipping away. She studied the Iron Hoof for several more seconds before slipping it carefully into one of her side pouches. Unfastening her helmet, she slipped it on and approached the side door along with everypony else. A few seconds later, the train slowly slid to a stop and Ivory opened the doors.

The Coming Dawn began to leap out of the train, landing in the snow drifts around the train tracks with soft thumps. The night sky was overcast, and more snow was falling quickly to the ground, already covering the guards’ tracks as they slowly began to move towards a group of buildings nearby.

As the guards slipped into the alleyway between two apartment complexes, they paused for a second. Ivory turned her attention to the Battlemage. Unlike The Coming Dawn, whose armor let them blend in with the snow background, Barricade’s armor made her stand out against the white substance.

“Can’t you do anything about your armor?” Ivory hissed at the unicorn. If it wasn’t for her red eyes, Sunny probably wouldn’t have been able to see the lieutenant against the snow.

The Battlemage just gave Ivory an even look before lighting up her horn. The unicorn immediately vanished into thin air. Where the Battlemage once stood was now just a slight shimmer in the air.

“Is that better?” asked a quiet voice from the shimmering mass. Ivory just rolled her eyes and huffed, “Mages.”

The Coming Dawn made their way slowly through the back alleys, taking care to stick to the shadows. The only life form they encountered was a stray cat who was picking through the dumpster behind one of the apartment buildings.

Within a few minutes, their target was in sight.

“Alright,” Ivory said quietly, motioning with her hoof. “Everypony remember: move slow and be careful. We don’t know what’s in there, and we don’t want any surprises tonight.” There was a murmur of understanding before the guards began to spread out, each group heading to their assigned door.

Sunny followed behind Stacker, making sure to keep close to the steel gray pegasus. The group rounded the corner of the warehouse, hugging the side of the building as they made their way towards the side door. Reaching the small entrance, Stacker motioned with a wing. “Cutter, check the door.”

“Yes, sir,” Cutter growled, moving forward. Grabbing the bottom of the door, Cutter slowly lifted it up several inches, just enough to get his head underneath it. Lying down on his back on the frozen ground, the gray pegasus started to wiggle under the door. He paused halfway through, however. There were several seconds of silence before his muffled voice could be heard. “There’s something here.”

“Whatcha got?” Stacker asked, moving closer to the door.

“Low-grade explosives, secondary by the look of it,” came the reply. “It looks like it’s designed to trigger if the door opens too far.”

“How much is too far?” A dark chuckle came from the other side of the door.

“Let’s just say an inch more and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Stacker chuckled as well, shaking his head. Sunny’s eyes widened and her heart flipped in her chest. She glanced around at the other guards, her ears splaying backwards. How can they be so casual about this?

“How long do you think it’ll take you to disarm it?” Stacker asked.

“Ten seconds,” he responded. “Maybe more.” A hoof slipped under the door, and waved about. “Somepony give me a knife.” One of the guards produced a knife and handed it to Cutter, handle first. The hoof and the knife slipped back under the door. A few more seconds of silence and then there was an audible click.

“Got it!” With a grunt, Cutter rolled over onto his stomach and pressed his back into the door, shoving it open the rest of the way. Flipping the knife around, he handed it back to its original owner. As he did so, Stacker stuck his head in the now open entrance and glanced around.

“We’re clear. Saddle up, we're moving out,” he said, motioning with a hoof. The guards slowly slipped one by one out of the snow and into the warehouse.

Sunny was among the last who entered the warehouse. Glancing around, she saw that they were in a small storage room filled with crates. The guards were slipping between the crates, being careful not to touch the wooden boxes. Some of them were even eyeing the crates nervously, as if expecting them to explode at any minute.

“It’s okay,” Sunny said, causing several nearby guards to jump. “None of them are booby-trapped. Darkflare wouldn’t risk damaging anything that he could make bits off of.”

“Are you sure?” one of the guards asked. Rolling her eyes, Sunny walked over to one of the crates and cracked it open. Glancing inside, she scrunched up her face when she saw several packages of spoiled meat. Luckily, the plastic packaging kept most of the smell at bay, but she still had to hold a hoof over her nose to stop from gagging.

As she looked down at the meat, Stacker appeared beside her.

“Whatcha got?” he asked her as he glanced in the crate. The pegasus grimaced when he caught a whiff of the meat.

“I found what Darkflare was feeding the humans he threw in the fighting rings,” Sunny said thickly as she closed the lid of the crate. A quick check in the other crates confirmed that they all held the same thing.

“Looks like there is nothing else here,” Stacker said, ruffling his wings. “Move on. We’ll come back to get it later.” The guards headed towards the door at the rear of the room, making sure to be a silent as possible. Cracking open the door, Stacker stepped out into a dim hallway, glancing both ways before motioning for the others to follow.

As the guards filed out, Barricade and her group rounded the corner and headed down the hall towards them. When they were close enough, Barricade shot Stacker a quick glance before motioning to a nearby stairwell. “Check the upper floors, if you would be so kind.” Stacker nodded, and the Battlemage slipped past, leading her group of guards further down the hall.

As Stacker’s team trotted up the stairs, Sunny’s ears perked up. “Do you guys hear that?” All the guards froze, straining their ears.

“Ma’am?” Stacker asked, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible. Sunny shushed him with a wave of her hoof, her ears swiveling around as she concentrated. There was a brief moment of silence, where none of the guards even breathed. Then they heard it.

It was faint, so faint that at first Sunny thought it was just the wind. A soft scuttling noise came from somewhere above the guards. The guards’ heads whipped up and they stared up at the ceiling of the stairwell. As soon as it started, the scuttling noise ceased. It was several seconds before anyone moved.

“Everypony keep your eyes peeled,” Stacker whispered, still staring up at the ceiling. “Windbreaker, take Private Ratchet, head back downstairs and find the Battlemage. Escort her back up here.” The two pegasi nodded before slipping by the rest of the guards and heading back down the stairs.

As the two guards left, Stacker motioned to the rest of his team. “Everypony else, go silent.” Reaching the top of the stairwell, Stacker placed his shoulder against the door and cracked it open. Once there was enough room, he took a small mirror out of one of his pouches and slipped it through the crack.

Once he was sure the coast was clear, he returned the mirror to his pouch and swung the door open. Exiting out onto a catwalk, the team made their way towards one of the rooms on the far side of the warehouse.

Reaching the door, Stacker repeated his mirror trick.

“Well, this is new,” he muttered before swinging the door open. Sunny blinked in surprise as she entered the darkened room. It was a large room, running the entire length of the warehouse, and filled with cages and crates. The only light was from a street light filtering through the boarded up windows.

“Spread out, but stay in pairs,” Stacker hissed. “Check the crates for anything useful, and check the cages for any humans. Give a shout if you find anything. If there’s anything in here, it already knows we’re here. Keep your eyes open.” As the guards began to spread out, Stacker turned towards Sunny.

“Any thoughts on this, ma’am?” he asked softly.

“If I had to hazard a guess,” Sunny said, looking around at the crates and cages, “I would say that Darkflare used this room for human storage. The large cages indicate that humans kept here were used for fighting.”

“Large cages?” Stacker deadpanned, glancing at a nearby cage. It stood barely four feet high, and looked like it could barely hold an adult human.

“Yeah,” Sunny said, not seeing Stacker’s look, “but something’s off.”

“What do you mean?”

“Darkflare never stored the humans with their food.” Sunny motioned at a stack of crates nearby. “Somepony’s moved them up here after Darkflare’s gang was here last.”

“Why would somepony do that?” Stacker asked, eyeing the crates suspiciously.

“I’m not sure, but that’s not the part that concerns me.” Sunny lowered her voice, as she leaned closer to Stacker. “These are food crates, and they’re empty. Somepony brought them up here to feed something.”

“Do you know how long this has been happening?” Sunny shook her head, an ear twitching.

“No, but judging by the meat downstairs, they ran out of useable food a few months ago.”

“So, then what—” Stacker began before being cut off by one of the guards on the other side of the room.

“Sir, you better come take a look at this!” The sergeant and Sunny exchanged glances before hurrying off, weaving their way through the maze of crates, boxes, and cages towards the guard who shouted.

As they approached, the mare turned and motioned to an empty cage at the bottom of a large pile of cages. Why are they interested in an empty cage? Sunny wondered, scrunching up her face. As she neared the cage, however, she realized with growing horror that it wasn’t empty at all.

“Maker preserve us,” Stacker breathed as he looked into the cage.

Behind the bars there was a human, a young unbranded male. He was propped up against the far side of the cage, his head hung low, his shaggy, matted brown hair hanging down low in front of his face. His body was in a horrible state, his skeleton clearly visible beneath his dirt-covered skin. Old pus-filled scratches covered his weak frame. Bone and skull fragments were scattered around him, and dried blood caked the floor of the cage.

At the sound of the pair’s approaching hooves, the human lifted his head, staring out at the group, his eyes peering out of sunken sockets. His chest rose and fell weakly with each ragged breath.

“How can this guy still be alive?” Stacker asked, looking at the human with pity. Shaking his head, the pegasus turned and motioned to the two guards. “Get the cage door open.”

“I’m not going near that thing,” one of the guards said, pointing a hoof at the bones. “Just look at what happened to the last pony that messed with it!”

“Those aren’t pony bones,” Sunny said, her voice cracking slightly. Reaching a tentative hoof through the cage’s bars, she pulled out a nearby piece of bone; a cracked mandible. She studied it closely before glancing back at Stacker. “They’re human bones.”

“They’re fresh too,” Stacker observed, eyeing the bone in Sunny’s grasp. Glancing back at the human in the cage, he chewed on the inside of his cheek as he eyed the remainder of the bones. “It seems that when the meat in the crates went bad, he had to find his own…”

“A cannibalistic human?” the guard that had called them over asked, cocking an eyebrow. Stacker just shrugged.

“You got to do what you got to do.” Eyeing the human for a few more seconds, Stacker clicked his tongue before turning back to the guards. “Get it open, and get the human out. He needs medical attention.” When neither of the guards moved, Stacker rolled his eyes.

“Do you really think he has enough energy left to be a threat?” he asked, earning a pair of sheepish smiles from the guards.

“Right, sorry, sir,” one of them said, stepping forward and pulling a lockpick out of her pocket. She had only taken a few steps towards the cage when a loud screech filled the room, causing all ponies to cover their ears in pain. The human perked up, pulling the skin of his lips back to reveal his teeth in a silent snarl. He turned his head and glared at something on the other side of the room.

A loud clatter echoed from the direction the human was staring in, followed shortly by a guard screaming, “CONTACT! EAST CORNER!” Stacker and the guards were off down the aisle in a heartbeat, Sunny following close behind.

Reaching the far end of the room, the group skid around a corner of crates. Sunny stumbled, her heart skipping at the scene before her.

Sergeant Cutter was lying atop a smashed crate, struggling against a creature that sent shivers of fear down Sunny’s spine, her wings spreading wide as her fight-or-flight instincts told her to run and not look back.

The changeling’s black chitin glinted in the gloom, its bug-like wings buzzing as it struggled with Cutter. It strained its neck, snapping its mouth as it tried to sink its fangs into Cutter’s neck.

“Get off of me, you overgrown bug!” Cutter snarled, bucking the changeling with his back hooves. It hit the changeling’s underbelly with a dull thud, the hardened chitin protecting its fragile organs. Its monotone blue eyes narrowed, and it hissed at the pegasus beneath it. A slit under its abdomen opened up, and a long, thick stinger-like appendage slid out.

“Shit,” Stacker growled, rushing forward. “It’s a Breeder!” Before any of the guards could respond, the changeling stabbed its ovipositor into Cutter’s chest. The appendage smashed through the armor’s chest plate, sinking into the flesh underneath with a sickening crunch. Cutter’s cry of pain echoed around the room.

Sunny watched in horror as the ovipositor began to pulse, pushing egg after egg from the changeling’s abdomen, down the organ, and into Cutter’s chest. The pegasus wheezed, his lungs beginning to compress as the eggs began to fill his chest cavity. Blood began to flow from his mouth as his internal organs were smashed together. A loud crack filled the air as his ribs broke from the pressure.

Cutter’s struggles weakened as the changeling continued to pump its eggs into the downed pegasus. By the time Stacker reached the pair, Cutter’s entire body had fallen limp, his blue eyes glazing over.

With a snarl, Stacker slammed, shoulder first, into the changeling, ripping its ovipositor out of Cutter’s chest. Blood dripped off the appendage as the changeling turned and hissed at its attacker. Sunny could only watch, frozen in fear, as Stacker and the changeling glared at each other.

The changeling hissed at Stacker again, causing the pegasus to smirk. “Well, I'd be pretty angry too if I looked like a roach!” This just caused the changeling’s eyes to narrow.

“Medic,” Stacker barked, keeping his eyes on the changeling as it began to circle him. “Check the sergeant!” A pegasus mare with a red cross on her armor dashed by Sunny, heading for Cutter’s still body.

Placing a hoof on Cutter’s bulging throat, the medic began to rummage around in her medical bag. “He doesn’t have a pulse!” she called as she began to peel Cutter’s armor off piece by piece, revealing his lumpy and broken chest.

There was a clatter of hooves as another pair of guards arrived, jumping from atop a pile of cages. They sailed through the air towards the changeling, their wings spread, knives in their hooves. Crouching, the changeling snarled as green fire ran up its horn. There was a burst of green and the two pegasi fell, crying out in pain as their wings crumpled. Another flash of green and an armorless Cutter stood in the center of a charred ring, glaring at the fallen guards.

With a shout, Stacker lunged at the fake-Cutter, drawing a hunting knife from within his armor. The disguised changeling swatted Stacker out of air, causing the sergeant to slam into a stack of empty crates with a grunt.

The grinning Cutter-changeling then turned its attention towards the medic, who had her back to the fight. Leaned over the still body of the actual Cutter, she didn’t see the changeling approaching.

Gritting her teeth, Sunny forced her terror-stricken body to move. Rushing forward, she placed herself between the medic and the changeling. She glared at the faux Cutter, trying to look intimidating all while her legs were trembling horribly.

The changeling stopped, giving her a deadpanned look. Suddenly, with a snarl, the fake Cutter’s hoof lashed out faster than Sunny’s eye could follow. Her cheek exploded in pain as the changeling’s hit sent her flying into a cage. Her head cracked against one of the bars of the cage, the skin splitting open and blood beginning to flow down her face. Stars erupted in front of her dazed eyes.

Pushing herself up with a groan, Sunny rolled over, rubbing her aching head with a hoof. As she glanced up, she froze when she found Cutter’s face inches from her own, his ice cold eyes glaring into hers, his lips drawn back in a vicious snarl.

“You will not,” it snarled, mimicking Cutter’s voice perfectly, “take my meal from me!” Sunny’s eyes widened as her mind registered what the changeling had just said. It’s the one that was feeding the human. It’s trying to use the human as a food source!

Sunny shrank back as the disguised changeling raised its hoof into the air. As the changeling brought it swinging down, Sunny rolled out of the way with a squeak.

The changeling moved to strike again, but was interrupted by Stacker jumping on its back. The changeling shrieked as it tried to shake the grey pegasus off, but Stacker clung gamely on, wrapping his forelegs around its neck. Producing a second hunting knife, the sergeant jammed it into the changeling’s shoulder. Green blood burst from the wound, dribbling down the fake pegasus’s gray coat.

As the steel blade sank deeper into the changeling’s flesh, its disguise failed with a flash of green flame.

“Ew!” Stacker sneered as the changeling’s true form was revealed again. “You make my mother-in-law look pretty!” With a snarl, the changeling sunk its fangs into Stacker’s leg, causing the gruff guard to yelp in pain. His grip on the changeling’s chitin slipped, and with one last forceful shake, the changeling threw him off. Stacker hissed in pain as he landed on his wing, the appendage crumpling underneath him.

Ripping the knife out of the soft chitin of its shoulder, the changeling tossed the blade aside before turning its attention back to Stacker. Sunny watched in horror as the slit on its abdomen opened again, and the ovipositor slid out, still covered in Cutter’s blood. As the changeling took a step towards Stacker, Sunny, ignoring her pounding head, leapt forward with a shout. “STACKER!”

Having caught her movement out of the corner of its eye, the changeling moved instinctively, one of its rear legs whipping out and catching the pegasus under the chin. With a crack, Sunny’s head was flung back and she was tossed through the air.

Sailing over the sea of cages, Sunny crashed down into a large crate, which shattered underneath her weight. Staggering to her hooves, Sunny blinked, trying to clear the stars from in front of her eyes, and keep the darkness creeping in around the edge of her vision at bay.

Spitting a glob of blood from her mouth, she took several shaky steps before collapsing against one of the nearby cages.

Shaking her head to try and clear it, Sunny could pick up the distinct sounds of combat coming from across the room; Stacker was fighting the changeling again. Where the hell is that Battlemage?! Sunny thought as her vision slowly cleared.

A clanking sound from beside her caused the mare to jump. Glancing over, she saw that the changeling had launched her back over to where the human’s cage was resting. During the fight, the human had gotten to his feet and was now standing by the cage door. He was smashing his hands against the bars, a snarl on his face.

As the human’s eyes locked with Sunny, he whimpered slightly, hitting the bars again. The shriek of the changeling filled the room, and the human replied with one of his own before redoubling his efforts to get out.

“Humans can sense changelings,” Sunny muttered, her voice slurred slightly due to her head injury. As she stared at the human in the cage, something Princess Celestia had said to her when the princess had bought Max flashed through Sunny’s head.

“Humans... don’t like being in close proximity... to changelings,” Sunny muttered, her breaths coming in short bursts, her chest tight. “Disguised or otherwise…” Staggering across the aisle, Sunny slumped against the human’s cage, clinging to the bars. The human just looked down at Sunny with a confused look before letting out another whine.

“Gotta… help Stacker,” Sunny muttered, fumbling with the cage’s rusted padlock. Grabbing it in her hooves, she shook it weakly, trying to break it, but to no avail. It remained steadfast and unyielding.

Leaning against the cage, Sunny looked around for something to break the lock, but there was nothing she could use. Shifting against the cage, the pegasus froze when she felt something in one of her pouches press against her chest. Reaching a hoof into the pouch, Sunny pulled out the Iron Hoof that Stacker had given her back on the train.

“‘Increases the power of your strike threefold’,” she muttered as she slipped the device onto her hoof, fumbling with it slightly. Swinging her hoof weakly, she brought it down upon the lock. The device let out a yellow flash and the sound of cracking metal rent the air. The padlock fell to the ground, split cleanly in two.

Grabbing the cage door in her hooves, Sunny fell to the side, using her body’s weight to pull the door open. As she collapsed onto her back, the human stepped out of the cage, staggering slightly on weakened legs. He glanced down at Sunny, cocking his head to the side, a soft chirp coming from his mouth.

Sunny just looked up at the human, breathing heavily, before growling out, “...sic ‘em.”

With a snarl, the human turned and stalked down the aisle, heading towards the sound of conflict. Sunny couldn’t help but smile slightly as her vision slowly began to narrow.

“Don’t worry, Stacker,” she muttered. “Help’s... on the way…” Sunny’s head lolled to the side as she sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “I just need... a few minutes,” she breathed, the Iron Hoof falling from her grasp and landing on the ground with a clack.

Sunny had just begun to black out when the clatter of hooves reached her ears. She felt somepony shake her, urgent voices talking in her ear. A pair of hooves grabbed her head and forced it around. Sunny opened her eyes, and blinked blearily at the pink face that was looking at her with concern.

“Ms. Breeze,” a voice spoke up as if from far away, “are you okay?” Sunny blinked again, staring into the yellow eyes in confusion.

“Windbreaker?” she muttered, trying to focus.

“Don’t worry ma’am,” the young corporal said, holding Sunny’s head steady. “Reinforcements are here.” A second face appeared in Sunny’s vision, the pale yellow face framed by a cobalt helmet and light red mane.

“Hang on,” Barricade said, her voice sounding just as far away as Windbreaker’s, “let me try something.” The unicorn’s horn glowed softly, bathing the surrounding area in light. A wave of warmth washed over Sunny, and she felt a small burst of energy begin to flow through her. Instantly her vision began to clear again, and she was able to lift her head slightly.

As she moved to sit up, Windbreaker pressed a hoof against Sunny’s shoulder. “Take it easy, ma’am.” Keeping the hoof on her shoulder, Windbreaker helped Sunny to her feet. She wobbled slightly, wincing as the cut on her head flared with pain. The area around her right eye was already starting to swell.

With her head clear again, Sunny could feel all the injuries she had sustained returning in force.

“What happened here?” Barricade asked as Sunny sagged against Windbreaker.

“Changeling Breeder,” Sunny groaned, motioning towards the sound of combat. “Got Cutter… was attacking Stacker. I released a human... that was kept up here…and he headed that way...”

The Battlemage glanced up as another shriek from the changeling filled the air, followed by the snarl of a human. “Yeah! Get some!” Stacker’s voice called gleefully as a cage was tossed into the air. Without a word the Battlemage started towards the disturbance, a determined look on her face.

Sunny moved to follow, leaning heavily on Windbreaker. The corporal carried her along, keeping her from falling flat on her face. Sunny’s hoof hit something as they walked, and, glancing down, she saw it was one of Stacker’s knives. Windbreaker bent down and picked the weapon up, slipping it in between two of her armor plates.

As Sunny and Windbreaker rounded a pile of destroyed crates, they almost ran into Barricade, who was standing there, staring at the scene before them with an open mouth. Upon seeing what was happening, Sunny and Windbreaker’s jaws fell open as well.

The human and the changeling were locked together in combat, green and red blood mixing together as the two fought. The human had somehow managed to rip both of the changeling’s wings off, leaving behind two bloody stubs on its back. The changeling had managed to land some hits of its own, fresh cuts adorning the human’s body from where the sharp chitin had cut into his flesh.

Stacker was positioned well out of the way of the fight, sitting atop a large cage, observing the scuffle as he held onto his shoulder, wincing in pain. The wing he had landed on hung limply by his side, several of the feathers bent at odd angles.

As the ponies watched, the human lunged forward, grabbing a hold of the changeling as it tried to get away. Lifting the squirming creature above his head, the human snarled again as he threw the changeling against the ground. The resulting crunch sent shivers down Sunny’s back, and the changeling writhed in pain.

Raising its head, the changeling’s horn glowed green before it launched a burst of green magic at the human. As the human dove to the side to avoid the attack, the changeling staggered to its hooves. It made to leap over the cages and beat a hasty retreat, but was stopped once again as the human grabbed onto its back leg. The changeling let out a yelp of pain as it crashed to the floor.

As the human reached down to grab the changeling by the throat, it turned, lashing out at the human with its sharpened teeth. The fangs sunk into the human’s arm, causing a torrent of red to spill out around the changeling’s lips. The human screamed in pain as he ripped his arm from the changeling’s maw and staggered backwards.

Tearing her eyes from the fight, Sunny looked at the motionless Battlemage.

“Do something!” she said, waving at the fight with a hoof. Barricade just shook her head, her eyes locked onto the human as he advanced towards the changeling again.

“And get in the way of a human? I don’t think so. I’ll step in if things start going south, but until then, the human can handle himself.” Sunny returned her attention back to the fight when the human screamed again. Somehow, the changeling had managed to get its mouth around the human’s shoulder, its fangs sinking into the bony flesh.

Reaching a hand up, the human grabbed a hold of the changeling’s horn and pried the black creature off of him. Holding the struggling bug-pony up by its horn, the human snarled at it before throwing it to the ground.

Before the changeling could recover from the blow, the human had slammed his foot into the changeling’s back, pinning it to the ground. As the changeling wiggled, it let out a high pitch series of chirps as it tried to get free. Ignoring the sound, the human reached down and hooked his hands around the changeling’s bottom jaw.

Keeping his foot pressed down on the changeling’s back, the human began to pull back with his hands, jerking the changeling’s head back. The changeling’s struggling increased as it started to make horrific gurgling sounds. The human stopped pulling for a second, relaxing his grip on the changeling. Adjusting his stance, the human moved his foot from the changeling’s back to the base of its neck. With that, the human’s muscles began to tense again, and a silent snarl appeared on his face.

It was a split second before it actually happened that Sunny realized what the human was about to do. Unable to look away in time, Sunny watched in fascinated horror as the human gave a mighty heave, pulling the changeling’s head back as far and as hard as it could go.

The changeling let out a shrill, gurgling shriek as the muscles in its neck began to tear. Panting from the exertion needed, the human gave one last heave. A grotesque ripping sound filled the air, followed by a crack, as the human tore the changeling’s head clean off of its body.

Staggering backwards, the human held up the changeling’s decapitated head, staring at it blankly as green blood dripped from the stub of the changeling’s neck. With a huff, the human tossed the head aside, and it rolled along the floor before coming to a stop beside a destroyed crate.

Silence fell over the room as the human just stood there, red and green blood dripping from his gore-splattered body. Slowly, he turned and headed towards Sunny, Windbreaker, and Barricade, limping slightly as he walked.

As he approached, Barricade lowered her head, her horn glowing softly. The human ignored her, focusing solely on Sunny. Reaching the pegasus, he crouched down in front of her. Sunny’s ears folded against her head nervously as the human stared at her.

Jerking his head forward suddenly, the human surprised everypony as he nuzzled his cheek against Sunny’s, cooing softly. Blinking in confusion, Sunny returned the nuzzle hesitantly. From beside her, Windbreaker laughed softly, shaking her head. “Looks like you made a new friend.”

A low groan caused everypony except the human to jump. From with a pile of debris, a guard emerged, holding his head.

“Did anypony get the number of that carriage?” he asked as he stumbled to his hooves. His armor was charred and smoking slightly, filling the air with an unpleasant burnt smell. A moment later, another guard emerged from within the wreck around the scene of the fight, a large cut on her cheek bleeding.

She looked at the headless changeling body for a few seconds before her gaze turned towards the human, a blank expression on her face. Her eyes then landed on Stacker and she sneered, pulling herself from the wreckage.

“‘Do you really think he has enough energy left to be a threat?’” she snarked, mimicking Stacker’s gruff voice as best as she could. This just caused the sergeant to chuckle weakly.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been this glad to have been wrong before,” he said, shaking his head. “A few more seconds and the changeling would’ve gotten that egg-laying spear into me. Though, how did the human get out?” he asked as he limped forward, favoring his front right hoof.

Sunny blushed, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.

“I… kinda let it out,” she said softly, a sheepish smile on her face. Stacker looked at her, his eyebrows raising.

“You?” he asked, sounding incredulous. “How in the name of Tartarus did you manage to get the lock open?”

“I smashed it with the Iron Hoof you gave me,” she said, not looking Stacker in the face. Stacker stared at Sunny for several seconds, causing her blush to intensify, before a large smile spread across his face.

“Well, thank the Maker for that,” he said. “Your little jailbreak there saved my flank, ma’am.” Sunny just muttered something inaudible, her ears splayed back, her face burning. Beside her, Windbreaker was biting onto her lip to stop from laughing at the poor mare’s situation.

“You don’t get many compliments from stallions, do you?” she whispered to Sunny when Stacker turned his attention elsewhere. Sunny shot the mare an annoyed glare, pouting slightly. This only caused Windbreaker to laugh harder. Her laughter died down, however, when Stacker approached the broken form of Cutter.

“How is he?” he asked the medic quietly, his voice sober. The medical pegasus looked up, shaking her head grimly.

“It’s no good, sir,” she said sadly. “There was nothing I could do. Even if I somehow managed to remove all the eggs from his chest cavity, the damage to his internal organs is too extensive.”

“Is he…” Stacker started to ask, but didn’t finish. The medic just shook her head.

“He passed a few minutes ago,” she said. Reaching down, she removed a pair of dog tags from around Cutter’s neck and slipped them into her bag.

“Damn it,” Stacker swore, staring down at the lifeless pegasus before him.

“We need to burn the body,” Barricade spoke up, her face emotionless. Stacker wheeled around, glaring at the unicorn. However, before he could yell, Barricade held up a hoof in a placating manner. “I realize you guards have a thing about bringing your dead back with you to return to their family, but we can’t do that in this case.”

“Why not?” asked one of the other guards, glaring at the Battlemage.

“Because he is currently carrying an entire brood of changeling eggs inside of him,” Barricade explained, staring at Cutter’s broken body with a strange look on her face. “If one single egg survives, we could have an entire changeling infestation on our hooves. We need to burn the body, just to be sure.” Stacker continued to glare at Barricade for several more seconds before sighing explosively and nodding his head.

“Strip his body first,” he ordered. The medic saluted before getting to work removing the remaining ruined armor from Cutter’s body. As she worked, Stacker turned his attention towards the headless body of the changeling.

“This is gonna be a nightmare for the cleanup crew,” he muttered, shaking his head.

Once the medical pegasus had managed to remove all of Cutter’s armor, everypony could see the extent of the damage done to his body. There was a bloody hole just below his rib cage where the changeling’s ovipositor had entered his body. His chest was bloated, the cracked ribs clearly visible underneath his skin. Odd round lumps poked up through his fur, evidence of what the changeling had pumped into him. Blood and bile had pooled around Cutter’s lips, his tongue lolling from his mouth.

Sunny felt sick just looking at him. Fighting back the bile rising in her throat, she turned her head away, blinking back tears. Cutter may not have liked her, but she would never wish this fate on anypony… except maybe Darkflare.

As she fought back her emotions, Sunny glanced at Windbreaker. The corporal was just staring at Cutter, a blank expression on her face.

“Does it ever get easier?” Sunny asked her, her voice quiet. Windbreaker was quiet for several seconds before sighing.

“Sadly, yes,” she said, hanging her head.

As Stacker and the medic dragged the discarded armor out of the way, Barricade approached Cutter’s body. Her horn glowed brightly for a brief second before the dead pegasus went up in flames. Blue fire crackled across Cutter’s body, filling the entire room with the smell of burning feathers and flesh. Another flash of her horn and the Battlemage blasted a hole in the ceiling, giving the smoke that was slowly filling the room an escape route.

The battered survivors watched silently as the pyre consumed their fallen comrade. Pulling a half chewed cigar out of a pouch, Stacker clamped it in his teeth. He patted his armor, looking for a lighter.

Glancing sideways, Barricade lit her horn up and an instant later the end of the cigar glowed red.

“Thanks,” Stacker muttered before puffing on the cigar.

After several minutes of silence, the clatter of hooves filled the air, causing the group to perk up. From down a nearby aisle between the wreckage of the fight Second Lieutenant Ivory and the rest of the Coming Dawn stepped out of the gloom. The approaching guards paused when they caught sight of the aftermath of the fight with the changeling.

Silence fell across the room again, broken only by the crackle of flames, as the new arrivals stared at the ragged group.

Ivory's eyes darted around the scene, starting at the blue pyre that consumed the charred-body of Sergeant Cutter. She noted the headless body of the changeling, the battered group of guards (most of whom were nursing injuries) and the medic covered in blood that wasn't hers. Ivory stopped looking once she saw the blood-soaked human nuzzling against a weary Sunny, who in turn leaned against Windbreaker.

Mouth opening and closing wordlessly, Ivory stepped forward, slowly approaching the group. She eventually found her voice. “What the buck happened here?” she asked quietly, the anger in her voice growing with each step. The entire group was silent, nopony wanting to answer the enraged unicorn.

When she didn’t get an answer, she turned her glare towards Stacker. He just stared into the crackling blue flames, chewing on his almost used up cigar.

Finally, he spoke. “A lot of bullshit happened,” he grunted, flicking his cigar into the blue flames.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hold on, we’re almost done,” Sunny cooed softly to the human, tugging on the bandage to make sure it was secure. The human winced as she put slight pressure on the wound, but remained still. The rest of the train car was silent, a medic checking over the guards who had been injured in the fight against the changeling.

The Coming Dawn were back on the train after several hours of clean up. The sound of fighting and the smoke rising from the warehouse had alerted the local authorities. Upon arriving, the “inbred yokels” had tried to arrest the members of the Coming Dawn, believing them to be a new local gang.

Reporters had shown up soon after.

At the request of the lieutenant, Barricade had erected a large magical barrier around the warehouse to keep the cops, the reporters, and the gathering civilians out. As they pounded on the outside of the dome, the Coming Dawn worked feverishly on the inside, sorting through the hundreds of crates and boxes, searching for anything useable. Most of the supplies were spoiled, or destroyed.

During the search, a pair of guards had come across another dead pony, one of a teenage unicorn stallion. A brief examination showed that his chest was full of changeling eggs as well. Barricade had to be called over to burn the body.

Once the cleanup was done, Ivory and Barricade had teleported the remaining supplies that hadn’t been spoiled or damaged from the warehouse to the train’s storage compartment. While they had done that, the rest of the Coming Dawn and the human had slipped out the back, using the frozen bay to cover their escape from the local authorities as they rounded the city and headed back towards the train tracks.

Once everypony and everything was onboard the train, Barricade had lowered the magical barrier around the warehouse. As local law enforcement swarmed the warehouse, the Coming Dawn’s train was already speeding down the tracks, heading back towards Canterlot.

“It looks like your wing is just bruised,” the medic said to Stacker, who had the majority of his armor removed. The sergeant nodded, absentmindedly playing with bandage that was wrapped around most of his foreleg, covering the changeling bite. “No flying for a couple of days, and it’ll heal just fine.”

As the medic moved on to the next guard, Stacker stood and shakily made his way over to Sunny, swaying on his hooves as the train rumbled down the tracks. Leaning on the wall of the compartment, Stacker cocked his head, eyeing the human.

“How’s he doing?” he asked softly. Sunny glanced up, giving the sergeant a weak smile. The side of her face was swollen, causing her right eye to swell shut.

“Obviously he’s extremely malnourished,” she said, slowly running a wet washcloth over one of the human’s main wounds, cleaning the pus off of the injury. “He has several infected injuries across his body that the medic looked at, and she was able to take care of most of them. I just have to go and clean them up.

“It looks like the wounds themselves were made by humans. If I had to guess, I’d say that he got them when they were fighting over who was going to eat who.” Sunny chuckled nervously, ruffling her wings before continuing.

“He’s got a slight fever, possibly due to the infections, perhaps due to another reason, although I can’t really be sure right now. He’s also missing several teeth, as well as a few… fingers and toes.” Sunny grimaced, her ear twitching. “Other than that, he just needs some tender love and care and hopefully he’ll get better. He’s actually extremely docile, considering what he’s gone through.” Stacker nodded, keeping his eyes on Sunny.

“And how are you doing?” he asked. Sunny bit her lower lip, wringing the washcloth out in a small basin of warm water. Washing her hooves off, she swallowed thickly. The pegasus knew he was asking about what had happened with Cutter, and she felt herself shiver as she thought back to the image of his broken body. She had seen death and bloodshed before, but it had always been humans, never a pony.

“Truthfully,” she said, her voice cracking, “not so good. I’ve seen some horrible stuff before during my service with Darkflare, but it was always with humans. I’ve never seen something like… that happen to a pony before.”

“Yeah, there is a difference, isn’t there?” Stacker said, nodding his head in understanding.

“There shouldn’t be!” Sunny cried suddenly, causing Stacker and the human to jump. As she choked back a sob, she turned to look at Stacker, tears starting to run down her cheeks. “There shouldn’t be a difference depending on who died! Why should we feel worse about a pony dying than a human dying? Why do ponies deserve more sympathy than humans?!” Gritting her teeth, Sunny tried to wipe her eyes, but only succeeded in getting her hooves wet; the tears continued to flow. “I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t be sad about what happened to Cutter… it’s just… it’s j-just… why am I getting more worked up over his death than all the humans I’ve seen before?”

“Because it’s who we are,” Stacker said as Sunny fought to stop her tears. When she gave him a questioning look, Stacker sighed heavily. Sitting down beside Sunny, he leaned against the wall of the compartment and pulled a flask out of one of his pouches. Unscrewing the cap, he took a swig from it before offering it to Sunny.

She took the metal flask in her shaky hooves. Lifting it to her lips, she gulped down a mouthful of the liquid. It burned as it flowed down her throat, causing her to gasp and more tears to roll down her face.

As she lowered the flask, she squeaked in surprise as the human grabbed a hold of her and gently pulled her onto his lap. Wrapping his boney, bandaged-covered arms around the distraught pegasus, he nuzzled the top of her head, cooing softly.

Sunny hiccuped slightly, a small smile touching her face.

“He likes you,” Stacker commented dryly.

As she returned the flask to him, Stacker continued where he had left off. “Species association, I believe is what the head doctors call it. It has some long scientific term that I can’t remember at the moment, but to put it bluntly, it’s a mental condition that every intelligent creature supposedly has. It causes us to sympathize more so with creatures that look like us than creatures that don’t. It’s the reason some guards are able to kill griffins without batting an eye while others have mental breakdowns.”

“R-really?” Sunny asked, looking up at Stacker as she tried to wipe her eyes again.

“Yeah,” Stacker said, staring off into the distance, a hard look in his eyes. He chuckled darkly, shaking his head. “Hard to imagine, but those griffin chicks are too similar to foals for my liking.” The look intensified slightly, and Sunny caught something that almost looked like sorrow in the sergeant’s eyes, but when he turned his gaze back to her, it was gone.

“Anyways,” he said, taking another swig from the flask, “that’s probably the reason most ponies don’t feel as bad about a human dying than another pony. At least, that’s what my bits are on. It probably doesn’t help that humans are unintelligent.” Stacker rolled his eyes, taking another pull from the flask.

Sunny looked down at her hooves. “Not all humans,” she said softly, a small smile playing across her muzzle as her mind wandered to one particular human that was currently living inside of a tree.

A snort caused her to glance up. Stacker was smirking at her, a knowing look on his face.

“You’re talking about the Desert Anomaly, aren’t you?”

“The what?” Sunny asked, blinking as she looked at Stacker in confusion.

“Half a year ago, Princess Celestia felt a massive energy surge out in the middle of the desert. Not sure what it could be, she scryed the area, hoping to discover the cause. Just to be on the safe side, she put the Coming Dawn on high alert. Imagine our surprise when, through the scrying table, we saw a human wandering the desert.”

“Did… did you see…” Sunny stuttered.

“Did we see you pick him up?” Stacker asked, a smirk on his face. Sunny nodded, her ears splaying back. The human chirped, cocking his head to the side before nibbling happily on Sunny’s ears. She flicked her ear, trying not to giggle.

“No, we didn’t see that,” Stacker continued, passing Sunny the flask again. “When we couldn’t find anything else besides the human in the vicinity of the magical surge, Princess Celestia stopped the scrying. That was the last we heard of it, before—”

“Before we showed up on your doorstep,” Sunny finished, her eyes widening.

“Bingo,” Stacker chuckled.

“That’s why the princess was so surprised to see Max,” Sunny breathed.

”A human you watched wandering around the desert after a magical surge shows up outside the palace?” Stacker inclined his head, shrugging his shoulders. “That would cause anypony to do a double take.”

“That also explains why she paid so much for him… what?” Sunny asked, looking at Stacker as he burst out laughing.

“That’s not why she spent so much to acquire him. She’s the princess; she could have just ordered you to hand him over.”

“Then why did she give us two million bits?”

“Because she had recently received four million bits of blood money from the griffins due to a territorial dispute amongst the clans,” Stacker explained, shaking his head and smiling. “She had already spent half of it on various charities earlier that day, and decided to get rid of the second half as well. In her hurry to give the bits away, however, I don’t think she realized what would happen if the group she had given it to had been an illegal organization. Needless to say, that kicked us pretty hard in the flank later on.” Stacker winced, as if the memory caused him physical pain. “Not one of Her Majesty’s best moments.”

“Oh…” Sunny’s ears splayed back again, and were immediately attacked happily by the human’s teeth.

“Also,” Stacker added, “the fact she saw him in the desert had nothing to do with her buying him.”

“It doesn’t?!” Sunny asked, shocked. “Then why the buck did she take an interest in him?”

“She said that there was something strange about him that just seemed to draw her to him, a kind of magical field that she hadn’t seen before. After she spent a few minutes with him and couldn’t determine the source or the reason, she just passed it off as residual magic from whatever happened in the desert. With that, she sent him to her protégé in Ponyville as a gift.”

“She paid two million bits for a human she didn’t even want?” This caused Stacker to laugh again.

“After working for the princess for as long as I have, you begin to see that she has a rather large playful streak, and an odd way of thinking about things,” he chuckled, his eyes twinkling. “After living as long as she has, things such as money and possessions don’t draw her attention. Instead, laughter and smiles, especially from foals, tend to be what she seeks out. Drives the nobles crazy sometimes, actually. Anyway, her student was sad, and here was a strange human; why not kill two birds with one stone¹?”

“So, it was just sheer dumb luck that saved Max?” Sunny asked nopony in particular. As she hung her head, the human tightened his grip around her.

“You could call it sheer dumb luck, you could call it divine intervention, you could call it fate, or you could call it whatever you want,” Stacker sighed, shrugging. “From what I’ve heard, that kid has the luck of the Maker with him.” He took another swig from his flask, but paused when he saw Sunny giving him a blank look.

“He went five rounds in a fighting pit without prior training and survived,” Stacker explained. “The fact that he was going up against veteran pit fighters makes it more impressive in my book. Then there’s the fact that he got chased through the Everfree by three manticores while carrying three little fillies and a baby dragon, and survived. I know some guards that couldn’t even do that.

“Like I said—” Stacker chuckled, taking one last sip from his flask before slipping it back into his armor “—Luck of the Maker.”

Silence fell over the pair as Stacker stifled a yawn. The medic came around again, passing out mugs of hot soup to everypony. The human whined softly as he looked down at Sunny’s steaming cup. Laughing softly, she handed it to him, and he began slurping happily at the soup, oblivious to how hot the liquid was.

“So, when did you find out he was intelligent, if you don’t mind me asking?” Stacker asked suddenly, giving Sunny a curious sideways look. Sunny chuckled wearily, not lifting her head. She felt the human hum happily against her back as he continued guzzling down the scalding soup.

“You want to know if I knew he was intelligent when we were transporting him, don’t you?” she asked, folding her ears against her head.

“I didn’t say that,” Stacker said blankly, before sipping at his own mug.

“That wasn’t a no.” Sunny chuckled weakly, shaking her head slowly. Stacker just inclined his head, blowing on the soup in his mug.

“How about this,” Sunny reasoned, raising her head to look at the sergeant. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me when you discovered that Max was intelligent. Deal?”

“Deal,” Stacker said, a smile touching his face. Sunny sighed, snuggling deeper into the human’s lap before she began.

“I’m not sure if you are aware, but I left Darkflare’s gang shortly after we sold Max to the princess. I wasn’t kicked out, or anything; I simply left voluntarily one night when we were staged in Manehattan. Everypony else was busy organizing a human fight, so nopony noticed when I grabbed a bag of bits and slipped out the backdoor. Although, apparently I didn’t leave fast enough to avoid having a warrant out for my arrest,” Sunny said bitterly, staring at a point on the floor just between herself and Stacker.

“I spent the next four months or so jumping from town to town, searching for Max. The reason—” she said, holding up a hoof to forestall Stacker’s unasked question “—was because there was something about him that just stuck with me. After spending two weeks stuck in a train car with him, I had grown attached to him more so than any other human I’ve seen before. Once I had left Darkflare’s group, I felt that I should at least make sure he was in a decent home.

“Needless to say, I found him in Ponyville, along with the princess that owned him.” Stacker chuckled as Sunny scrunched up her face.

“Weren’t expecting that, were ya?” he teased, smirking at her. Sunny just shook her head.

“No, can’t say that I was,” she answered. “And even though we had some… misunderstandings when we first met, she luckily didn’t call the guards on me, and let me explain myself to her. However, I think she was still slightly unconvinced afterwards. It was shortly after that when I discovered that Max was actually intelligent.”

“What gave it away?” Stacker asked, taking another sip of his soup. The human had long since finished Sunny’s mug, and was now eyeing Stacker’s with growing interest.

“The fact that he was using hoof-language to talk with Twilight.” Stacker burst out laughing, having to place his mug down on the ground to stop from spilling it. The minute the mug left Stacker’s hoof, the human reached down and snatched it up, cooing happily as he began to slurp at the contents.

Sunny moved to take the mug back, but Stacker stopped her. “No, no,” he said, wiping his eyes. “Let him have it. He needs it more than I do.” Chuckling softly, Stacker shook his head. “That definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?” Sunny asked.

“Something more… well, more. I guess I just didn’t expect that you’d discover an intelligent human just because he was using hoof-language to communicate with his owner.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I was supposed to see it,” Sunny said, a smile touching her lips. “But in the end, I was glad I did.”

“I can imagine,” Stacker said with a warm smile. There was a brief pause before Sunny turned to look at the sergeant.

“How did you find out he's intelligent?” The smile left Stacker’s face, and he gave Sunny a calculating look.

“Princess Luna,” he said eventually.

“She told you?” Sunny cried out, shocked. At her cry, the human flinched slightly and gave her a confused look. When nothing else happened, he returned to the mug in his hands.

“But Twilight said that Princess Luna wasn’t going to say anything after she discovered Max in the hospital.”

“Did you really think that Princess Celestia and Luna would keep information about an intelligent human just to themselves?” Stacker asked, giving Sunny a bemused look. “No, of course not,” he continued when she slowly shook her head. “The Coming Dawn knew about Max less than an hour after Princess Luna returned from the hospital. We were on constant alert for five days straight afterwards, just in case he tried something. Why he would try something then, after living amongst the ponies of Ponyville for so long, I’m not sure, but he was being monitored during his stay in the hospital, as well as when he was released.”

“You were monitoring him afterwards?” Sunny asked, cocking her head to the side. The human finished off Stacker’s mug, and was licking his lips, trying to get all traces of soup off of them.

“Indeed,” Stacker confirmed with a nod. “We continued monitoring him until such time as Princess Celestia was able to pay him a visit.

“It was actually during our monitoring that our first lieutenant took an interest in him,” Stacker chuckled. “It was during his run in with the manticores. We had guards already flying towards Ponyville as fast as they could, but we were positive that we were going to have to explain to three families what had happened to their fillies. However, as I said before, that human’s got the luck of the Maker on his side. After he managed to outrun the manticores, and save the fillies and baby dragon, the first lieutenant had this creepy smile on her face. The kind that’s gotten us into trouble more often than not.

“Later, when we learned that Max was coming to the palace, the lieutenant was adamant about being one of the guards to escort him from the train station to the throne room. And when Max decided to stay in Equestria, she was the first pony to volunteer, even before she knew what the assignment was.”

“Wait,” Sunny said, her ears perking up. “What do you mean ‘when Max decided to stay in Equestria’? I thought the reason he’s still here is because the princesses couldn’t send him back!”

“Nope,” Stacker chuckled. “It turns out that the old boy stopped them mid-spell and told them he wanted to stay. Why he decided that, I don’t know, given the way most ponies treat humans here, but it was his decision and his alone to make. The princesses agreed, and thought it best to provide him with some level of protection. There are currently three guards staying with him and Princess Sparkle at the library in Ponyville: the first lieutenant, a Battlemage, and a Lunar Guard.”

Sunny was silent, rubbing the side of her head with a hoof as she stared at the floor.

“Ma’am?” Stacker asked after several minutes. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Sunny said, distracted. “Just… just remembering some things.” Stacker’s face softened, and he gave the mare a small smile.

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” he said, leaning back against the wall. “Once we’re finished searching for Darkflare’s hideouts, you’ll be free to visit him again. With your help, we’ll be able to finish up with them faster than…” He trailed off as the sound of approaching hoofsteps reached the pair’s ears.

Ivory Pyre looked tired: she had dark bags under her eyes, and had a look on her face that told Sunny that the mare was fighting off a growing headache. She was muttering darkly to herself as she approached, her red eyes glaring intensely at her hooves as she walked. Her ear would twitch every couple of steps and her tail swung back and forth restlessly.

Stopping just in front of the two ponies and the human, Ivory snorted before looking up. She paused for a second, giving the human a bemused look, before turning her attention to Stacker instead.

Sighing, she shook her head, “I just received some bad news from Canterlot.”

“Worse than a KIA guard, a dead civilian, and the scene we left behind?” Stacker asked, cocking an eyebrow and chuckling humorlessly. The look Ivory gave him silenced the sergeant quickly.

“Twenty-nine hours ago, Darkflare and his gang broke free of Canterlot’s dungeons in a massive jailbreak. The number of escapees are currently unknown, but judging by the remains, not many prisoners opted to stay behind. During the escape, a young guard was taken hostage.”

A stunned silence fell over the group for a brief second before Stacker swore explosively. As the sergeant growled to himself, Sunny turned and gave Ivory an unsettled look. “You said something about 'judging by the remains'. What does that mean?”

“It appears that Darkflare went around and offered his fellow prisoners a chance to escape. Any prisoner that didn’t accept was torched alive in their cell until only charred bones remained.” Sunny felt bile beginning to rise in her throat. She swallowed thickly, her ears splaying back.

“How is that possible?” Stacker growled, leaning forward and glaring at Ivory. “There’s no way he could have gotten free without outside help!”

“Exactly,” Ivory replied, her face expressionless. Stacker blinked in surprise before his eyes narrowed.

“They suspect somepony on the outside helped him escape?” he asked.

“No,” Ivory said, shaking her head slowly. “They know somepony on the outside helped with this breakout, they just aren’t sure who it is yet.”

“They have a suspect?” Stacker asked, his eyebrows raising.

“The princesses have an… idea of who might have helped with the breakout,” Ivory said hesitantly. She paused, her eyes flicking over towards Sunny briefly before returning to Stacker. “But they're opting to play this one close to the chest.”

At this information, Stacker winced, “That bad, huh?”

“Yeah,” Ivory said, nodding grimly. “As of right now, we are being called back to Canterlot. We’ll wait there until Princess Celestia figures out what her next move is—”

“No.” Both guards blinked in surprise at the word. Turning, they gave Sunny confused looks. The pegasus had her forelegs crossed, a determined look on her face. The look was made somewhat less intimidating by the fact that the human whose lap she was in was currently nuzzling her head.

“No?” Ivory asked, tilting her head to the side slowly.

“No,” Sunny repeated, chewing on her bottom lip. “We have to get to Manehattan.”

“Manehattan? No, our orders are to head to Canterlot.”

“No,” Sunny said more forcefully. “We have to get to Manehattan as quickly as possible!”

“Ma’am,” Stacker said slowly, trying to calm the mare down, “our orders are to—”

“Screw your orders!” Sunny yelled suddenly, causing the two guards and the human to jump. “We need to get to Manehattan before Darkflare does!” Both guards paused, their gazes hardening as the looked at Sunny.

“And what makes you think that Darkflare will go to Manehattan?” Sunny took a deep breath, fidgeting with her hooves as her eyes darted back and forth between the two guards.

“There… is a warehouse in Manehattan that we need to get to before he does.”

“Ms. Breeze,” Ivory said, holding up her hooves in a placating manner. “Relax. We’ve already found the warehouse in Manehattan. The Search and Seizure squad hit it several months ago. They cleared it out completely. There’s nothing left.”

“Which one did they hit?”

“Pardon?” Ivory asked, blinking several times.

“Which warehouse did they hit?” Sunny repeated, looking unblinkingly at the unicorn.

“You’re saying that there’s more than one?” Ivory asked, her eyes widening and ears splaying back.

“Yes,” Sunny said with a nod. “So, which one did they hit? The one that contained all the humans, the one that contained all the found artifacts, or the one that contains… him.”

“'Him'?” Stacker asked, eyebrows raising.

“Van, Darkflare’s personal human,” Sunny said emotionlessly. “A machine of flesh and bone, bred specifically for killing. Darkflare has entered him in ten separate human pit fights. He stopped because it stopped being fun for him to watch his human slaughter the competition. When he isn't ‘in service’, Darkflare keeps him in a warehouse in Manehattan. He pays a pony to feed Van, so there’s a good chance he’s still alive.”

“What?!” Ivory shouted loudly, causing everypony in the train car to pause and look over at the small group. Ivory ignored them, choosing instead to glare down at Sunny. Her red eyes flashed menacingly, and her ear flapped wildly. Grinding her teeth together, Ivory growled at the pegasus, “And you’re just thinking of telling us this now?!”

“Van will only listen to Darkflare,” Sunny exclaimed, pounding a hoof onto the metal floor. “Since Darkflare was in custody, Van wasn't a threat until right now!”

Ivory snarled at Sunny, and for a brief second Sunny saw something feral in the second lieutenant's eyes. For only a moment, the pegasus felt like she was in the presence of a predator.

Then, it was gone.

Closing her eyes, Ivory took a deep breath and exhaled explosively. Opening her blood red eyes again, she studied Sunny with an expressionless look.

“Basher,” the unicorn called over her shoulder to a nearby guard. “Go tell the conductor that we need to go faster.” The guard in question saluted, before hurrying off towards the front of the train.

“Ms. Breeze,” Ivory said once the guard had left, “you have been nothing but helpful since joining us, despite the clear difference in who we are. You are an ex-convict; we are the Coming Dawn. Still, you have been providing us with information, helping us locate warehouses and hideouts, and even helped take down a changeling in the process. You have more than proved yourself in my eyes.

“However,” Ivory said coldly, moving her head till she was nose to nose with Sunny. “I am not pleased with this turn of events. That was information that we needed to know before Darkflare got free. I’m willing to overlook this, but that will require some work on your part.” The pegasus stared into the unicorn’s eyes, swallowing nervously as a bead of sweat rolled down her neck.

“A-and what is that?” she squeaked, sinking farther into the human’s lap.

“You are going to spend the rest of the trip giving me every… little... bit... of information that you have about this ‘killing machine’ of Darkflare’s. What he looks like, what he can do, what he eats, where he sleeps, if he’s sired, I don’t care. I want it all.

“Then, once we get back to Canterlot, you are going to personally brief Princess Celestia and Princess Luna on the situation, as well as where we are going, why we are going there, and what we can expect. You will leave nothing out. Is that clear?”

“C-crystal,” Sunny stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper. Satisfied, Ivory leaned back and fixed Sunny with a tired look.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Breeze, I really am, but as you’ve seen tonight, we’re risking our lives out here. Any and all information is needed to allow us to do our jobs as safely as possible. Information like this is high up there, and we needed to know this weeks ago. What if this ‘killing machine’ was in this warehouse and one of the guards released him accidentally?”

Sunny hung her head, her ears splaying backwards. She wanted to say that any guard would be able to tell that Van was dangerous, but thought better of it.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Ms. Breeze. I like you, you’re willing to try and make up for your crimes. I have to put the safety of my guards first, though. I can’t let you put those under my command in danger simply by withholding information you don’t think is necessary at the time.” Pausing, Ivory sighed again before continuing.

“I’ll give you a couple of minutes to compose yourself, and to remember anything else that might be useful, before we talk.”

Turning around, Ivory took several steps before pausing.

“Oh, one more thing,” she said, causing Sunny to flinch. Glancing back over her shoulder at Sunny, Ivory gave the pegasus a weary smile. “Thanks.”

Sunny blinked in surprise, her mouth opening in a small ‘o’. Chuckling, Ivory elaborated.

“According to Sergeant Stacker’s report, I’d have a lot more dead soldiers on my hooves if you hadn’t released that human when you did.” Ivory nodded at the human in question, earning a chirp from him. “Your quick thinking and resourcefulness saved lives, and for that you have my gratitude.” With that, Ivory turned and was gone.

Sunny just sat there, trapped in the grasp of the human she had saved, as she stared after the unicorn mare. Beside her Stacker began chuckling softly. Sunny just opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to do.

Standing up, Stacker ruffled her mane wordlessly with his hoof before limping off, leaving Sunny feeling guilty, confused, and happy, all at the same time.

“Stacker was right,” she said finally, glancing up at the human. He looked back down at her, tilting his head to the side. “A lot of bullshit happened.”

Author's Note

¹An old griffin saying that came about many years ago when an assassin, wielding only a sling with one stone, was able to kill not only the wayward emperor, but his fledgling as well.

Sidenote: Never say around Fluttershy. That particular stallion is still in rehab.

Interlude: The Judgment of Blueblood

“Five minutes,” Ebony grumbled, burying her muzzle into her scarf. “We missed the bloody train by five minutes. All because somepony had to get a doughnut.” I nodded my head in agreement, the neck of my sweater pulled up over my nose, and my arms crossed tightly across my chest. The sun might have been out, but that wind was a killer.

Both Ebony and I glanced sideways at Twilight, who was happily munching away at a chocolate-covered doughnut with sprinkles. She paused mid-chew when she realized we were looking at her.

“What?” she asked, crumbles spraying from her mouth. “I was hungry.” Ebony muttered inaudibly under her breath as she hunkered down further into her scarf.

We were at the train station in Canterlot. Having just missed the eight-fifteen train to Ponyville, we were now forced to wait for the next train to arrive. Unlike Ponyville’s station, which was completely indoors, Canterlot’s station was open to the elements, the only enclosed space being the ticket booth. Why it was like that, I didn’t know, as I would think that the snobbish nobles wouldn’t like to be kept waiting outside in these kind of conditions.

Glancing around, I blinked when I realized that we were the only ones standing around, waiting for a train. The platform was completely empty; no other humans or ponies were in sight. We were the only ones waiting out in the cold for the train.

I grumbled in annoyance, and snuggled my head deeper into my sweater. It was too early in the morning to be this cold.

“I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Twilight said, taking another bite of her doughnut. “We couldn’t have left anyway. Avera isn’t here yet.”

“And I told you, she was taking care of something and told us to go on ahead of her,” Ebony said, her voice muffled by the sweater. “She was going to catch up with the train en route.”

Silence fell as Twilight returned to her doughnut, chewing slowly as she enjoyed the chocolatey treat. Beside me, one of the Battlemages shifted, her armor clinking softly together as it shifted. Her head swiveled back and forth, her gaze never lingering on any given spot for more than a few seconds.

All three Battlemages were on edge, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. It seemed that every guard at the palace was on high alert recently, although we weren’t told why.

Why do I feel like we are being kept in the dark? I mused as I glanced over at Ebony, who was just glaring at the empty station, her ears folded against her head to protect them from the wind.

We stood there silently for several more minutes before the sound of multiple approaching ponies reached my ears. Beside me, the Battlemages tensed immediately, their stances widening.

Turning, I blinked in surprise when I caught sight of the ponies behind us. What the…?

Princess Celestia, flanked by a dozen armed guards in golden armor, was heading in our direction, a neutral expression on her face. Beside her, walking with his tail between his legs, was Blueblood. I noted with some satisfaction that he had a bandage across his muzzle, as well as around his throat.

“Well, would you look at that,” Zen Glory whispered, eyeing the approaching group.

“Wonder what this is about,” Ebony added, moving to stand next to me as well, her eyes glued on Blueblood. Feeling something bump my leg, I glanced down to see Twilight with her shoulder pressed against me, glaring at the approaching prince.

Coming to a stop in front of us, Celestia inclined her head, a small smile on her face. “Ah, looks like your missed train has worked to our advantage. Now we won’t have to follow you to Ponyville.”

“Princess,” Twilight said, not taking her eyes off of Blueblood. “What’s going on here?”

“What’s going on, my faithful student,” Celestia replied, the small smile remaining on her face, “Is that judgment must be passed, and a grievance must be amended.” At that, Blueblood’s lip pulled back in a grimace, and he lowered his head slightly, not looking at anyone.

“I thought this was already taken care of,” Ebony said, tilting her head to the side. Celestia gave the Major a strained smile.

“My sister and I weren’t in the best state of mind when we made that decision, due to the stress of what had happened at the Gala,” she explained, her wings ruffling. “After talking to my sister when she and I were in a calmer mood, we have come up with a… better punishment. I’ve come here today to run the decision by you—” she turned to look at me “—and to have you approve of the verdict. Should it not be to your liking, we will go back with the original decision.” Blueblood opened his mouth to say something, but a look from Celestia silenced him.

I glanced down at Twilight. Her tail was flicking back and forth in agitation and she was staring pointedly at Blueblood.

“Well?” Celestia asked after several seconds, causing me to look back up at her. Chewing on the inside of my check, I cocked an eyebrow and turned my head to the side, indicating that I was listening.

Celestia straightened up, closing her eyes and clearing her throat. Opening her eyes, she began, “Due to evidence placed before us, as well as testament from a noble of the Lunar Court, we find Blueblood of the Solar Court guilty of his crimes. His punishment, as decided by both me and my sister, shall be as follows: Blueblood shall be made to pay a fine—twenty percent his wealth—to any organization against the cruelty of humans of his choosing. He has chosen the Equestrian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans.

“In addition to that, all of Blueblood’s assets shall be temporarily frozen until such time as Luna, or myself, has deemed that he has earned them back. Until this comes to pass, he shall be confined to the castle unless properly escorted by at least two members of the Royal Guard hoofpicked by both myself and Luna.

“Blueblood shall be required to perform two-hundred hours of community service at a local veterinary clinic, as well as weekly visits to a local hospital to talk with, and comfort, assault victims. He will be forced to report what he did that day, as well as what he has learned, in a daily report that will be read by both my sister and I to determine that he is indeed following through with his sentence.

“Is this satisfactory?” Celestia asked as she continued to look at me. Despite the speech, she kept her voice even and monotone, as if reading off a script.

Raising a hand up, I scratched my cheek as I went over what she had just said in my mind. As I thought, Blueblood huffed, grinding his teeth together, “I don’t know why I’m being punished when it was that thing that assaulted me!”

Celestia opened her mouth to rebuke him, but Twilight beat her to it.

“That thing,” she growled, spitting the word at Blueblood with enough venom in her voice to cause a timberwolf to whimper, “has been ‘attacked’ at regular intervals by a pegasus mare in Ponyville named Rainbow Dash and has not shown any signs of aggression towards her. That thing was forced into a fighting pit, but has come out no more aggressive than when he went in. That thing has rescued three fillies from a herd of manticores, despite being severely injured in the process. That thing—”

“Thank you, Twilight,” Celestia said loudly, interrupting Twilight mid-rant. Glancing down at Blueblood, she frowned, a disappointed look in her eyes. “While it is true that the human assaulted you, it was done in self-defense. That’s not even to mention that he wasn’t even your human to take in the first place. If you’d like, we can add theft and attempted kidnapping to the list of charges.”

“I don’t know why we’re making a big deal out of this,” Blueblood sneered, pulling his lips back. “You’re acting like I attacked a pony.”

I moved before anyone could respond to that. Stepping forward, I leaned down until my face was inches from Blueblood’s. He jerked back, giving me a wary look. I stared at him, a blank look on my face, for several seconds.

Nopony moved, and an uneasy silence fell over the platform. The guards beside Celestia shifted nervously, and behind me I could hear the Battlemages doing the same, although I wasn’t sure if they were preparing to protect me from the guards, or to stop me attacking Blueblood.

Celestia was watching me with a curious expression her face, almost as if she interested in what I would do.

After several seconds of staring at each other, Blueblood tore his gaze away, ears splaying backwards.

“Sparkle, control your beast, will you?” Blueblood asked nervously. From behind me, Twilight snorted in irritation. Celestia’s ear twitched once, but her expression never changed. I could feel all eyes on me as I stared at Blueblood.

After several seconds, I began to chuckle.

Blueblood’s head snapped around, his eyes widening as he stared at me in shock. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly.

My laughter grew louder, my smile widening, as I stared at the terrified unicorn. Flashing my teeth at him, I reached out and grabbed a hold of his cheek, giving it a hard pinch and a shake. As I released his face, he jerked backwards, scrambling to get some distance between himself and me.

Straightening back up, I kept the smile on my face as I turned and looked at Celestia. The guards beside her were staring at me in shock, some with their mouths hanging open. Ignoring them, I focused instead on the princess, who was giving me an amused look.

~It’ll do~ I signed with a nod of my head.

“Very good,” Celestia said, returning the nod. “Well, if that’s taken care of, we’ll get out of your mane.” Turning, she looked down at her guards and gave them a flick of her head. “Back to the castle, Captain Tempest.” One of the guards, a white pegasus mare with a blue mane, nodded her head and gave a brief salute. Turning, she barked orders at the stunned guards, snapping them out of their stupor.

As the guards began to march off, Celestia turned and gave me a strange look. Her magenta eyes narrowed and she chewed on her bottom lip. Whatever she was thinking, she seemed to make up her mind as she snorted and nodded once.

“We’ll be seeing you soon,” she said softly before turning and walking off. After several feet, she paused and looked back at Blueblood, who hadn’t moved. He was just staring off into space, a stunned look on his face.

Tsking softly and shaking her head, Celestia smirked at the frozen pony. Lighting up her horn, she grabbed a hold of Blueblood’s tail and began to drag him backwards through the snow.

As he was dragged off, Blueblood’s eyes landed on me. I slowly lifted my hand up and pointed at him, before motioning from my eyes to his. As his eyes widened, I smiled again and waved as Celestia pulled him around a corner.

Crossing my arms again and tucking my head back into the neck of my sweater, I turned and found Ebony, Twilight and the Battlemages looking at me.

“Was that necessary?” Ebony asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Yes,” replied Twilight before I could. “Yes it was.” Looking down, she studied the last bite of her doughnut before popping it into her mouth. Ebony just shrugged before snuggling back down into her scarf.

The sound of wing beats filled the air, and I glanced up as Avera dropped from the sky. Coming to a stop a few feet from the snowy ground, she hovered in front of us.

“Where have you been?” Twilight asked her before swallowing the remains of her doughnut.

“Taking care of something,” Avera said with a smirk as she alit upon the ground in a flurry of snow.

“Taking care of what?” Twilight asked, eyeing the mare.

“Something,” came the vague reply. Turning, the black pegasus looked at me and her smile grew. I allowed myself to smile as well, although she couldn’t see it with half my head inside my sweater.

~So, were you able to do it?~ I asked her.

“Was I able to do it,” she snarked, shaking her head. She reached a hoof into her saddlebags, pulled out a bottle, and threw it to me. Catching it, I glanced down at it and saw that it was an empty bottle of itching powder.

My smile grew.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, trying to get a look at the bottle in my hand. I ignored her and tossed the bottle back to Avera. ~Any trouble?~

“None,” she said, slipping the bottle back into her bag. As she opened the flap, I caught sight of several more empty bottles. Closing the flap, Avera continued, the smile still on her face, “Getting inside the penthouse was easy. His window wasn’t even locked. I put some of that stuff on the chairs and sofas, sprinkled it on the rugs, threw it on the dining room tablecloth, sprinkled some into his… fun toys, covered his bed and sheets with it, as well as his pillows, and got some onto his bath towels. That’s when his maid caught me. Once she saw what I was doing, she gave me ten bits and took a couple of the bottles from me so that she could ‘restock the supply’ later on, after the sheets had been cleaned.”

~Excellent~

“What are you two up to?” Twilight asked, her eyes narrowing as she looked in between me and Avera. Ebony was just giving us a curious look, her face buried in her scarf. The Battlemages were scanning the area, but I knew that they were listening in, as each one had an ear pointed in our direction.

~Nothing for you to be concerned about~ I told her before patting her on the head. She opened her mouth to argue, but the sound of a train whistle cut her off. As the train pulled into the station and ponies began to disembark, Twilight sighed and shook her head.

“...let’s just go home,” she grumbled, turning and making her way towards the Royal Compartment. As she walked away, Avera and I quickly hoofbumped before following after her. With that, Twilight, Ebony, Avera, and I got on the train, leaving our Battlemage entourage behind as we began the long journey back to the quiet town of Ponyville.

Chapter 35: Anthropology

“You are an enigma, you know that? A mystery whose answer continues to eludes us.”

I glanced up from the galaxy I was currently waist-deep in and looked around. Standing several meters away, head cocked to the side and a blank look on her face, was Luna. I blinked in confusion as I looked at the alicorn, the sea of stars still swirling lazily around us. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you mystify us, more than you should,” Luna said, not taking her eyes off of me. I just smirked at her.

“'Us' as in 'you', or 'us' as in—”

“My sister and myself,” Luna interrupted, flicking her ear in annoyance.

Laughing softly, I looked back down and ran my hand through the galaxy. The stars flowed through my fingers like water, swirling around the digits before returning to their original position in the spinning sea of stars and planets.

“This isn’t a nightmare,” I said softly as I looked down at my hand. Glancing back up at Luna, I tilted my head to the side. “So, why are you here? Have you taken to spying on my dreams?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Luna said earnestly, frowning at me. This just made me laugh again.

“Come on,” I said, shaking my head. “I know that Celestia doesn’t trust me worth a damn.” At my words, a small window opened up in between me and Luna. I blinked in surprise, my eyes widening when I saw what it was doing.

The window showed the time that I had decided to stay in Equestria. Large golden doors were closing slowly. The two alicorn sisters stood on the other side of the closing doors; Luna was smiling, but Celestia wasn’t. The white sister was just staring at me, a troubled look on her face as her eyes slowly narrowed. As the golden doors closed, hiding the sisters from view, the window disappeared and Luna and I were left standing alone within the galaxy.

I stared at the spot where the window had been, a blank look on my face. “What was that?”

“Hmm?” Luna hummed absentmindedly as she looked at the same spot. “Oh, that? That was a memory window. They will pop up frequently within this plane, usually in conjunction with an idea or a memory. You see, it’s near impossible to lie to the Mistress of Dreams in her own domain. You're in my world now, not yours...”

“So, it looks into my memories to show that I’m not lying?” I asked, scrunching up my face. I didn’t like the idea of something going through my mind.

“Not in the way you’re thinking of, no,” Luna said, still staring at the spot between us where the window had been. Tilting her head from one side to the other, she blinked several times, a frown on her face.

“Is that last scene the only reason you think Tia doesn’t trust you?” she asked suddenly, finally looking at me.

“No,” I said slowly. Before the word finished leaving my mouth, another window popped up. This time, Night Light was looking out at us, his head cocked to the side, his eyes narrowing.

“How did you know that Celestia wanted me to give her a report about tonight?” he asked, his voice sounding warped and distorted. As the window faded, Luna watched it go with a blank look on her face.

“It’s not that she doesn’t trust you,” she said softly. “It’s just that we don’t know what it is you want exactly, or what is going through your head. As I’ve said before, you are an enigma to us.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.

“You claim that you arrived in Equestria against your will,” Luna said, beginning to pace back and forth as she talked, disturbing the stars of the galaxy like a great beast cutting through the waters of a lake. As she spoke, her eyes flicked to and fro, almost as if she was reading an invisible book.

“Yet,” she continued, “you did not try to communicate to anypony for several weeks, despite the situation you found yourself in. When you finally did establish communication with somepony, you then tried to keep your intelligence a secret, despite the fact that it would have been beneficial for you to have done so. Instead, you were perfectly fine to just sit around, pretending to be a pet for Twilight Sparkle, all while others thought you were a stupid animal. Then, after my sister and I found out about you, and told you that we could send you home, you chose to stay behind in Equestria, and continue to be a pet for a pony, while still hiding your true identity from the general public.

“Granted,” she said, inclining her head. “You aren’t as reserved in keeping the secret as you were several months ago, but you aren’t going out of your way to show the world what you are.”

“I already explained my reasoning for staying in Equestria,” I said hotly, my eye twitching in annoyance. “You couldn’t guarantee my safety when you were attempting to send me home, and I didn’t want to take the risk. That isn’t suspicious behavior; that’s self-preservation!”

“True,” Luna said, nodding her head. “But that doesn’t explain why you didn’t try to communicate to anypony that you were intelligent for several weeks upon your arrival.”

A window opened up between us again, and several scenes of me trying to get a hold of paper in Celestia's bedchamber after she purchased me flashed by before the window vanished.

Luna just snorted, shaking her head, “Those could hardly be considered attempts at communication.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly in a very trusting mood at the time when it came to ponies,” I sighed. Another window opened, this one showing hundreds of cramped cages, filled with naked humans, all of which were clearly malnourished and in poor condition. A unicorn mare walked past the cages, flinging half pieces of moldy bread at the humans, a sneer on her face. The scene quickly changed to the one where I witnessed the human get neutered by the unicorns. As the mare lowered the pair of garden shears towards the human, I closed my eyes, not wanting to relive that particular memory.

The swishing sound, followed by the horrific screech of a human in pain, still sent shivers down my spine, and I cringed inwardly. I opened my eyes as the window faded from view. Glancing over at Luna, I saw that she looked like she was going to be ill, her face a light shade of green.

“We did not realize it was that bad,” she said, sounding queasy. “To do something like that to another living creature, intelligent or not, is just so… barbaric!” Closing her eyes, she swallowed thickly before sighing.

“Though it might mean very little at this time,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “We… I mean, I would like to apologize for what you went through. It seems, through no fault of your own, you were found by the worst ponies possible upon arriving in this world.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” I said quietly, staring down at the spinning stars. “You weren’t the one who brought me here.”

The window that opened this time showed me rooting around a freezer, moving from box to box as I looked for something in particular. I smirked when I saw that I was wearing my old McDonald’s uniform. Finding what I was looking for, I picked up a box and proceeded to leave the freezer, using my back to push the door open. There was a large flash of white, and then the scene changed to show an endless sea of sand, heat wafting up from the scorching land.

As Luna watched the window close, she moved to stand next to me, both of us staring at the fading window.

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t want to reveal yourself after you told Twilight the truth,” she said, not looking up.

“That was stupidity on my part,” I said with a dry chuckle. “Stupidity, and a large chunk of paranoia. I wasn’t entirely sure what anyone would do when they found out. The last thing I wanted was to be lynched for being an abomination.”

“...did you fear us?” Luna asked quietly, her ears slowly splaying backwards. She kept her eyes forward, still not looking at me.

“It’s human nature to fear the unknown,” I said just as quietly. “We fear what we don’t understand.”

Silence fell over us, and we both just stood there, staring out upon the swirling galaxy around us. After several minutes, I reached out with my hand towards one of the arms of the galaxy. Slowly, it began to grow, and we soon found ourselves flying towards a familiar looking solar system. Our flight slowed as we drew nearer, before we came to a stop beside the third planet in the system. The orb before us was the size of a small beach ball, a smaller moon orbiting around it while it itself went about its own orbit around a miniature sun far off in the distance.

I gazed down at the sphere of green, blue, and white before me, watching the clouds drift slowly across its surface. There was a tropical storm nearing Australia at the moment, although I wasn’t sure if that was in real life, or just my dream adding a little realism to itself. As I looked down at the planet I had spent most of my life on, a smile touched my lips.

Beside me, Luna cocked her head to the side as she studied the planet closely.

“If you could go back safely, would you?” she asked.

I stared down at the Earth, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I thought it over.

“Truthfully,” I said eventually, staring down at my old home. “I can’t give you a clear answer on that.” Beside me, Luna stiffened, and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her slowly turn to look at me.

“...And why is that?” she asked, almost casually, studying my face closely.

I didn’t answer her. I didn’t have to. The minute the question left her lips, another window opened. I felt my face immediately redden at the sight of what the window was showing. Oh crap...

Twilight laughing as she flew through the air above the beach, trying to catch the ball Rainbow and I threw back and forth between each other. Twilight with a large smile on her face, her eyes closed as Aloe dug her hooves into her back. Twilight, Spike, and I laughing with our head stuck in the freezer. Twilight on the train, smiling tearfully when she learned that I was going to live a long life. Twilight standing by my bedside as I slowly recovered from my time in the pit.

As more and more images of Twilight flashed through the window, I felt my face growing warmer and warmer. I prayed that they would stop, but they didn’t. If anything, they increased in frequency, showing more and more of that lavender mare. Finally, after what felt like hours to me, the images began to slow, until eventually they came to a stop. As the window faded from view, I just gazed forward, not wanting to look at Luna. I was pretty sure you could fry an egg on my face.

“Could it really be that simple? Could we really have been over-thinking this the whole time?” I scrunched up my face in confusion, not expecting that reaction. Finally glancing down, I chanced a look at Luna.

She was staring out across the spinning solar system, her brow furrowed. As I watched, stars seemed to blink into existence in her mane, before disappearing again. She turned slowly to look at me, her mouth open slightly.

“You really are just a lone soul, pulled from your home and forced into a life you hardly understand, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper as she looked up at me, a strange look on her face. It was almost like… empathy? “You really haven’t come here to conquer or pillage, have you?”

“No,” I scoffed, giving her an incredulous look. “Of course not. What would ever make you think that?”

Luna flinched, lowering her gaze. She opened her mouth to reply, but instead, another one of those bloody windows opened up. I blinked in confusion. That isn’t one of mine…

I immediately reeled backwards as the window displayed the mismatched form of Discord. He was gazing out at us, a large smile upon his face. As we watched, he was slowly being turned to stone from the tail up. Before him sat a large chess board. Folding his arms, he sneered out at us, his tone condescending and triumphant. When he spoke, his voice sent shivers down my spine.

“Sometimes, in our pursuit of gods and kings, we overlook the little things. You’ll notice in this game of chess, one piece cannot win without the rest. But even when you’re sure that the king is gone, you’ll find that there will still be a little pawn.”

As he spoke, his body continued to turn to stone until his entire form was encased in it. The window continued to stare at the statue, before it moved suddenly and focused on the chessboard; a black piece in particular. It was shaped like a human, standing with its back to the observer. It looked over its shoulder, a sword held in its hand.

As we continued to look at the window, it began to fade. When the window finally blinked out of existence, I turned to Luna, a shocked look on my face.

“You were basing your assumptions of what I was up to on a chess game against a creature that, if what Twilight told me is true, likes to fuck with people’s minds?!”

Luna flinched at the tone in my voice, and gave me a sheepish grin.

“Well, technically, it was Tia who played the game,” she mumbled, her ears splaying back. “She just shared the memory with me.”

I responded by placing my head in my hands and sighing heavily. “...great.”

Dragging my hands down my face, I saw that our surroundings were changing again. We were moving away from the Earth, the solar system shrinking in the process. After a few seconds, we were back in the center of the galaxy, the stars swirling around us.

As I grumbled to myself, Luna glanced around at the sea of twinkling lights, a curious look on her face.

“Why is this significant to you?” she asked, poking a cluster of stars with her hoof as it floated past.

Dropping my arms, I gave her a confused look. “What do you mean? Why is what significant to me?”

“This,” Luna said, motioning at the galaxy around us. “When within this dream realm, it usually takes the form of a place that is significant to the dreamer. For a foal, it might be their room. For a lover, it might be where they met their mate. Why is this scene so special to you?”

Blinking, I held out my hand, smiling as I dragged it through the stars. Even though it was a dream, I could almost feel them flow between my fingers, a warm sensation as thousands of stars slipped through my grasp.

As I closed my hand around the mass of twinkling lights, my smile grew.

“If I had to hazard a guess, I think that it’s because I have always loved the night,” I said softly. Beside me, Luna jerked violently, whipping her head around to look at me, causing her neck to pop several times. I ignored her, instead bring my hand up to my face. Opening my fingers, my eye sparkled as I watched the stars slowly float from my grasp and return to the enormous pool of swirling celestial bodies.

“In my opinion, it’s the best time of the day,” I continued, idly pulling my arms though the galaxy, disturbing the flow of the stars around me. I felt like a kid in a stream, upsetting the current. “It’s so calming, so relaxing. Unlike the daytime, which is full of stressful events: going to school, work, having your boss yell at you for something that is completely out of your control, having to pay the bills, stay out of debt, fight with stupid people who don’t know how to drive in the snow.

“But when the sun sets, and the night comes, everything changes. The stars come out, the air cools, and peace descends upon the world, almost like a spell.” As I spoke, Luna shifted beside me.

“Back home, I used to take long walks. Did you know that? I’m not sure if I told Twilight or not. Anyways, the area I lived in was shaped like a large circle, and I would just walk around and around for several hours, either listening to music or just lost in thought. I would always walk at night, no matter what. I found it more peaceful that way. As I would walk, I would look up at the thousands upon thousands of stars that were painted against the blackness. The beauty of it always took my breath away.

“There was also something magical about it. As I looked up at the stars during my walk, it seemed to always take the weight of the world from my shoulders. My grandma passed away, and the nebulas showed me that life can still be beautiful, even in the emptiness of the void. Had to have my dog put down, and the shooting stars helped me realize that it was probably for the best. He was in pain, and now he was in a better place.

“I could spend hours looking up at the night sky, getting lost within the galaxies and nebulas of the universe,” I said, finally tearing my eyes away from the swirling vortex of stars. “The night sky relieves the stress from my life, so I guess that’s why it’s significant to me.”

Falling silent, I glanced over at Luna. She was staring at me, her eyes sparkling in the darkness. Her mouth was hanging open and a small blush was upon her face. By her sides, her wings were unfurled, creating a large void in the galaxy as they blocked the flow of stars. The miniature lights seeped through her feathers, trickling across her wings like liquid light.

“Luna?” I asked cautiously, giving her a worried look. “Are you okay?” She blinked, closing her mouth with a click and shaking her head gently. Swallowing thickly, she looked back up at me, the blush still on her face.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “I don’t know what came over me.” She started to fold her wings, having some difficulty as they appeared to be rather stiff.

I cocked my head to the side, watching her curiously as she struggled to control her wings.

“Rainbow has the same problem sometimes,” I said absentmindedly. This just caused Luna’s blush to darken, and she muttered something under her breath.

Finally, she got control over the appendages and folded them against her sides. Turning back to me, she cleared her throat, not meeting my gaze.

“That would explain why you would create this place in the dream world,” she said, the blush slowly fading from her face. “But why did you create it now? What are you stressed about?”

“A lot of stuff, but mostly little things,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “My burnt neck, my bad eye, two princesses who don’t trust me, trying to keep away from a particularly clingy confectionery maker.”

Luna cocked an eyebrow at me, unconvinced.

“Anything else?” she asked. “Anything major on your mind that you haven’t told anypony?”

“No,” I said quickly before jerking back. “Oh, come on!” Immediately a window opened up in front of us.

A human woman was sitting behind a large desk, a pile of papers in front of her. She was dressed in a white doctor's coat, with a pair of glasses perched on her nose. As we watched, she glanced up at the window, a grim look on her face.

“Max,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Over half a year ago, you slipped and hit your head at your job. Thanks to the fall, as well as the subsequent head trauma, you are now suffering from severe dementia as well as bursts of paranoia.” The woman straightened the paper, shaking her head sadly.

“You have been suffering from a number of strange and severe delusions created by a mental disorder. The most common one being a world of magical, talking ponies…”

The woman continued talking, her voice slowly fading as the window flickered and died. Before the window closed completely, a pair of large wings enveloped me. I flinched as they closed around me, a pair of hooves wrapping around my chest.

“You fear that this might all be in your head,” Luna whispered softly as she rested her head on my shoulder. “You fear that this might all be a delusion created by your mind. You fear being trapped within your own mind, unable to tell reality from delusion.”

I swallowed, nodding weakly.

“It’s nothing major, in a sense,” I whispered. “It’s just that most of what’s happened to me would be enough to land anyone in a mental hospital back home. Sometimes I think that I might just have gone insane, and just haven’t realized it yet. It’s not often, but it’s still there, lurking in the back of my mind.”

“I can assure you,” Luna said, nuzzling my cheek gently. “We are real.” She tightened her wings around me protectively. “Twilight, her friends, Tia, Cadance, Shining Armor, Ms. Breeze, myself. We are all real.” I chuckled, shaking my head slightly.

“You’d say that even if you were a delusion.”

“Then tell me,” Luna said softly, “which would be worse: to live happily in a delusion? Or to be miserable in reality?”

“Depends,” I said, turning my head and giving Luna a small smirk. “Where does the dream end, and reality begin?”

Smiling, Luna slowly released her grip on me and dropped down onto her hooves, disturbing the stars around us. Backing up slowly, she kept her eyes locked on mine, the smile still on her face. She spread her wings wide as she walked backwards, never taking her eyes off of me. Her body slowly began to fade into the darkness, leaving only her eyes, which sparkled gently in the gloom. Around us, the galaxy began to blur and distort, and I could feel myself slowly beginning to wake.

As the dream dissolved around me, I could hear Luna’s voice drifting through the void, “You must let your heart tell you that…”

I just chuckled, shaking my head.

“...Cheap-ass fortune cookie.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Mommy, I want to pway wid da human!”

“Not now, honey. Can’t you see he’s sleeping?”

“Aw, but I want to pway wid him!” I kept my eyes closed, resisting the urge to smirk. Since it was a weekday, the library was open to the general public. That meant that the occasional pony or two would come in to check out one of the numerous books we had.

About fifteen minutes ago, a younger looking mare had entered the library, a young foal trailing behind her. As the mare searched around for a book that contained a certain recipe, the little filly had been content to sit in the middle of the room and wait.

That is, until she caught sight of me.

As the young filly continued to beg her mother to let her play with the human, I snuggled down deeper into my pillow bed. The fabric may have started to fade slightly, but it was still extremely comfortable, and warm.

“You’re horrible, you know that?” a voice laughed softly in my ear. Lazily, I cracked my eye open and glanced at the speaker.

Primrose was perched on the window sill beside my pillow, filing one of her back hooves. The window behind her had its blinds drawn, and the batpony was leaning against it as she worked.

Inspecting her hoof, she glanced over at me and smirked, her eyes half open. Just like always, she looked like she was either really tired, or really stoned.

“All she wants to do is ‘pway wid da human,” she grinned. I snorted softly, clicking my tongue as I closed my eye. I pointed up at a sign I had placed just above my head, tacked to the wall.

PLEASE
LET THE SLEEPING HUMAN LIE
THANK YOU

I had created the sign myself, in order to stop curious ponies from disturbing me when I napped. You’d be surprised how many ponies thought it would be a good idea to bother a sleeping human, especially one who has a large scar on his face, but needless to say, it got really annoying, really quickly.

As I placed my hand back atop my chest, I heard Primrose chuckle quietly to herself. The soft sounds of filing started again as she resumed playing with her hoof.

After several minutes, the mare finally found the book she was looking for and left, dragging the filly behind her. As the door closed behind them, I sighed loudly. About fucking time, I thought as I propped myself up on my elbows and glanced around the library.

At the sound of the door closing, Twilight looked up from her desk and glanced around.

“Did they leave?” she asked, looking over at Primrose. When the batpony nodded, Twilight closed the book she was reading, and stood up. “Good. While I am always pleased when ponies show an interest in the library, we have stuff to take care of.”

“Couldn’t you have just kicked them out?” Primrose asked, not looking up from her filing. Twilight gave her an affronted look.

“I will not be kicking anypony out of a library! I will not deny anypony the chance to learn and read!” Primrose flicked her ear, but didn’t say anything more.

Walking over to the basement door, Twilight rapped on it before calling out, “Come on, you two! We’ve got to get going!” There was the sound of muffled hoofsteps coming up the basement stairs before it swung open.

Avera and Ebony stepped into the main room as the basement door swung shut. Ebony had a small blue vest on, and a pair of saddlebags strapped to her flank. Avera, on the other hoof, had a thicker gray vest, which seemed more padded than Ebony’s. It had a thick collar that wrapped around her neck, reminding me of a bomb suit from back home.

As the pair emerged, Primrose looked up, cocking an eyebrow as she looked at the two ponies.

“You’re going there armored?” she scoffed, smirking at the pair. Avera just stuck her tongue out at the batpony.

“That nut got one over on us before. She won’t be doing it again.”

“Yeah, well… remember we’re going there to get answers, not revenge,” Ebony said, checking the items in her bags. Twilight was doing the same with her own saddlebags, which were now draped over her back.

Satisfied, she turned and looked around the room at everyone.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” she said, using her magic to wrap a scarf around her neck as she spoke. “Avera, Ebony, and I are heading over to the hospital to pay a visit to Lyra. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone, but hopefully we’ll be back sometime before nightfall. Primrose, you’ll be staying here with Max.” She glanced over at me and shook her head. “Normally he’d come along, but after what happened the last time Lyra and him met, I think it’s best for him to stay here.”

“Good luck, have fun!” Primrose called out as the trio made their way towards the front door. Avera snorted, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah,” she snarked. “Fun.”

As the front door shut behind them, silence fell over the library. Sniffing, I glanced around the place, chewing on the inside of my cheek. It had been a while since I found myself with no plans and nothing to do.

Glancing over, I saw that Primrose was doing the same, her gaze drifting over the library. Our eyes met and a smirk slowly spread across her face. Her red eyes glinted as she reached a hoof into a small pouch on her thigh.

“So,” she said, slowly pulling something out of the pouch. Holding it up, I saw that she was holding a long, thin white object in her hoof. My eyes widened when I realized what it was.

Primrose’s smile just grew wider. “You like to party?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The alicorn sighed as she ran a hoof through her mane, waiting for somepony to become free to help them. Standing by the front counter of the hospital, she watched as ponies came and went: some to visit family and friends, and others to check themselves in for various reasons, ranging from frostbite to sprained ankles from the ice.

Beside her, Avera shifted from hoof to hoof, her tail flicking back and forth in agitation. Ebony had her nose buried in a book, one ear swiveling around as she kept track of the noise around her. Ponies were giving the trio curious looks, but respectfully kept their distance from the princess and her companions.

Tapping her hoof, Twilight tried to keep her impatience in check, although it was becoming more and more difficult. I had an appointment scheduled to meet with Lyra nearly fifteen minutes ago! Somepony is going to receive a letter about this. A hospital should be punctual, after all. What if this was time-sensitive?

The sound of somepony clearing their throat behind her caused Twilight to jump slightly. Looking around, she saw that Nurse Redheart had slipped behind the desk when she wasn’t looking, and was giving her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry about the wait,” she said, placing a clipboard behind the desk. “It’s been busy around here since the snowstorm we had the other day.” Pulling out a different clipboard, Redheart’s eyes ran down the list clipped to it.

“You’re here to see Lyra Heartstrings, correct?” she asked Twilight, glancing over the top of the clipboard at the alicorn.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, nodding her head. “We have an appointment to see her… which we’re late to,” she added in an undertone.

“Right…” Redheart’s eyes drifted from Twilight to her two companions, a frown forming on her face.

“She’s not in trouble,” Twilight said quickly, giving the nurse a small smile. “We’re just here to ask her a few questions.” Redheart’s eyes darted back and forth between Twilight and the guards before she nodded slowly.

“She’s been prepared for your meeting. Follow me, please.” Turning, the nurse grabbed a set of keys dangling on a hook before stepping out from behind the desk. The trio followed after her as she started off down the hallway.

As they walked, Redheart glanced back at Twilight. “This will be a pleasant surprise for her. You’re Lyra’s first guests in a while.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Avera grumbled, glancing out an ice-covered window as they passed. Redheart continued as if she hadn’t heard the pegasus.

“When she first arrived, her marefriend, Bon Bon, would visit her almost every day. Then, for whatever reason, she stopped showing up.”

“Did you ever find out why she stopped visiting?” Ebony asked. Redheart shook her head.

“Sadly, no. We never got a reason behind the sudden cease in visits. Of course, I don’t think Lyra even noticed, to tell you the truth. She was too caught up in her obsession.”

“Her obsession?” Twilight asked, cocking an eyebrow. Redheart gave her a sad smile over her shoulder.

“You’ll see.”

They rounded a corner, and Twilight blinked in surprise. The hall had changed completely, just from them turning the corner. The corridor they had just been in was a happy mix of white and light green, heartwarming pictures adorning the wall to help cheer up the patients.

This new hallway was completely opposite. Monotone green walls enclosed them, blocking them into a windowless corridor. Doors made out steel lined the walls, a slot on the door allowing for you to look within the room without having to open the door.

It felt as if they had stepped into a different building entirely.

Twilight glanced around the corner, back the way they had come. It was the same as before; no changes. It was like somepony had sliced two buildings in half and glued them together.

Twilight looked back at Redheart, a confused look on her face. The nurse just chuckled.

“The hall’s enchanted so that you don’t really see it until you step into the corridor. We find it helps keep patients calm, both the regular, and the…” Redheart trailed off, nodding her head at the steel doors.

“So, neither wing really knows about the other unless they turn the corner?” Avera asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Something like that,” Redheart said, shrugging her shoulders. “Now, come along. Lyra’s room is at the far end of the ward.”

As they walked down the hall, Twilight suddenly became aware of how quiet it had become, only the sound of their hoofsteps echoing around the hall. The gentle murmur of patients and doctors had stopped, leaving an eerie silence upon them.

Twilight was too uncomfortable to break the silence, and instead opted to walk along and keep her mouth closed.

After several minutes of walking, Redheart finally came to a stop in front of one of the steel doors. It was the second to last one on the right side of a dead end corridor. Flipping through the keys, Redheart grabbed the right key and inserted it into the lock, and turned. With a loud clunk, the door unlocked.

Gripping the door handle in her hoof, she looked back at the trio.

“Now, the door will remained unlocked during your stay. Upon leaving, the door will lock automatically behind you, so don’t leave prematurely. Not only will you not be able to get in again without coming to find me, but you’ll lock anypony left inside the room until the door is unlocked again. When you leave, leave as a group, okay?”

The trio nodded in understanding. Redheart sighed before turning and opening the door slowly.

“Have fun,” she said, giving them a strained smile. The trio looked at each other uneasily before walking forward and entering the room. As Nurse Redheart closed the door behind them, they froze, staring around the room in fascinated horror.

The room was about the same size as a normal hospital room. A small bed was located one of the corners, the pale green sheets on it rumpled and disheveled. A small table stood in the center of the room. The walls, like the floor, were painted a dull gray. Not that you could tell, however.

Every inch of the four walls were covered in thousands of sheets of paper, newspaper clippings, photos, drawings, and pages that had been torn out of several different books. Red string ran around the room like a massive spiderweb, connecting the thousands of pages together by taut red lines. Some pages were dangling from the strings, like bugs caught in the web.

And there, in the middle of the chaos, strapped to an upright gurney positioned on the other side of the table, was Lyra Heartstrings. A strait jacket bound her forelegs, keeping them pinned to her chest. Underneath the jacket, she had on an orange shirt. A restraint mask was strapped to her head, enclosing her muzzle, and running up between her eyes to circle her horn, preventing any spellcasting. She gazed at the three new ponies with a bored look on her face, her right ear twitching occasionally.

There was a brief moment of silence, where nopony spoke or moved. They just stood there (or in Lyra’s case, hung there), staring at each other. Eventually, Avera spoke up, breaking the silence.

“Okay, that’s creepy as fuck right there.” Lyra snorted, rolling her golden eyes.

“Don’t look at me,” she said stiffly. “The head doctor of this place has a warped sense of humor. I think he’s read too many horror novels.”

“Oh,” Avera said, raising her eyebrows and smirking at the trapped mare. “You can actually speak normally this time? Not as crazy as before? Did they give you some pills to make the voices go away?”

“Go buck yourself,” Lyra growled, glowering down at Avera. As the two mares glared at each other, Twilight took a second to look around the room. With growing wonder, she realized that every piece of paper within the room was related to humans in some way. Newspaper clippings of human shows, texts on the eating habits of humans, diagrams of human anatomy. There were even several placed that detailed the skin difference of humans in certain regions of the world. All of them hoofmade by—she assumed—Lyra herself.

The more Twilight looked around, the more uneasy she felt. Why is she so obsessed with humans?

Returning her attention to the matter at hand, Twilight looked over at Lyra and Avera, who were still trading insults.

“Enough,” she said loudly, silencing the two. “Avera, please be quiet and go stand in the corner.” The pegasus did as she was asked, standing by the door and glaring at Lyra as she grumbled under her breath.

Looking at the bound unicorn, Twilight cleared her throat before continuing, “Lyra, we are here to ask you a couple of questions. Is that okay with you?” Lyra didn’t reply, but instead cocked her head to the side, an ear twitching in Twilight’s direction.

“Do you remember when, several weeks ago, you escaped and wandered into town? You ended up at the library, where you attacked my human, Max—”

“The oblivious king upon his wooden throne,” Lyra interrupted, not looking at the alicorn. Her golden eyes were still locked on Avera, and she was sneering slightly.

“Excuse me?” Twilight said, blinking. Beside her, Ebony had pulled out a scroll and was quickly writing down what Lyra had said for later use.

Lyra just sighed, before turning her gaze towards Twilight, the bored expression returning to her face.

“Your human, the oblivious king upon his wooden throne,” she repeated.

“...And what does that mean?” Twilight asked, trying to sound friendly. Hopefully, if she didn’t anger the unicorn, she’d be more willing to talk with them.

Lyra just shrugged, a difficult action seeing as she was strapped to a gurney and wearing a strait jacket.

“It’s what he is,” she said simply. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Yes, well,” Twilight said, trying not to sigh in annoyance. “Before you attacked him, you said something about having seen some statues. We now find ourselves in need of information about them. Could you possibly elaborate about them, or tell us what they are?”

“I have seen the statues,” Lyra said simply. She looked down at Twilight, her eyes glazing over slightly. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she noticed something strange. Are her pupils different sizes? That usually indicates some form of head trauma.

Twilight’s train of thought was derailed when Lyra continued, “They chilled my blood and turned my flesh to stone. ”

“Right,” Twilight said, shaking her head slightly. “Those. Can you tell us more about them? Like where you saw them, and what they mean.”

“They came to me in my dreams, trapped within the darkness of the void, lost for eternity until their master calls them forth,” Lyra said, her voice becoming monotone. Silence fell over the room as Twilight waited to see if the mare would say anything else. When she didn’t, Twilight turned to look at Ebony. The mare just shrugged, a bewildered look on her face.

Turning back to Lyra, Twilight licked her lips. “Um…”

“They were rather pretty, actually,” Lyra sighed, her right ear twitching again. Her gaze softened and she smiled wistfully. “They sung such beautiful songs from their mouthless faces. It was enough to make demons cry in joy, and angels weep in disgust.”

“And what were they singing?” Ebony asked tentatively, looking up from the scroll.

Lyra cocked her head to the side, staring into space for several seconds, before reciting, in a monotone voice, a few bars of the song. She didn’t sing it, but rather recited it as one would a poem, or prophecy.

“Statues of black, marred by white veins. Wordless screams echo in the void. The world shall know their pains, lest Harmony be destroyed. In Chaos, darkness shall sing: Humans shall rise in advent of The Greatest King.”

As Lyra trailed off, Ebony and Twilight glanced at each other, mystified looks on their faces.

“Did you get all of that down?” Twilight asked Ebony in a low voice. She nodded, blinking her eyes in confusion.

“The Greatest King?” she mouthed to Twilight, who in turn just shrugged. The alicorn chanced a glance back at Avera, who had the same look of confusion as her peers.

As Twilight turned back to Lyra, her ears picked up the soft sound of humming. She realized that Lyra was humming softly to herself, head bobbing back and forth, as she stared off into space. Occasionally, she would add words, singing so softly that Twilight could barely hear them, “Tick tick, goes the clock, ‘til he can go no farther. Tick tock, goes the clock, one shall love the other…”

Twilight cleared her throat, snapping Lyra out of her daze. Glancing down, the mint green unicorn blinked at Twilight, as if surprised to see her standing there. Behind the mask, her lips parted to form a small ‘o’.

Twilight chewed on her lip before asking her next question. “Do you happen to know who this ‘master’ is that will call upon the statues?”

“The god that abandoned them ages ago,” Lyra replied, still giving Twilight a curious look, as if unsure what to make of her.

“Who?”

“The god that abandoned them ages ago,” Lyra repeated again, quicker than before. Twilight groaned in annoyance.

“Can you give us a name?” she asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a hoof. Twilight blinked in surprise at Lyra’s answer.

“Radeck, I believe, although it was hard to tell with a hundred voices screaming at me.”

“Radeck?” the alicorn repeated, making sure she heard right. Lyra nodded.

“Radeck, the god that abandoned them ages ago, leaving them to their fate.”

“That name doesn’t ring any bells,” Ebony said, scrunching up her face. “If Radeck was a god, you’d think we would have heard of him before in mythology. Are you sure you have the name right? Sometimes names can be messed up due to accents. For a few years, the minotaurs were convinced that Luna’s name was actually Lana.”

“After listening to the statues sing about him endlessly, I’d think I’d have the right name,” Lyra scoffed, rolling her head around as she looked at Ebony. “Their song’s burned into my soul. Radeck is the correct name.” She paused for a second. "Or was it Riddick?" she muttered under her breath.

“Do you know what Radeck is?” Twilight asked, relieved that they were making better progress than she originally thought they would. She had been sure that Lyra would just spew endless nonsense like last time.

“A god.” Twilight facehoofed, groaning loudly. Okay, maybe not...

“We get that,” the alicorn huffed, pulling her hoof down her face and giving Lyra an annoyed look. “The more info you give us, the better we’ll understand the situation. Do you know what species he is?”

“Nope,” Lyra said, rather cheerfully, bouncing in her restraints. “Not a clue.”

“This is a waste of time,” Avera growled from the corner. “She’s just spewing rubbish, again. I don’t know what we’re expecting to get from her. She doesn’t know anything.”

Twilight opened her mouth to silence the pegasus, but Lyra beat her to it.

“What do you know about humans?” she asked, her eyes flicking to the black mare.

Avera glared at her, confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Lyra just shrugged, repeating the question. “What do you know about humans?”

“I’m pretty sure I know more about them than you, nutjob,” Avera snarked. Lyra blinked, before glancing around at the thousands of papers adorning every free each of her cell with a bemused expression.

“Really?” she asked, returning her gaze back to Avera. Behind her mask, her mouth slowly warped into a smile. “Did you know that, even though they are considered stupid by most sapient species, humans can actually remember certain locations for most of their lives, even if they’ve only seen it once? A male of twelve years, upon being returned to the place of his birth on his deathbed, will actually make his way to the very corner he was born in without prompting. Having only seen it once before, during his birth, he remembers it and seeks it out as he passes from this world.”

All three ponies stared at Lyra in confusion.

“What does that have to do with—” Avera began, but was cut off by Lyra again.

“Did you know that, despite the fact that we use the term ‘human see, human do’, humans learn far more quickly from doing something, than from watching somepony else do it? After observing another human get shocked by a coil, a second human, having just witnessed the pain the first human went through, will actually reach out and touch the coil, just to make sure that it will, in fact, shock him. The only time they don’t do this is when the first human dies from the initial shock. He will not learn to avoid pain unless he experiences pain first.”

Avera just stood there, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. That just seemed to cause Lyra’s smirk to grow.

“Did you know,” she continued, turning to look at Ebony, “that ninety percent of diseases in humans are caused, or complicated, by stress? This stress causes the human’s lifespan to shorten as well. Basically, if your human is always sick, you’re stressing them to death. A very nasty, unfortunate way to go, no?” When Ebony didn’t reply, Lyra moved her attention to Twilight.

“Okay, librarian,” she cooed. “Did you know that the reason some human males turn aggressive and attack their offspring is because they aren’t actually their offspring?”

Twilight didn’t say anything, opting instead to slowly shake her head, her eyes wide. How is it that this crazed mare knows all of this? Twilight had spent a day in the archives reading countless books about humans, but she couldn’t remember reading anything about this.

Oblivious to Twilight’s inner turmoil, Lyra nodded, humming thoughtfully.

“Indeed. Many ponies believe that this is due to extreme aggression in the human male, but really, it isn’t. This happens when another human male impregnates the female without the original male’s knowledge. Humans, while being sight-based creatures, also have an amazing sense of smell. Each human has a unique aroma. When the offspring doesn’t carry a similar scent as the father, the male decides to kill them. Basically, if his genes can’t be carried on, neither will the other male's.”

Silence fell over the room as everyone stared at Lyra, mouths agape. Lyra just glanced between the three, humming softly to herself. After a brief moment of silence, she perked up suddenly, looking at Twilight. “What species do you associate humans with?”

“P-pardon?” Twilight stuttered, her brain still trying to process what was going on.

“What species. Do you. Associate humans with?” Lyra asked again, slowly, but not unkindly.

“I-I don’t know,” Twilight said, ears flattening. “Apes?”

“No!” Lyra cried loudly, leaning forward. Or rather, as far forward as the gurney would allow her. “That,” she said, a large grin on her face, "is a common misconception. While it is true that they look similar to, and share several traits with, the great apes of Zebrica, they actually share more traits with canines, with minotaurs in close second! Having tried to find a similar species to compare humans with, I have discovered that a similar species does not exist!”

Twilight stared up at Lyra with a blank expression on her face. “What?”

“It’s true,” Lyra said, nodding sagely. “There are no species close enough to humans to be considered cousins on the evolutionary tree. For instance, despite their appearance, humans are more akin to the diamond dogs than to the great apes. The apes spend most of their life up in the branches of trees, swing from branch to branch in search of food. Diamond dogs burrow through the earth, looking for gems. Do you know what humans do? They dig,” Lyra growled, her right ear flicking several times. “They can dig like nopony’s business. In fact, some scientists believe that humans are better diggers than diamond dogs in certain conditions. That’s why Canterlot likes to use humans for mining purposes. Plus, they’re a lot easier to train and control than diamond dogs.

“But, there is more to them than that! Humans are also similar to minotaurs with their strength and aggression. They are similar to wolves of the north, as they move and live in packs. They are similar to the armored bears of the Far North, as they are semi-resistant to cold. They are so similar to so many species, but aren’t close enough to any of them to be considered part of the same evolutionary tree. Humans practically have their very own branch on the tree of evolution!”

During her rant, Lyra’s voice increased steadily in volume until she was practically shrieking in mad glee. She looked down at Twilight, an insane look in her eyes. Twilight and Ebony were slowly backing up, until their flanks were pressed against the paper-covered wall.

Is this what I was like during the Smarty Pants incident? Twilight thought as she stared at the crazed mare. Lyra was oblivious to the tense atmosphere that had settled over the room.

“It’s almost like one day humans just popped into existence. Like, some being of incredible power just decided one day that they were going to slam a bunch of different races together and create a race that could live in any environment, and survive any disaster! Humans were discovered just over a thousand years ago, yet today they are everywhere! On every single continent, every single country. The only species that surpasses humans in the survival category is the cockroach.

“And,” Lyra said, foam slowly forming around her mouth, “I’m the only one who noticed! I’m the only one who cares! Nopony else seems to realize that humans are a species that just appeared out of the blue one day, and have been living with us ever since!

“And what are they doing through the years, you might ask? They’re waiting! Waiting for their master’s call!”

Lyra’s episode came to an abrupt end, and she hung there, panting heavily, as the echos of her shriek echoed around the room. Licking the foam from her mouth, she swallowed thickly. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths.

When Lyra opened her eyes again, the madness that had been present before was gone. She looked at her guests with a tired gaze, her mismatched pupils running over each pony.

“So,” she said eventually, her gaze landing on Avera. ‘Who knows more about humans now?”

“You’re insane,” Avera deadpanned. Lyra’s right ear flapped against her head, but she kept her face calm.

“We’re getting off topic,” Twilight huffed, flicking her head, trying to get her mane out of her eyes. “We came to learn what you knew about the statues, and what significance they hold. If you aren’t going to give us any useful answers, then I think we’re done here.” Turning, Twilight made to move towards the door...

“What is your interest in them?” Twilight froze. Slowly, she turned and looked back over at Lyra, blinking in confusion.

“What do you mean?” the alicorn asked. Lyra affixed her with a look that sent shivers down Twilight’s spine.

“You all think I’m crazy,” she said coldly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. So why are you so damn interested in the statues? What makes you think that they are real? They could just be the ramblings of a madmare.” Twilight glanced over at Ebony, unsure of how to proceed. Ebony returned her conflicted look before her eyes lit up and a smile played across the Battlemage’s face.

“You tell us about the statues, and we’ll tell you why we care,” she said, turning to look at Lyra. The smile left her face when the demented mare began to laugh softly.

“If it has anything to do with your oblivious king, you can forget about it. There’s no way I’m helping that harbinger of destruction. You might all be willing to walk blindly into oblivion, but not me. I’m going to sit back and watch the world burn from the comfort of my ‘padded cell’. A great disaster is coming, and humans are the key. Oh,” she squealed happily, squirming in her bindings. “I can’t wait to say I told you so!”

“Lyra,” Twilight said, her tone warning as her horn glowed softly. “Tell me about the statues. What are they waiting for? What is their purpose?” Lyra stared at Twilight for several long seconds before sighing, her head dropping.

“Deep within the void I was peering. Long I stood there, wondering, fearing, dreaming dreams no pony has ever dared to dream before,” she said softly.

“Great, here we go again,” Avera growled rolling her eyes.

“One-hundred statues,” Lyra continued, speaking louder to drown out the interruption. “That’s how many were scattered around. Darkness and reflections made it seem like more, but I counted, tagged them, listened to their unearthly shrieks. I counted closely, never wavering. One-hundred statues in all, no more, no less. Each one representing one who will turn... our world... upside down. And when that day comes, I shall be ready to say I told you so.”

“‘Turn our world upside down’?” Twilight asked, leaning forward slightly, her eyes narrowing. “Are you saying that something big is going to happen? Some big disaster?”—Lyra nodded her head slowly—“And you claim that the creatures represented by these statues are the ones that are going to cause it?” —Another nodded, followed by a huff—“Are these creatures going to be coming soon?”

“No.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back, “Well, that’s a relief—”

“They’re already here,” Lyra cooed, raising her head. She stared at Twilight, a large, demented grin plastered to her face. “Living within our borders, unseen by all. Much like changelings among the masses of ponies: walking around in plain sight, yet nopony notices. You’ve probably passed by them on the street without evening realizing that they were even there.”

“And let’s say, for whatever reason, we believe you. How would we go about finding these… harbingers?” Ebony asked solemnly. Lyra’s eyes remained locked on Twilight as she spoke.

“You, Princess Sparkle, of all ponies should be able to see them as they truly are.”

“And why’s that?” Twilight asked, taking a nervous step back, her ears splaying backwards...

“Because,” Lyra sneered, golden eyes narrowing. “You’re living with one right now.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“So, I’ve been thinking,” Primrose said, lying on her back across the coffee table. Her wings were spread, draping down so that the tips touched the wooden floor. She stared up at the ceiling above her, a contemplating look on her face. “Isn’t your moustache really just a mouthbrow… or are your eyebrows really just eyestaches?”

I glanced back from my position by the front window, raising an eyebrow at the batpony. She just continued to stare at the ceiling, tapping her chin with a hoof as she thought about what she had just said.

~Just how high are you?~ I asked, eyeing the joint in her hoof. It was already half gone. A thin haze had fallen over the library, a sweet smell filling the air. I wasn’t sure what she was smoking, but it wasn’t anything we had back on Earth.

“No, no, just think about it,” Primrose giggled, looking at me upside down, the joint hanging from her mouth. “They’re basically in the same relative position to their namesake. They are practically the same thing but in different places on your face!”

Shaking my head, I returned my attention to the window. Reaching a hand up, I cracked the blinds open slightly, peering through the gap. As my eye adjusted to the sunlight, it narrowed slightly. She’s still out there…

Mrs. Cake was standing on the other side of the road, a pink fluffy scarf wrapped around her neck. Normally, this would have worried me, seeing as she seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with me, but she wasn’t exactly looking at the library at the moment.

She was talking happily to the same mare she had been talking to in the marketplace, the mare with the cutie mark of a red heart with a baby bottle. The baker also had her foals with her, bundled up snugly in their foal carriage, a thick blanket keeping them warm.

It appeared that it was purely coincidental that she happened to stop just outside the library, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable until she left.

“Hey… hey… hey...” Primrose said, rolling over onto her stomach and waving a hoof lazily at me. Tearing my gaze from the scene outside, I glanced over my shoulder at her. The dopey smile on her face caused a grin to cross my face.

“Have you ever thought about how smart the brain is? It named itself,” she snickered into her hoof. “It’s a regular brainiac!”

~I think you’ve had enough of that~ I signed, shaking my head.

“Nah,” she said, rolling back over. “You can never have enough!” Lifting the smoking joint to her lips, she pulled on it, sighing happily as the sweet-smelling smoke wafted from her nostrils and mouth. As she lowered the joint, she glanced over at me again, a small frown on her face.

“Hey, you okay? You look kinda stressed.”

~I’m fine~ I signed before looking back out the blinds. I sighed in relief as I saw Mrs. Cake and the other mare parting ways. Mrs. Cake headed off down the path towards Sugarcube Corner, while the other mare headed off towards the residential part of Ponyville. I really should learn her name, I thought as I watched her go.

As I crouched there, watching the two mares walk away, something suddenly latched onto my back.

“Come on,” Primrose’s voice purred in my ear. “Take a hit. You’ll feel a lot better!” I struggled to keep my balance, but to no avail. Primrose’s added weight was too much, and with a yelp, we both fell backwards. The blinds, still clasped in my hand, were torn from the window as we fell. Sunlight immediately streamed in.

I lay there, on my back, groaning as I blinked stars from my eyes. Shaking my head, I rolled over and pushed myself up.

~Are you alright—~ I began to ask Primrose, but the words died on my lips, so to speak. As she staggered to her hooves, I could only sit there, frozen, my eyes widening as I stared at her in horror. The scleras of her eyes had turned pitch black, and her red irises were now glowing brightly. Her pupils had become slitted, dragon-like in appearance. Long white fangs descended from her mouth, glinting in the sunlight.

As I watched, she sat down heavily, rubbing her head with her forehooves.

“Ugh, why did you do that?” she grumbled, massaging her temples. “You just killed my buzz.” Glancing over at me, she blinked those demonic eyes, a confused look flashing across her face. She got up and took a step forward, to which I scooted backwards.

“Dude, what’s wrong…” She trailed off as she glanced down. Her eyes widened and her head snapped up, staring at the blindless window in horror. Her eyes darted back and forth between the window and the patch of sunlight on the floor. Slowly, her lips moved as she mouthed ‘oh buck’.

Swallowing, the batpony slowly turned her head to look at me, her ears splaying backwards. She chuckled nervously, giving me a weak smile. It looked much more intimidating with the pair of fangs.

“I’m, ah… I’m sure you probably have some questions about this,” she said lamely, not looking me in the eye.

I nodded slowly, not taking my eyes off of her as I rose slowly to my feet. I eyed her fangs nervously.

“Um, well…” Primrose tapped her hooves together, her lips pursed as her tail flicked back and forth.

Silence fell over the library as I ran my eyes over her. Everything else seemed to be the same: her coat color, her mane, her bat wings. The only things that changed were her eyes and teeth. What’s going on? I thought, chewing on my lower lip. I know Twilight said there’s a race out there that can disguise itself with magic, but… this doesn’t look like the same thing as… oh, what were they called? Changelings! That was it!

I looked at the batpony, my head cocked to the side. She doesn’t look like what Twilight looked like during Nightmare Night. Doesn’t mean she’s not a threat though.

As I scrutinized the mare before me, she fidgeted beneath my gaze, her tufted ears pressed firmly against her head. I could see her fur beginning to mat slightly as she began to sweat.

Eventually, I asked, ~So, what are you exactly?~

As I signed, Primrose looked up, her glowing red eyes locking on mine. One of her bat wings twitched at her side, and she swallowed again before speaking, “I’m known as a sanguinarian, or a sanguine pony. The most common term for us, however, would be ‘vampony’.” She smiled nervously again. “We’re a rare breed of pony, due to the fact that one can only become a sanguine pony with the help of a pony who has already been turned.”

~You drink blood?~ I asked, my eyes narrowing. Reluctantly, Primrose nodded her head, nibbling on her lip. Well, that explains her fascination with my blood. I chewed on the inside of my cheek, thinking. I rubbed my neck, absentmindedly running my fingers over my jugular.

Primrose seemed to notice my unease.

“Look,” she said hesitantly, taking a step forward. “There’s no need to—” As she moved, I stepped back, keeping the distance between us. A hurt look flashed across her face before she sat down again, her ears and wings drooping.

“I see,” she said quietly, her head lowering. “Most ponies act like that when they find out. They’re always scared we’re going to go feral and attack them, or drain their blood. They treat us like wild animals. Everypony is always scared.” She sniffled, her eyes beginning to tear up. “I was hoping that you’d be different, seeing as you are in a similar situation when it comes to how ponies view you, but… I can see I was wrong.”

I winced, but remained where I was.

~I’m not scared of you, per se~ I signed slowly. ~Just… wary. And very curious… but mostly wary~

Primrose glanced up, a hopeful look on her face as her ears perking.

“R-really?” she asked.

~Humans fear the unknown~ I signed, giving her a strained smile. She stood and took another tentative step forward, but I held out a hand, stopping her.

~Just… stay there for now. Just until I sort some things out, okay?~ I signed, keeping my eyes locked on her. She nodded weakly and sat back down, wiping her glowing eyes with a hoof.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair, staring at Primrose as I tried to get my thoughts in order.

~So, you do drink blood, correct?~ I asked. She nodded, lowering her head submissively. I didn’t know if it was instinctual on her part, or if she did it to make me feel better, but either way, I relaxed slightly.

~Do you need to drink blood?~

“In order to remain healthy, yes.”

~Where do you get the blood you drink?~ Primrose scrunched up her face, chuckling slightly.

“My… unique beverage is provided to me by the Night Guard, so you don’t have to worry about me sneaking into your room for a late night snack.” She tried to give me a cocky smile, but it came out more nervous than anything else.

I nodded slowly, processing the information. As I stood there in silence, Primrose suddenly chuckled again. “Although, I’ve got to say, you do have beautiful-looking blood. I wouldn’t mind getting a mouthful of that.”

~Okay, that’s just a little bit creepy~ I signed, shivering slightly. ~You said that you get your blood from the Night Guard? Are the rest of them like you?~

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “While there is a few of us within the Night Guard, the majority of them are just normal ponies. New recruits are enchanted to look similar to sanguine ponies when they first join the ranks of the Night Guard. Luna apparently liked the looks of the sanguinarian, and decided to base her Night Guards off of them. The enchantment is removed when their service comes to an end, and they return to looking like normal.”

~Is there a way to tell a… ‘blood pony’ apart from other ponies?~

“Red eyes,” Primrose said, lifting a hoof to her eyes. “That’s a surefire way to tell if a pony is sanguinarian or not. Normal ponies don’t have the genes required for red eyes, so there’s no way for them to have them otherwise. Any pony—unicorn, pegasi, or earth pony—who has red eyes is a sanguine pony.”

~Do the princesses know what you are?~

“Princess Celestia and Luna do,” Primrose said, flicking her ear. “I’m not sure about Twilight, although Luna told me that she has had previous experience with sanguine ponies, so she shouldn’t be too surprised. Both Ebony and Avera know, as they were told during our briefing before we were sent to guard you. Everypony in the Night Guard knows.” I nodded again, eyeing the batpony curiously.

~Were you going to reveal yourself eventually?~

“What?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “You mean, show you that I was a sanguine pony?” I nodded, and hummed thoughtfully as she bobbed her head back and forth. “Eventually, yes, but Luna wanted for you to become more comfortable around your guards before that happened. Guess I kinda screwed that up, huh?” She chuckled humorlessly, her head lowering again.

As she laughed, my eyes drifted down and I dimly noticed that she was remaining just outside of the beam of sunlight.

~Is there a reason you’re avoiding the sunlight?~ I asked, waving a hand at the window. This caused the vampony to laugh.

“If you’re asking if I’m going to go up in smoke if I get caught in sunlight, the answer is no,” she replied. “Sunlight isn’t harmful to sanguine ponies, it just reveals our true nature—” she motioned to her eyes and fangs "—which is why most sanguine ponies are only active at night: to avoid having their secret revealed. You find us in nightclubs and bars, working the graveyard shift. Of course, there are sanguinarians that are awake during the day, but those are few and far between.”

Silence fell over the library as we both stared at each other. Primrose twitched nervously, fidgeting with her wings. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I studied her, thinking.

Eventually, she spoke up, “So, stop beating around the bush: are we cool?” She looked at me hopefully, a small smile on her face.

I stared at her for a few more seconds before nodding. She hasn’t given me reason to fear her… yet. And Luna did tell me to follow my heart.

~Tell you what~ I signed, moving forward slowly. ~You don’t bite me without permission, and we can stay friends, deal?~

“Deal.” Primrose chuckled, holding out her hoof. Reaching out, I bumped the hoof with my fist. Her face lit up as a happy smile spread across her face, her tail wagging back and forth.

“Thanks man,” she said softly, before blinking and looking around. “Now, where’d my joint go?” As she searched around for her joint, I chuckled softly shaking my head. I swear, these ponies are bipolar creatures. They’ll be close to tears one second, and laughing their flanks off the next.

“You laugh,” she said, looking under the coffee table. “But that shit is good.”

She looked around for several more minutes, a small frown on her face. As she searched, I watched her closely, going over everything she had just told me. Huffing, she moved her search behind the couch.

“Ah!” Raising a hoof into the air, the batpony happily held up her joint. As she stuck it back in her mouth, I noted that her scleras were slowly turning white again and her fangs were retracting.

Primrose noticed me staring at her and cocked an eyebrow.

“You sure you don’t want to?” she asked, pulling the joint out and waving it at me. “It’s not illegal~.”

I just shook my head, a small smile on my face. ~Better not. Twilight might get upset if I have a bad reaction to something unknown to my body~

“Princess’s Colt,” Primrose grinned, sticking the joint back into her mouth. I smirked at the batpony.

~Shut up, Bloodsucker~ She froze, the smile vanishing from her face.

“B-bloodsucker?” she asked, her ears splaying backwards.

~Yeah, Bloodsucker~ I nodded. ~Or if you’d prefer a different name, there’s always Fang Face, or Neckchomper~

“W-what are you…”

~You need a nickname~ I explained with a shrug. ~I’m not that good with coming up with good nicknames, so until then, you get a… a… ‘blood pony’ nickname~

“Blood pony?” Primrose asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

~I don’t know the word for… for…~ I glared at the vampony as she started to giggle.

“Aw,” she cooed, a small smirk on her face. “Can’t say ‘vampony’ in hoof-language?” I flipped her the bird before bending down and picking up the blinds still lying on the floor. Tossing them onto the coffee table, I then collapsed upon the couch.

With a quick flap of her wings, Primrose flipped through the air and landed beside me on the couch. I flinched slightly when she brushed against me and she gave me a concerned look. I flashed her a nervous smile, which caused her to laugh slightly.

“You’re going to be a little jumpy for a while, aren’t you?” she asked, her ear flicking. I gave her an apologetic look.

~Sorry~

“Don’t be,” she said, puffing on her joint again. “You’re reacting better than I could have hoped. Better than my ex-coltfriend, that’s for sure. My muzzle was crooked for several weeks afterwards.” She scrunched up her face, rubbing her nose absentmindedly. I chuckled a bit at her expression.

“Shut up,” she whined softly. “It really hurt!”

Before I could reply, the front door opened and Twilight, Avera, and Ebony walked in, practically dragging their hooves as they crossed the threshold. Twilight blinked as she entered the hazy library, sniffing at the air. Her nose crinkled and she glanced around in confusion. Upon seeing the joint in Primrose’s mouth, her lips thinned and her horn lit up.

“No smoking in the library,” she said briskly as she pulled the joint from in between the batpony’s lips. Primrose whined, waving her hooves through the air as she attempted to retrieve her joint.

“My baby! No!” Rolling her eyes, Twilight used her magic to snuff the smoking joint out and tossed it back to the batpony. Primrose caught the joint, cradling it in her hooves as she looked sadly down at it.

“Don’t worry, baby,” she muttered as she slipped it back into her pouch. “We’ll hang again when the mean princess is gone.”

Shaking my head and snickering, I turned my attention to Twilight, ~So, did you find out anything useful from the nutjob?~ She froze, her saddlebags half off, and gave me an uneasy look.

“N-no,” she stuttered, a weak smile appearing on her face. “We didn’t learn anything at all.” Behind her, Ebony and Avera looked at each other, but said nothing. As they began to remove their armor, I raised an eyebrow at Twilight.

~You alright?~ I asked, giving her a concerned look.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly, the weak smile still on her face. “Just… a little tired, that’s all.”

~You’re lying~ I signed, a small frown on my face. Her eyes widened and her ears splayed backwards.

“W-what?”

~You ponies are terrible liars~ I signed with a chuckle. ~Now, tell me what’s wrong~ She hesitated, chewing on her lip. After several seconds, she glanced up at me, uncertainty clear in her eyes.

~Please?~ I asked. Twilight was silent for several seconds, before sighing and running a hoof through her hair. During her silence, Primrose hopped off the couch and followed Ebony and Avera as they headed down the basement stairs, leaving Twilight and I to ourselves.

“Max,” Twilight said eventually, her voice quiet. “Have you ever heard of a creature named Radeck?” I blinked at the serious tone in her voice. Quickly, I racked my brain, trying to remember if I had ever heard the name Radeck before. After several seconds, I shook my head slowly.

~Can’t say I ever have. Why?~ Twilight didn’t answer me. Instead, she just stared at the floor between us, her wing twitching. Her behavior was starting to make me nervous.

“If… if I asked you to be truthful with me, for one minute, would you do it?” she asked softly, her eyes flicking upward. I blinked, then nodded my head. “Promise?” I reached up and crossed my heart quickly before placing a hand over my bad eye, careful to make sure it was closed before doing so.

“Did you come here, to Equestria, to cause trouble or harm?” I closed my eyes, sighing slowly. When I opened my eyes, I glanced at the mare in front of me, searching her face.

Unlike Celestia, Twilight was not looking at me with suspicious or conflicted belief. She was gazing at me with a hopeful look, filled with trust and longing. I could see in her eyes that she asked the question, not because she suspected I was up to something, or had hidden motives, but because she wanted to believe that I wasn’t going to hurt her, her friends, or anyone else.

~I came here, against my will~ I signed. ~I stayed, because I chose to. Nobody made me, nobody told me to, and I don’t plan on hurting anyone~ A small smile began to grow across Twilight’s face, and her wings fluttered happily by her sides.

~Unless of course they try to hurt me first~ She rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth to say something—~Or you~—only to close it with a click, a large blush spreading across her face. Her ear twitched as she bit her bottom lip, glancing off to the side. Her tail flicked back and forth behind her, and she mulled something over inside her head.

My smirk slowly slipped from my face, and I gave the clearly nervous mare a curious look, cocking my head to the side. ~Twilight?~

“Max, I…” she began, but stopped, her ear flicking. She licked her lips before beginning again. “Max, t-there’s… there’s something I…” She paused, again, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. Her tail flicked back and forth faster.

I raised an eyebrow, eyeing her in confusion. What’s got her so flustered? Does she think I’m lying?

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She muttered something under her breath that sounded strangely like “Come on, Twilight. You can do this” before she looked back up at me.

“Max… I—” she got out before her voice cracked. She let out a small strangled cry before hiding behind her mane, doing an impression of Fluttershy.

Peeking out from behind her mane, she opened her mouth one last time, and—

“Oh, hurry up and kiss already!” We both jumped, and Twilight let out a startled yelp at the sudden shout. Looking around, we found Primrose, Avera, and Ebony poking their heads out from behind the basement door. Ebony and Primrose were both looking up at Avera with annoyed looks on their faces. The black pegasus had a large smirk on her face, and she was laughing softly to herself.

Tearing my gaze from the trio, I looked back at Twilight. Her blush was gone, and she had a defeated look on her face.

“Nevermind,” she said, shaking her head and sighing. “I’ll tell you later.” She turned and set about unpacking her saddle bags. As she did so, the trio emerged fully from the basement.

“I don’t know about you all, but I’m starving,” Avera groaned, flopping on the couch beside me. “Dealing with the nutjob took a lot out of me.”

“Oh please,” Ebony said, rolling her eyes as she unrolled a large scroll. “All you did was argue with her. I wouldn't call that very taxing.” As she ran her eyes over the scroll, she lifted a mug of steaming liquid to her lips.

“It was more taxing than you think,” Avera called, not opening her eyes.

“Oh, suck it up, you big foal,” Primrose said, taking a sip out of her own mug that she had brought up from the basement.

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Avera replied, opening her eyes and rolling over to glare at the batpony in mock anger. “You got to lay around the library all day with this schmuck—” she proceeded to smack my knee with her hoof before continuing “—I bet nothing remotely exciting happened to either of you today, right Max?”

~Yeah~ I signed, smirking at Primrose. ~Nothing really exciting happened today, right, Blood Pony?~

A gagging sound filled the library as Ebony choked on a mouthful of her beverage. Everyone turned to look at her as she sputtered and coughed.

“‘Blood Pony’?,” she finally managed to choke out. She gave Primrose a shocked look. “You told him? I thought we weren’t going to tell him yet!” Primrose gave the unicorn a deadpanned look before pointing a hoof at the window, which, without the blinds, had the light of the setting sun streaming in.

Ebony stared at the patch of sunlight before saying simply, “Oh.”

Twilight looked between Primrose and the sunlight with a mystified look, mouthing the words ‘Blood Pony’. After several seconds, her eyes lit up and she turned to the batpony.

“You’re a sanguinarian—” she began to ask, but was interrupted by the sound of a pair of wingbeats on the other side of the front door. There was several seconds of silence before the door was encased in a golden glow. With a click, it swung open…

...and in walked a panting Celestia, with Luna close on her heels.

Twilight took one look at Celestia before dropping everything and standing up, a look of horror on her face.

“Princess Celestia! Are you alright? What happened? Why are you—”

“Please, Twilight,” Celestia said, her voice strained. “Please, I mean no disrespect to you, my faithful student, but please… be silent… for just a few minutes.” Twilight’s jaw snapped shut with a click, and she looked up at Celestia with a hurt expression, her ears folding back.

As Luna gave Twilight an apologetic look, Celestia immediately turned her attention directly to me. I felt Avera tense up beside me, and I felt one of her wings press against my back.

As Celestia approached me, I looked up at her nervously. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days, dark rings under her eyes. Her mane was flowing at a slower rate than usual, and several of her feathers were out of place. She stared down at me, an unreadable expression on her face.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the library as Celestia stared at me. From the looks on the others' faces, they weren’t sure what to do. Twilight kept glancing back and forth between her mentor and me, a worried look on her face.

Eventually, Celestia spoke. It was only one word—one simple word—but the way she said it was so pitiful, so weak, that for a minute it wasn’t the co-ruler of Equestria standing before me, but a broken mare.

“Help.”

She gazed at me, her magenta eyes pleading.

“Please, help. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you from my student, my sister, my niece and her husband. Even one of my most trusted guards supports you. You have been kind, you have been helpful, you have been caring, more so than anypony else in your position should be. I don’t want to distrust you, or be suspicious of you, so please, help me. Help us.”

I just sat there, opening and closing my mouth, unsure of what to do. I glanced over at Luna, hoping that she could shine some light on the situation. She just gave me a blank look, blinking occasionally.

Swallowing, I turned my attention back to Celestia, ~What… what do you need my help with exactly?~

“Several weeks ago, one of my elite task forces raided one of Darkflare’s warehouses,” Celestia said, slipping slowly back into her normal tone of voice. “In it, they found an artifact the likes of which we have not seen before. Upon its arrival at Canterlot, we’ve had our top minds study it, trying to figure out what it is and what it does, but they have had no success.” She sighed, adjusting her wings into a more natural position. “The artifact was in Darkflare’s possession, so we have reason to believe that it may be dangerous. As we have never seen anything like it before, we were hoping that you might have, and would be able to help us out.”

~Why do you think that I can help you with this artifact?~ I asked, scrunching up my face in confusion. ~I’m not from this world. I have no real experience with anything your world might have~

“That is true,” Celestia said as her horn lit up. “But we feel that you might be the perfect person to ask, seeing as we have determined that, just like you, this artifact is not from our world originally.” With a flash, a small object suddenly appeared beside Celestia, floating in her magic.

“So, I ask you,” she said, slowly levitating the object over to me. “Can you tell me what this is, and why Darkflare would happen to have it in his possession?” With that, she dropped the thing into my lap.

Slowly, with trembling hands, I picked the object up, not daring to believe my eye. There, in my hands, was an item I had thought I would never see again. It was slightly damaged, a thin crack that hadn’t been there before running across the face of it.

Aware that everyone’s eyes were now upon me, I couldn’t help but run a finger slowly over the familiar silver apple logo on the back of my phone.

Author's Note

A special shout out to Nihatclodra, who came up with the 'Human Prophecy'.

“Statues of black, marred by white veins. Wordless screams echo in the void. The world shall know their pains, lest Harmony be destroyed. In Chaos, darkness shall sing: Humans shall rise in advent of The Greatest King.”

Chapter 36: This is Earth: My Childhood, My Home

As I stared down at the device in my hands, hundreds of thoughts quickly flooded my mind. My phone? How the hell did they get my phone? Why the hell do they have my phone? Where the hell did they get my phone?

I slowly turned the phone around in my hands, examining it closely. It looked like it had seen rough times; dust and dirt were covering the surface, as well as a long crack running down the face. Experimentally, I pushed the power button, not expecting anything to happen. I wasn’t disappointed when the screen remained black.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I cocked my head to the side as I continued to eye my phone. The sound of someone clearing their throat caused me to glance up. I blinked in surprise as I saw the grim look on Celestia’s face.

“Well,” she asked, her voice trembling slightly. “Do you know what it is? Is it dangerous?” I looked quickly between her and the phone, confused. This is what she was worried about?

I couldn’t help it. With how she was acting, I had thought it was going to be something serious, something truly dangerous. To think that she was getting so worked up over a phone, I really couldn’t help it.

I laughed loudly, causing an alarmed look to flash across Celestia’s face, and she took a quick step back. I placed my hand over my mouth, trying to control myself, but the confused looks that crossed everyone’s faces only made me laugh harder. Twilight’s reaction was the worst, her head cocked to the side, one ear perked, the other lying flat against her head. She had a strange look on her face, like she couldn’t decide whether to be happy or concerned.

As my laughter continued, Luna’s confusion turned to anger, and she glared at me.

“We fail to see what’s funny about this,” she huffed, glancing over at Celestia, who was looking slightly nervous at my mirth.

~I’m sorry, it’s just that this thing isn’t dangerous~ I signed, placing the phone in my lap as I chuckled. ~It’s as dangerous as a book~

“It’s not dangerous?” Celestia asked, a faint tone of hope in her voice. “How can you be sure?”

~Because it’s mine~ I signed smugly.

“WHAT?!” I winced as every pony in the library shouted at the same time, even the guards. Rubbing my ear with a finger, I grumbled slightly before signing.

~Yeah, it’s mine. I lost it when Darkflare’s gang found me in the desert~

“So it doesn’t pose a threat to our ponies?” Luna asked as Twilight moved to stand next to me. She glanced down at the device in my lap, a curious look on her face.

~Not unless you throw it at them~ I deadpanned at her. ~This thing, in no way, shape, or form, is a threat to anyone~

“What is it?” Ebony asked, moving to get a better look at it.

~It’s… a communication device~ I signed. ~You don’t have a word for it in hoof-language~

“How does it work?” Luna asked, shifting on her hooves. Celestia remained quiet, eyeing the phone in my lap with a neutral expression.

~Well, I guess I could explain it to you—~

“Excellent!” Celestia said suddenly, straightening up. “Let us just get the other Element Bearers here, and then you can show us the use of this… device.”

~Well, I can’t actually show—~ I began, but Celestia wasn’t listening. Turning to the guards, she cleared her throat.

“Major Rose, if you would be so kind as to run out and grab Ms. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and bring them back here—” Ebony saluted quickly before Celestia turned to Avera “—and if you would be so kind as to retrieve Ms. Dash and Applejack and escort them here, Lieutenant.”

“Consider it done,” Avera said before both guards quickly exited the library.

~But, you see—~ I tried once again, but like before, I was ignored.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, turning to the smaller alicorn. “If you don’t mind, may I borrow your bathroom? I need to make myself look more… presentable.” She motioned towards her disheveled wings and mane. Twilight nodded, and Celestia made her way up the stairs, leaving me sitting there on the couch.

I turned to look at Luna, but she was already on the move.

“Ms. Primrose, if you would come over here for a second, we wish to have a word with you.” With that, the Lunar Princess and the batpony moved towards a corner of the room.

I turned to look at Twilight, hoping for some help, but she was already busy cleaning up the room for her friends’ imminent arrival.

As I sat there on the couch, my dead phone in my lap, only one thought made its way through my mind.

Fuck…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the gang arrived just as the night was slowly descending, each looking curious as to why they had been summoned. As they all got comfortable around the table, Twilight had moved to the center of the room. I sat quietly, trying to figure out how I was going to bring my phone back to life.

Off in their corner, Luna and Primrose spoke quietly, their heads huddled close together. Every so often, one of them would glance over at me before returning to their conversation. I ignored them, however, focusing instead on the task before me.

How the fuck am I supposed to get this thing some juice? I don’t even have a charging cable or anything. Hell, I don’t even know if their electrical system will work with this phone!

When everyone was finally situated, Rarity had offered to be my voice again in order to bridge the communication gap for those who didn’t know hoof-language. Luckily for her, Twilight had managed to improve the spell. Instead of it sounding like two voices fused into one, it was now split, meaning both Rarity and I could talk while using the spell. When Rarity spoke, it was with her normal voice. When I used Rarity as a puppet, a soft, whispering voice issued forth from between the unicorn’s lips. We could not, however, speak at the same time, as we had found out fairly quickly.

Let’s just say that to anyone walking past the library, it probably sounded like a cat was being stuffed into a blender with a bunch of bells.

Another improvement on the spell was the fact that Rarity could actually see what was going on around her, and retained her motor skills. I just had to keep a hand on her horn in order to keep the connection active.

Once the communication bridge was active, we were finally able to begin.

“And what is this thing called again?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off of the iPhone resting in the center of the table. A quill, wrapped in her magic, was scrawling notes quickly upon a scroll that hovered beside her head.

I huffed, rolling my eyes as I was forced to answer that question for the umpteenth time. At least this time I had a mouth to answer it with.

“It’s called an iPhone, and it’s a smart phone. Smart, s-m-a-r-t, phone, p-h-o-n-e,” I said, my hand tightening slightly on Rarity’s horn as she spoke the words for me. Around the table, eleven ponies and a baby dragon jostled for position, each eyeing the phone with mild curiosity. Rainbow and Avera had it easy, floating above the table on their wings as they observed the scene below.

“And what does it do, exactly?” Twilight asked, her eyes sparkling. Beside her, Ebony had a scroll and quill of her own, and was scribbling as fast as Twilight. I chewed on my lip for several seconds as I tried to figure out the best way to describe human technology to a race that used magic.

As I mused, my eyes drifted until they landed on Spike, who was perched upon Fluttershy’s head. A small smirk touched my lips as I eyed the young drake.

“Think of it as a miniature version of Spike,” I said. This earned me a bunch of blank stares.

“Can you elaborate?” Celestia asked, her voice calm. As Ebony, Avera, and Primrose had rounded up the other girls, she had taken a few minutes to freshen up, and she now looked more like her normal self. Her once strained posture was more relaxed and at peace.

“This thing can send messages to anyone else who has one almost instantaneously,” I answered. “It also allows for people to talk to one another as well, no matter the distance.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I was here in Ponyville, and Twilight was in Canterlot, and we both had one of these, we could talk to one another as if we were in the same room, despite the distance between us. Instant communication.”

“That’s all it does?” Rainbow scoffed, folding her hooves.

“A normal phone? Yes. This phone? No. This is a smart phone, which is far more advanced than a normal phone. You can message and talk to people on this, but you can also play games, listen to music, watch videos, as well as many other things.”

“This is amazing,” Twilight squealed, her quill moving so fast that I was amazed that the scroll didn't catch fire from the friction. “To think that humans were able to come up with something like this! This level of technology is incredible!” She continued to write happily for several seconds before what she said registered in her mind. She froze, giving me a horrified look.

“I-I didn’t m-mean it like that!” she stuttered, ears splaying backwards. I chuckled, waving my free hand at her.

“I know what you meant,” I said.

“What would possess a species to come up with such a means of communication?” Luna asked, eyeing the phone. I shook my head, shrugging.

“If you want the exact reason, I can’t tell you. I can tell you my own opinion on the matter.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Luna said, giving me a quick smile.

“We did it because humans are lazy bastards,” I said, chuckling at the look of shock that crossed everyone’s faces.

“But, if they are lazy, how did they come up with something like this?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow as she motioned her head at the phone. “Wouldn’t such advances be impossible if all you did was sit around all day?”

“Many years ago, a bunch of humans sailed from their home country across the ocean in order to colonize a new land. Once the colonies had been formed, it took them nearly six weeks to communicate with the people back home, as the message had to be carried, by hand, back to their home country—”

“Why not use magic to send it faster?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the side.

“There is no such thing as magic where I’m from,” I replied. “We had to do everything the hard way.”

“The earth pony way,” Applejack said, a touch of pride in her voice. I nodded my head at her in agreement before continuing.

“As I was saying, it would normally take about six weeks for a message to reach their old home. It would then take another six weeks for them to get a response. That meant that if the colonies needed, say, medical help, it would take twelve weeks or more in order for them to receive aid. And that’s if the ship didn’t end up getting trapped in a storm or attacked by pirates. If that happened, there was no way for either the colonies or the parent country to know about it for many weeks.”

“It sounds like they made advances in communication not because they were lazy, but because they needed to in order to survive,” Celestia observed.

“That might've been true in the beginning, but I don’t think it holds true nowadays,” I said.

“Why’s that?”

“Because everything is now so impersonal back home that it’s made everyone lazy. You need to talk to someone on the other side of the country concerning a business deal? Instead of meeting with them in person, you have a conference call, which involves people that are scattered across the country all talking with one another without having to leave their offices.”

“That seems more like a good use of the business’s time than them being lazy,” Twilight piped up.

“You want to talk with your mother who lives in the next town over, but don’t want to travel? Call her. Want to talk with your friend, but don’t feel like getting up? Call them. Want to get something to eat without leaving the house? You just need to call someone and they’ll bring food straight to your front door. Humans might have started to make advances in technology for survival, but it’s made us a lazy race in the process. Granted, not everyone is like that, but there’s a fair few.

“Remember, though,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “That’s just my opinion on the matter, and should probably be taken with a grain of salt. I will admit that communication technology has benefited humans back home greatly. Doctors can now talk with one another within seconds, allowing them to help their patients faster. Emergency services, such as firemen and paramedics, can respond to disasters faster as well.”

“It sounds a lot like the dragonfire we use to communicate quickly with our troops in the field, except without the limited use,” Ebony said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow huffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes. “Communication is great and all, but you said it does more stuff likes games, right?”

“Yes,” I said, blinking at her. “This particular phone does have that option.”

“Well, let’s see some games!” she said, her face lighting up.

“Indeed,” Luna said, nodding her head. “While talking about this is indeed interesting, I’d rather like to see it in action.”

“I can’t,” I said, rubbing the back of my head with my free hand.

“Why not?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing. I simply motioned to the phone as I shook my head.

“It’s dead.” Fluttershy gasped loudly, jerking her head up. Spike nearly tumbled off his perch, but managed to hang on.

“Oh no,” she said, eyes tearing up, a distressed look on her face.

“Not dead like you’re thinking,” I replied quickly. “This thing was never alive to begin with. It’s dead in the sense that it doesn’t have any energy left.” As Fluttershy calmed down, Celestia just cocked her head to the side.

“So can’t you just recharge it?” she asked.

“Don’t have the means,” I sighed. “Not only do I not have the required parts to do so, but I doubt you have the electrical grid in order for me to recharge the batteries.”

“Electrical grid?” Celestia’s eyebrows rose and a small smile touched her lips. “As in electricity. Like this?” Her horn started to glow softly, and sparks began to run up and down the length.

My eyes widened, and I quickly shook my head, waving my free hand at her. “No! It requires a specific voltage to charge properly. Too little and it won’t charge. Too much and it’ll fry the phone, essentially destroying it.”

“Then we’ll just have to start soft and increase the power steadily until we find the proper voltage.” I frowned, running my hand through my hair as I stared at Celestia.

“There’s still the possibility that you’ll destroy the phone before you actually figure out the exact voltage.”

“If what you say is true, then this thing is currently useless at the moment. If we do end up destroying it, you won’t be out anything,” Celestia replied, the smile on her face slowly turning into a smirk.

I sighed before nodding my head, “Fine.”

Celestia leaned forward, the light around her horn increasing slightly.

“Where do I need to direct my spell?” she asked, eyeing the phone curiously. Reaching out, I spun the phone around and pointed at the charger port on the bottom of the iPhone.

Celestia scrunched up her face as she concentrated, a small tendril of magic snaking from her horn towards the phone. Small sparks leapt from small cloud of golden light. As it entered the charger port, Celestia cast a glance at me.

“Is there anything in particular we’re waiting for it to do?” she asked, the magic flowing steadily from her horn to the phone.

“Once you hit the right voltage, the screen should light up, and we should hear a chirp.” Celestia nodded once before returning her attention to the task at hand.

A hush fell over the room as Celestia worked, nobody daring to make a sound lest they cause the princess to screw up and accidentally overload her spell.

Gradually, the tendril of magic flowing from her horn increased in size and brightness as she slowly increased the power of the spell. Sweat began to bead upon Celestia’s brow as she slowly, yet steadily, increased her spell. As I watched, I silently prayed that power was the same as voltage, or else this was going to end before it began.

After what felt like hours, but was probably more like several minutes, I was beginning to think that we were wasting our time. Rainbow was fidgeting above me in the air, clearly unhappy with the lack of activity.

I had just opened Rarity’s mouth to tell Celestia that it probably wasn’t working when the phone suddenly chirped softly. I blinked in surprise as the screen lit up, displaying the familiar silver apple logo.

A startled breath went around the table, everyone leaning in to get a better look at the now glowing object.

“That’s it,” Luna said breathlessly. “Keep a steady level of power, Tia.” Celestia didn’t say anything, but nodded her head. She kept her attention on the phone, magenta eyes narrowing as she concentrated.

I held my breath as I eyed the screen, waiting. The silver apple stayed on screen for several long seconds before it changed to the iPhone’s lock screen. The battery icon in the center of the screen had only a sliver of red. As I watched, however, it slowly began to grow larger as Celestia somehow—miraculously—charged the phone with her magic.

“I’ll be damned,” I breathed as the bar indicating the amount of power the phone had continued to grow quickly, far faster than I had ever seen back home. Only a few seconds had passed, but it was already at half charge. “It actually worked!”

“Was there any doubt?” Luna said smugly. I gave her a mock glare before looking back down at the phone.

“That should be good enough,” I said when the battery read around three-fourths full. Celestia canceled her spell, her breathing strained slightly. With the phone no longer being charged, the battery icon disappeared, replaced by a picture of the Earth, taken from the moon.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight twitch slightly, her eyes wide with excitement as she stared at the phone as if it held all the secrets of the world.

“Oh,” Luna said, leaning in closer to stare at the screen. “Is that a painting of your home planet?”

"It’s not a painting,” I said. “It’s a picture.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight and Luna yelped at the same time, both staring at me with their mouths agape.

“A picture?” Twilight gasped. “But, that means that, by the look of the picture, it was taken from the moon!” When I nodded in agreement, her eyes widened. “You’ve actually been to your moon?!”

“Me personally? No, I haven’t. Humanity in general? Yes, yes we have. We have put men on the moon,” I said with a smug sense of satisfaction at the shocked looks on everyone's faces. Rainbow nearly fell out of the air, but managed to catch herself at the last minute.

“But… I don’t… what…” Twilight stammered, staring down at the picture in shock before it disappeared as the phone automatically went to sleep.

“Humans managed to reach the moon,” Celestia said softly, eyeing the phone as well.

“What could possibly possess them to go, though?” Luna asked nobody in particular. “During my stay there, I saw nothing that would warrant interest.”

“We chose to go to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard,” I said with a smirk. I knew that they wouldn’t get the reference, but I didn’t care. It was too good an opportunity to waste.

“Hard? Try impossible!” Twilight said, her wings twitching in agitation. “There’s no way you could have gotten to the moon without the use of magic, but you said your world doesn’t have magic! Going to the moon shouldn’t be possible!”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to those who don’t understand it,” I said softly. “When Man first looked up at the moon, they thought it was impossible to touch the heavens. That didn’t stop them, however, and we as a species were finally able to set foot upon the moon. The men who did so even planted a flag, symbolizing our journey.”

“They planted a flag… on the moon?” Luna whispered, blushing as a flustered look spread across her face.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Rainbow said impatiently, returning to her bored demeanor. “Let’s get on with this!” As Twilight shot her an annoyed look, I chuckled softly.

“Okay, okay… hold your horses,” I said. Rainbow blinked in confusion.

“Hold… my horses?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“It’s a figure of speech from back home,” I replied. “It means ‘calm down’.” A slight frown touched Celestia’s face at my words, but when I looked over at her it was gone. She was looking at me with a calm expression, waiting for me to continue.

Reaching forward, I raised a finger dramatically, before lowering it and pushing the home button on the phone. Twilight, Ebony, and, surprisingly, Pinkie, followed my finger eagerly with their eyes.

As the screen lit up, I placed my finger against the phone and slid it across the smooth surface, unlocking the device. With a click, the lock screen disappeared, replaced instead with the iPhone’s main screen.

I looked up at the sea of eager faces, a smile touching my lips. The look of wonder and astonishment upon their faces caused me to laugh. It was like looking into the face of a child as they caught a glimpse of the presents underneath a Christmas tree.

“Ladies,” I said, before looking at Spike. “Dragon. You’ve all shown me your world. Now, let me show you a piece of mine.” With that, I swiped my finger across the screen, cycling through the different pages of the main screen. One of the apps caught my eye, and my smile grew as I touched a finger to it, opening it.

“This,” I said as the app began to load, “is one of the games this phone can have. It’s called ‘Sudoku’.”

“It looks like a game for eggheads,” Dash said, eyeing the numbers and boxes with a disappointed look.

“That’s because it is a game for eggheads,” I said as some of the girls leaned in closer. Twilight’s face lit up when I said that, and her scribbling quill increased its speed.

“What’s the point of the game?” she asked, drawing out the Sudoku board on her scroll.

“To get the numbers one through nine within the nine three-by-three squares without repeating a number, as well as having the numbers run through all vertical and horizontal rows without repeating.”

“Sounds difficult,” Primrose commented.

“That’s because it’s supposed to be,” I said with a laugh. “It’s a puzzle game. It’s supposed to be challenging.”

“A puzzle game? Those aren’t games at all!” Dash whined, throwing her head back and groaning loudly. “I thought these were going to be cool!”

“This isn’t the only game the phone has,” I said, hitting the home button again. Navigating the screen, my eyes lit up as I saw a game that I realized was perfect for such an occasion. If the makers only knew, I chuckled quietly to myself as I selected the game.

Everyone flinched as menu screen music started to play through the phone’s speakers.

“It can make noise too?” Twilight asked breathlessly. I ignored her, and touched the screen again, causing the music to instantly change. A man began to sing as a silver unicorn with a rainbow mane began to run across a platform of purple grass.

After several seconds, the unicorn reached the end of the platform. Tapping the screen once more, I smirked as a gasp went up from everyone (minus the princesses) as the miniature unicorn jumped. They watched with rapt attention as I played the game. Soon, Pinkie was humming along to the song playing in the background, bobbing her head to the beat.

When the chorus came, singing about harmony, Celestia pulled her head back, a surprised look flashing across her face before a small smile touched her lips.

I continued to play the game for several more seconds before I mistimed a jump. Before the unicorn could fall off screen and explode, I quickly hit the home button, ending the game and returning us to the main screen of the phone.

“Whoa,” Rainbow said, staring down that the phone. “That was just like the games at the arcade… only better quality.”

“And portable!” Pinkie chimed in.

As everyone worked off the daze of seeing the game, I flicked through the pages of apps on the phone.

“Games aren’t the only thing this thing can do,” I said as I eyed the apps, looking for something else to show them. “You can take notes on this thing, much like Twilight and Ebony are doing with their scrolls. Since it’s not on paper, the note can be as long as you’d like.” As I spoke, I opened up the notepad app to show them.

I immediately regretted it, however, and groaned inwardly when the note appeared on screen.

To Do:
1.) Call Mom about dentist appointment
2.) Pick up paycheck from work
3.) Return Andrew’s Xbox controller
4.) Lay around the house and do nothing else all Saturday

“Hey, look Twi,” Applejack said, trying to hold in her laughter. “He likes to make checklists just like you!” Rainbow wasn’t so reserved, and started laughing while still hovering in midair. Twilight’s face turned red at that comment, and she ducked down behind her scroll.

“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up, Applebutt,” I said, exiting the notepad. “Like you don’t need reminders to do something every now and then.” The cowmare stuck her tongue out at me, a teasing smile on her face.

“This thing also has a calendar where you can set appointments, a clock that can act as an alarm as well, a built-in calculator, as well as a place to put the contact information of everyone you want to stay in touch with.

“It also has books on it,” I said, seeing the iBooks app flit across the screen.

The words had barely left my mouth when the phone was suddenly surrounded by a lavender aura and ripped from my hand. I jerked my head up and saw Twilight holding the phone in her hooves, looking down at it as though it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

“This thing has books on it?” she asked, giggling to herself. “Books, written by humans from a different world.” She continued to giggle as she reached up and tapped the screen with a hoof. After a few seconds, a frown spread across her face when nothing happened. She tapped the screen again with the same results.

“Why won’t this work?” she whined, tapping the screen over and over again with her hoof, her ear twitching madly. “Books!”

Suddenly, the phone was pulled out of her grasp by a golden aura and returned to the center of the table.

“I think that’s quite enough, Twilight,” Celestia said, hidden laughter in her voice. Twilight blushed a brilliant red when she realized what she had just done, as well as the many pairs of eyes that were now staring at her. With a small squeak that could rival Fluttershy, she slipped beneath the edge of the table until only her eyes and the top of her head was visible.

“Hooves won’t work on the screen,” I said, chuckling at her antics. “Try using your nose next time.”

As Twilight slowly reemerged from beneath the table, Rarity leaned in closer to the phone, being mindful to not pull her horn from my grip.

“This device appears to be quite the innovative thing,” she said. “To think that something so small can do so much. It’s almost unbelievable.”

“We’re not even done yet,” I said once I was sure she wasn’t going to say something else. “This thing can also play music.”

Tapping the music app with a finger, I quickly organized all my songs by genre. Glancing back up at the ponies, I looked around. “What genre do you want to hear first?”

“How about all of them?” Luna asked, her eyes twinkling. Beside her, Celestia nodded her head in agreement. With her initial unease put to rest, she looked like she was enjoying the little show-and-tell.

“One of everything coming up,” I said, returning my attention to the phone.

Minutes passed quickly as I played them some of everything I had on the phone: Alternative, Metal, Rock, Classical, Dance, Electronic (Dash seemed to instantly take a liking to Daft Punk after hearing only one song from them. She said it reminded her of an artist she liked called DJ PON-3), Heavy Metal, Pop.

I tried to play an even number of each so that everyone might find something they liked. Midway through my albums, I stumbled upon the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. Smiling, I shot a glance at Luna before playing The Music of the Night for her. As her sister hummed along with the song, Celestia gave me a grateful smile.

“I had read the scripts you had written about the play,” Luna said when the song ended. “But it’s even more beautiful to hear in person. Thank you.”

I continued to play songs for them for nearly half an hour more, all of them quite content to sit there and listen to the new and strange music. During that period, Twilight had to start a second scroll, having filled the first one completely with notes.

As I closed out of the music app, a different app caught my eye. I studied the app for several seconds before smiling and clicking on it. As the app loaded, I picked the phone up and held it in front of me.

“Hey, smile!” I said with a smirk. Everyone gave me a confused look and I chuckled before I tapped the screen. With a flash and a click, I took a picture of the ponies across the table from me. As I flipped the phone around to show them the picture, jaws dropped around the table. Even the princesses looked stunned.

“It has a camera as well?!” Pinkie asked, a wide grin on her face.

“Eeyup,” I replied.

“Where does it keep its film, though?” Ebony asked, her green eyes wide with wonder.

“There’s no film. The number of pictures you can take are limited to how much memory the phone has, so you could take up to several thousand pictures before running out of room.”

As I spoke, Pinkie’s smile continued to grow until it threatened to split her head in half.

“Plays music without a record, takes pictures without film, has books without pages,” Twilight said, staring at the phone in awe. As she talked, I picked the phone back up and began to fiddle with it again.

“Is there anything that thing can’t do?” Twilight asked, shaking her head.

“Is there anything that thing can’t do?” Twilight’s head jerked back and her eyes widened in shock as her voice emitted from the phone. Smirking at her shocked look, I flipped the phone around, showing a miniature Twilight staring out at everyone with a look of awe. Pushing a button, I played the small video clip I had taken again, the miniature Twilight shaking her head as she spoke.

“Wha…” was all Twilight could say as she stared at the moving picture of her.

I smiled at the flabbergasted look on her face, and moved to push the home button, but as I did so, my finger brushed against the screen. The video of Twilight disappeared and I found myself looking at my photo album containing all the photos I had ever taken.

The smile slipped from my face as I stared at the rows of pictures. Swallowing thickly, I slowly lowered the phone back down onto the table, my hands trembling slightly. I heard someone—Fluttershy I think—say something to me, her tone concerned. I couldn’t hear what was being said, however, with my attention fixated on the device before me.

Reaching out tentatively with a finger, I touched one of the pictures, enlarging it to fill the entire screen. A gasp went around the room when everyone saw what the picture showed.

There, gazing up at the surrounding ponies with laughter frozen on our faces, was a picture of me and my friends during our high-school graduation. Myself and four of my friends were grouped together, diplomas in one hand, a flower in the other, as we looked at the person taking the picture. We were dressed in maroon graduation robes, our academic hats perched upon our heads. One of my friends was draped over my shoulder, his arm wrapped around my neck as he laughed. Beside me, another one of my friends had the biggest smile on his face, his academic cap tilted sideways on his head.

“By the Maker,” Ebony breathed, leaning in to get a closer look. “They’re all smiling!”

As I eyed the photo, I could hear the ponies around me speaking to one another, commenting on the photo. Ignoring them, I swiped my finger across the screen, moving from picture to picture, each one depicting part of our graduation. The last photo in the group showed me and my ex-girlfriend standing side-by-side, smiling as we hugged. Her academic hat was missing, but mine was still atop my head. She was leaning her head against my shoulder, looking at the camera with a proud smile on her face.

“Oh,” Rarity said, looking at the picture. “She’s… pretty.” Her tone wasn’t mean, just surprised. I glanced up, and saw everyone looking at the picture with various degrees of shock or surprise on their faces. Twilight was eyeing the picture with pursed lips, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Incredible,” Luna breathed, her eyes wide. “I did not take you for a liar, but to actually see it for myself: intelligent humans. It’s truly amazing.”

Shrinking the picture again, I flicked through the rest of the photos, looking for more. As I skimmed through photo after photo, my chest began to tighten slightly, and I was having difficulty breathing. Having the old memories there before me again was causing my eyes to begin to water slightly, a small smile on my face as I remembered the past, and the good times captured by the lens of the phone.

Moved by the motion of my finger on the screen, the memories flowed by for the ponies to see.

The day my friends and I went to the beach. My best friend, Andrew, and I diving into the freezing surface. My ex-girlfriend sunbathing on a beach towel. The packed beach as more and more people arrived to find a way to cool off as the sun rose high into the sky. All of my friends gathered around a crackling fire, drying off as the sun set in the distance.

“Well, Ah’ll be,” Applejack breathed as I slowly moved from photo to photo. “Even after seeing ya swim during our trip tah the beach, Ah never thought Ah’d see that many humans swimmin’.”

“They’re all wearing some form of clothing,” Rarity said. “There aren’t any bare humans.”

“That’s because nudity is a taboo back home,” I explained, trying to fight the melancholic feeling that had gripped me. “We wore clothing most of the time, and always when in public or when in the presence of another human.”

“You don’t seem to mind occasionally going around naked here,” Twilight said, looking up at me.

“After spending two weeks naked in a cage, followed by being paraded around Canterlot in the nude, it kind of desensitized me to it, especially seeing as there are naked humans everywhere here. I still have some issue with it, and even though I go around nude in the library, I won’t be going outside without clothing.”

“Why, though?” Luna asked, cocking her head to the side. “It’s not like you’d be the only human outside without clothing.”

“I may have gotten used to seeing other naked humans around, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable going around outside without clothing. It’s a comfort thing; I feel better with the clothing on.”

“That’s quite alright,” Luna said, inclining her head. “I was just curious.”

“But why would you need comforting?” Twilight asked. “We don’t make you nervous, do we?”

“It’s more instinctual than that,” I said, pausing my journey through the photos to answer her. “Back home, the only time that two humans usually were naked together, was during, ah… intimate moments.”

“So, the only time you’d be naked around somepony was if you and they were going to…” Rainbow said, tapping her hooves together in a semi-suggestive manner.

“More or less,” I replied, looking away as my face began to warm up.

“It must have been extremely awkward and confusing for you during your first few weeks here,” Celestia said, a note of humor in her voice.

“You have no idea,” I groaned, shaking my head. “Although, naked humans wasn’t the worst shock I got during my first couple of weeks here.” My gaze met Luna’s and she winced, giving me a strained smile.

“Indeed,” Celestia said, her lips thin as she looked at me. “I’ve heard of your experience from my sister. I can see why you were hesitant to reach out when we first met.”

“What happened to him?” Rainbow asked, looking between myself and the princesses.

“That’s a story for a different time,” Celestia said, the small smile returning to her face. With that, she leaned down and returned her attention to the phone.

I resumed my scrolling, moving from picture to picture slowly. There were pictures of my father and I standing outside an ambulance, him dressed in his paramedic uniform. Some were taken from the back of the ambulance, me laying on the cot pretending to be dead, a dopey smile on my face as my tongue lolled out of the side of my mouth. Pinkie giggled loudly at the picture, and several of the other ponies smiled.

Pictures of me at work, taken by a coworker, during a slow day. I was perched upon a small metal cart, pushing myself along with a broom as though I was rowing a boat.

“That clothing,” Luna said, cocking her head to the side. “Was this the place you were at when you were ripped from your world to ours?”

“Yes,” I said, eyeing the photo. “That was actually the same uniform that I was wearing when I arrived. I’m not sure what Darkflare did with it, but I don’t really care.”

“What was the point of this place?” Ebony asked.

“We provided food quickly and cheaply for customers.”

“So it was a restaurant,” she said simply.

“Sure,” I said emotionlessly. “A restaurant. Let’s go with that.” As she scribbled on her scroll, I continued flipping through the photos.

The next few pictures that came up showed me standing in a black tuxedo, holding a cello in my hands. It was during the last concert I played in at high-school before graduation. In the background, you could see the other members of the orchestra setting up, tuning their instruments, and chatting with one another.

“You can play the cello?” Twilight asked, glancing up at me in surprise. When I nodded, her ears perked up, and she got a thoughtful look on her face. She glanced over at Celestia and Luna before returning her attention back to the phone.

“Were you any good?” Primrose asked.

“I was first chair my senior year of school, but that was partly due to the fact I was the only senior in the class at the time,” I replied with a smirk.

I skipped over several saved pictures from one of the apps on my phone, most of which were internet memes and stupid pictures. There were more pictures of my friends: our trip to an arcade, our trip to St. Ignace, our hangout on a river.

After hopping through those pictures, I landed on one that caused most of the ponies to flinch back in surprise.

“What is that?” Avera asked, tilting her head to the side.

“That,” I said, staring at the picture with a large smile growing on my face, “is a five-pound cheeseburger with extra onions.” Just looking at the photo caused my mouth to water. I had forgotten about that particular experience.

Rarity and Pinkie both turned a slight shade of green, while most of the others just looked slightly disturbed. Primrose just cocked her head to the side, eyeing the large burger on screen with a curious look.

Avera had the weirdest reaction. Her eyes widened, and a small smile slowly spread across her muzzle. Her tail flicked as she hovered closer to the table to get a closer look at the picture.

“You didn’t eat all of that, did you?” Ebony asked, her face scrunched up slightly.

“I ate half of it, then took the rest home for later,” I replied, changing the picture as I spoke.

“Five pounds of meat,” I heard Applejack mutter under her breath as I continued on. “Ain’t natural.”

After several minutes of scrolling, I came across my family’s trip to New York City.

“Those buildings are huge!” Rainbow said breathlessly, an awed look on her face. The others had similar looks as they eyed the large buildings in the picture. It was taken at night, so the buildings illuminated the darkness with every color of the rainbow.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked softly, her eyes glued to the screen.

“It’s a place called Manhattan, in New York City,” I told them. Celestia’s head jerked up and she gave me a shocked look.

“Did you say ‘Manhattan’?” I nodded my head and a mystified look crossed the princess’s face.

“Yeah,” I smirked. “I had the same reaction with Manehattan.”

“How many humans live there?” Twilight asked, scribbling furiously. Ink had splattered upon her nose from the speed of her quill's writing.

“If I remember correctly, there was close to eight million humans living in New York City presently.”

“E-eight million?” Ebony asked, her quill pausing mid-scratch. “In just one city?”

“That’s a lot of humans,” Rainbow whistled, Applejack nodding in agreement. I chuckled softly as I flipped to the next picture, only to pause when I saw that it wasn’t photo, but a video. I felt my stomach flip when I saw that it was a video of my mom. It was taken during our trip to New York, with her standing near the Statue of Liberty.

“What’s this?” Luna asked, leaning down and cocking her head to the side. I didn’t reply. Instead, I reached out and touched a finger to the play button. Instantly, my mother’s voice filled the air.

“You aren’t recording this, are you?” she asked, looking at the camera with concern. The sound of snickering was heard, and her eyes widened. “Max! I didn’t do my hair this morning!” As she whined, my dad entered into the frame, laughing.

“Come on, hun,” he said, moving to stand beside her. “We’re on vacation!” With that, the video ended abruptly, leaving an eerie silence over the room. After several seconds, Twilight spoke up, her voice hushed.

“...do you have any more like this?” she asked timidly. Silently, I began to flip through the phone’s contents, looking for another video. After a few seconds, I found one. This one was of me, taken by my friend after he had stolen my phone during a bonfire.

As the video began to play, all the ponies leaned in close, their heads practically touching as they stared at the phone, their eyes wide. The video was jittery, the camera shaking as my friend ran backwards, keeping the phone trained on me. I chased after him, an annoyed look on my face.

“Come on, dude,” my friend’s voice spoke up from behind the camera, his voice filled with laughter. “If you want it, you gotta work for it!” His laughter grew as a scowl crossed my face.

“I’ll work my hands around your neck once I get a hold of you,” I growled as I lunged at the camera.

At the sound of my voice, Twilight inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. The camera jerked violently as I knocked the phone from his hands, sending it tumbling through the air. Green grass filled the screen as it landed with a soft thump on the ground. It was still for several seconds before it was suddenly lifted into the air. My face suddenly filled the screen, looking out at the surrounding ponies with bemused look on my face.

“Dude, be careful,” I said, turning to look at someone off screen. “If this thing breaks, I can’t replace it until my contract is up!” The miniature me on screen turned to look back down at the phone before the image suddenly froze, the video ending.

The silence that fell over the room was deafening, all the ponies staring at the phone with wide eyes. For several seconds, nobody said anything, and nobody moved. Celestia and Luna’s hair even seemed to freeze.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Avera.

“I know you’re intelligent and all, but since you’ve never said anything, it really hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said softly, looking at me. “But that—” she motioned towards the phone “—that was just freaky.”

“Talkin’ humans,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “Ah’m sorry, but that ain’t natural.” Pinkie and Rarity both nodded in agreement. Twilight just continued to stare at the phone, an odd look on her face, her cheeks flushed.

“Amazing,” Celestia breathed, tearing her gaze from the phone and looking at me. “The difference in technology from your world and ours is staggering.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but instead closed it and looked back at the phone.

“Would… would you mind if I borrowed your… phone and took it back with me to Canterlot?” she asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Now that you’ve shown us how to make this thing work, and what it does, I would like my scientists to examine it. With your permission, of course.”

Silently, I reached out with my free hand and picked up the phone. Hitting the home button with my thumb, I started at the main screen for several seconds before hitting the power button and putting the phone to sleep. Bouncing it slightly in the palm of my hand, I scrunched my face up, thinking.

On one hand, it was nice to have a piece of my old life back in my possession. On the other hand, it was next to useless to me at the moment. The only thing the phone provided me was pictures of my past, a few games, and some music.

Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to be able to look at my parents’ faces again, even if it was only in picture form, but that was all the phone was: a nostalgic device.

After rolling the idea around in my head for a few seconds, I sighed heavily before holding the phone out to Celestia.

“Here,” I said. “Take it. Consider it a show of good faith and friendship.” When Celestia gave me a confused look I continued, “You said you wanted to trust me. Well, I want to show you that I mean none of you any harm. I’m giving you the phone… as a show of trust and friendship.”

“You’re giving it to me… to keep?” Celestia asked, blinking in surprise.

“Yes,” I said with a nod.

“But,” she said, eyeing the phone in my hand, “that’s a reminder of your home. Your friends and family. Are you sure you want to give this to me permanently?” Wordlessly, I held out the phone, raising my eyebrows at her. The princess swallowed before picking the phone up tentatively in her magic.

“Thank you,” she said softly, a small smile touching her lips. I gave her a smile of my own as I returned my hand to my side.

As Celestia tucked the phone under her wing, Rainbow let out a loud yawn, her jaw audibly cracking. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was quickly nearing midnight.

“Shoot,” Applejack said, looking at the clock as well. “It’s about time for me tah be gettin’ back tah the homestead.” A low murmur of agreement went around the table, the girls beginning to blink tiredly with the excitement of the phone now gone.

Celestia chuckled at this. “Yes, I suppose we’ve kept you up long enough. I apologize for the last-minute summonings.”

“That’s quite alright, Princess,” Rarity said as I removed my hand from her horn. “It was an interesting experience.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie said, bouncing around the table. “It was super duper awesome to see all those talking humans! Could you imagine if OUR humans here were intelligent too? Think of all the parties I would have to throw just for them! It would be like non-stop partying! Pony parties by day, human parties by night!”

As the party pony continued to rambling on about throwing parties, Avera stared at her, a blank look on the pegasus’s face.

“How is she still this hyper?” she asked, her ears folding backwards. From beside her, Primrose shook her head, eyeing Pinkie as well.

“I don’t know. I’m nocturnal by nature and even I’m not that active at this hour.”

Slowly, the ponies each began to make their way back home, Rainbow accompanying Fluttershy as the poor pegasus was too frightened to go alone.

The last ponies to leave were Celestia and Luna. Pausing in the doorway, Celestia turned and glanced back at me, a conflicted, yet not unkind, look on her face. She looked like she wanted to say something, but changed her mind at the last minute. Shaking her head, she smiled warmly back at me.

“Good night, human,” she said, her voice soft. “And thank you once again.” With that, she turned and exited the library, closing the door behind her.

“Well,” Avera said after several seconds of silence. “I think I’ll be heading to bed!”

“Ditto,” Ebony said, fighting back a yawn. As the pair headed towards the basement door, I stood up and stretched, my back cracking several times. Glancing around, I noticed Twilight had remained in her seat and was staring at the closed library door, her head cocked to the side. I leaned over and waved a hand in front of her face, causing her to blink in surprise.

“Do you think—” slowly her eyes drifted from the closed door up to me “—that Princess Celestia might let me borrow your phone? For studying, of course.”

~You just want the books on it, don’t you?~ Her ears splayed backwards and she turned her nose up at me, giving me a haughty look.

“I will neither confirm nor deny it,” she huffed, getting up from her chair. Turning, she flicked her tail at me before climbing the stairs. I watched her go, a large smirk spreading across my face.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she turned her head and glanced down at me out of the corner of her eyes, the snobbish look still on her face. “...but those books will be mine.” Flicking her head back around, she disappeared up the stairs.

Chuckling, I turned to the only two remaining inhabitants in the room with me, both of whom were staring up the stairs after Twilight. Slowly, Spike turned to look at me, a bewildered look on his face. I just shrugged before falling back onto the couch next to Primrose.

“No disrespect, dude...” she said, shaking her head as she fished around in the pouch on her leg. Double checking to make sure Twilight wasn’t coming back down, the batpony pulled out her half-finished joint.

Popping it in her mouth, she pulled a lighter out of the pouch as well, and lit the end of the blunt. Taking a drag on the joint, she exhaled a puff of smoke and sighed happily. "...but your owner is crazy!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The cold night air blew past the princesses as they soared back towards Canterlot. Between them, held securely in the Solar Princess’s magical grasp, was the device, the iPhone, as the human called it. As she flew, Celestia made sure to keep one eye on the phone: she didn’t want to risk losing such a valuable gift.

To think, she mused, her ears splaying backwards. After all the distrust I had of him, he could still find it within himself to forgive me. She knew that she shouldn’t be suspicious of the human: his reasons for staying in Equestria were sound, and he had shown Luna, within the dreamworld no less, that he had no ill intentions against her ponies.

Still, there was this nagging feeling at the back of her mind—an itch that she just couldn’t seem to scratch—telling her that something was wrong. She was forgetting something, something important, but she just couldn’t remember what.

Celestia frowned, tilting her wings as she drifted on an updraft.

“Sister?” At the sound of her sister’s voice, Celestia was snapped out of her thoughts. Turning, she glanced over at Luna, who was giving her a curious look.

“Is there a particular reason you did not inform the human about Darkflare’s escape?” Luna asked, drifting closer to her sister. Celestia’s frown grew.

“I did not wish to burden his mind with things he cannot control,” she replied, her voice soft. “I’ll increase the number of guards around Ponyville, and station a few sensory Battlemages within the city limits, but I want neither him nor Twilight to worry.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” Luna said. “For his sake, as well as Twilight’s.”

“And what of you?” Celestia asked, eyeing her sister. “I saw you talking with Primrose before the Elements arrived. What does she have to say?”

“Apparently Max found out that she is a sanguinarian after she accidentally got caught in sunlight today.” Celestia paused mid-flap, her eyes widening as she looked at her sister.

“And his reaction?” she asked, regaining her composure.

“Wary, but willing to still have her around,” Luna replied, a small smile tugging on her lips. “According to her, he appeared to have just been caught off guard by her sudden change in appearance.”

“Splendid,” Celestia said, smiling as well.

The sisters continued to fly in silence for several minutes before Luna spoke up again, “Sister, will you be taking this device—” she motioned with a hoof at the phone suspended in golden magic “—to the Academy for study?”

“No, Luna,” Celestia said, her smile vanishing. “I will not be giving this to the Academy. This will be going to the good Doctor and his drones.”

“You don’t trust the Academy?”

“I trust the Academy,” Celestia snorted, “but I don’t trust the Archmage. He’s hiding something from me, something that happened in the dungeons, although I’m not sure what. Until he comes clean, I’m keeping him on a rather short leash.”

Luna inclined her head in understanding, and the sisters spent the rest of the trip flying to the mountainside city in silence.

Author's Note

I never really liked reading chapters where the human MC had to explain human technology to ponies, but after writing this, I realized something: I dislike writing them too.

Chapter 37: Competing with Your Human

I stood there in the doorway of the library, looking down at the plate of cooked meat at my feet with a bemused expression on my face. Slowly, my gaze drifted up and I eyed the two nervous ponies standing on the other side of the entrance way.

Rarity and Rainbow both shifted—clearly uncomfortable—causing their hooves to sink a bit deeper into the snow beneath them. They looked at each other quickly before returning their attention to me, strained smiles upon their faces. Every few seconds, Rainbow’s tail would twitch, as if she was trying to swat an invisible fly.

I just continued to eye them, chewing on the inside of my cheek. My eyes flicked down to the steaming piece of meat again, my eyebrow raising slightly. Okay, ignoring the fact that they not only found meat, but cooked it as well, what are they up to?

Keeping my eyes on the scene before me, I slowly leaned over and opened a drawer on the small table beside the door. Pulling out a notebook and charcoal stick I had stashed there, I closed the drawer with a soft 'click'. Flipping to a clean page, I placed the tip of the charcoal stick on the page and began to write.

+Okay, I’ll bite. What do you two want?+

After reading the message, Rarity’s smile grew even more strained, if that was at all possible. Rainbow’s wings twitched at her side, and she whined softly.

“Darling,” Rarity said with exaggerated confusion. “What could possibly make you think we want something from you?” I gave a pointed look at the meat, and she chuckled apprehensively.

“Well, I can see where you might get an idea like that, but that’s no reason for you to assume that we are just doing this to get something out of it. This is simply a kind gesture between friends.” Beside her, Rainbow nodded quickly.

A kind gesture, my ass, I snorted. If that’s the kind of game they wanted to play, I was fine with playing along. Glancing between the two mares, I just shrugged and reached down to grab the plate of meat. Straightening up, I smiled and nodded to them in thanks before beginning to close the door.

“WAIT!” I paused before opening the door again, smirking down at the two flustered mares.

“Fine,” Rarity grumbled. “We were hoping you’d do something for us.” I raised an eyebrow, waving my hand to indicate she should continue.

“Well, you see… we were hoping that, if you wouldn’t mind, and of course feel free to say no, but we were hoping that you might be so kind as to… well—”

“Come on, Rarity, stop beating around the bush,” Rainbow huffed suddenly, cutting off her companion. Turning, Rainbow leapt into the air, hovering in front of me.

“Okay, dude, here’s the deal. There’s a human show going on in Ponyville, and we want to enter you in it,” she said bluntly, crossing her forelegs in front of her chest as she looked at me. I blinked in surprise, before narrowing my eyes at her.

+And why should I agree to this?+ I asked.

“Because we gave you meat!” Rainbow said loudly, pointing at the plate in my hands.

“And because,” Rarity added, giving her companion an annoyed look. “There is a twelve-thousand bit prize for the first place winner. We’d be willing to split it with you, of course.”

+You just want the bits, don’t you?+

“The bits might have crossed my mind,” Rarity said, eyeing her hoof, not looking at me. I turned to look at Rainbow, eyeing her curiously.

+Why are YOU doing it?+

“One of the managers of Canterlot’s weather team, Winter Cold, is signing her human up for the show,” she grumbled. “At the last manager meeting in Cloudsdale, she kept going on about how her human was sure to win, and how her human was the best.

"...need to put her in her place,” she added with a grumble.

I frowned slightly. Winter Cold… why does that name sound familiar? I thought about it for a few minutes before mentally shrugging and returned to the conversation at hand.

+Since I’m intelligent, doesn’t that mean that this would count as cheating?+

“Please, it’s only cheating if we get caught,” Rainbow smirked, rolling her eyes.

“Besides, darling,” Rarity added, “it’s a human show, and you are a human.” I tapped on my chin before writing one last question.

+How are we splitting the prize money if we win?+

“Four-thousand bits each,” Rainbow said, her wings quivering as she hovered.

+50-25-25+

“No way!” the pegasus whined. “Even thirds.”

+You’re asking me to demean myself for your personal gain. 50-25-25, or go ask Applejack for a human+

“40-30-30, because we got you meat,” Rarity said, eyeing the steaming piece of meat on the plate in my hands. I blinked a couple of times as I glanced down at the meat. After staring at it for several seconds, I shrugged before picking up the meat and taking a bite out of it. What the heck, I’ve got nothing better to do today.

+Deal+ I wrote out before closing the notebook. Turning, I shoved it into my bags which were hanging off the nearby coat rack. Buckling the bags around my waist, I pulled on my hooded sweater and slipped on my sandals. I had tried to get a pair of boots from Rarity, but we soon found out that, due to her unwillingness to cater to humans after Sweetie Belle’s accident, Rarity had no experience making boots for humans. She promised to find out how to make me a pair as quickly as possible, but in the meantime, I was stuck with what I had: a pair of sandals.

I was unsure of how I was going to survive the winter with only my sandals to protect my feet from the elements until Rarity made the boots. I lucked out, however, as Twilight was able to quickly come up with a solution after I told her about my problem. She had magically enchanted my sandals with a spell that allowed me to wear them out in the snow without my feet getting cold. Even though my toes were exposed to the winter weather, it felt like I was wearing thick, woolen boots. The only downside was that she needed to renew the enchantment every couple of days, or else it would wear off. It also caused the sandals to wear down faster than they would normally.

Picking up the meat, I tossed the plate onto the coffee table before exiting the library. As I closed the door behind me, I took another bite from the meat, chewing it happily. It was surprisingly good, although it needed more seasoning in my opinion.

I finished off the meat as we headed towards the market, sucking my fingers to get all of the juice off of them. The sun was out and it was a surprisingly warm day. Foals were out, running around and playing in the snow, their parents watching them from the warmth of their homes.

As we walked, Rarity chatted quietly with me, explaining how the show was going to work, as Rainbow hovered nearby.

“Now, these shows tend to judge humans in several different ways. They judge on appearance, behavior, whether the human is aggressive or not, and how well they can be trained. We should be fine for all of them, but do try and be on your best behavior, okay?” I gave her an annoyed look, to which she just rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“This is going to be awesome!” Rainbow cooed, doing flips in the air. “I’m going to rub Winter’s face in this when we win!”

“You mean ‘if’ we win, darling,” Rarity chided.

“Come on, Rarity! How can we not win with the big guy here?” she asked, patting me on the shoulder. “We’re guaranteed first place!”

“Don’t count your dragons before they hatch,” Rarity said, shaking her head with a smile.

We had just reached the market when something moderately heavy landed on my back.

“There you are,” a voice cooed in my ear as something wrapped around my neck. Grunting in surprise, I looked behind me, glaring at the black pegasus now clinging to my shoulders.

“Where do you think you’re heading off to?” Avera asked, grinning smugly at me.

I growled, taking a swipe at her from over my shoulder. She ducked down, laughing as she dodged the halfhearted attack. Pushing off of my back, she took to the air, flying lazily in front of us. Rainbow and Rarity eyed her nervously, unsure of what to do.

“We’re just taking Max out for a little walk through town,” Rarity said lamely, trying her best to seem casual. “Just a little time between friends.”

“Really?” Avera asked, raising an eyebrow. “And would that time amongst friends include participating in a human show?” At her words, Rarity and Rainbow sagged visibly.

“Look,” Rainbow said quietly, “you can’t tell anypony about this, okay?”

“Okay, I won’t,” Avera said, leaning back and placing her hooves behind her head. As Rarity and Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief, she smiled smugly, “but, you have to let me go with you.”

“What?!” Rarity yelped, gaping at the pegasus. “Definitely not!”

“Yeah, we’ve already got the details worked out!” Rainbow added hotly.

“Do those details include what would happen if Twilight found out that you two not only had her human participate in a human show, but go out in public without one of his guards to accompany him?” Avera asked, the smirk still on her face.

Rainbow glared at the black pegasus before sighing and hanging her head in defeat. “Fine. What do you want?”

“Oh, relax. I don’t want any part of the prize,” Avera said, landing back on my shoulders. “I just want to come along for the ride. It’s boring at the library, what with Primrose sleeping and Ebony, Spike and Twilight out at City Hall helping the mayor with some technical details concerning Hearth’s Warming.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off. Shaking my head at her, I turned to look at Avera.

~You can tag along, but no funny business~

“No worries, tall stuff. I just need something to do today,” she said, draping herself across my back in a lazy fashion. Rolling my eyes, I turned and motioned for Rarity and Rainbow to continue walking as Avera got comfortable on my back.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The noise was the first thing that hit me as we entered the warehouse reserved for the show. The building was full of ponies, most of whom were from out of town, judging by the fact that I had never seen most of them before in Ponyville.

Ponies flitted here and there, working to put the final touches to whatever was needed to get the show started. Humans dotted the area, some being used by ponies to move large equipment, while others were sitting by their owners, waiting for the show to start. I noticed immediately that the majority of humans in the warehouse were female.

Upon entering the warehouse, Rarity had hurried off to get me signed up for the show, leaving Avera and Rainbow to ‘watch’ me.

“A lot of ponies here,” Avera commented from my back as she looked around.

“Yeah, and they’re all about to get their flanks kicked,” Rainbow snarked, a look of confidence on her face. The look disappeared and a silent grimace flashed across her muzzle as her eyes locked onto someone in the crowd. Leaning slightly to the side, I placed my head next to hers, trying to see who she was glaring at. After a few seconds, I saw the pony in question.

Ah, so that’s Winter Cold. Now I remember, I thought as I eyed the mare. She was the unicorn that Twilight and I had bumped into on the train during our first trip to have dinner with her folks. Her light gray coat was immaculately clean, her blue mane done up in a bun. Her human, Brutus, sat beside her, staring off into the distance.

I scrunched up my face as I stared at the pair. Turning to look at Rainbow, I found her blushing as she stared at me, her face inches from mine. I raised an eyebrow and gave her a confused look.

“Do you have to be so close?” she asked me. I just shook my head, snorting in amusement as I leaned back.

After a few minutes, Rarity reappeared, weaving her way through the crowd. As she neared, she gave us a big smile.

“Everything’s ready to go,” she said happily. “Now we just need to wait for the judges to start.”

“How did you get the forms necessary for registration?” Avera asked, cocking her head to the side. “I’m pretty sure you need a medical form from a veterinarian showing that the human is healthy.”

“Why is that a problem?” Rainbow asked. “Max is healthy.”

“Yes, and he also has different vitals than an Equestrian human,” Avera replied.

“Oh, that doesn’t matter, darling,” Rarity said, waving a hoof at her. “I gave the forms to Applejack and had her fill them out using one of her humans.” Slipping a hand discreetly into my bags, I pulled out my notebook.

+Ignoring the fact you convinced the Element of Honesty to fill out false forms, did I mention already that this is totally cheating?+

“As long as you keep your notebook to yourself, nopony will ever know,” Rarity replied with a huff. “Now, would you kindly put this on, darling?” I caught the collar she tossed at me and turned it around in my hands, studying it. It was just a regular collar, made from a black plastic material. On one side of the collar was a white tag that bore the number ‘13’ on it in bold black numbers.

As I strapped the collar around my neck, Avera eyed it curiously. “What’s that for?”

“During the show, humans must wear collars. The number indicates that Max is the thirteenth human registered,” Rarity explained. “Oh, and one more thing.” Her horn glowed briefly and my clothing was encased in a blue glow. Slowly, Twilight’s cutie mark disappeared from the clothing, leaving them bare.

Yeah, totally cheating, I smirked, eyeing the patch of cloth that used to hold the mark of my owner.

Suddenly, a bell chimed out, echoing around the warehouse. Rarity perked up at the sound. “Oh, it appears that they’ve started the judging.” Opening her saddlebags, Rarity pulled out a brush, a comb, and a pair of scissors, holding them in her magic.

As she started to approach me, I took a step back, eyeing her warily. This just caused Rarity to tsk, rolling her eyes.

“Come now, darling,” she huffed. “The first stage of judging is on the human’s appearance. I need to make you look presentable before it’s your turn.”

Slowly, I lowered myself to the ground, sitting cross-legged on the brushed dirt. Smiling happily, Rarity trotted over to me and began to run the brush and comb through my hair, using the scissors to trim up any part that was getting too long.

As she worked, I placed my notebook in my lap, quickly writing out a message when I was sure no one was watching.

+You put any ribbons in my hair, and I’m leaving+

“Don’t worry,” she said upon reading the note. “I know when ribbons are appropriate and when they aren’t. We just have to make you look presentable. We won’t win any prizes if you go out looking like a ruffian. That would be the worst possible thing that could happen.”

After several minutes of Rarity messing with my hair, a pegasus mare flew over to us, a clipboard in her hooves.

“Ms. Rarity?” she asked, hovering in front of our group. “Your human is up next. Please move him to the staging area.” Without waiting for an answer, the mare flew off. Rarity ran the comb through my hair one last time before she allowed me to stand.

“Alright, let’s go,” she said, tucking her utensils back into her saddle as I stood up, resisting the urge to shake my head. “And do try and keep yourself presentable until we get there.” I narrowed my eyes, but followed after her nonetheless, Rainbow and Avera flying close behind as we walked through the crowd.

In the center of the warehouse, several fifteen-foot high stands sat in a circular formation, allowing ponies to sit and get a good view of what was happening in the center of the circular clearing. As Rarity led us to a gap in between the stands, I chanced a glance over the sea of ponies, trying to catch a glimpse of the area in the middle of the stands.

I froze, my eyes widening in horror at what I saw. Immediately, my heart rate skyrocketed as the organ tried its best to burst forth from my chest. I was dimly aware that my arms had suddenly began to tremble, and a cold sweat was beginning to trickle down my back.

In the center of the ring of stands, several ponies sat behind a small table, obviously judges. Just in front of them, however, was a large hole that had been boarded up recently. A thick green carpet rested atop the planks of wood, trying in vain to hide the covered hole. It didn’t matter; I knew what was beneath those wooden beams.

I jerked violently as a hoof touched my shoulder. Glancing over, I saw Avera giving me a concerned look.

“You okay, tall stuff?” she asked softly, studying my face. I stared at her for several seconds before replying.

~I’m out~

“What do you mean ‘you’re out’?” she asked as she cocked her head to the side, confused. At her words, Rarity’s head whipped around and she gave me a startled look. Even Rainbow looked surprised.

~I’m out. I’m not doing this~ I signed, slowly beginning to back up. Around us, ponies were giving us curious looks, but none lingered.

“Why are you backing out now?” Avera asked.

~Because, twelve feet underneath those boards out there is where I nearly lost my life during the human pit fight~ I signed, jabbing a finger out at the boarded-up hole. ~I’m not going back out there!~

Avera’s head jerked back, her eyes widening at what I had told her. Her ears folded against her head, and she floated to the ground.

“What’s going on?” Rarity hissed to Avera as she trotted over. “We’re next in line!” As Avera explained what was wrong, I took another step back, not taking my eyes off of the hidden pit. I swallowed thickly as dark memories started to resurface. Why the hell are they holding the human show in the same warehouse as… as that?!

I was snapped back to reality by Rainbow bumping my shoulder with her flank.

“Come on, dude,” she said softly, a warm smile on her face. “It’s different this time. We totally have your back. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

“Certainly, darling. Should anything happen, we’ll have you out of here in a jiffy!” Rarity added, giving me a smile of her own. Beside her, Avera nodded her head.

I glanced back at the hidden pit, unconvinced.

“Tell ya what,” Avera said, hopping into the air again. “You go out there and get examined, and if after that you still aren’t comfortable, we’ll leave, no questions asked. Deal?” I chewed on my bottom lip for a few seconds before sighing heavily, trying to calm my racing heart. Slowly, I nodded my head.

I’m not going to like this, I thought as we moved forward again, heading for the gap in the stands. Rainbow, ever loyal, was walking beside me, her shoulder pressed against my hip as she tried to keep me calm.

When we arrived, a unicorn stallion was waiting for us. Glancing up from his clipboard, he eyed me curiously.

“Ms. Rarity and—” he glanced at the clipboard quickly “—Max?”

“That would be us,” Rarity said, placing a hoof on her chest.

“Once the current human leaves, it’ll be your turn. Wait for the signal, then walk your human to the center of the stage,” the stallion said. As he turned his attention back to the show in progress, Avera looked at me.

“I’m gonna head up into the stands to watch. Rarity and Rainbow will be with you the entire time, and should anything happen, I’ll be there in a flash, okay?” I nodded my head, still eyeing the area in front of me with some trepidation. My instinct was telling me to run, the feeling of death slowly descending upon me. I could almost taste it in the air, but I was pretty sure that was my imagination.

...I hoped it was my imagination.

After a few seconds, the human and pony currently out on stage headed off towards the opposite side of the ring of stands, exiting via another gap on the far side. An assistant by the panel of judges waved to Rarity, indicating that it was our turn. Glancing up at me, she gave me an encouraging smile, which had no effect at calming my nerves. Swallowing thickly, I followed Rarity as she trotted out towards the middle of the makeshift miniature stadium, Rainbow close beside me.

The silence that fell as we headed towards the stage was almost deafening. I felt all eyes upon us, more specifically me, and I swallowed thickly, trying to keep my pace steady. As we stepped out from beside the stands, a gentle murmur of hushed conversation filled the air, ponies clapping softly as Rarity led me towards the table of judges.

As I walked, I tried to keep my eyes straight ahead and ignore the fluttering in my stomach. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw ponies eyeing me curiously, chatting softly with their neighbors. I clenched my teeth, trying to keep my composure. The scene was just too familiar for my liking. All these ponies, sitting around the area… the arena, all staring at me. It was just like… just like…

Above me, the crowd of ponies roared with delight, pounding their hooves on the boxes and crates as they cried out for more blood. Bags of bits exchanged hooves as bets were placed, and deals struck. Pegasi flitted through the air, trying to get a better look at what was happening below. The pained shriek of human suffering filled the air, causing the crowd to roar louder, pumping their hooves into the air.

My right eye twinged with phantom pain as I walked, but I resisted the urge to rub it. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly as I kept my pace steady. Beside me, Rainbow glanced up, giving me a concerned look. I ignored her, focusing instead on Rarity’s tail bobbing in front of me, trying to block out everything else.

Same thing, different ponies, different form of entertainment, I mused darkly as I walked. I bet none of them even know what the pit was used for. It seemed like such a shame to me that they were using this area for their human show, considering how many humans must have died here. My mind drifted to the red-haired female, struggling to breathe as my hands tightened around her throat. A shiver ran up my spine.

I was brought out of my funk by something soft and warm brushing my clenched fist. Glancing down, I saw that Rainbow had run her wing over my hand, trying her best to comfort me.

“Come on,” she murmured softly, smiling up at me. “You can do this. We’re here for you.” Struggling to relax my muscles, I slowly unclenched my fist, my knuckles having turned white. Taking another deep breath, I tried desperately to calm my nerves.

Glancing up, I realized that we had finally reached the judges’ table. There were three of them, a mare pegasus, a mare earth pony, and a stallion unicorn.

“Ms. Rarity,” the stallion said, looking over a piece of paper he had placed in front of him. He was an older-looking pony, white streaks running through his brown mane. His coat was a dark green, and his fetlocks were longer than average.

He looked up from the paper, gazing out at us from behind a pair of half-rimmed glasses, his green eyes studying me closely.

“This is your human, Max?” he asked, his voice soft.

“Yes, yes he is,” Rarity replied curtly. Glancing back down at the paper, the unicorn was silent for several seconds before nodding his head.

“Very well. Please strip your human. We need to examine him.” ...Fuck.

Turning, Rarity gave me a quick apologetic look before her horn lit up. A burst of magic later and my clothes disappeared. I was now standing completely naked, except for the collar, in front of a large crowd of ponies.

I thought I explained to them being naked in public makes me uncomfortable, I grumbled as I eyed Rarity in annoyance. She gave me another apologetic look before stepping back. One of the judges, the earth pony, stood and walked out from around the judges’ table.

I eyed her as she approached me. Her coat was a rich, dark orange, while her hooves were painted yellow. Her mane flowed down her shoulders, a mixture of different shades of orange and yellow. An unlit cigarette hung from her mouth.

A hush fell over the warehouse as she began to circle me, eyeing my exposed flesh with brilliant blue eyes. As she paused in front of me, a familiar wolf-whistle rang out, causing her to flinch slightly.

I resisted the urge to groan. God damn it, Avera. Ignoring the interruption, the mare resumed her circling.

After several minutes, the mare stepped back, chewing the butt of her cigarette.

“What do you have, Rosey?” the stallion asked.

“A human male,” she said, and I had to resist really, really hard to not roll my eyes. “Muscular build, somewhat more so than an average human of his apparent age. He’s also a lot taller than an average human, nearly six feet tall if I had to guess.” Slowly, she began to circle me again as she talked, her eyes darting here and there as she studied me with an intensity that made me feel like I was being X-rayed.

“He appears to be in perfect health: muscle structure is good, hair is in good condition. No visible tumors or growths.” I saw Rarity’s eyes light up as the mare talked, but the look of happiness slowly disappeared as she continued to speak.

“He has several scars running vertically down his lower back, as well as some scarring on his left hand and forearm. There is a large scar across his chest; looks like the wound was severe—surprised he survived that injury—as well as a scar across his face. Right eye is milky and useless. Overall, it looks like he’s had a rough ride. We’ll have to mark him down for that.” As she continued to voice her observations, the crowd clung to her words, whispers trickling around the stands.

Moving around to stand in front of me, she removed the cigarette from her mouth and tucked it behind her ear. She then lifted herself up onto her hind legs, propping one of her forelegs on my shoulder. Placing a hoof on my bottom jaw, she gently forced my mouth open, examining my teeth.

Upon seeing my teeth, she jerked her head back, blinking in surprise.

“His teeth don’t look like they are supposed to. He has several normal molars in the back, but also what appears to be incisors and canines in the front. Could possibly be artificial.” Cocking her head to the side, she gave my teeth a curious look before leaning forward and jamming her tongue in my mouth!

I tried to jerk my head back, but the mare’s grip on my neck tightened, keeping my head locked in place. Her hoof kept my lower jaw from snapping shut. I could feel her tongue running over my teeth, and I shivered. It tasted smoky, and I could feel her saliva coating my teeth. I resisted the urge to gag.

As quickly as she started, however, she stopped. Leaning back, she smacked her lips, running her tongue over her own teeth.

“Nope,” she said eventually. “They’re real.” Still keeping herself upright on my shoulders, she turned to look at Rarity.

“Where did you purchase this human?”

“In Canterlot,” Rarity replied without missing a beat. “From a group of traders that found him. He was wandering the desert, if I remember correctly.”

“Curious,” the mare hummed, turning to look back at me. I was busy running my tongue over my teeth, trying to get the weird taste of pony tongue out of my mouth. I doubt very much that that was necessary.

“We’re going to have to mark him down for his teeth,” the mare said as she dropped back down onto all fours. “They aren’t typical for humans, and aren’t considered desirable for standard human breeding.”

“Oh, come on,” I heard Rainbow huff under her breath. She crossed her forelegs, glaring angrily at the judge.

“However,” the mare, Rosey, continued, walking around me again. She poked me with her hoof, being careful not to injure me. In fact, her hoof was surprisingly soft and tender, almost caring. “He’s extremely docile, considering the condition his body’s in. Most humans growl when you try to look in their mouth, or fidget when being examined. He’s stood perfectly still the entire time, and hasn’t made a single noise. I think we can give you extra marks for that.” Smiling at Rarity, she removed the cigarette from behind her ear and returned it to her mouth.

With that, she turned and retreated back to the judges’ table.

“I think that will be it, Ms. Rarity,” the stallion said, looking over at Rarity. “You may escort your human off stage and prepare him for the next event.”

Rarity nodded to the stallion before turning towards me. Her horn lit up and I once again found myself fully clothed. I sighed, smiling internally as we headed towards the exit of the stands. The closer we got to the gap, the better I started to feel.

Stepping through the gap and emerging on the other side of the stands, I sighed heavily, my shoulders sagging in relief. I had managed to get through that ordeal.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Avera asked as she approached, hopping off the top of the stands and floating down to us.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, hovering in front of me. “You did just fine, dude! Although, it was a load of horseapples that they marked you down for your scars. They should have been giving you more points for them. Those scars are awesome!”

~It was actually going pretty well until the judge stuck her tongue in my mouth!~

“She stuck her tongue in your mouth?” Avera squawked, her wings flaring. Beside me, Rarity nodded her head, a bemused look on her face.

“Indeed she did,” she said. “For the life of me I don’t know why, though.”

“Damn,” Avera swore, her ear flicking as a large smile spread across her face. “I knew I was sitting in the wrong section. From where I was, it just looked like she was studying your teeth closely.”

~She was studying them closely. Very closely~ I signed, shivering slightly.

“Well, look on the bright side,” the black pegasus said with a smirk. “You only have two more events left to go through.”

I rolled my eyes at her, snorting loudly. ~Forgive me for not leaping for joy~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The next event was designed to test a human’s temperament and aggressiveness. It was run by the other mare judge, a young pegasus with an extremely light blue coat and purple mane. She would test the human’s submissive behavior. If the human showed any signs of aggression, they would be marked down accordingly. The higher the show of aggression, the higher the marking.

The mare, who was coincidentally named Calm Breeze, seemed quite at peace with what she was doing, even when a human nearly snapped at her during one of her examinations.

When it was my turn to be examined, Avera retreated back into the stands, making sure she got a better seat in case something else interesting happened. Heading back onto the makeshift stage, I felt my stomach tighten slightly, but overall I felt better than when I had first entered the area.

Calm Breeze smiled as we approached, motioning for Rarity to lead me to the center of the stage. As Rarity stepped away, leaving me by myself, I glanced down at the pegasus mare, cocking my head to the side.

“Hello,” she cooed softly, cocking her head to the side as well, a small smile on her face. Lifting a hoof, she pointed it to the floor before saying firmly, “Sit.” Sniffing, I did as she asked and sat down on the green carpet, sitting cross-legged. As I did so, Calm Breeze gave me a confused look, her wings twitching slightly.

“Odd,” she mused out loud. “That’s not how most humans sit.”

“Is that a problem?” Rarity asked nervously, probably hoping that we wouldn’t get marked down for it. I silently agreed. If they marked me down for the way I sat, I was getting up and leaving.

“No,” Calm Breeze answered, her calm smile returning. “It’s just most humans sit with their legs outstretched in front of them. Nothing’s wrong with how he’s sitting, it’s just… unique.”

Studying me for a few more seconds, she then moved forward and slowly put a hoof against my chest. She began applying pressure, trying to push me backwards. I relented immediately and allowed her to push me back until I was lying on the ground, my legs still crossed as I stared up at the warehouse’s ceiling far above me. I remember this view, I thought dryly to myself.

Calm Breeze seemed surprised at the ease with which I had allowed her to push me over.

“He showed no resistance to being pushed onto his back, “ she said to the other judges, eyeing me curiously. “No groaning or growling. Completely submissive. Also, just a bit of observation; he appears to be very flexible, keeping his legs crossed even when laying down. It doesn’t look very comfortable, but he’s doing it anyways. Not sure if it’s because that’s how he’s trained, or because of other reasons.”

Moving over to sit beside me, she slipped her hoof under my shirt, gently rubbing my stomach. Slowly, she worked her way up towards my chest, humming quietly to herself. It actually felt really relaxing, and I found myself fighting to keep my eyes open, my earlier trepidation completely gone.

“He allows his stomach and chest to be touched without showing signs of discomfort despite being exposed,” Calm Breeze said quietly. “If anything, I can feel his muscles relaxing at my touch.” Pulling her hoof from beneath my shirt, she grabbed my arms and carefully pulled me back into a sitting position.

Releasing my arms, she quickly grabbed my right hand with her hooves. She then began to play with it, moving my fingers, causing them to clench and unclench. She would grab the fingers individually and wiggle them around. As she did this, she kept her dark purple eyes locked on my face, searching for signs of aggression or discomfort. It felt weird, but I didn’t really mind. My little cousin used to do this all the time to me back home, especially when I had something in my hands at the time.

One particularly sudden movement with one of my fingers caused my knuckle to crack loudly, echoing around the warehouse. A gasp went up from the crowd and Calm Breeze froze, her eyes widening.

Slowly, I lifted up my other hand, and her body tensed. I clenched my fist several times before using my thumb to crack the knuckles on that hand. With each pop and crack Calm Breeze’s expression grew more and more bewildered.

Blinking, she opened and closed her mouth several times before finally speaking, “He appears to have no problem with his hands being played with, and doesn’t mind having a joint popped, as demonstrated by him doing it himself.”

Releasing my hand, the pegasus stared at me for a bit before moving forward and bopping me on the nose with her hoof.

I scrunched up my face, startled by the sudden act. Reaching forward, she did it again, only this time with more force behind it. This time, I snorted, trying to fight off a sneeze. Her fetlocks were tickling my nose something fierce.

The third time she did it, I reacted. Against my better judgment, I leaned forward with great speed, reaching out and tapping my hand against her muzzle. She jerked back with a squawk, wings flaring. A gasp went up from the crowd again, and I saw one of the attendants nearby tense, ready to spring into action to detain me.

Blinking in confusion, Calm Breeze rubbed her muzzle with a hoof as she stared at me. Removing her hoof from her muzzle, she leaned forward a fourth time to touch my face. As her fetlock brushed my nose, I tried to fight the sensation but couldn’t. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I sneezed loudly. This earned a giggle from the judge, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

“He seems to have no problem with ponies touching his face,” she said, standing up. “And even seems to have a playful nature as well. From what I’ve seen so far, he’d be great to have around foals.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Rarity said, giving me a large smile. I didn’t know if she was talking about my time with the Crusaders, or with Pumpkin and Pound Cake.

Flitting over to the judges’ table, Calm Breeze grabbed a pair of saddlebags before flying back over. Rummaging around in the bags, she pulled out an apple and handed it to me. I stared at the red fruit in my hand, confused.

Glancing back up at the judge, I saw her just sitting there, watching me.

“Go on,” she said softly. “Eat it.” She mimed eating something and pointed at the apple. Shrugging mentally, I lifted the apple to my mouth to take a bite out of it. However, before I could Calm Breeze reached out and quickly took the apple from my hand. I sat there, staring at my empty hand with a blank look on my face. I should have known…

“Doesn’t respond to having his food taken from him,” Calm Breeze said, rolling the apple around in her hooves as she looked at me. She studied my face for several minutes, chewing on her bottom lip.

“He is extremely docile, almost to a fault. I was not expecting this, considering the scars across his body show past abuse. It almost looks like he went toe-to-toe with a manticore.”

“Actually, I believe it was three,” Rarity corrected. Her eyes immediately widened and she clamped a hoof over her mouth. Calm Breeze stared at her, mouth agape.

“He took on three manticores… and lived?!”

“Well,” Rarity said, scrunching up her face slightly. “He didn’t exactly fight them. More like he ran away from them… while carrying three fillies in his arms.”

“Still, that’s impressive,” Calm Breeze murmured, eyeing me closely. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Rainbow interrupted her.

“He took on a pack of timberwolves by himself and kicked their flanks. I should know, I was there!”

“Well, that settles it, then,” Calm Breeze said, nodding her head. “Given that he’s not only faced manticores and timberwolves, but come out as docile as he is, I’d say we have to give him full marks.” Reaching a hoof back into the saddlebag, Calm Breeze pulled out a flat-looking cookie. She handed it to me before turning back to Rarity.

“That will be all for this test,” she said with a smile. “Congratulations, your human just received the highest score for this part of the show.”

As the judge walked off, I stood up, eyeing the cookie in my hand. Taking a bite, I chewed slowly, rolling the taste around in my mouth. The treat was dry and tasted rather bland, although it had a hint of cinnamon to it.

The things I do for my friends, I mused, continuing to eat the cookie as we walked off the stage.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The last test was simple. The unicorn stallion would test the human’s ability to understand and follow simple orders. Due to my high score last round, I was scheduled to go last. That meant that Rarity, Rainbow, Avera, and I were basically sitting around doing nothing for a good forty-five minutes.

As it neared the time when I was supposed to go ‘perform’, Rainbow suddenly flew off. She returned several minutes later, an uneasy look on her face.

“Okay, I just went to check,” she said in a hushed voice. “Winter Cold and her human have already gone. In order to beat Brutus, you need to get a perfect score!” She shifted on her hooves nervously, her wings twitching by her side.

“What’s wrong?” Avera asked, smirking. “I thought you said we had this in the bag.”

“Don’t worry, darling,” Rarity added, placing a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I’m sure that Max will do fine.” When she looked at me, I gave her a small smile and a wink.

“I guess,” Rainbow said, returning the smile. She then perked up, her confident demeanor returning. “Yeah, yeah! We can totally do this!”

Just then, the same pegasus mare from before fluttered over, eyeing her clipboard.

“Ms. Rarity, your human is up next,” she said. “Please get ready.” As she flew off, I stood up and cracked my back, sighing happily.

“Just one more to go and then you’re done,” Avera said as she stretched. “Then we can go back to the library.”

As Rarity, Rainbow, and I headed towards the the gap in the stands, Avera flew off to find a seat. We were called out the minute we arrived, and I was soon standing on the stage for the third time that day, Rarity and Rainbow off to the side. The stallion stood in front of me, eyeing me over his glasses.

The minute I was in place, we began. The commands were fairly standard: come, stay, sit, lay down, shake, play dead (that was my personal favorite, although the irony of it wasn’t lost upon me), and speak (and the irony continued to grow). He had me walk beside him as he circled around the edges of the stands, halting and heeling whenever he asked.

I followed his commands instantly and without hesitation. After several laps around the circular stage area, he started to try and trip me up by giving several commands in rapid succession. I wasn’t sure if he was impressed that I was following his orders perfectly, or getting frustrated.

I really blew everyone’s minds when, as a last ditch effort to get me to screw up, he rambled off a list of around ten commands, one right after the other. I think he was hoping that I wouldn’t know which command to follow.

I did every single command perfectly, in order, without pause, ending up looking at the judge upside down from a handstand.

As the crowd and the judge picked their jaws up off of the floor, I saw Rarity and Rainbow hoofbump out of the corner of my eye.

“W-well, Ms. Rarity,” the stallion said when he finally found his voice again. “I must say, I was not expecting this. Your human is able to follow commands so well, he’s almost pony-like. I do believe I have no choice but to give him full marks for this.” Instantly, Rainbow was airborne, whooping in joy as she did flips through the air.

“Aw yeah!” she cheered, pumping a hoof. As the crowd began to cheer—clapping lightly as to not spook the humans—a smug smile spread across Rarity’s face.

“If you would take your human off stage, we will be announcing the winners shortly,” the judge said, inclining his head.

As we exited, Avera flew down, a large smile across her muzzle.

“I think that went fairly well,” she said as she hovered down beside me.

“Fairly well?” Rainbow said, her whole body trembling. “He got full marks! That means unless something comes up, we just got first place!” Squealing happily, she flipped through the air.

Turning to look at me, Avera smirked. “See, it wasn’t that bad, right?”

~Speak for yourself. That was the most awkward thing I’ve done lately~ I replied, glaring over at her in mock annoyance.

“Aw,” she cooed, “does somepony want a treat for being a good boy?” As she spoke, she held up another one of those stale cinnamon cookie treats, waving it front of my face. I growled at her, before snatching the cookie from her grasp.

Placing it in my mouth, I glared at her as she continued to laugh at me.

~I’m going to eat this, but I am highly offended by it~ As I chewed on the stale treat, the sound of a bell ringing out echoed around the warehouse. The crowd grew quiet as a voice, magnified by magic, spoke up.

“The judges have made their final decision. All contestants, please report to the stage for the award announcements.” As the echoes died down, Rarity blinked in surprise.

“Well, that was certainly quick,” she said.

“What did you expect? Max was the last one to go. It’s not like they're going to take that long to figure out the winners,” Avera chuckled as we started to make our way back towards the stage. This time, Avera remained with us as we emerged into the staging area.

All the participants were standing in a row in front of the judges’ table, ponies standing beside their humans, a hopeful expression on the owners’ faces. I could see Winter Cold standing at the far end of the line, a smug smile on her face. As my eyes drifted to her human, I winced. I didn’t think someone could get uglier over time.

We took our spot on the end of the line, Rainbow quivering excitedly as we waited. After several minutes, the three judges walked out on stage and took their seats behind the table. The crowd fell silent as the three ponies held one last hushed conversation before turning their attention to the line of participates in front of them.

Calm Breeze was eyeing the line of humans, a small smile on her face. The unicorn stallion was eyeing the crowd, a bored expression on his face.

Rosey, the earth pony, stood up and cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. When she spoke, her voice carried around the stands, clear and loud.

“After much consideration and discussion, we have come to an agreement. The winners are as follows: in fourth place, is Willow Wisp with her human, Crystal.” As the crowd applauded respectfully, a brown earth pony with dark green mane stepped forward to receive her ribbon, a shy smile on her face. She moved back to stand next to her human, a young female with short blond hair.

“In third place, is Emerald Dawn with her human, June.” A dark green unicorn stepped forward, blowing her multi-hued orange mane out of her face as she approached the judges. Once she received her prize, she took her placed beside her human again. Again, the crowd applauded.

“In second place, is Winter Cold with her human, Brutus.” Winter blinked in surprise, her brow furrowing before she composed herself. Smiling sweetly, the unicorn stepped forward to receive her prize. Turning back to rejoin her human, her eyes landed on me. They widened slightly before her forced smile turned into a triumphant smirk. I felt a small chill run through my body.

As Winter returned to her human’s side, Rainbow was practically bouncing in place, a large grin on her face. For a moment, it looked like someone had painted Pinkie and given her some wings.

“And finally,” Rosey said, glancing over the row of humans, “in first place, we have Rarity with her human, Max.” I immediately moved my foot to stomp down on Rainbow’s tail, stopping her from leaping into the air and cheering. Avera snickered loudly as Rainbow began dancing in place, bobbing her head up and down.

With a smile on her face, Rarity stepped forward, the crowd cheering her on, to receive her prize.

“Well done,” Rosey said. As she shook Rarity’s hoof with her own, the other humans and their owners began to disperse, and the crowd slowly began to trickle from the stands. “As the first place champion, you not only win the twelve-thousand bit prize, but your human also earns certain breeding rights, and will be allowed to enter any human show in the near future, regardless of class or breeding.”

I winced slightly when she started talking about selective breeding. Beside me, Avera just snickered louder.

“Thank you, darling,” Rarity said as she accepted the large bag filled with bits.

“You certainly have a fine human here, Ms. Rarity,” Rosey said with a smile. “Congratulations on winning first place.”

“Yes, well, that’s all fine and dandy, but there is a slight problem with that,” a voice spoke up from behind me, causing me to jump slightly. Turning, I grimaced slightly when I saw Winter Cold standing there, minus her human, with a large smirk on her face.

“And what problem is that, darling?” Rarity asked, eyeing Winter curiously.

“The fact that that is not your human,” Winter said smugly, pointing a hoof at me. Rosey’s eyes widened.

“What?” She turned to look at Rarity and Rainbow, both of whom had guilty looks on their faces. “This human isn’t yours?”

“No,” Winter answered for them. “He’s not. He belongs to Princess Sparkle, and I’m pretty sure that neither of you are her.” Rosey gave Rarity an affronted look, her eyes blazing.

“Care to explain this?” Both Rarity and Rainbow remained silent, too shocked at this sudden turn of events to formulate a proper response. Winter’s smug look continued to grow. Someone’s made their way onto my shitlist, I thought, glaring at the noble mare with contempt.

“I’m sorry,” Rosey snorted after neither mare answered her. “But if that is the case then your human is disqualified, and I’ll have to report this to the authorities.” A look of horror flew across Rarity’s face, and Rainbow looked like she had just been kicked in the gut.

Avera just laughed and shook her head.

“Do you really expect Princess Sparkle to come out to an event like this?” she asked, causing both Rosey and Winter to look at her.

“I’m sorry,” Winter sniffed, looking down at Avera with disdain. “Who are you?”

“First Lieutenant Avera Noctus,” she replied, before waving a hoof at me, her smile growing. “His handler.”

“H-handler?” Winter choked, her eyes widening. Avera ignored her and turned to look at Rosey.

“Princess Sparkle was very busy today, but wanted to enter her human in the show. Something about letting him get out and have some fun. She didn’t want to win by default from ponies withdrawing, so she asked Ms. Rarity to enter him in her name instead, and not Princess Sparkle’s.”

Rosey blinked in surprise, tilting her head to the side.

“That… actually makes sense,” she muttered thoughtfully.

“But, if you’re the handler, then why is this… mare the one who entered him?” Winter asked, trying to salvage the situation. I placed my hand over my mouth to hide my smirk. It’s like watching a drowning rat.

“Ms. Rarity is Max’s groomer, thus he is more comfortable around her. I’m just here to make sure nopony gets any ideas about the princess’s human,” Avera said with a flick of her ear.

“Well, what about her?” Winter asked frantically, pointing at Rainbow, who just growled at the noble.

“She’s his physical trainer. Keeps him fit and healthy,” Avera replied, her tone bored. “Look, if you’re going to complain about coming in second place, you can do it elsewhere.”

“B-but—”

“I have a scroll here, given to me by Princess Sparkle, that states that Ms. Rarity has permission to enter the princess’s human in this human show,” Avera interrupted, pulling a rolled-up scroll out of the pouch around her thigh. Holding it out to Rosey, she quirked an eyebrow. “Do you need to see it?”

“That will be quite alright,” Rosey said, waving the scroll away. “If you are his handler, and the princess has indeed given permission, then it is allowed.” She gave a sheepish smile to Rarity, who was looking relieved. “Sorry, it’s just we have had ponies steal humans before just to enter them for the prize money.”

“Well, I can assure you, darling, that was not our intention,” Rarity lied with a smile. I bit my tongue to stop myself from laughing. That’s exactly what you did though!

Rosey apologized again before trotting off, leaving us standing there, Winter glared at our group in disgust.

Rainbow crossed her forelegs, looking smug. “What’s wrong, Winter? Upset that your human wasn’t as good as ours? It’s okay, he is pretty awesome.”

“This changes nothing, featherbag,” Winter hissed, her eyes narrowing. Rainbow and Avera both squawked at the name, the latter nearly falling out of the air. “Just because your scarred-up freak beat my purebred this time doesn’t prove anything,” Winter added. She then turned to glare at me, but froze, her eyes widening in horror.

Now, I’ve been in Equestria for over half a year. I’ve lived here long enough to figure out some insults from the local populace (mostly directed at me as some elderly stallion yelled at me to get off of his lawn when I was running away from Rainbow). To call a pegasus a ‘featherbag’ was similar to calling a black person a nig— well, let’s just say it’s something you’re not supposed to say.

So, when Winter called Rainbow a ‘featherbag’, I decided that it was time for her to leave.

When she had been talking, I had crouched down and leaned in as close as I could get without her noticing, tilting my head so that my bad eye was forward. When she finally turned to look at me, I gave her the biggest, tooth-filled, demonic smile I could muster, all while growling deep in my chest.

There was a brief second of silence before the scent of urine filled the area, and then Winter was off across the stage like a bullet. I straightened up, watching her go, before turning and looking at my friends. Rarity gave me a terrified look, and Avera’s smile was no longer present as she eyed me nervously. Rainbow had a look of awe on her face.

“Dude, you just made her wet herself,” she breathed. “That… was… awesome!” Pulling out my notebook, I quickly scratched out a message before tearing the page out and handing it to Dash.

+Nobody insults my friends in front of me+

With that, I turned and walked off, intent on finding my way out of the warehouse that had nearly been my grave.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As we headed back towards town, away from the warehouse, Rainbow was beside herself. She was flitting to and fro, babbling happily as she clutched the blue ribbon to her chest. I couldn’t help the small smile that touched my face as I watched her. Despite the fact I had done all the work, I allowed her to keep the ribbon.

After all, forty-eight hundred bits was good enough for me. That, combined with the money I earned on Nightmare Night, gave me a considerable pile of bits. Besides, although I would never actually admit it to them, I did have some fun today.

Avera walked beside me, using her wings to brush the tops of the snow piles we passed. Rarity was in the rear, staring at the snow-covered ground with a distracted look on her face as she walked.

“Hey, Avera?” Rainbow asked suddenly, flitting down to hover beside me.

“Yeah?”

“How did you get Twilight’s permission down on paper? She didn’t even know we were doing this.” Avera furrowed her brow, confused. Suddenly, she perked up and smirked at Dash.

“Oh, you mean that scroll I pulled out?”

“Yeah, that!”

“I didn’t get Twilight’s permission,” Avera laughed. “Twilight doesn’t even know we’ve left the library.” Both Rainbow and I looked at her in confusion.

“But, you have the scroll!”

“It’s blank,” Avera explained as she pulled out the scroll and unrolled it, showing that there was nothing written on it. “I was bluffing.”

~And if they had looked at the scroll?~ I asked, raising my eyebrows. Avera just shrugged, looking unconcerned.

“Then we’d have been in trouble and had to beat a hasty retreat.”

~That’s awfully risky~

“There’s no gain without some risk,” Avera said with a shrug.

“Well, thank Celestia that it worked!” Rainbow laughed, hugging the ribbon closer to her chest.

As we reached the marketplace, I had to pause in order to not be taken out by a strange sight: a small, grayish-violet unicorn filly with a red scarf, and a human, with reddish-brown hair and beard, dressed in a black hoodie, zipped by on a sled propelled by the unicorn’s magic.

As I watched them zoom off across the market, somebody cleared their throat behind me. Turning, I saw Rarity giving me a thoughtful look.

“Darling, if you don’t mind, there’s something that’s been bugging me that I simply must ask you,” she said. I nodded to her, giving her a small smile as I reached into my bag for my notebook. Nearby, Avera perked up and Rainbow hovered closer, both with curious expressions on their faces.

“When you were showing us your device, the… the phone, was it?” I nodded my head, and she continued. “Well, when you were showing us those moving pictures of your world, I couldn’t help but notice that there were only humans in them. Are there no ponies on your world?”

I froze, the smile vanishing from my face as my body tensed. I hadn’t told Twilight anything about ponies from Earth. I was hoping to avoid the subject, honestly. Unfortunately, Rarity seemed to have blown that plan clean out of the water.

“Darling?” I blinked, realizing that I had been staring off into the distance. Looking down, I saw Rarity giving me a concerned look. Slowly flipping my notebook open, I sat down on a nearby bench that had been cleared of snow, and began to write.

+Yes, we have ponies back home+

“Then why didn’t we see any?” Rarity asked, cocking her head to the side. “Even in that picture of the big city, there weren’t any ponies. Do they live in a different part of the world?”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, tapping the charcoal against the paper. Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair before replying. +Do you remember how shocked you were when you discovered that I was intelligent?+

Rarity nodded her head, pulling her scarf a little tighter around her neck as the wind picked up.

“Yes,” she said. “I could hardly believe my eyes. I was sure that I was dreaming and would wake up to find it had never happened. It just didn’t make sense to me, even after Twilight explained that you were from a different world. Naturally, though, I managed to work my mind around it, and well… here we are.” She smiled up at me for several seconds before she blinked and a confused look crossed her face.

“Why?”

+Let’s just say I felt the same way about you ponies+

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Rainbow asked, reading over Rarity’s shoulder, who looked just as confused. Avera was silent for brief moment before she inhaled sharply, her head jerking back. Her blue eyes widened as she looked up at me.

“Are you telling us,” she asked slowly, “that on your planet… ponies are like the humans here? We’re nothing but animals?” Rarity and Rainbow’s heads whipped up and they stared at me, mouths agape.

Slowly, I nodded my head.

Avera’s ear folded against her head, and she gave me a blank look. Rarity looked slightly ill, but she maintained her composure, patting at her mane absentmindedly with a hoof in a calming gesture. Rainbow continued to stare at me, her mouth agape. Slowly, her wings began to spread by her sides.

“That must have been a major shock for you, to find the roles reversed,” Avera said eventually, her tone oddly casual. I chuckled, shaking my head.

+It’s actually, oddly, very funny sometimes+

“How so?” the black pegasus asked, her ears returning to their normal position. Rarity was calming down as well, though she now looked rather troubled. Rainbow just continued to stare into the distance, her face turning red due to the cold.

+You know those saddles you make to look good, and be fashionable?+ I asked, looking at Rarity. When she nodded, my smile grew. +Back home, we used saddles as a means to allow horses and ponies to carry us more comfortably+

“You use saddles to turn ponies into beasts of burden?” Rarity asked, her eyes widening again.

“Like, as a show of dominance?” Avera asked, scrunching up her face. Beside her, Rainbow squeaked, her wings spreading wider.

+No, as a means for comfort, and to allow us to steer them. Ponies on Earth are as stupid as humans on Equus+

“Interesting,” Avera said, a grin slowly spreading across her face. “I think the princesses would like to know this little tidbit.” I swallowed nervously, my right eye twitching slightly. Avera picked up on my distress and shook her head.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “If anything, it could possibly help you in the long run. If you can treat us ponies as equals, despite what we are like on your old world, then who’s to say ponies here can’t do the same for you?”

“Darling,” Rarity said suddenly, worry etched into expression. “Have you ever told Twilight this?” I blinked in surprise and shook my head. She frowned, her troubled look growing. “I see.” She fell silent, rubbing her chin with a hoof. Slowly, she looked over at Rainbow. I glanced over at her as well, only to find that she was still staring off into space.

“Come on,” Avera said, snapping us back to the present. “We’ve got to get back to the library before Twilight finds out.”

“Before Twilight finds out what?” a voice spoke up. Rarity yelped, Avera and Rainbow leapt into the air in shock, and I jumped, standing up from the bench so fast, I became lightheaded.

Twilight was standing there, scarf wrapped around her neck, saddlebags on her back. She gave us a bemused look, her eyes traveling to each of us in turn. Ebony peeked her head out from behind the alicorn, a blank look on her face.

Silence fell as each group stared at the other, neither saying anything. Then, Twilight’s eyes landed on the ribbon in Rainbow’s hooves.

“What’s that?” she asked, giving it a confused look.

“It’s, uh… it’s a ribbon for… for f-flying. Yeah, a flying ribbon I won in Cloudsdale!” Rainbow gave her a sheepish smile.

I silently prayed that Twilight would buy that lie. I did not want to sit through three hours of her telling me why what I did was wrong, and cheating, and I should never have done it in the first place, followed by writing a friendship report to Celestia.

“Really?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, nodding her head quickly.

“Then why is there a human on it, and ‘Ponyville Human Show’ across the base?” Damn… so close, but no cigar.

“I...uh,” Rainbow began. She fidgeted her hooves, eyes darting back and forth nervously. She took a deep breath…

...and then bolted like a rabbit, a rainbow streak trailing behind her as she sped off into the sky. The sound of thundering hooves told me that Rarity was making a break for it as well, leaving me and Avera to fend for ourselves.

We both glanced at each other before turning to look at Twilight. She was tapping her hoof, giving us both an annoyed look.

“It was his idea!” Avera cried suddenly, pointing a hoof at me. With that, she turned and shot off towards the library in a black blur of fur and feathers. Twilight watched her go before slowly turning her head back to me.

I gave Twilight a large smile, chuckling nervously. Her eyes narrowed. As she opened her mouth to say something, I made my decision.

I’m proud to say that I managed to make it a couple of meters before a lavender aura wrapped around me, lifting me off my feet and carrying me back towards my doom.

Interlude: Sunbutt, part 2 ☼

A/N: A continuation of Interlude: Sunbutt.

~ Sunbutt ~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Side Story: Part Two: Moonbutt Strikes Back < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sipping at her steaming hot cup of coffee, Celestia cracked open a magenta eye and stared blearily at her sister, who was sitting across the table from her. The Lunar Princess had a large smile on her face, her entire body shaking slightly with suppressed mirth.

After eyeing her sister for several seconds, Celestia yawned before asking, "What's so funny?"

"You'll see~~~!" Luna sang, her blue eyes twinkling with laughter.

Celestia winced at how loud her sister was being, her ears folding against her head. Staring at Luna for several more seconds, Celestia then sighed and closed her eye again. Taking another sip of coffee, she concluded that it was too early in the morning to deal with her sister's boisterous attitude. Celestia—despite being the Princess of the Sun—always needed at least two or three cups of coffee before dealing with Luna's antics in the morning.

...and then a shot or two of Fireweed Whiskey to deal with the nobles later in the day.

Nopony knew her secret for keeping a relaxed demeanor during the day, and she wasn't going to tell anypony either. Only Starswirl knew that she spiked her morning beverage, and he willingly and loyally took that secret with him to the grave, Maker rest his soul.

"Slow night for the Night Court?" Celestia asked, taking another sip of her coffee before lowering the cup to the table, keeping her eyes closed as she spoke.

"Neigh!" Luna replied happily, shaking her head even though her sister couldn't see her. "While 'tis true that nopony showed up this night seeking an audience with us, we were rather busy nonetheless."

"Really?" Celestia asked, opening her eyes in surprise. "Usually you're only this energetic in the morning when you've had a chance to nap during court." Luna's cheeks immediately flushed, tapping her hooves nervously on the table.

"We don't know what thou are talking about," she said, not meeting Celestia eyes. The Solar Princess just hummed softly, keeping her gaze on her sister as she lit up her horn and poured herself another cup of coffee.

"So, what were you up to then, if nopony showed up for court, and you weren't napping?" she asked as she returned the coffee pot to its place on the table.

"You'll see~~~!" Luna sang again, bouncing in her seat like a foal. Shaking her head, Celestia just lowered her muzzle and inhaled the aroma of the coffee, humming happily.

The sound of the door to the dining room opening drew the attention of both alicorns. The door swung open, allowing a tired-looking Twilight to enter. She was dressed in a pink robe that had her cutie mark stitched into the sides. Her wings were ruffled and she had an adorable case of bedhead, her highlights mixing in with the rest of her hair in a chaotic mess of colors.

Twilight yawned as she made her way to the table, taking a seat beside her mentor. Grabbing an empty coffee mug, she proceed to pour herself a cup with her magic. When the cup was filled to her satisfaction, Twilight lifted it to her lips, but paused when she caught sight of the still-bouncing Luna.

Blinking owlishly, Twilight stared at the Lunar Princess for several seconds before glancing at her mentor in confusion.

"...'s her problem?" she asked, her words slurred and hoarse-sounding.

"Don't know. She won't tell me," Celestia said at the same moment that Luna sang, "You'll see~~~!" Looking back and forth between the two other princesses with a blank look, Twilight just sighed and focused on her coffee. Silence fell over the table for several minutes: two princesses savoring their caffeinated drinks, and the third bouncing around in place like a sugar-filled foal.

Celestia had just finished her fourth cup of coffee—and Twilight her second—when the dining room door opened again. All three alicorns turned to stare at the open door with a mix of tiredness and curiosity (and, in Luna's case, excitement). There was a brief pause before a human female entered.

Her dirty-brown hair was a tangled mess, hanging down across her shoulders and in front of her face. She was naked except for a baggy black shirt that went down to her thighs, covering her breasts and stomach. Her footsteps were silent as her bare feet carried her across the floor, her head hung low.

As the human drew nearer, Celestia eyed her curiously. She was slightly taller than most other human females, and Celestia was sure that she had never seen this particular human around the castle before. She wasn't branded and she did not wear a collar around her neck, so there was no way to identify a possible owner.

Beside Celestia, Twilight leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better view of the approaching human. Her muzzle was scrunched up, a mystified look on her face. She clearly did not recognize the human either.

Glancing at her sister, Celestia watched as Luna's smile seemed to grow with each step the human took, her body shaking with silent laughter. Keeping her head lowered, and her face hidden behind her hair, the human walked silently around Celestia and Twilight before taking a seat next to the lavender alicorn. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, the human huffed loudly. This just seemed to cause Luna's mirth to grow.

Twilight and Celestia looked at each other, their confusion mirrored in the other's face. Luna was practically ready to explode, her expression that of a foal on the morning of Hearth's Warming Eve.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Celestia. "Uhmmm...."

At the sound of her voice, the human glanced up, her hair falling away from her face. Both Twilight and Celestia inhaled sharply, their eyes growing to the size of dinner plates, as they caught sight of a very familiar-looking scar running across the human's face, leading to her right eye, which was milky white.

Unable to hold in her merriment any longer, Luna's wings snapped open as she bolted to her hooves.

"HUZZAH!" she yelled gleefully, pointing a hoof at the human. "'MOONBUTT' HAS GOTTEN HER REVENGE, YOU VILE HEATHEN!" Without waiting for a response, Luna's horn lit up and with a mighty crack she disappeared, leaving the remaining two, flabbergasted alicorns with the human.

Slowly, the human turned her head and glared at the speechless pair of ponies beside her. Opening her mouth, Max growled, "...not a word."

::part one ~ part two ~ part three ~ part four::

Chapter 38: Eating Out with Your Human

As I stomped into the library, I shook my shoulders, trying to dislodge the snow that had slowly accumulated upon them during my time outside. Tossing my shovel aside, I quickly closed the door behind me before any snow could blow in. Once I was sure that the door was shut tight, I turned, blowing on my hands to warm them.

At the sound of the door closing, Twilight looked up from her desk, a surprised expression flitting across her face.

“Did you finish clearing off the entire front walk already?” she asked, glancing over at the clock on the wall. I nodded, running a hand through my frozen hair, trying to knock some of the small chucks of ice loose. Reluctantly, I removed my warm coat and hung it upon the coat rack. Kicking off my enchanted sandals, I made my way quickly to the fireplace, and the crackling fire within.

Crouching down, I sighed happily as the warmth of the fire washed over me, warming my frozen limbs.

It had been snowing nonstop for the past three days, a clear indication that Ponyville’s weather team was apparently trying to beat the record for snowfall. The blanket of snow across the town was becoming deeper and deeper. At the moment, it was currently up to my knees in some places. While I normally wouldn’t find that troublesome, that meant that the snow was chest-high to the ponies. Unicorns, with their magic, could easily clear a path through the snow, but the others could not. In order for all ponies to successfully come and go, the snow had to be cleared from the paths.

Twilight was having me go out and clear the front walk of the library every few hours as my punishment for “cheating” during the human show. I had to make sure that the path was clear, and that any ice had been either chipped away, or properly taken care of. I was just glad she hadn’t found out about the bits I had won yet, or I'd probably have it worse.

I had been shoveling the snow all day, but at the rate the snow was coming down, my work would be completely covered within an hour of so. Nonetheless, I continued clearing it faithfully whenever she asked.

As I continued to warm myself by the fire, my teeth chattering, I heard movement coming from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Twilight approaching with a concerned look on her face.

“Here,” she said softly, levitating a steaming mug of hot chocolate over to me. I took the mug in my hands, cooing happily as the heat from the cup began to seep into my skin. I took a small sip, reveling in the sensation of the hot liquid flowing down my throat and into my stomach.

As I took another sip of life-giving hot chocolate, Twilight gave me an apologetic look, her ears splaying backwards.

“You can stop shoveling if you want,” she said. “I keep forgetting you aren’t as resistant to the cold as Equestrian humans. I don’t want you getting frostbite.” Smiling, I reached out and poked her nose with my finger, causing her eyes to go crossed as she scrunched up her face.

Lowering the mug to the floor, I signed out, ~If I didn’t do it, we’d be stuck in here within a few hours~

“True,” she said. “But I could always make Spike do it if it got to that point.” I gave her a blank look, shaking my head slowly.

~You’d make the cold-blooded dragon go out in this weather to shovel snow?~

“He could always use his fire to melt it,” Twilight said with a shrug.

~Yeah, and then the water from the melted snow turns to ice~

“Fine,” Twilight huffed, rolling her eyes. “Have it your way. Just please remember to come in to warm up if it gets too cold for you.” I smirked and reached back down for the steaming mug. Picking it up, I then stood up and slowly made my way to the couch.

As I collapsed upon the comfy cushions, the basement door cracked open and Primrose stuck her head out. She glanced around, her red eyes narrowing as they landed on me. Tsking softly, she shook her head in annoyance.

“You were outside again, weren’t you?” she huffed, pushing the door open further and slipping into the room. “You keep this up and you’re going to get hypothermia.”

~I’m not made of glass~ I quipped, holding the mug in between my legs, where it began to warm my lap. ~I’ve managed to survive twenty years without the help of three pony guards, and I’m pretty sure I can survive a little cold while I shovel snow~

“That may be true,” Primrose said, stopping in front of me. “But if you do get injured, it’s our flanks that get chewed out by the princesses, not yours, so just humor me, alright?”

~That depends on the princess~ I signed smirking as I cast a quick glance over at Twilight, who had returned to her desk.

“Yeah, yeah,” Primrose scoffed, rolling her eyes. She pulled a strange-looking device out from under her leathery wing and held in up in front of her. It looked like a thermometer you shoved in someone’s ear, but instead of the small cone-like part that entered the ear canal, it had a large black pad on the front.

“Now, shut up and hold still,” the batpony commanded as she reached up and pressed the pad against my forehead. I winced slightly at the strange, rubbery feel, but did as instructed. About half a minute later, the device beeped and Primrose lowered it, glancing at the results.

“Temperature is a few degrees lower than normal, but well within an acceptable margin,” she muttered as she placed the thermometer-like device back beneath her wing. “Now, if you would be so kind, please stop going out there every other hour. The last thing we need right now is you getting sick, or frostbitten.”

“That’s what I said!” Twilight called from her desk, keeping her head lowered. Primrose turned back to look at me, a large smirk on her face. Fixing her with a deadpan look, I slowly lifted my closed fist up until it was at eye level. As I took a long, slow sip of hot chocolate, I extended my middle finger, giving Primrose the bird.

She just stared at the digit, blinking occasionally.

“You know, none of us know what that means unless you tell us,” she said. Lowering the mug from my lips, I just smirked at her. This caused her red eyes to narrow, and her ear twitched in annoyance.

“Although, I think I could take a stab at its meaning,” she growled under her breath. I just wiggled the digit at her as I took another sip of the hot liquid. With a huff, the batpony turned and headed back towards the basement door. Opening it, she descended the stairs and closed the door behind her, but not before some snippets of conversation floated up from below.

“No, no, no! You’re supposed to ease it in gently, not shove it in all at once! You’re going to end up damaging something important!”

“Well, excuse me! It’s rather… uff, hard to control it in this position!”

“Just hold it steady. I’ll do it myself—”

As the door closed with a click, silencing the voices, I turned and looked over at Twilight. She was staring at the closed door, a confused look on her face. Her eyes slowly drifted over to me, and her muzzle suddenly took on a red tinge. She quickly returned her gaze back to her desk.

Scrunching up my face slightly, I glanced around the library before looking down at the steaming cup in my hands. Slowly, I began to nod my head. My life has become weird.

Finishing off the mug of hot chocolate, I placed the empty cup on the table beside me. I stretched, groaning happily as my back cracked loudly. Lowering my arms, I reached for a book that sat upon the coffee table in front of me. I picked it up and immediately flipped to the bookmarked page, continuing where I had left off.

The story was basically this world’s version of Beauty and the Beast, only Belle was a pony, and the Beast was a griffin. Luckily, there was enough difference between the two stories to at least make the story somewhat interesting, although it still felt like a cheesy romance novel.

I had only been reading for a few minutes when Twilight suddenly stood up with a groan. Stretching her wings, she closed the book she had been reading with a soft thump.

“That’s it,” she sighed, stepping away from her desk and walking over to the couch. “I’m done. I can’t find a single reference to anything—deity, legend, or myth—that refers to a ‘Radeck’ or anywhere. I think that Lyra may have just been crazier than we first thought, and the name is made up.” I glanced over at her as she flopped upon the couch beside me.

As she stretched out across the couch, she glanced up at the book in my hands, humming softly.

“Looks like you’re almost done with that,” she said. “I’m going to need to find the sequel for you.” I cocked an eyebrow, looking down at her as I placed the book in my lap.

~There’s a sequel?~

“Oh, yes,” she said, nodding lazily. “I believe there are five more books in the series, with a sixth on its way.” As she spoke, Twilight wiggled around till she was lying on her back, her head resting against my hip. Her horn poked my side gently as she breathed. Reaching down, I scratched the side of her head as I returned to my book.

Twilight hummed happily as I scratched, tilting her head to allow me better access.

“Oh, that’s nice,” she murmured softly, her eyes closing.

We stayed that way for a long time, neither of us wanting to move. I smiled softly as I read, enjoying the warm presence of the lavender pony beside me, as well as the fire crackling in front of me. Twilight just laid there, rubbing my knee with a hoof every now and then. The silence was broken only occasionally by the sound of me turning a page.

Eventually, we were snapped out of our silent daze by the sound of someone knocking on the front door. I raised my gaze from my book, looking around in confusion. Twilight blinked groggily as she sat up, glancing at the door.

“Who’s out in this weather?” she said, slurring slightly as she blinked sleep from her eyes. Standing, she stretched before walking unsteadily to the door and opened it. Yelping in surprise, she jumped back as Rarity and Fluttershy staggered inside, both shivering horribly, both covered in snow.

“Rarity!?” Twilight cried, closing the door behind the pair, blocking the winter wind. She looked at her two friends in surprise, worry etching across her face. “Fluttershy? What’s wrong? Why are you two outside in this weather?”

“W-we were c-coming to see you, actually,” Rarity replied, her teeth chattering. Beside her, Fluttershy nodded, her face half-buried in her scarf. The part I could see was red from the cold. Snow clung to the pair’s manes and tails, falling to the floor as they brushed it off of them.

“What were you coming to see me for?” Twilight asked, her face scrunching up. “Unless it’s something important, couldn’t it wait until the storm passes?”

“We’ve come to take you out to dinner, darling,” Rarity said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Both of you, actually.” She glanced over at me, a sly smile touching her lips briefly. Twilight and I exchanged incredulous looks before looking at the two mares.

“Out to dinner?” Twilight repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Why? What’s the occasion?”

“Does one need an occasion in order to treat friends to a dinner out?”

“Usually, yes,” Twilight deadpanned, glancing out the window. “Especially with the weather that is currently going on outside.” Rarity huffed, batting her mane with a hoof.

“If you must know,” she said. “Scratchers is having a special tonight—four ponies and your meal is half-off—and I thought we might take advantage of it.”

“Really? Scratchers?” Twilight asked, looking at Rarity like she had grown a second head. “I didn’t think that was a restaurant you went to, Rarity.”

“While I’ll admit that it isn’t the most high-end establishment, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like getting a good scratch every now and then,” Rarity said, not looking Twilight in the eye. I just looked between the two of them, confused. What’s Scratchers? And why do I have a sudden craving for buffalo wings?

“You’ve hated humans ever since Sweetie Belle got attacked,” Twilight said, a blank look on her face. Rarity’s eyes narrowed and she finally turned her head, glaring at Twilight.

“We are taking you out to eat, darling,” she said, her tone thin. “And you are going to enjoy it!”

“But you said the special was for four ponies,” Twilight argued, her eyes narrowing as well. “We currently have only three.”

“Then ask one of your guards to come with,” Rarity countered. Twilight just scoffed, shaking her head.

“I’m not going to ask one of Max’s guards to—"

“I’m in,” came a voice from the basement stairs. Glancing over my shoulders, I saw that Ebony had entered the room during the conversation and was watching the two mares with a small smile on her face.

Twilight blinked, eyeing the unicorn unsuredly. “You’re in?”

“Sure,” Ebony said with a shrug. “It’s been a while since I went to Scratchers. I really like their Cinnamon Apple Cider!” For a moment, her eyes became unfocused and she drooled slightly, murmuring “Cinnamon Apple” softly to herself. I just eyed her, trying not to laugh.

After a few seconds, Ebony blinked, shaking her head before smiling sheepishly. “Sorry.” As she recovered and started to walk forward, I glanced around at the other mares.

~Okay, what is Scratchers exactly?~ I asked. Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but Ebony quickly silenced her with a hoof.

“You’ll see when we get there,” she said with a smirk. “They have really good food and drinks. You’ll like it, I promise.”

“Indeed,” Rarity added, adjusting her scarf. “This shall be an interesting experience, to be sure.”

“But we don’t even know if outside humans are allowed inside,” Twilight said, pushing Ebony’s hoof away from her mouth, grimacing slightly at the taste. “And I’m not making Max stand out in the snow, or walk home alone.”

“They’re allowed,” Rarity said, smirking at Twilight. “I double-checked before coming. They’re actually encouraged, as long as they’re well behaved, and I do believe that Max may be the most well-mannered human in Equestria.”

Twilight hung her head in defeat. “Fine, just let me get my things, but this better not be anything like that little stunt you pulled with the human show,” she added, glaring at Rarity.

“Excellent!” Rarity said happily. Twilight trotted over to her desk and began searching the contents for her bitbag. Looking down at my book, I sighed heavily before closing it and setting it back down on the coffee table. Standing, I made my way over to the coat rack and began to pull on my winter gear. As I did that, Ebony opened the basement door.

“Hey, Avera!” she shouted down. “We’re going out! You’re on snow duty!”

“Where are you going?” shouted the pegasus from the basement.

“Scratchers!”

“Oh, bring me some hayfries, will ya?”

“Anything for Primrose?” Ebony shouted back down.

“Are you crazy?” came the batpony’s reply. “That stuff goes straight to your thighs!”

“I’ll take her hayfries then!” Avera shouted happily.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Ebony chuckled. With that, she closed the door and moved to grab her scarf.

Once everyone was ready, I opened the door and we headed out into the snowy landscape.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I stared up at the building in front of us, squinting slightly due to the snow swirling around on the wind. Our group was standing in front of a large building in a part of town I had never really been before. Surprisingly enough, there were ponies coming and going through the front door, chatting happily with one another. Of course, we were near the residential area of Ponyville, so they probably didn’t have to go far to get home.

Despite the snow doing its best to blind me, I saw that there was a large, illuminated sign above the front door, the orange letters proudly reading:

Scratchers

We aim to please!

The heat generated by the glowing letters was enough to keep snow from accumulating on the sign, and the area around the front of the building appeared to have been cleared out several minutes ago.

Tearing my gaze from the sign, I made my way to the front door and held it open for the rest of the group. Eager to get out of the cold, the ponies hurried past me and into the warmth of the restaurant.

As we entered, the pegasus mare behind the host stand glanced up and gave us a warm smile.

“Hi, welcome to Scratchers!” she chirped happily, giving a slight bow to Twilight as she spoke. “How many are in your party?”

“Five. Four ponies, one human,” Rarity replied as she loosened her scarf from around her neck.

“Is he well behaved?” the mare asked, glancing up at me.

“The best there is,” Ebony said with a smirk. “I dare you to find a more docile human anywhere.” I clicked my teeth together softly, cocking my head to the side.

“Excellent!” Reaching down, the mare grabbed several menus and tucked them beneath her wing. Trotting out from behind the stand, she motioned for us to follow her, a bounce in her step.

As she led us to our table, I couldn’t help but glance around at the surrounding tables. Despite the horrible weather outside, the restaurant was fairly packed. Groups of ponies sat around circular tables, chatting happily with one another as they enjoyed the food in the warm atmosphere.

There were a few humans mixed in with the ponies. Some were sitting with their owners, eating some food that was provided to them. However, there were also humans walking around through the sea of tables, carrying trays of food. These humans were dressed in similar uniforms of orange and white.

These uniformed humans would place their food-laden trays in the center the round table, leaving the ponies sitting there to sort the food out amongst themselves. After that, the human would either pick up the tray and carry it back to the kitchen, or stay behind and begin to scratch the ponies behind the ears and down their necks.

Noticing my confused look as I observed this behavior, Ebony bumped my hip with her shoulder, causing me to look down.

“Scratchers is famous for training humans to serve food, and provide brief massages, or ‘scratches’ to customers who order them,” she explained in an undertone. I blinked, glancing around the restaurant again.

“It’s actually pretty popular,” she continued as the hostess led us towards the back corner. “There are at least three Scratchers around the nightclubs of Canterlot. I hear that Princess Luna will occasionally visit them if she’s feeling too stressed. Despite their somewhat aggressive behavior on occasion, those fingers can work miracles.”

Ebony fell silent as the hostess stopped in front of a circular booth. Placing the menus around the table, she stepped back and gave us all a large smile.

“Your server will be with you shortly,” she said, giving Twilight another quick bow before trotting off. As the mares slipped into the booth, I removed my jacket and tossed it into an empty corner of the booth before sliding in as well. The booth itself was quite spacious, seeming to be made for eight ponies maximum.

As soon as we had gotten comfortable, a pink unicorn in an orange apron sidled up to our table.

“Hello, my name is Sable Breath and I’ll be taking care of you this evening!” she said, a warm smile on her face. Her violet eyes drifted over to me and her smile grew. Moving quickly—and before I could move to stop her—she reached up and placed a hoof on my upper back, giving it a quick push and twist.

I inhaled sharply, my eyes widening at the sudden spike of pleasure that zipped up my spine. What the hell was that? I thought as I moved to look back over my shoulder. Before I could, however, the mare gave another twist. My breath hitched in my throat as another flash of pleasure ran up my back.

As the mare lowered her hoof, she turned her attention back to the others.

“Can I start you off with something to drink? Cider, ale, a salt lick?” Nobody answered. They were too busy looking between the server and me, the confusion clear on their faces.

“What was that you just did?” Ebony asked, pointing a hoof at me. “I’ve never seen him react like that before.”

Sable Breath blinked, glancing back at me as well.

“What? You mean this?” With that, she reached up and placed her hoof in the exact same spot and twisted it again. Another wave of pleasure flowed up my spine, and for the briefest of seconds a smile flashed across my face before I could help it. Luckily, the server didn’t seem to have seen it, but the rest of my group had.

“It’s just a small technique that we use to help relax visiting humans,” Sable explained, lowering her hoof. “It actually feels good for the humans. We’ve had several fall asleep afterwards.”

“I see,” Ebony said, studying me briefly before turning her gaze back to the menu.

“What was it you did exactly?” Twilight asked, giving the mare a weird look. I noted dimly that her horn was glowing softly, but I didn’t see what she was using magic on.

“Just put your hoof in the middle of either shoulder blade, push, and twist. Most humans will be putty in your hooves within seconds. The harder the pressure, the more intense the feeling.” I sat there in confusion, trying to figure out what had just happened. The spot that she had pressed on had never been sensitive before, so why did it feel so good now?

“Really?” Twilight asked, her face lighting up. Her eyes flicked down, and a small smile touched her face. After a few seconds, she looked back up at the server and nodded happily. “Thank you very much for explaining.”

“You’re welcome,” Sable chirped happily. “Now, can I get anypony something to drink?”

“I’ll have a mug of Apple Acres Cider,” Rarity said, adjusting her mane. “The freshest you have.”

“Make that two,” Twilight said.

“W-water, please,” Fluttershy whispered, hiding behind her mane.

“I’ll have a pint of your Cinnamon Apple Cider,” Ebony said happily. Sable quickly scratched down everyone’s orders on the notepad held in her magic. Once she was done, she glanced over at me.

“Anything for your human? Water?”

“He’ll have a Dragon’s Breath,” Ebony said quickly, a smirk playing across her face. Sable paused, giving her a confused look.

“You’re buying your human a specialty drink?”

“Eeyup,” Ebony chirped happily. The server continued to stare at her for several seconds before shrugging.

“Well, I guess I can do that for you, if you’d like.” She wrote down the drink before tucking the notepad into a small pouch on her uniform. She gave us a quick smile and a nod of her head. “I’ll have your drinks out in a moment.”

As she trotted off, Rarity glanced over at me.

“Are you alright, darling? She didn’t hurt you, did she?” Lazily, I shook my head and let out a content sigh. I didn’t know what the server had done, or why it had affected me, but my back muscles felt as though someone had been kneading them continuously for several minutes. It was glorious.

“Well,” Ebony chuckled, shaking her head. “It seems somepony is already enjoying himself.” I stuck my tongue out at her, but chuckled softly nonetheless.

As the others began to chat quietly amongst themselves, I allowed my eyes to drift over the restaurant. A few tables away, a young human female was approaching the table, a tray of food in her hands. Placing the tray on the table, the female then reached down and began to scratch behind one of the ponies’ ears.

Perking up slightly in interest, I watched the human work. She would alternate between short, quick scratches at the base of the ear, and long, deliberate strokes up the edges of the mare’s ear. Every time the human reached the tip of the mare’s ear, she gave it a light pinch, which caused the ear to twitch slightly.

As the human worked, the mare slowly began to lean her head into the human’s hand, cooing softly. After a minute or so, the human stopped scratching. Picking up the tray, she made her way back towards the kitchens, leaving the ponies to their meal.

As I watched her leave, I chewed on the inside of my cheek, humming softly. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t hear our server approach until she was standing right beside me.

“Here we are,” she said, causing me to jump slightly. Setting the serving tray down on the table, she began to pass out the drinks. “Apple Acres, Apple Acres, Water, Cinnamon Apple, aaaaand Dragon’s Breath.” Picking up her now empty tray, she looked around the table at everyone.

“I’ll be back in a second to take your orders,” she said before trotting off. As the others reached for their beverage of choice, I glanced down at my drink in confusion. The glass was smoking slightly, almost filled to the brim with a strange, red liquid that glowed softly. Sugar lined the edge of the glass, and cherries floated around the bottom of the drink.

“It’s called Dragon’s Breath,” Ebony said as I continued to stare at the drink. A smile touched her lips as she lifted her own glass to her lips. “Try it; you’ll like it!”

Picking the glass up, I gave it a tentative sniff. Smells fruity, I thought, staring down at the glowing liquid. Shrugging mentally, I lifted the glass to my lips and took a small sip. My eyes widened and a small smile touched my lips as the taste flooded my mouth. This is delicious!

I happily took another, bigger sip of the drink, before lowering it.

“Told you you’d like it,” Ebony smirked. I was going to reply, but at that moment our server returned.

“Alright, is everypony ready to order?”

“I think we are,” Rarity said, eyeing the menu quickly before nodding. “We’re going to be taking advantage of your “four-for-half-off” deal.”

“Do you know of our other special?” Sable asked, her eyes flicking over to me.

“No, what’s the other special?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side.

“It’s a human-based special, actually,” Sable explained, a smile touching her lips. “It’s called the ‘Firebreather Challenge’. If your human can eat twenty-five spicy wings in under a half-an-hour, your entire meal is on the house, and it’s all you can eat and drink.”

“Wings?” Fluttershy asked, giving the unicorn a concerned look. “As in meat?”

“Not to worry,” Sable said quickly. “All our meat is artificial. We’ve had griffins try it and it tastes the same as regular meat, but no creatures were killed in it’s making. The humans can’t tell the difference.”

“Wait,” Ebony said, a smile slowly spreading across her muzzle. “So you’re saying that if our human can eat twenty-five wings in thirty minutes, everything’s free?”

“Eeyup,” Sable said with a nod. “But as I said before, they’re rather spicy.” The others looked at me, silently asking my opinion. After a second, I gave a small, almost imperceptible nod of my head.

“We’ll do it!” Ebony said, slamming her hooves on the table, a large smile on her face. “And I’ll be having three more Cinnamon Apple Ciders!”

“Shouldn’t you at least wait to see if your human can finish the challenge?” our server asked, chuckling.

“Nope,” Ebony replied. “It’ll be fine. He’ll eat anything!”

“Okay,” Sable said, pulling out her notepad. “That’ll be the Firebreather Challenge for the human. What can I get the rest of you girls?” As the others gave their orders, I took another sip of my glowing drink.

I wonder how spicy she’s talking about, I mused as I enjoyed the fruity beverage.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the server headed back to put the orders in, Rarity leaned towards her friend.

“Do you really think Max can eat twenty-five of those… things?” she asked, her voice quiet.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied. “Guess we’ll find out.” Rarity hummed softly, lifting her mug of cider to her lips. Twilight took a sip of her own beverage, watching as her human happily enjoyed his glowing drink.

“I’ve got to say,” she said as she lowered her mug. “I’m glad you talked us into this, Rarity.”

“Think nothing of it, darling,” Rarity said, waving her hoof.

Placing her drink back down on the table, Twilight watched as one of the servers walked by, heading towards a nearby table, one with a human. Once there, the mare lifted a forehoof and placed it upon the human’s back, right in the middle of the left shoulder blade. One push and twist later, the human slumped in her seat, groaning happily. The server then proceeded to run the tip of her hoof up the human’s spine, which caused said human to shiver violently.

Humans appear to enjoy having their backs massaged, Twilight thought as she observed the interaction. Max enjoyed Lotus’s massage, he enjoys cracking his back, and putting pressure on center parts of the back brings pleasure.

As Twilight continued to watch the server closely, Rarity leaned in, trying to see what Twilight was studying so intensely. When she caught sight of the server and what she was doing, a small smile grew on the white unicorn’s face.

“What are you looking at, darling?” she asked, a playful tone in her voice. Twilight jerked suddenly, not aware of Rarity’s close proximity to her.

“N-nothing!” she said quickly, a small blush appearing on her face.

“Oh, you were certainly looking at something,” Rarity continued softly, making sure that the others couldn’t hear her. “Possibly looking for ways to make your human happier, hmm?” Twilight’s cheeks turned redder, and she buried her muzzle in her mug.

Rarity chuckled, a smile touching her face. She lifted her own mug up to her lips, but paused when she caught sight of her friend’s horn.

“Twilight, why is your horn glowing?” she asked.

“N-no reason,” Twilight replied quickly, her eyes fixed on another table where one of the patron ponies was petting a service human. Rarity’s eyes narrowed as she stared at her friend. Her ear twitched and Rarity could have sworn that she heard something coming from beneath the table.

Straining her ears, she could make out the faint sound of something scratching… on paper.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity said slowly, lowering her gaze. “Are you... taking notes under the table?” Twilight froze, her eyes going wide as the scratching stopped suddenly.

“You are, aren’t you?” Rarity deadpanned. Twilight was silent for several seconds before responding.

“Yes,” she said softly as the scratching noise started up again.

“Any particular reason why?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow as she took a sip of her cider.

“For science.”

“Just for science?” Rarity asked, placing her drink back down. Twilight’s ears splayed back at the question.

“Yes,” she said defensively. “I’m writing notes on the differences in human-pony interactions, and how they affect those involved.”

“And this has nothing to do with a certain… human?” Rarity asked, her eyes flicking over to Max, who was currently blowing air on Fluttershy through a straw, causing the timid pegasus to giggle.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Twilight said, glancing over at the pair as well. A small smile touched her muzzle, and her gaze softened. Rarity gave Twilight a sideways look, frowning slightly.

“Have you tried talking to him about this?” she asked softly. Twilight smile slowly vanished, and she hung her head.

“I have,” she sighed softly. “Something either interrupts me before I can, or I get cold hooves. I thought it would be easy to do, but… I’m beginning to have my doubts.”

“Are you worried about how he will take it?”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded, not looking up. “I want to tell him, I really do, but I don’t want to scare him away. Cadance has talked to me about it, but whenever I go to talk to him, I lose my courage. I’m not sure if he feels the same way, and I don’t want to lose what I already have.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about scaring him away,” Rarity tsked, shaking her head. “From what I’ve seen of him, he isn’t one to simply throw you aside because of what you feel. He put the Crusaders’ safety above his own when running from the manticores. He’s loyal enough to put Rainbow to shame.”

“But it doesn’t bother you that he’s a human?” Twilight asked, giving Rarity a nervous look before lowering her gaze again, her ears splaying back.

“I thought I made it clear that I had apologized for treating him in such a manner,” Rarity huffed.

“That’s not what I meant,” Twilight muttered. “I meant, it doesn’t bother you that I… l-love a human?” She stuttered slightly at the word ‘love’, a red blush touching her cheeks. “You aren’t going to think less of me for it?” Rarity stared at the timid-looking alicorn in shock.

“Darling, you know that neither I, nor the other girls, would ever think any less of you for having feelings for Max,” she chided softly, leaning against Twilight.

“So, you don’t care that he’s not a pony?” Twilight asked hopefully, looking up.

“Twilight, you’re asking the mare who has a dragon trying to woo her,” Rarity tittered, her eyes shining with mirth.

Both mares turned their gaze back towards their friends. During their discussion, Max had finished his drink and had fished the cherries out of the empty cup. Taking the sticky fruit, he had started to stack them, one on top of the other, in a small tower on top of Ebony’s muzzle. The unicorn was cross-eyed, trying to keep her head perfectly still in order to not disturb the stack. Fluttershy was watching the two of them, giggling at their antics.

“Rarity,” Twilight said softly, a small smile on her face.

“Hmm?” Rarity hummed, flicking an ear towards Twilight without taking her eyes off of the scene before her.

“...thanks.” Shifting slightly, the unicorn leaned against her friends.

As she watched Max balance the fifth cherry on the tower, Rarity frowned slightly, her ears twitching.

“Twilight,” she whispered. “Are you planning on taking notes all through dinner?”

“...yes.” Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a human bringing their food.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the human that brought our food picked up his empty tray, I stared at the large platter of food in front of me, my mouth watering slightly. While the server had said that the meat was fake, my nose claimed that it was real, and my stomach really didn’t care either way.

The wings looked oddly like wings from back home, with only one major difference: the size. You ever seen the size difference between soft drinks served at fast food restaurants in the US compared to those served in Europe?

Yeah, it was like that. Each wing was at least a third the size of wings I had had back on Earth. There was no way I could not finish twenty-five of them within a half-an-hour. The only deciding factor was how spicy they were going to be.

“Alright,” Sable said as she sidled up to the table. “Everypony’s dish look okay?” When everyone nodded, the unicorn smiled happily. “Excellent! Now, the Firebreather Challenge starts when your human takes his first bite, and if he can eat all of them within the time limit, everything’s free!”

“How many humans have actually finished the challenge in time?” Rarity asked, eyeing the platter in front of me with trepidation.

“In this establishment?” Sable smirked. “Three.” This statement caused everyone, Ebony included, to suddenly look nervous. I resisted the urge to smirk. Oh, ye of little faith.

Reaching out, I picked up the first piece of meat in my fingers. Lifting it, I studied it closely for several seconds before popping it in my mouth.

The server was right: it tasted similar to meat, even if it wasn’t. As I chewed, I noticed that the sauce had a bit of a bite to it, but not much. If I had to rate the spiciness, I’d say it was somewhere between mild and hot. Perfectly manageable, in my opinion, even if my tongue began to sting slightly. Biting my cheek as to stop from laughing, I swallowed the wing before picking up another one.

The ponies watched me eat, their eyes widening with each wing I shoved in my mouth. Their own food was completely forgotten as I shoveled the meat into my waiting maw. I paused every few wings to lick my fingers clean, but I managed to keep a steady pace. I sweated slightly due to the heat, but kept eating regardless.

Despite the speed at which I was eating, I still managed to enjoy the meaty treat I had been given. I made a mental note to thank Rarity for taking us out to eat, even if I was about to make it so she didn't have to pay.

Popping the last two wings into my mouth, I chewed them quickly, and then swallowed. For good measure, I picked up the platter and, indulging my inner animal, licked it clean with a flourish. Once I was finished, I placed the edge of the platter on the table, and with a flick of my wrist, I spun the platter.

As the metal disk continued to spin, I turned to look at the ponies, a blank look on my face. Shocked faces stared back at me, jaws hanging open. It took all my willpower not to laugh at their expressions.

“I… I don’t believe it,” Sable stammered, glancing down at the stopwatch in her hoof. “That was five minutes, fifteen seconds…”

“Does that mean everything’s free?” Ebony perked up. Sable nodded her head absentmindedly, her eyes locked on the still spinning platter. “Sweet! I’ll have some more Cinnamon Apple Cider!” I reached out and slapped my hand down on the platter, causing it to stop spinning. I pointed my finger at the empty platter, staring at the startled server.

“And more wings for the human,” Ebony snickered. As Sable wandered off towards the kitchen, Twilight closed her jaw with a snap, staring over at me.

“Did you even taste that?” she asked weakly. I just gave her a smug look and licked my lips.

“Well,” Rarity said, blinking several times. “Despite that rather… disturbing and uncouth display, it appears that our meal is now free. Since that is the case, I think I’ll be ordering some more cider.”

As the ponies slowly dug into their own meals, I allowed a small smile to touch my face. Reaching out, I grabbed one of the discarded cherries. Popping it in my mouth, I chewed happily, humming softly to myself as it quelled the slight burning in my tongue and cheeks.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Well, that certainly was an interesting experience,” Rarity said was we walked back to the library. The sun had set and the streetlights were glowing in the darkness. The snowstorm had died down during our dinner, and patches of starry sky could be seen through the cloud cover.

“I still can’t believe you ate ninety-six wings!” Ebony cackled beside me. Her face was flushed, and she was swaying ever so slightly as she walked. She carried a box of hayfries in her magic, steam coming from the slits in the box. I belched loudly in response, a content smile on my face.

“Well, I hope you were satisfied,” Twilight said. “Because I’m pretty sure we can’t go back there ever again.”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked, giving her a confused look.

“Didn't you see the manager put Max’s picture up by the host stand?” Twilight deadpanned. “It had a big, red ‘X’ through it. I don’t think they’ll be letting him back in any time soon.”

“I don’t know why they’re so upset. He only had four servings of the Firebreather Challenge,” Ebony huffed, rolling her eyes as she giggled loudly. “Which reminds me, how can you eat that much?” she asked, turning to look at me. “Are you a bottomless pit?”

“You clearly aren’t feeding him enough, Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly, a small smile touching her muzzle. “You really shouldn’t starve him.”

“I give him plenty to eat,” Twilight growled, her tail flicking in annoyance. “I’ve caught him raiding the fridge occasionally during the night.”

“Well, we’ll just have to go without him next time,” Ebony said, closing her eyes and nodding sagely.

“I don’t think that’s possible either,” Twilight said with a smirk.

“Why’s that?” the battlemage asked, blinking in confusion.

“Your picture is up there next to his.” Ebony stopped, her jaw dropping open in shock. Her eyes watered as she looked at Twilight, whimpering slightly.

“What? Why?!” she cried, her ears playing backwards. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Except order eleven mugs of Cinnamon Apple Cider,” Twilight snickered.

“...but, they’re really, really good,” Ebony muttered as she began walking again. “And the meal was free.”

“Is that why you asked for those?” Rarity asked, waving a hoof at the two barrels of cider I had flung over my shoulders.

“Hey, free’s free, and I’m taking my cider on the road,” Ebony snorted, sticking her nose in the air. “If they didn’t want to give stuff away for free, they shouldn’t have made the challenge.”

“I don’t think that’s what they had in mind when they made the free meal offer,” Twilight said, looking back at Ebony.

“They should have been more specific,” she huffed, sticking her nose in the air..

“I’m pretty sure they didn’t know they’d have to deal with you and Max when they came up with that challenge.”

“Just be glad Avera wasn’t with us,” Ebony snickered. “She eats more than me!”

“Indeed,” Twilight said before turning to Rarity. “Thanks again for taking us out to eat. It was indeed an interesting experience, gluttony aside.”

“Yeah, thanks!” Ebony chirped. I belched loudly again, earning a snicker from the battlemage. “Max says ‘thank you’ as well.” I nodded my head happily. Rarity gave me a smile, although it appeared somewhat strained.

“Think nothing of it, darling,” she said, adjusting her scarf. As we rounded the corner of a building, the library came into view. A lit lantern hung from the library’s sign, illuminating our way.

“Well, this is where we part,” Rarity said, turning to look at Twilight. The pair hugged quickly and Rarity whispered something to Twilight, to which she just nodded, a small frown on her face.

As Fluttershy moved to hug Twilight, Rarity turned to look at Ebony and me.

“As fun as this has been, I must get Fluttershy home,” she said, smiling at us. “You know how she is about the dark.” I smiled and nodded my head, shifting my shoulders to keep the barrels from falling.

With that, the pair departed, Fluttershy waving back at us as they walked off. We watched them go until they disappeared into the darkness.

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m exhausted,” Twilight said, stifling a yawn. “How about we head inside and get comfortable around the fire?” She looked up at me, giving me a pleading look, complete with puppy dog eyes.

“Works for me,” Ebony said as I nodded my head. Trotting happily to the front door, Twilight opened it with a burst of her magic, ushering us inside.

A familiar sweet scent hit my nose as I crossed the threshold. As Twilight closed the door behind her, Avera and Primrose glanced up from their position on the couch. The smell, combined with the look on their faces, told me that Primrose was probably spending some quality time with her “precious”.

As we started discarding our winter gear, Avera’s eyes slowly drifted from the barrels in my arms, to Ebony’s slightly flushed face.

“Why do I feel like I missed out on the fun times?” she asked, pouting slightly.

A loud belch was the only response she got.

Chapter 39: The Infection and Your Human

The wind outside howled and raged, slamming against the side of the barn with such ferocity that, for a brief moment, I was sure that the structure would collapse. Luckily for me, the barn stood firm, having been built by the expert hooves of the Apple Family.

I hunkered down further into my corner as the wind continued to blow, pulling my coat tighter around my body. The hay beneath me was dry, and luckily provided some insulation from the frozen ground.

Any port in a storm, I guess, I thought, looking around the inside of the barn. There were other humans within the barn as well, corralled within several large pens, huddled together for warmth. Some of them eyed me with mild curiosity, chirping softly to one another, but most were content to sleep.

That was just as well, as I didn’t really want to deal with any curious humans right now. I was too busy focusing on trying to get feeling back into my limbs after having it sapped by the storm outside.

‘The storm isn’t supposed to start up again until tonight, Max. We’ll have plenty of time to get back, Max’, I growled in annoyance, flexing my fingers as I breathed upon them. Next time I see Rainbow, she’s getting a face full of snow and a flank full of foot!

Another gust rattled the windows, causing me to flinch. Cursing silently, I pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. Hopefully the storm would die back down soon; I needed to get back to the library before Twilight freaked out.

The sound of movement nearby drew my attention, and I watched with curiosity as the humans in the pens began to stir, becoming more alert. Several had gotten to their feet, and were slowly approaching the doors of their respective enclosures. They appeared to be waiting for something.

What are they up to? I wondered as I watched them. I knew that back home livestock might kneel during a storm, but this didn’t appear to be the case. The humans were looking at me expectantly, almost like I was supposed to do something. What do they want from me?

I jumped as the barn door cracked open suddenly with a loud groan. After several seconds, a windswept Applejack staggered in, scarf wrapped tightly around her neck and muzzle. Her hat was perched crookedly atop her head, held on by a thick piece of string.

Pushing the door shut behind her, she shook the accumulated snow off of her back. Readjusting her hat before turning to look at her humans, a small smile touched her face.

“B-bad weather out there, fellas,” she said, stuttering slightly as she shivered. “Almost didn’t get out here tah feed y’all! That wouldn’t have been good.”

I watched in silence as she trotted over to the crate, humming softly to herself. Cracking open the lid, she rummaged around inside before standing back up, a bucket full of apples in her teeth. Food in hoof, Applejack proceeded to go pen to pen, tossing in the apples to the waiting humans.

Ah, so that’s what they were waiting for. It’s feeding time.

After throwing out the last of the apples, Applejack doubled checked some of the pens to make sure that her humans were comfortable. She produced thick blankets for those that seemed to be too cold, as well as checking to make sure their water wasn’t turning to ice. I couldn’t help but smile at the display of love she showed for the humans.

They may have just been her livestock, but she cared for them nonetheless.

After making sure her humans were comfortable and well fed, Applejack turned around to head back out the barn. However, as she turned, her eyes landed on me. They widened instantly and she let out a loud yelp in surprise.

“Landsakes, Max! You dun just about scared the filly outta me!” she gasped, hoof pressed to her chest. Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, she gave me a curious look.

“Whatcha doin’ out here? Ah’d think you’d want tah be back at the library with Twi, ‘specially in this weather.” Unwrapping an arm from around my leg, I reached a hand into my bags and pulled out my handy dandy notebook and charcoal stick.

As I scratched out my message, Applejack trotted over to me.

+I was out with Pinkie and Rainbow, having fun in the snow. Rainbow went home, as did Pinkie, but the storm hit before I could. Decided to take shelter in here until it passed+

“Got caught by surprise, did ya?” she asked with a chuckle. I glared at her as I wrote my next message.

+Rainbow said I had until tonight before the storm started back up+

“Yeah, it looks like the pegasi got a bit too excited,” Applejack said with a nod. She then frowned, her brow furrowing in thought.

“Sugarcube,” she said slowly, “why didn’t ya just come up tah the farmhouse, instead of hangin’ out down here in the barn?”

+Didn’t want to impose+

“Shoot, sugarcube,” Applejack scoffed, shaking her head. “After what you did for Applebloom and her friends, you’re always welcome here! 'Specially during a storm like this. Now, come on. Let’s get ya back tah the homestead.”

+You sure?+ Applejack gave me a look that screamed ‘are you an idiot?’.

“Sugarcube, Twilight would never forgive me if Ah let ya stay out here,” she deadpanned. Raising an eyebrow, I pointed silently at the pens of humans.

“They’re used tah this weather,” Applejack said, waving a hoof at me. “Besides, if what Twilight tells me is true, then you can’t stay as warm as them in the winter. Now, come on. GIT!” With that, she trotted forward and grabbed the cuff of my coat in her teeth. With a strong yank, she pulled me to my feet. Before I could protest further, she moved behind me and headbutted my legs, forcing me forward.

“Come on,” she grunted, pushing me along. “We’ll get back tah the home and get something warm in ya.” Throwing up my hands in mock defeat, I slipped my notebook back into my bags and fell in step beside the farmer.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

After several minutes of fighting our way through the snowstorm, I soon found myself seated at the kitchen table in the Apple household. I hummed happily as I sipped at the steaming mug of apple cider, the heated liquid flowing into my stomach. A fire crackled in the other room, spreading warmth throughout the house.

Sitting opposite of me, Applejack smirked as she watched me, slowly shaking her head.

“See? Ain’t this better than sittin’ around in that old barn?” she asked smugly. I ignored her, instead glancing around the room. Reaching down to my bags that were resting beside me, I fished out my notebook and writing utensil.

Setting my mug down, I flipped the notebook open.

+Where is everyone?+

“Applebloom is over at Rarity’s with Sweetie Belle,” Applejack explained, glancing up from the note. “They’re having a sleepover, with Rarity watching over them. Big Mac is off drinkin’ with some friends, and Granny Smith is upstairs, napping. She’ll be out of it for a good, long while. When she gets a snoozin’, nothing can seem tah wake her.”

+So it’s just you and me here?+

“Eeyup,” she said, her smile waning slightly. Her ear twitched and she glanced away from me. I leaned back in my chair, sipping at the cider. An awkward silence fell over the table as Applejack fidgeted slightly, playing with her hooves.

After a few minutes she glanced up at me, biting her lip.

“Um, sugarcube? Can Ah ask ya a question?” she asked timidly, her usual confident nature gone. I blinked in confusion, glancing over at her. “Why don’t you like me?” My confusion grew and I lowered the mug to the table with a soft clunk.

+What do you mean?+ I scratched out, sliding the notebook over so she could see.

“It’s just… Ah get the feelin’ ya don’t like me very much,” she muttered, pushing the notebook back. “Ah’ve talked tah Twilight about it, but she thinks Ah’m bein’ silly.”

+Is there any reason you think that I don’t like you?+

“Well,” Applejack said, tapping her hooves together. “There’s the fact that Ah have human livestock, and you’re a human. Then there was that stunt ya pulled when Rainbow was chasin’ ya around town. Also, there was that time that Ah tried tah convince Twi tah breed ya. And then there’s that one incident where Ah tried tah seduce—”

I quickly waved my hands around frantically before grabbing my notebook.

+We swore we would never speak of that again!+

“But the whole town—”

+We swore we would never speak of it again!+ Applejack’s ears splayed backwards, and she hung her head. Sighing, I rubbed the scar across my nose, eyeing the mare before me.

+I don’t hate you, Applejack+ She glanced up at me, blinking in confusion.

“Then why…?” she began, but couldn’t finish. Grabbing the notebook again, I took a quick sip of cider before beginning to write. Applejack was content to sit silently as I did so, fidgeting occasionally.

+Yes, you have humans as livestock, but that doesn’t bug me. I know that they are part of your livelihood, and I’m well aware that humans are considered animals here. Besides, I can see that you take good care of them.

When I shoved you in front of Rainbow, that wasn’t personal. That was me trying to escape her, and getting you back for calling me ‘fat’. I would have done the same thing if it had been Rarity, or Pinkie. You being you had nothing to do with it+

“Really?” she asked, perking up slightly. I nodded my head, smiling softly. “You’re not mad about… you-know-what?”

+I’ve had Rainbow Dash give me a black eye, and we still hang out+

“But, it seems like you’re avoiding me whenever possible.”

+It’s not because I don’t like you. I just tend to avoid the farm because I consider it your place of business, and I don’t want to distract you while you’re working+

“Like you avoid Sugarcube Corner too?” Applejack asked. “Don’t want to distract Pinkie.” At the mention of the bakery, I felt my right eye twitch. Slowly, I nodded my head.

+Yeah, that’s the reason. To not distract Pinkie+

“So ya don’t have any hard feelings about me?” she asked, giving me a hopeful smile. I shook my head, sipping at my cider. A large smile flashed across Applejack’s face and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s great. I didn’t want there tah be bad blood between us.” I chuckled softly as I reached for my pad of paper.

+Worried what the strange human thinks about you?+

“No, Ah’m worried what mah friend thinks of me,” Applejack replied, shooting me a smirk. It quickly softened, however, and she shook her head. “And don’t sell yerself short there, sugarcube. You ain’t weird. You’re special, and you’ve got a good heart too.” She sighed, resting her head on a hoof as she stared off into the distance.

“Ah still can’t thank ya enough for keepin’ Applebloom safe that one time,” she said softly. “Ah don’t even want tah think about what would have happen if ya weren't there.”

+They wouldn’t have gone into the forest. I was the ‘adult’ escorting them, although in retrospect it wasn’t very responsible of me+

“They would've gone in with or without ya, hon,” Applejack said, glancing back at me. “Those three fillies have the bad habit of always gettin’ into trouble. Ah’m just glad that ya decided tah go with 'em, even if ya ended up getting hurt because of it.”

+Nothing a few stitches and some bandages couldn’t fix. Besides, it’s not like I was doing anything else at the time+

As Applejack looked over the note, a small frown touched her face.

“Ah’ve actually been meanin’ tah ask ya about that,” she muttered before glancing up at me. “When we were all lookin’ at that doohickey of yours, ya mentioned that you had a job back home. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but Ah haven’t seen ya do much besides hang out with Twilight. Have ya ever thought about gettin’ a job now that you’re livin’ here?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair before responding.

+Ignoring the fact that most places probably wouldn’t actually hire me into a paid position since I’m a human, nothing here in Equestria is close to what I was studying to do back home. It would be like you ending up in a world with no apples. There would be nothing for you to buck+

“What was it you were studying?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

+Something involving the ‘doohickies’+ Applejack’s ears lowered, and she scrunched up her face in thought.

“Couldn’t you find something else tah do? From what Ah saw on Nightmare Night, you’d make a damn good foalsitter. Dinky kept going on about how much fun she had.”

+I suppose so+ I wrote, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Applejack eyed me closely, her green eyes narrowing slightly.

“Sugarcube, when ya decided tah stay in Equestria instead of going home, didja have any real plans about what ya were gonna do here?” Slowly, I shook my head, not looking up. “So, why didja end up stayin’ here instead of goin' home?”

The corner of my lips twitched upward, and I picked up the charcoal stick. +I didn’t need to go home. I’m already there+

“Equestria ain’t yer home,” Applejack said, scrunching up her face. “You came from a different world.”

+Home is where your heart is+ Glancing up from the note, Applejack eyed me closely, her green eyes studying my face with such intensity that I felt like she was trying to see right through me to the wall behind.

After several long, tense seconds, a smile spread across her face.

“Shoot,” she chuckled, shaking her head as she pushed my notebook back over to me, “it looks like Ah owe Rarity twenty bits.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, grabbing my notebook. +Come again?+

“Nuthin’,” Applejack said with a smirk. “Just a bet Ah done lost.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, but let it go. Grabbing my mug, I proceeded to finish off the remainder of the cider still held within.

As I was lowering the empty mug back to the table, the outside door swung open, and in walked a massive red stallion. I remembered seeing him working the apple stand occasionally, whenever Applejack wasn’t there. He was wearing a workhorse collar, and had a whole bunch of snow upon his shoulders.

He kicked the door shut behind him before pausing, looking back and forth between Applejack and I with a blank expression on his face. Applejack groaned, placing her head in her hooves, a red tinge touching her face.

“It’s not like last time, Mac,” she grumbled. The stallion just slowly raised an eyebrow, as if to say ‘if you say so’. Applejack just groaned again, and buried her head deeper into her hooves, muttering, “Ah'm never gonna live that down.”

“Nnnope,” the stallion said in a deep voice, shaking his head. I chuckled at that, and he gave me a bemused look.

“Big Mac,” Applejack said suddenly, sitting up straight. “What're ya doin’ back home? Ah thought ya were out drinkin’ with yer pals.”

The minute Applejack said ‘Big Mac’, I instinctually rattled off the list of ingredients in my head: mac sauce, onions, pickles, lettuce, cheese, meat. As I shook my head, trying to clear it, Big Mac spoke up, “The snowstorm died down, so Ah thought Ah’d head home.”

I perked up instantly, as did Applejack.

“Break in the storm?” she asked, looking outside. Indeed, during the course of our conversation the snow had stopped falling, and patches of sun were shining through the cloud cover. “Well Ah’ll be. It looks like the pegasi didn’t make the clouds strong enough.”

Turning to look at me, Applejack grinned, cocking a hoof towards the door.

“If Ah was you, partner, Ah’d get while the gettin’s good!” Nodding my head quickly, I pushed the empty mug across the table to Applejack. Standing up, I grabbed my notebook and charcoal stick and slipped them into my bag. As I passed by Big Mac, I gave him a quick nod of my head, which I was surprised he returned.

Reaching the door, I opened it and, giving Applejack one last wave, stepped out into the snow and began my journey home.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Applejack < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Applejack stared at the closed door that Max had just exited, chewing on her bottom lip. Shaking her head, she sighed heavily.

“Looks like Rarity was right,” she muttered under her breath. “He doesn’t have a clue. Hopefully Twi makes her move soon, before somepony beats her to it.” Adjusting her hat, Applejack turned and glanced over at her brother.

“You don’t seem too surprised about Max’s intelligence,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

“We’ve been livin’ in this town long enough that strange things don’t bother me,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, he belongs tah Ms. Twilight.” This earned a laugh from Applejack.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, shoving her brother as she got to her hooves. “Ah’d thank ya kindly to not insult mah friends. Now, since you’re here, go wake Granny. It’s almost lunch time.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sitting at her desk with Magical Transformations and Transmutations open in front of her, Twilight hummed happily to herself as she worked. Flipping through the pages, she scanned the contents with a practiced eye, muttering under her breath, “Powdered everstone, saltpetre, rainbow’s glow, pegasus feather, hair of target species.”

Finding the information she was looking for, Twilight glanced over at the notebook she had opened beside the tome, quickly jotting down the data she needed. Once that was complete, she marked the page before continuing to read.

Across the room, Ebony relaxed upon the couch, her nose buried in a book. Every few minutes, her horn would light up as she lazily turned a page. In front of her, Primrose laid splayed out by the fire, her wings unfurled. She hummed happily as she basked in the warmth provided by the crackling flames. Avera, with the absence of her human charge, had taken over his pillow bed, snuggling down in the worn fabric.

“I still don’t understand why I couldn’t have gone with them,” Avera said, fluttering her wings slightly. “We are supposed to be guarding him, after all.”

“He’s with Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, glancing back over her shoulder at her. “And I’ll eat my crown if something bad happens to him around her. I swear she can walk through a rock slide without getting injured.”

“That may be true, but that boy has trouble as his shadow,” Avera grumbled. “It seems wherever he goes, something bad usually happens. It’s almost like all that chaos magic in him is attracting danger like a giant magnet.”

“Why would Discord bring him to Equestria, if he was just going to make it so that Max was in constant danger?” Twilight asked, turning around fully in her chair to stare at Avera in confusion.

“Why did he bring him here at all?” Avera replied, raising an eyebrow. “And to answer your question, I can think of a couple of good reasons why he would drop a trouble-attracting human into our hooves.”

“Do share,” Twilight said, leaning back against her desk.

“To produce chaos,” Avera said, shifting on the pillow. “The more trouble that shows up, the more chaos is produced. Hay, the fact that he’s an intelligent human is enough to cause a huge disruption if he was to be revealed in Canterlot. All those nobles trying to buy him for his uniqueness, breeders trying to get a hold of him for breeding purposes, and all those scientists trying to get their hooves on him to study him.”

Twilight eye twitched at the mention of ponies trying to breed her human, as though he was just a stud for making offspring. It didn’t help that he now had a breeding status thanks to him winning that human show.

The fact that they would think about taking him, shoving him into a breeding stable, and leading a female in heat in for him to service fueled Twilight’s anger. Possibly strapping the female down onto one of the breeding racks to prevent her from causing unintentional injury during mating. The racks couldn’t be too comfortable, could they? What would it be like to lie on one of those, with Max standing over her?

Twilight blinked, her face heating up as she realized the direction in which her mind had been drifting. She struggled to keep her wings folded at her side. Max might not have fully realized what stiff wings meant, but Avera and Primrose most certainly did.

Shaking her head quickly to clear her mind, Twilight returned her attention back to Avera.

“Is that the only reason Discord might have brought him here?” she asked, trying to not let the smirk on the pegasus’s face bother her as she eyed her wings.

“No,” Avera said. “Max could also be used as a distraction. While we’re busy trying to keep him safe, Discord does his thing without us knowing.”

“All of this is speculation, of course, seeing as he’s currently entombed in stone,” Twilight said, getting to her hooves and stretching. “Besides, Max isn’t working for Discord, nor is he trying to cause chaos. In fact, he was trying to keep himself hidden from the world until the world came crashing down around him. If it wasn’t for the fact that he got thrown into the fighting pit, I’m not sure when we would have started to tell ponies the truth.”

“And yet, thanks to his bad luck, he got thrown into the pit,” Avera countered, her smile growing.

“Will you two stop arguing?” Ebony called from the couch, shooting an annoyed glare at the pair. “Just because Max has had some issues, doesn’t mean he’s attracting troublesome situations. Just because you slam your wing in a door doesn’t mean the world is out to get you. Plenty of good things happen to him as well. You just focus on the bad because of the situation around him.”

“Whatever,” Avera grumbled, snuggling deeper into the pillow. “I still say one of us should have gone with him.”

“Would it make you feel better to know that I placed several protective spells around him before he left?” Ebony asked, turning back to her book.

“Does Max know you put wards on him?”

“No.”

“Then I’m content for now,” Avera said, closing her eyes.

“I don’t know why you’re so paranoid,” Ebony huffed as she turned a page in her book.

“My paranoia got me into the Coming Dawn,” Avera shot back. “My paranoia also got Princess Luna to safety during the Changeling Invasion.”

“I thought the reason she didn’t show up until later that evening was because she was sleeping,” Twilight said, confused.

“She was,” Avera snorted, shaking her head. “She’s a really, really heavy sleeper. It took four Coming Dawn guards to carry her sleeping body, while the rest of us defended her from the changelings.”

“So that’s why I didn’t see any Coming Dawn during the initial attack,” Ebony mused, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “I thought you guys had just gotten lost on the way to the battle.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Avera growled, glaring at the unicorn. Ebony just returned to her book, a smirk playing across her muzzle. Silence slowly fell over the library again as everyone returned to their respective activities.

Glancing down at the book open in front of her, Twilight lit her horn and reached for her quill. However, her concentration was broken by the sound of tolling bells, ringing out loudly through town.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

Instantly, Twilight’s joints locked in place. Her body froze in fear as her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. The tolling bells echoed in her ears, her heartbeat increasing in tempo to match the ring. Her wings flared by her sides, her fight-or-flight instinct kicking into high gear as the bells continued to toll out their warning.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

The minute the bells sounded, the three guards were on their hooves. Avera was airborne and out the door in a flash of black, feathers fluttering to the ground in her wake. Ebony shot down the basement stairs, Primrose hot on her heels. Shortly after their disappearance, the sound of clanking metal filled the library, clashing perfectly with the bells.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

Slowly, Twilight got to her hooves, her limbs shaking beneath her. In a daze, she stared out of the library’s main window, a look of horror plastered across her face. In the distance, just beneath the sound of the bells, Twilight could make out the sound of screaming as ponies quickly sought safety indoors. She willed her legs to move, to carry her forward and out into the snow, to find her human before it was too late, but her body wasn’t responding. She was frozen in place, her heart beating in her throat.

All across Ponyville, the bells continued to ring, sending out the warning for all to hear: Find shelter. Seek cover. Infected human.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was about halfway between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville when the sound of bells began to fill the air, causing me to pause. Gazing towards town, I eyed the distant buildings, a confused look on my face. I had never heard bells chiming in town before, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. I wasn’t even aware that Ponyville had bells.

As the bells continued to ring, I stood there in knee-deep snow, chewing on the inside of my cheek. After a few minutes, I just shrugged before continuing on my way. I’ll ask Twilight about it when I get back to the library.

Slogging my way through the snow, I headed towards town, the bells still ringing in my ears. Fighting my way through the snowdrifts, I soon reached the outskirts of town. My journey instantly became easier as I reached the plowed roads, the snow upon them only a few inches deep, instead of a few feet.

Strolling through town, I hummed a tuneless song to myself as I walked, using the bells as a baseline.

As I neared the marketplace, I paused slightly as a peculiar sight caught my eye. It looked like a shop owner had been halfway through clearing off the path in front of their shop before abandoning the shovel. It was now lying half-buried in a pile of snow.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek as I thought, my gaze slowly drifted around the empty marketplace. Something wasn’t right, and it took me a few seconds longer than it should have to realize what it was.

The empty marketplace.

Sure, the snowstorm had just cleared a few minutes ago, but usually there was a pony or two in the marketplace. A shopkeeper would be clearing away snow, or a city worker clearing the paths and roads. Even an occasional weather pegasus would be checking on the storm to make sure it stayed on schedule.

There was no one here, however. The entire place was abandoned. There were clear signs that there had been ponies here a few minutes ago: abandoned shovels, a snow-covered cart that looked like it had been unstrapped from a pony’s back quickly, a sled tossed haphazardly into a snowbank.

As I looked around the deserted marketplace, my stomach tightened. Suddenly, the bells didn’t sound so innocent to me. I suddenly got the feeling that I should get back to the library as soon as possible.

I had just turned to head down the path that would lead me towards the library when I heard it: a soft shuffling sound barely audible over the sound of the bells. It sounded like someone pushing their way through the snow. The noise was coming from a side street just in front of me, and as I watched in horror, the source slowly emerged from the alleyway.

It looked like a male human, but it was all horribly wrong. Its eyes—glowing a sickly yellow—were sunken into its head. Black tendril-like objects were emerging from the its eye sockets, pushing the eyelids back and covering the area surrounding the eyes in black, vein-like creepers. Its jaw hung open, the tongue—blackened and dry—was hanging from it. The veins across its body were blackened and protruding slightly, running down its limbs to blackened digits tinged purple around the edges.

As the thing shambled into the open, it wheezed loudly before releasing a hacking cough, emitting a faint black smog from its mouth. It continued to stagger forward, its horrific eyes scanning the area before it with a hazy glare.

I stood perfectly still as it shuffled by, not more than fifteen feet in front of me. It appeared that it hadn’t noticed me yet, and I was more than happy to keep it that way. Moving slower than I ever have before in my life, I began to inch my way backwards, keeping my eye locked on the abomination before me.

I managed to make it about five feet before my foot came down with a metallic clank. Inhaling sharply, I glanced down and saw, to my horror, that I had stepped on the edge of a discarded shovel head, causing it to knock against the ground. I groaned as I closed my eyes, not believing my luck.

When I opened them again and glanced up, I saw that the sound had attracted the attention of the creature. The world seemed to freeze as our eyes met, its sickly yellow pair staring straight into my single brown one. A low gurgling noise emanated from its open mouth, its black tongue twitching slightly.

There was a brief second of silence—in between bell tolls and as the wind died down—that we both just stood there, each eyeing the other. Then, the creature moved.

Letting out an ear-piercing scream, the atrocity raced forward at speeds that horrified me, easily closing the distance between us in just a few steps.

Reacting on instinct, I ducked down quickly and grabbed the closest thing to me: the handle of the shovel I had just stepped on. Straightening up, I barely had time to bring the shovel up before the creature was upon me. With a startled cry, I swung the tool upwards blindly, narrowly clipping the side of the creature’s head.

As the creature stumbled backwards, blackened blood began to dribble from the gash that appeared on its head from the blow. The substance looked more like sludge than blood. Shaking its head, it growled before lunging again, blackened fingers reaching for me.

Reeling back, I swung the shovel at its head again. The creature snarled in pain as the metal shovel blade smashed against its face, sending it to the ground. Upon impact, the shovel shattered, wood splinters cutting into my hands as the two separate pieces of the tool fell to the ground.

Glancing down at my bloodied hands, I grimaced at the sight of the large pieces of wood sticking into my palms. However, I didn’t have much time to deal with them before the creature was back on his feet, heading at me again.

Fuck this shit. Turning, I sprinted through the snow-covered marketplace, the creature hot on my heels.

I made it halfway to the other side before I felt something latch on to the back of my jacket. I let out a yelp as I was dragged to the ground, the creature clawing at my back. I quickly twisted around and elbowed it in the jaw, causing the creature to release a pained snarl before rolling off of me.

Quickly scrambling to my feet, I glanced down at the abomination at my feet. Its jaw was dislocated from the blow, and it was struggling to get its feet underneath it. Snarling, I stalked towards the creature as it floundered in the snow.

Clenching my fist, I brought my arm back, aiming a punch at its face...

...only be tackled by a black blur of fur and feathers. I landed on my back, hissing in pain as one of the pieces of the broken shovel pierced my jacket and lanced into my back.

Pushing myself upright, I glared at Avera, who was currently perched on my chest. Pushing her off of me, I snarled at the pegasus as I got to my feet.

~What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!~ I signed, as she stumbled to her hooves. Reaching back, I pulled the handle of the shovel out of my back. Luckily, it hadn’t gone to deep, resulting in just a mild laceration. Still stung like a bitch, though.

“What do you mean, 'what am I doing'? I’m saving your life, that’s what I’m doing!” she shouted at me. Flying into the air, she jabbed a hoof at the creature, who was still trying to struggle to its feet. “That’s an infected human, you idiot! One bite from it, one drop of its blood touches yours, any of its body fluids gets into you, and you’re bucked!”

I reeled back in shock, before shooting a look over at the creature. That’s an infected human?! No wonder Sweetie Belle was terrified of humans after she got attacked! That thing is pure nightmare fuel!

Finally getting to its feet, the infected human lunged at me again, a howl escaping its broken jaw. Holding the jagged piece of wood out in front of me, I moved to engage the human again, only to have Avera grab me and quickly shove me aside. The infected human flew by me, crashing into an empty stand.

“No!” Avera screamed as I staggered, trying to stay on my feet. “Don’t fight it! Run to the library!” Nodding, I turned to do so, but I only made it a few steps before a large chunk of wood slammed into my back. As I fell into a snowdrift, I heard Avera cry out, but I couldn’t make out what she was shouting.

Rolling onto my back, I clawed the snow from my eyes, trying to clear them. Blinking, I could just make out the shape of the infected human staggering towards me, its groans filling the air.

Before it could reach me, however, Avera flitted in between us. Snarling, she lashed out at the human, slashing its face with her hoof. To my surprise, long scratches appeared where her hoof had struck, looking more like claw marks than a hoof mark.

The infected human howled, swinging its arms and knocking Avera out of the air. She hit the ground hard several feet away, grunting in pain as she landed on one of her wings. Spitting at the downed pegasus, the human then turned its attention back to me. As I struggled to get to my feet, I could only watch in horror as the infected human descended upon me with a shriek. I lifted up an arm to protect myself, shielding my face from the human’s attack.

Grabbing my arm in its steel-like grasp, the infected human lowered his head and dug his teeth into the limb. His teeth—cracked and ragged—cut through my jacket and sunk into my flesh, causing my blood to flow like a crimson river.

Howling in pain, I punched the human in the side of the head, trying to free my arm. It hung doggedly on for several solid smacks before crumpling. Ripping my arm from its mouth, I grabbed its neck and attempted to push the infected creature off of me. It dug its fingers into my shoulder, trying to pull itself closer. We continued to struggle for several more seconds: me pushing, it pulling.

Then, with a shout, a grey and purple streak slammed into the infected human’s side, like a bolt of lightning. A loud screech filled the air as the human was ripped off of me and tossed through the air like a ragdoll.

Primrose had arrived.

Bat-like wings cracked, sending a flurry of snow into the air. Whitened fangs flashed, sinking into flesh and drawing blackened blood. Dark violet armor clinked as the batpony struggled against the infected human, each trying to tear the other to shreds. Caught in sunlight streaming through patches in the clouds, Primrose was revealed in all her vampiric glory.

Clamping a hand over my bleeding arm, I pushed myself to my feet, slipping slightly on a patch of ice before I found my footing.

Letting out an inhuman shriek, the infected human ripped Primrose’s fangs out of its throat, before tossing the batpony at me. I grunted in pain as the armored pony smashed into my chest, sending us tumbling over a nearby fence. Unable to stop in time, we careened into the side of an old shed, the aged wood shattering upon impact, causing an assortment of tools to fall upon us.

Snarling in pain, Primrose untangled herself from me, pushing herself off of my chest. Glaring down at me with glowing red eyes, she bared her fangs. “Why are you still here? Get your flank back to the library before you—” She fell silent as her eyes landed on my arm, blood oozing from the clear bite mark. The color instantly left her face, and her slitted eyes became pinpricks.

“Luna buck me running,” she breathed. “You damned fool.” Anything else she was going to say was immediately drowned out as another shriek filled the air. Craning my neck backwards, I pushed myself up slightly to get a better look.

Avera was back in the fight, distracting the infected human as she flew around its head. Whenever she saw an opening, she darted in and slashed at the creature with her hooves, which seemed to slice through flesh like butter. After attacking, she would flit just out of the human’s reach, infuriating the ghastly creature.

Grunting, I moved to push myself into a seated position, but froze when my hand bumped something sharp. Glancing down, I saw that my fingers had brushed against the head of an axe that was now lying amongst the debris of the shed. A small smile touched my face as I stared down at the axe. Perfect.

Pushing the still speechless Primrose off of my chest, I picked up the axe, wincing slightly as the handle pushed the splinters in my hand deeper into my flesh. Ignoring the pain, I pushed myself to my feet.

Holding the axe in both hands, I took an experimental swing at the remainder of the shed, smiling as the sound of the axe hitting wood. It sunk into the wall a good few inches. Yanking the head free, I turned my sights on the infected human.

The sound of the axe hitting wood seemed to snap Primrose out of her daze. Whipping her wings open, she leapt into the air, blocking my path.

“No! Buck no!” she yelled, pushing me back with a hoof. “Are you insane? Get out of here already!” Grabbing her hoof, I yanked her out of the air. Before she could recover, I was already past her, heading straight for the infected human.

As I neared, the human managed to land a blow on Avera, batting her out of the air and into a snowbank. Snarling, the human turned its attention towards me, drool and blackened blood dripping from its mouth.

Before either of us had a chance to move, however, the ground around the infected human's feet exploded, thorn-covered vines erupting from the frozen earth. The vines wrapped quickly around the infected human’s legs, snaking their way up its body as they held it in place. The human screeched in pain as the thorns dug into its flesh. Glancing around, I looked for the source of the vines.

Ebony Rose stalked towards us, her horn bathing the area around her in a pinkish glow. Her green eyes were locked on the infected human, her lips pulled back in a silent snarl. She was decked out in her Battlemage armor, although instead of being cobalt blue like the other Battlemages back in Canterlot, her armor now appeared to be midnight black. A reddish glow surrounded the darkened steel, maroon sparks jumping across the plating.

Tearing my eyes from the approaching unicorn, I looked back at the bound human. Gripping the axe handle tighter in my grasp, I approached the struggling creature. It snarled at me as I drew nearer, gnashing its cracked teeth together. I heard Ebony call out to me, but I wasn’t listening.

Stopping in front of the infected beast, I planted my feet, swung the axe back over my shoulder, and then proceeded to bury the blade deep into the creature’s skull.

There was a loud crack as the axe sunk into the human’s head. Slowly, his yellow eyes rose to stare at the axe handle. Black, congealed blood oozed down his face, matting his dirty, mud-caked hair. His jaw hung open, a low groan echoing forth from his chest. The sickly yellow glow around the infected human’s eyes flickered once before fading completely as his eyes rolled up into his head. He let out one last rattling breath before his body shuddered and went still.

Leaving the axe in the human’s head, I took several steps back, breathing heavily. Ebony moved to stand beside me, the vines sinking back into the ground, leaving the dead human lying in the snow.

Reaching up, I ran a shaking hand through my hair, the adrenaline in my system causing my limbs to shake.

The sound of hoofsteps caused Ebony and I to glance back behind us. Primrose was walking towards us, favoring her right hind leg slightly. Avera was beside her, blood flowing freely from her nostrils.

“I thought I told you to head straight to the library,” Avera growled as the pair drew nearer. “This isn’t a game! What if you had died?” Primrose said nothing. She just kept her slitted eyes locked on me, her body tense.

~I—~ I began, but was cut off by a shout.

“MAX!” Turning my head, I barely had enough time to brace myself before a lavender blur slammed into my chest, causing me to stumble. Twilight latched herself onto my jacket, her hooves clinging tightly to the material as she buried her head in my chest.

“Thank the Maker you’re alright,” she said, looking up at me with watery eyes. “I don’t think I could—GAH!” Twilight flailed about as Primrose ripped her off of me.

“What the buck are you doing?” Twilight snorted, glaring at the batpony.

“I’m keeping an eye on a possibly hazardous situation, while preparing to kill an infected human,” Primrose said coolly, not taking her eyes off of me.

“Infected human?” Twilight asked, giving the batpony an incredulous look. “What are you talking… about…” Her words faded as she turned back to look at me, her eyes locking onto my arm. Her pupils shrunk as all color left her face.

Avera, confused as to why Twilight had fallen silent, followed the mare’s gaze to my arm. Her head jerked back and she snarled as she saw the blood. “Mother bucker!”

Trying not to focus on the throbbing pain in my arm, I slowly reached up to touch the bite mark that was clearly visible through the gaping hole in my jacket’s sleeve. As my fingers brushed the edges of the wound, I hissed in pain, causing all three guards to flinch slightly, their eyes locked on me.

Blood dripped slowly down my arm, staining the snow beneath me red as we all stood there, waiting for someone else to make the first move.

High above, the clouds darkened again, and the wind began to pick up. Bells continued to toll, echoing across the countryside.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight sat in silence, staring down through the observation window at her human, who was currently pacing around the locked operation room by himself. He reminded her of a wild animal trapped within a cage, his eye darting around the room at random as he paced.

He had taken his shirt and jacket off, exposing his bandaged torso. Large black and blue bruises were slowly beginning to form across his body. He rubbed his bandage-covered hands together absentmindedly, cracking his knuckles every now and then in what Twilight assumed was supposed to be a calming gesture.

What’s going on inside his head? she mused as she continued to watch Max. What could he be thinking about right now?

As if hearing her silent pondering, Max’s head turned and he glanced up at the observation room above him. Even though the window was tinted so that he could not see her, his eye still found Twilight’s.

Her wings twitching by her sides, Twilight’s eyes slowly drifted down towards the glowing bandage wrapped tightly around Max’s upper arm. It was colored red, stained by the bloodied bite mark that lay beneath it.

The infected bite mark.

Lowering her head slightly, Twilight pawed at the floor with her hoof, biting her bottom lip as she eyed him closely. Upon first seeing the bite mark upon his arm, she had been sure that she had lost him.

Although ponies were completely immune to the virus, a bitten human would succumb to the symptoms within a few minutes of exposure. There was currently no known cure, meaning that once infected, the only thing to do was to kill off the human before it infected others.

However, that fact alone wasn’t enough for the Black-Vine Virus to be considered a level four hazard. No, it was what the virus did that gave it the grim nickname ‘the Undead Infection’.

Despite its name, the Black-Vine Virus was not a virus at all, but actually a highly aggressive mycotic parasite. The microscopic spores of an unknown fungus found deep within the Everfree Forest would infect any human unfortunate enough to inhale them.

Upon being bitten by an infected human, spores present in the infected human's saliva or blood would be immediately transmitted to the new host. Within three minutes of infection, the human would develop a nasty cough as the spores reached the lungs. At the five-minute mark, the human would begin to stumble and move erratically as the spores slowly began to congeal the blood within the human’s veins, giving them the blackened appearance commonly associated with the infection. Upon reaching the ten-minute mark, the human’s brain shuts down due to the lack of oxygen flowing through their circulatory system.

Fifteen minutes after being bitten, the victim is clinically dead, and the fungus has full control over the lifeless corpse. The fungus continues to grow and spread throughout the body, giving the infected human its signature horrific look. With a new host body under its control, the fungus would then use its new home to find more potential hosts.

The Black-Vine Virus was known to wipe out entire human ranches if precautions weren't taken, as Applejack had almost found out one fall. Luckily, they had been able to contain that outbreak, and the Apple family had only lost fifteen humans. They could have lost a lot more, considering the speed at which the fungus could travel from host to host. It was one of—if not the—most contagious and dangerous threats in Equestria.

But none of that explained why, despite having been bitten, Max was still not showing any signs of infection, four hours later.

Rubbing her tired eyes with a hoof, Twilight sighed loudly, trying to keep her hope from rising too high. She didn’t want to lower her guard, only to have him start showing signs. She didn’t think her heart could take it.

“Stupid Twilight,” she muttered to herself as she massaged her temples. “You should have sent one of the guards with him, even after Rainbow insisted that she could take care of him. You should have gone with him yourself!” Grunting, Twilight glanced back down at Max, who had stopped pacing and was now sitting with his back in a corner, head on his knees.

“Avera was right,” she said out loud, an ear twitching. “Trouble seems to follow him.” Sighing again, Twilight closed her eyes and ran a hoof through her disheveled mane. A weak smile touched her lips as she opened her eyes, tears building in the corners. “Certainly makes life interesting around him, doesn’t it?”

Staring down at her human, the tears continued to build until they were flowing down Twilight’s face. Please, she silently pleaded to any deity that was listening. Please let him get out of this alive.

The sound of the door to the observation room opening behind her snapped Twilight out of her thoughts. Rubbing her eyes hurriedly with a hoof, she glanced over her shoulder at the ponies entering the room. Avera, Primrose, and Ebony all looked at her as they entered, varying levels of weariness upon their faces.

Behind them walked Nurse Redheart, her pink mane devoid of the usual bun, cascading down her shoulders in a messy tangle of hair. She had dark bags under her eyes, and looked dead on her hooves. Twilight felt a twinge of sympathy for the nurse; she had just been about to finish a particularly long shift when they had rushed Max in.

Unfortunately for Redheart, she was the only pony in the hospital at the time that had medical knowledge of humans.

“So…” Twilight began, unsure what to say as Redheart approached the observation window. The three guards hovered in the background, ears perked as they listened in. Redheart just sighed before sitting down and taking a large gulp of coffee from a thermos she pulled out of her saddlebags.

“There is no easy way to say this,” she said as she lowered the thermos, “so I’ll just be blunt about it. Your human is a freak of nature.” Twilight opened her mouth to object, but Redheart pressed on. “No, I mean it. He is a freak of nature as we know it.”

“Why?” Primrose asked, her tone emotionless.

“Because,” Redheart growled, rubbing the bridge of her nose with the heel of her hoof, “after he willingly agreed to give us a sample of his blood, we ran some tests on it. He currently has thousands of Black-Vine Virus spores flowing through his veins, yet—” her voice became shrill as she jabbed a hoof at the window, through which Max could be seen “—does that look like an infected human to you?!”

“So, you’re saying that Max is indeed infected?” Twilight asked, her heart sinking fast in her chest as her eyes began to water again.

“Yes,” Redheart said, nodding her head firmly. Twilight hung her head, ears splaying backwards in despair. “However,” Redheart continued, causing Twilight to perk up, “he has shown no signs of succumbing to the infection.”

“So, you have no idea why he seemed to be unaffected by the spores?” Avera asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Redheart muttered. This caused everyone in the room to stare at her in shock.

“You’re saying that you know why he isn’t infected?” Primrose asked sharply, her nostrils flaring.

“Yes,” Redheart replied simply, nodding her head. The others waited for her to continue, but she remained silent, staring down at the human who was now pacing again.

“And the reason is…” Primrose asked after several, long seconds.

“His biology,” Redheart said, taking another sip from her thermos.

“Nurse Redheart, please,” Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples. “I know you’re tired, I understand that. You’re tired, I’m tired, I’m pretty sure they’re tired too—” she waved a hoof at the three guards, who all nodded in agreement “—but please, just get to the point. What is going on with my human?”

Redheart paused, her thermos half-raised to her mouth, and sighed before answering.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. That was unprofessional of me,” she said softly, lowering her head as her ears splayed backwards. Placing her thermos back on the ground, she rubbed her eyes with her hooves before turning and giving Twilight her undivided attention.

“Do you know the average body temperature for a human?”

“Yeah, eighty-six point three degrees,” Twilight said, cocking an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Do you know the average body temperature of your human?”

“Ninety-eight point six.”

“Yes, but at the moment he is running a fever of one-hundred-and-one, and it’s that fact alone that he is still alive,” Redheart claimed.

“Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m lost,” Avera huffed, glaring at the nurse. “What does his body temperature have to do with all of this?”

“Everything!” Redheart cried, whipping her head around to glare at the pegasus. “The spores thrive within the human body, the mixture of temperature and moisture providing them with an ideal environment. This causes them to grow at an alarming rate.

“With your human and his increased body temperature, however, it’s a different story. The spores cannot survive within his body at that temperature. They are there, but they are slowly dying without being able to infect any of his cells.

“In short,” Redheart concluded with a nod, “It’s your human’s heightened body temperature that is keeping him alive. The fact that his body can survive at a higher temperature than an Equestrian human is keeping the spores at bay, and is the reason he isn’t currently shambling along, looking for more humans.”

As Redheart finished talking, the others just sat there, staring at her with open mouths. Slowly, Twilight closed her jaw, swallowing loudly before daring to speak.

“So, you’re saying that Max will be fine?” she asked, her heart fluttering with hope.

“From what I’m seeing right now, yes,” Redheart said with a nod. A sigh of relief went around the room as everyone relaxed visibly at the news.

“That lucky bastard,” Avera breathed, shaking her head.

“Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods yet,” Redheart sighed, taking a sip from her thermos. “The spores are still within his system, which means he still has the ability to infect other humans should they come in contact with any of his bodily fluids: blood, saliva, mucus, urine, vomit, semen, anything at all.”

“Is there anything we can do to remove the spores?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side.

“No, but we don’t have to,” Redheart said. “His body is already doing that job for us, thankfully. At the current rate of decay, all the spores should be killed off and removed from his system within two or three days.”

“So, what do we do now?” Ebony asked, looking around at the others. Redheart rubbed the back of her neck, wincing slightly.

“I’m not sure. Nothing like this has happened before. Usually humans infected by the Black-Vine Virus need to be euthanized immediately to stop the spread, but since your human is still technically alive…” She shrugged, shaking her head slightly as she stared down at Max.

“Take him back to the library and keep him locked down for several days to prevent spreading. Allow no humans, or ponies who care for humans, within the library within that time frame. After four days, bring him back here and we’ll see if the spores are indeed gone.”

“Anything we should watch for?” Avera asked, glancing down at Max as well. Redheart just gave a strained laugh, throwing her hooves into the air.

“I don’t know!” she cried, her mane becoming more frazzled. “The human is currently carrying a level four hazard inside his body! Everything I’ve seen in the past, everything I’ve been taught, says that he should be dead!” Closing her eyes, Redheart took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

“Fever,” she breathed, opening her eyes again. “He’ll have a fever for the next couple of days while his body attacks the spores. He might be… loopier than usual. He also may be more prone to napping, though I’m not entirely sure. Also, he might show a disinterest in food as well. I’ll give you some pills that will help keep his temperature from going too high.”

“So, just watch him over the next couple of days?” Twilight asked. Redheart nodded as she capped her thermos and slipped it back into her saddlebags. “What if he starts showing signs of infection during that period?”

“Kill him,” Redheart replied bluntly, “or restrain him. Either way, I really shouldn’t be releasing him in this condition, but I’m so far out of my experience range that I can’t see the path anymore. Take him home, care for him, and pray that nothing bad happens. As for me, I’m going home.” With that, Redheart threw her saddlebags back onto her back, and exited the room promptly.

As the door clicked shut, Twilight and the guards stared at it for a few seconds before glancing around at themselves.

“Sooo… we just take him back to the library?” Ebony asked finally, her voice soft.

“It looks that way,” Primrose sighed, closing her eyes. “I’ll go get him. The big guy’s probably freaking out, especially after I threatened to kill him.” Hanging her head, the batpony trotted to the door. Opening it, she exited the room, Ebony close behind her.

As Twilight moved to follow the pair, she was stopped by Avera, who blocked her path with a wing. Twilight gave her a curious glance, which Avera returned with a blank look. Slowly, she reached into her saddlebag and pulled something out.

“Eat up,” she said simply, tossing the object to Twilight. As Twilight caught it in her hooves, Avera turned and trotted out the door, her tail flicking.

Glancing down at the object in her hooves, Twilight’s ears folded against her head as she eyed her crown. Slowly, and with great trepidation, Twilight placed the crown gently upon her head before turning and following after the guards.

Chapter 40: Cabin Fever

Twilight stood outside the sealed medical room, a look of concentration on her face. Behind her, a team of doctors, dressed in HAZMAT suits, stood waiting. Primrose, Ebony, and Avera were in the middle of the group, all of them wearing surgical masks. Magical barriers blocked both ends of the hallway, isolating the room in front of them from the rest of the building.

“Ready?” Twilight asked, glancing over her shoulder at the lead doctor. He nodded his head once, his eyes hidden behind the HAZMAT mask.

Turning her attention back to the door, Twilight began to push her magic down the length of her horn, weaving it into the necessary spell. Once the spell was all but complete, she grabbed the door handle with her hoof. Inhaling deeply, Twilight held her breath and pushed the door open, stepping inside the second the door was open far enough.

As she entered, Max glanced up from his spot in the corner, a look of uncertainty in his eye. Upon seeing her, he perked up, a small smile pulling at his lips.

The instant Twilight laid eyes upon her human, she released the spell. A split second later, a large, pinkish bubble surrounded Max completely. He yelped, his cry muffled by the field of magic, as he was lifted into the air.

As the door continued to swing open, the team of HAZMAT ponies entered, their horns already beginning to glow. Slowly, the temperature in the room began to rise as they worked to clean it of all the possible spores that had been released. Normally, it was only the infected humans that could breathe out spores; the ones who had yet to die could not. However, nopony was taking any chances.

“You sure that’s good enough?” Avera asked Twilight as she entered behind the last HAZMAT doctor. She eyed the bubble, and the human within, with concern.

“It’s an airtight bubble,” Twilight replied. “Thirty minutes of air within. Plenty of time to get him back to the library and under quarantine.” Glancing up at Max as well, Twilight could see the confusion—and fear—upon his face. It tugged at her heart, making it hurt.

As he looked at her, she gave him a weak smile.

“Well, let’s get going then,” Primrose said as she moved to stand next to Avera. “The sooner we secure the library, the sooner we can let him out of there.”

Twilight nodded her head before glancing back over at the team of doctors, who were just finishing up on the decontamination.

“Thank you for you help and cooperation,” she said, giving them a quick smile. The lead doctor just glanced over at her before speaking.

“Just remember to keep him locked down tight. It’s bad enough when the infected come out in the winter, and the last thing we need is more of them.” Twilight nodded her head, before her horn glowed brighter. There was a flash of light before all five of them ended up back in the library.

“One moment,” Twilight said as Avera reached up to lower her mask. Closing her eyes in concentration, Twilight’s horn flashed once more. Outside the library, a massive pink barrier formed around the library, completely blocking off the inhabitants from the outside world.

As soon as the barrier finished forming, Twilight sighed. Her horn ceased glowing, and the bubble around Max disappeared, dropping him to the ground. Luckily, he managed to avoid falling on his bitten arm.

Rubbing his back, the human glared up at the ponies around him. As he rose to his feet, they took a step back, ears flattening against their heads.

~Okay~ Max began to sign, glancing from pony to pony with narrowed eyes. ~Someone’s going to tell me what the fuck is going on, or I’m going to start cracking heads~

“Long story, or short story?” Primrose snarked as she removed her mask. A glare from Max wiped the smirk from her face, and she lowered her eyes.

“You got bitten by an infected human,” Ebony said.

~And that means?~ Max signed, giving an exasperated sigh.

“What you encountered was a human infected by the Black-Vine Virus,” she explained. “Tiny fungal spores infect the human upon being bitten, ingesting or inhaling them, and then enter the bloodstream, corrupting the victim. Because you were bitten, you now have the spores inside of you.”

~Wait, so I’m going to turn into one of those things?~ Max asked, fear in his eyes.

“No,” Ebony said, shaking her head. “Your body’s high temperature is destroying the spores before they can infect you.” Max’s shoulders slumped, his relief visible. He paused, before his gaze hardened again.

~So, I’m assuming those bells…~

“Were a warning that there was an infected human in town,” Avera said, nodding her head.

~And why wasn't I informed about the bells?~

“Because,” Twilight said softly, her head hung low, “the last infected human incident was a year and a half ago, when Sweetie Belle was attacked. It’s been so long, that I didn’t even think about it until I heard the bells.” She glanced up, her eyes brimming with tears. “I’m s-sorry.”

Max glared down at her for a few seconds before his gaze softened, and he sighed.

~It’s not your fault, Twilight~ He signed as he crouched down. ~I should have known something was up when the bells started tolling, and no one was out and about~

“But, I—” Twilight fell silent as Max pulled her into a hug. She froze, her face heating up as she felt his arms around her. She noted dimly that she could feel the heat coming off of him; his fever working away to save his life.

Too soon for Twilight’s liking, Max broke the hug. Standing back up, he winced, placing a hand upon his back.

~So, what happens now?~ he asked.

“Now, we’re all stuck in here for the next couple of days while your body deals with the virus,” Primrose said, glancing up at him. Max nodded, glancing out at the large pink bubble around the library with a small frown on his face.

For the next three days, no one was allowed in, no one was allowed out.

Golden Oaks Library was now under quarantine.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I stared into the golden eyes, never blinking, as I sat there looking, peering, gazing into the depths of the yellow, windowless soul. My attention it returned, its gaze, my fragile mind it burned, scorching my very essence until I knew not if I could return.

My eyes began to water, my will began to falter, and I longed for peace of mind that would not come. My eyelid twitched, my mind bewitched, as I felt my strength begin to flee.

Unable to hold it any longer, I blinked, tears streaming down my face as my eye screamed in protest. GOD DAMN IT!!!

“Hoo-hoo!” Owlowiscious cried, spinning his neck around in victory. I growled at the bird, baring my teeth. The little fucker’s cheating! He has to be! There’s no way in hell he doesn’t need to blink!

The owl gave me what could only be described a smug grin, causing my blood to begin to boil. I lunged at him, intent to throttle the little cheating bastard, but before I could get my hands on him he flapped his wings, taking to the air. Unable to stop myself, I slammed into the balcony railing he had been perched upon. Letting out a loud yelp, I toppled over the railing, falling to the floor below with a thud.

Stars danced in front of my eye as I gazed up at the ceiling from my position on my back. After a few seconds, three lavender faces appeared above me.

“Um, what are you doing?” the Twilights asked, each giving me a bemused look as they danced around each other. Shaking my head, I groaned as each Twilight began to slowly consolidate into a single alicorn.

~Your owl cheats, you know that?~ I asked as my vision slowly began to clear and the Twilights merged into one. When I could finally see properly again, I glanced up at Twilight. I cocked my head to the side, blinking in confusion as I caught sight of what was resting just above her horn. ~Since when do you wear a crown?~

Twilight’s eyes slowly drifted up to the crown currently resting on her head, her ears splaying backwards as she did so.

“It’s, uh… it’s a reminder,” she said weakly, giving me a sheepish smile.

~A reminder? A reminder for what?~

“That is not for you to worry about,” she said quickly, pulling her head back. There was a brief pause before my body was surrounded by a pinkish aura and I was lifted into the air.

As I was carried through the air, I waved my arms around, wiggling in Twilight’s magical grasp.

~Look at me, I can fly!~ I signed, giggling the entire time. ~I’m Captain Planet!~

As I floated by Ebony, she glanced up from her book, a look of concern on her face.

“I know the nurse said he’d possibly act a little loopy, but isn’t this kinda ridiculous? Earlier I had to chase him down off of the rafters because he was making bird noises while flicking yogurt around.”

“He can be as ridiculous and silly as he likes as long as he gets better,” Twilight replied, carrying me over to the couch.

~Shhh, don’t startle the witch!~

“I… w-what?” Twilight stammered, giving me a confused look. I just giggled again as I floated upside down. Twilight continued to stare at me for several seconds before sighing and shaking her head. “Nevermind.”

The magic left her horn, and I fell upon the couch with a soft thump. Pushing myself into a seated position, I tried to get up, but Twilight pushed me back down with her magic.

“No,” she said firmly. “You stay on the couch. You shouldn’t be running around while you’re recovering.” Her horn glowed and a blanket draped itself over my shoulders.

I glared up at her, but fell back and crossed my arms nonetheless. Satisfied that I wasn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, Twilight turned and trotted over to her desk and sat down. I snuggled deeper into the blanket, pouting. Ebony just shook her head before getting up and heading down to the basement.

It was about a day after I had been hospitalized after being bitten by the infected human. It had been a tense moment; the entire hospital staff had about freaked out when Twilight said I had been bitten. It had taken nearly five minutes to calm everyone down, and another five for Nurse Redheart to finally look at me.

When we had finally gotten back home, Twilight had set up a weird machine that was used to measure the amount of spores in the air. If the reading ever got too high, she used a spell to heat the entire library to the point where the spores began to die.

Drumming my fingers on my knees restlessly, I glanced around the library. Avera was perched up in a small alcove in the wall: a small sitting area for pegasi. Lying upside down within the alcove, she had a pad of paper and pencil in her hooves. Every so often, she glanced over at me, before returning her attention to the paper.

Twilight was at her desk, working on a side project that she wouldn’t tell me anything about. I had tried to get a peek of it earlier, but she had used her magic to hide the papers from me before pushing me away from her desk.

Primrose was downstairs in the basement, and Ebony had just joined her. What they were doing down there, I didn’t know, but whenever the door opened, the sound of metal on metal could be heard.

And finally, Spike was over at Rarity’s. He had been helping her out when I was attacked, and Twilight felt it was best for him to stay with her until my three day quarantine was up. Unable to reach him due to the lockdown, she sent him a letter via his dragonfire.

Basically, I was trapped here, in the library, and bored out of my mind!

Groaning loudly, I rolled my eyes. There’s nothing to do! As my gaze landed on a snow-covered window, I froze, the gears in my mind beginning to turn. Slowly, I began to sit up a little straighter, glancing over my shoulder at Twilight. She was still bent over her desk, head hung low as she worked.

Chewing on my bottom lip, I smiled slyly to myself before standing up. The blanket fell from my shoulders, landing in a crumpled heap on the couch.

Making sure to be as silent as possible, I tiptoed my way towards the window. Glancing over my shoulder again to make sure that Twilight hadn’t heard me, I unlatched the window slowly and swung it open. Aware that Avera’s eyes were boring into the back of my head, I reached out and grabbed a handful of snow.

Closing the window and latching it again, I glanced over at the pegasus, giving her a mischievous wink before turning my attention back to Twilight. Avera watched me curiously as I slowly crossed the room, the snow held in my hands.

As I neared Twilight, I could hear her muttering under her breath, her quill scratching softly as she wrote. Quietly packing the snow into ball form, I paused just behind Twilight, raising my hands into the air. Twilight’s ears perked up slightly as I shifted behind her, but, luckily for me, she didn’t turn around.

A large smile spread across my face as I heard Avera trying to repress her laughter behind me. Pausing for only a second to contemplate what I was about to do, I then brought the handful of snow down, smashing the snow right into the junction between Twilight’s wings.

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF—OH MY—WHAT THE BUCK?!” Squealing loudly, Twilight shot straight up into the air, her wings spread wide. Across the room, Avera was roaring in laughter, barely managing not to fall out of the alcove. I backed up as Twilight came crashing back down, a large smile on my face.

Scrambling to her hooves, Twilight glared daggers at me, her wings still spread wide. Her eyes narrowed as they found the snowball I was bouncing back and forth in between my hands.

“Oh no, we are not doing that in here,” she growled, horn lighting up. The next second, the snowball had disappeared, leaving my hands wet and chilled. Wiping them on my shirt, I smirked at Twilight, who was still glaring at me.

“Why did you do that?” she asked. I just shrugged, my smirk growing.

~Relax, Twilight. You just need to chi—~

“Finish that sentence and you’ll regret it,” Twilight warned, magic pulsing down her horn.

~Geez, okay, Twilight. I get it~ I signed, rolling my eyes. ~No need to give me the cold shoulder~

Twilight’s horn flashed, and I was promptly buried under a pile of snow that was teleported into the library.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

After digging myself out of the snow pile, I left Twilight to her work, deciding that I probably shouldn’t press my luck. Although, that snow did feel good against my fevered skin.

Deciding that I should probably find something to eat, I made my way to the kitchen, where I started rooting around in the pantry. After a few minutes of looking, I closed the door, disappointed. There’s nothing good to eat.

“You know, you’re looking in the wrong place,” a voice spoke up behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I eyed Avera curiously as she trotted into the kitchen, a slight bounce in her step. I gave her a questioning look, and she just smiled. Walking over to one of the cabinets, she tapped it with a hoof.

As it swung open, my eyes widened, and a grin spread across my face. ~Is that what I think it is?~

“Ebony’s extra barrel of Cinnamon Apple Cider?” Avera smirked. “Yes, yes it is.” Pulling two large mugs out of another cupboard, she then proceeded to pour us both a generous supply of the cider.

Handing me one of the mugs currently about to overflow with foam, Avera raised her own before saying, “Bottoms up!” Throwing her head back, she proceeded to down the entire mug in three large gulps. Shrugging my shoulders, I proceeded to imitate her.

The cider burned slightly going down, but it left a wonderful aftertaste in my mouth, reminding me a little of apple pie. Finishing the drink, I lowered the mug, smacking my lips happily. Beside me, Avera belched loudly.

I looked down to see her sitting there, a surprised but happy look on her face. She blinked several times before looking up at me, a small blush spreading across her face.

“Awesome,” she said simply.

I chuckled, shaking my head. Setting my mug down on the table, I swallowed before sucking in a stomach full of air. Avera’s eyes widened as she realized what I was going to do a split second before I did it.

BUUUH—UUURRRRRRP

As my belch echoed around the kitchen, I grinned down at Avera before signing, ~Says the king~

“Yeah, yeah,” Avera giggled, taking my empty mug and refilling it. “Yuck it up.” Handing me the now-full mug, she raised hers towards her lips before pausing and giving me a contemplative look.

“Hey,” she said slowly, a smile spreading across her face. “Since you’re so bored apparently, and Twilight’s about ready to smack you a good one, you wanna see the basement?” I cocked my head to the side, giving her a confused look. “You know,” she said, waving her hoof around, “see what me and the others have been up to down there. I promise, you’ll like it!”

I stared at her for several seconds before shrugging and giving her a quick nod of my head. Taking our mugs with us, we proceeded to leave the kitchen and make our way towards the basement door. Cracking open the door, we descended into the depths of the tree.

As I walked down the stairs, I was immediately hit by a large wave of hot air and sound. Glancing around the room, I felt my jaw drop as I took in the radical changes. They had somehow managed to expand the basement, giving them more room than they originally had.

A small cot rested in the corner of the room, next to a small bookcase that was filled with what looked like spellbooks. Two hammocks hung from the ceiling above the cot, one black, one dark purple. Several practice dummies rested along the far wall, several looking ready to fall apart, the stuffing in them leaking out of several large, gaping wounds. Red lanterns hung from the ceiling, casting the center room in a crimson glow.

There was one thing that stood out amongst all of this, however. Sitting in the center of the room, flames crackling loudly as waves of heat wafted above it, was a large forge. Glancing up at the ceiling, I noted that there was a glowing rune etched into the wood, and as the smoke from the forge wafted upwards, it disappeared into the rune.

Standing in front of the forge, joint clamped firmly in her teeth, was Primrose. A black pair of welder goggles rested upon her face, and a blacksmith apron was around her barrel. Her usually messy mane was done up in a ponytail, keeping the long strands from falling into the flames. She had a large pair of tongs grasped in her hooves, holding a piece of metal in the forge.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, she glanced up, the end of her blunt glowing as she inhaled.

“So,” she said, speaking over the roar of the forge, “you came down to see the fun stuff, eh?” Her joint bounced as she talked, smoke drifting out of the corners of her mouth.

“He was bored, so I decided to invite him down,” Avera replied, making her way over to Primrose and offering her the mug. Plucking the joint from her mouth, she tucked it behind her ear before accepting the beverage.

As Primrose quaffed the cider happily, Avera glanced down at the piece of metal sitting within the forge.

“How’s it going?” she asked. Primrose lowered the mug, licking her lips before handing it back to Avera. Turning her attention back to the forge, the batpony smiled and placed her joint back between her teeth.

“Just wrapping up now, actually,” she said. Grabbing the tongs tightly in her hooves, she removed the metal from the forge before quickly dunking it in a nearby barrel of water. There was a loud hiss as steam erupted from the mouth of the barrel. Chewing on the end of her blunt, Primrose bobbed her head for several seconds before removing the cooled metal.

As she held up the piece of metal to study it, I blinked in confusion as I recognized what it was. It was her Lunar Guard helmet, but instead of the usual lavender coloration, it was now pitch black.

Primrose caught me staring at the helmet, and she smiled, smoke snaking through her teeth.

“Like it?” she asked, motioning at the helmet with her head.

~It’s black~ I replied dumbly, still staring at the helmet. This just caused Primrose to chuckle.

“Yes, yes it is. My own special chemical recipe. Heat the metal up, dip it in the mixture, and—voilà—black armor!”

~Okay… but why is it black?~

“It needs to go with the rest of our gear, duh,” Primrose said. I got the distinct impression that she was rolling her eyes behind the goggles. “Here, I’ll show you.” Placing the helmet gently upon the work bench, she pulled a cover over the forge, silencing the roar of the flames. Turning, she trotted towards the far wall.

Grabbing a hold of a torch bracket located on the wall, she pulled down on it with a grunt, causing the bracket to swing down with a loud click. Instantly, a large red rune appeared on part of the wooden wall, which immediately sunk in. slowly, the wall began to rise, revealing empty space behind it.

As I watched the hole in the wall grow bigger, I felt my eyebrows slowly rising as well. How much work did they do down here?

The wall ground to a halt, and Primrose glanced over her shoulder at me, a large smirk playing across her muzzle. “Welcome to our armory.” Reaching into the now-revealed room, she flipped a switch on the wall, instantly causing a row of lights to spring to life.

Inside the large space was four different sets of armor. I instantly recognized Ebony’s Battlemage armor resting upon a pony mannequin. What was once cobalt blue metal was now polished black, a red glow emanating from the armor plating. The caparisons, once a dark purple, were now crimson.

Beside it stood another mannequin bearing a set of Lunar Guard armor minus the helmet. Like Ebony’s armor, the original lavender armor with dark purple decorations was now pitch black with crimson accents. The blue eye that adorned the front of the breastplate was now red, and seemed to glow softly.

The third set of armor was a set I had never seen before. Unlike the previous two, this one appeared to be made out of a material that looked like thick ceramic plates with kevlar-like material underneath. Small pockets dotted the armor, as well as several buckles, straps, and clips. It reminded me almost of armor I had seen army soldiers wearing back home. I had to assume that it was Avera’s.

As I turned my attention to the fourth and final set of armor, my jaw dropped open in shock.

It was my Big Daddy costume from Nightmare Night.

It had been modified since I had seen it last. The dark purple armor was now black, and appeared to have been reinforced, with several extra plates added. The light lavender clothing beneath the armor had changed to a blood-red color. Twilight’s cutie mark was still emblazoned on the suit, but the purple star was now crimson. The helmet had been modified as well, the yellow glow emanating from it now red. Small red runes ran along the sides of the helmet, glowing softly. The right glove was glowing red, while the left one had a light blue glow. The cage on the back had been replaced by a large pack.

As I stared at the suit, Primrose sat beside me, bobbing her head with a large smile on her face.

“As you can see, we made some modifications to your armor as well,” she said, chewing on the joint. I blinked, glancing down at her in confusion.

~My armor?~

“Yeah,” she said, motioning to the modified suit. “Your armor. We found it down here when we arrived, and assumed it was yours. Had to reinforce most of the metal on it, though. That stuff wouldn’t have protected you very well. Whoever made it didn’t have a good idea on how armor actually works.”

~That’s because it wasn’t armor~ I signed, chuckling softly. ~It was a costume for Nightmare Night~

“Oh.” Primrose’s ears flicked, and she was silent for several seconds before shrugging. “Well, you’ve got armor now!”

~I see~ Turning my attention back to the armor, something behind the suit caught my eye. It was a large banner—almost like a flag—hanging from the back wall. It was dark gray in color, with a large red human hand emblazoned upon it. A black horseshoe rested in the center of the palm of the hand.

~What’s with the banner?~ I asked, not taking my eye off of it.

“We’re your guards. We needed a standard,” Primrose explained. “See, it’s the emblem on the armor as well.” Looking at where she was pointing, I noted that each of the ponies’ armor bore small red hands somewhere on their armor: on the chest plate, pauldron, and the back of the armor.

~Where did you get the idea for the human hand?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You remember when you got attacked by Lyra?” Primrose asked nonchalantly, studying her hoof. “Well, Avera might have managed to get a bloody hand print from you while your nose was bleeding. We went from there.” Glancing up at me, she gave me a sheepish smile. Shaking my head, I looked back at the banner, chewing on the inside of my cheek. That’s kinda creepy.

Something beneath the banner glinted, catching my eye. Glancing down, I stared at the object for a few seconds before asking, ~Is that the axe I killed the infected human with?~

“Indeed it is,” Primrose chirped happily. “The original owner didn’t want it anymore after she heard what it was used for, so we brought it back, sterilized it, reinforced the head and handle, and now it’s yours!”

~Wait a minute~ I signed after a few seconds. ~I thought I wasn’t allowed to fight. You all kept telling me to run away from the infected human. Why are you making me armor?~

“One, the armor is meant for self-defense,” Primrose said, drawing on her blunt. “Two, of course we didn’t want you to fight the infected human! We thought if you got bitten, you’d be meeting the Maker. Didn’t know that your body would roast the spores to death,” she added with a grumble.

I said nothing, just raising my mug up to my lips and sipping loudly. Primrose just scoffed before reaching up and pulling the torch-lever again, causing the wall to lower and hide the armor.

Turning around, I blinked in surprise when I saw Avera sitting at a small table, Ebony sitting next to her. Ebony was watching me with mild curiosity, slowly chewing on a sandwich in her magic.

“Why is he down here with us?,” she asked, leaning towards Avera without taking her eyes off of me.

“He shoved snow in between Twilight’s wings,” Avera said, a grin on her muzzle as she dug into her own sandwich. “Thought he might need someplace to hang while she calmed down.”

Rolling my eyes, I huffed in good humor before making my way over and sitting down across from them. Removing her forging apron, Primrose joined us, pushing her goggles up on top of her head.

Ebony bit into her sandwich again, but paused, her nose twitching as she sniffed the air. Glancing down at the mug in my hands, one of her eyebrows rose.

“It that my cider?” she deadpanned. I raised the mug up and took another sip before answering.

~I was the one who allowed you to obtain it, so I think I’m entitled to some~ I huffed, rolling my eyes.

“But, Cinnamon Apple Cider!” Ebony whined, waving her hooves at me in a useless manner. I just chuckled, which quickly turned into a hacking cough as I covered my mouth with my hand. Instantly, all three of guards tensed up, eyes glued to me.

After several seconds of trying to clear my lungs, I gave one last grating hack before swallowing. Looking up, I saw all of them staring at me intensely. I just shook my head before taking another sip of cider, trying to clear my throat.

Upon arriving home from the hospital, they had explained to me that one first signs of a human becoming infected was horrible coughing and gagging. It was actually funny the first time I had coughed: Twilight had screamed and the books she had been levitating had been flung into the air.

However, after the fifteenth time, everyone tensing up every time I coughed was getting rather old.

Slowly, everyone relaxed and resumed chatting quietly as Ebony and Avera went back to their meals. As they talked about stuff I didn't really want to listen to that particular moment, my eyes slowly drifted over the table before coming to rest on Avera's plate. My brow furrowed as I stared at the half of her sandwich that remained there. After a while, my fever-addled brain finally realized what it was I was seeing on the sandwich.

Leaning forward suddenly, I continued to eye the sandwich and its contents closely before asking, ~Is that meat?~

Avera, who had been in the process of taking another bite out of her—what appeared to be—ham sandwich, paused and glanced over at me.

“Yes,” she said, her words muffled by the food currently in her mouth.

~That's meat~ I repeated, giving her an incredulous look. ~You're eating meat!~

“...Yes,” Avera said again, although this time it sounded more like a question, her words uncertain. She gave me a confused look before glancing over at the others at the table. They returned her confused gaze, which only baffled me more.

~I'm not going crazy here, am I?~ I asked Ebony, motioning towards Avera, who was still holding her meat sandwich. ~She's eating meat?~

“Yes,” Ebony said slowly, nodding her head.

~Like, used to be animal meat?~

“Yes.”

~And you all are okay with it?~

“Humans eat meat,” Primrose said with a shrug. “We've seen you eat meat. What's the big deal?” I gave her a look that clearly said 'are you nuts?!'.

~She's a pony, eating meat!~ As I said that, Ebony's eyes lit up and she tapped her hoof on the table.

“I get what you're confused about,” she said before turning to look at Avera. “You never told him, did you?”

“I thought I did,” Avera said slowly, still chewing the food in her mouth. Sighing and shaking her head, Ebony turned back to me and smiled.

“Yes, she's eating meat. Yes, she's a pony, but she's an imperial pegasus.”

~A what?~ I sighed, giving the unicorn a blank look.

“An imperial pegasus,” Avera replied before swallowing. “We're considered a sort of... subspecies of pegasi from the Far Imperial North. You see—” she leaned forward, waving her half-eaten sandwich in tiny circles as she talked “—many years ago, before Princess Luna first became Nightmare Moon, a group of pegasi travelers journeyed to the far north in search of new lands. We don't know why they went, or what they were looking for, but they went nonetheless.

“Once there, they began to form their own laws, customs, and traditions, and within a couple generations, Bal Vanga—the now-capital city of the Far Imperial North—was born. The imperials living there became a separate empire, much like the Crystal Empire is today.”

~But was does that have to do with you eating meat?~ I asked, still confused. Moving her hoof up, Avera pulled back her lip, revealing her teeth. Alongside her normal pony teeth, there were also two sets of canine teeth on each side of her upper and lower jaw.

Releasing her lip, Avera licked her teeth before continuing, “It's rather hard to grow crops up where the ice can be miles thick in some places, and there are times of the year where it's night for days on end. Arctic rabbits are much easier to catch than it is to grow apple trees, wheat, or other such plants.”

~So, you're a different species of pony?~ I asked, cocking my head to the side. Avera chewed on her lip before nodding.

“Sorta, kinda,” she said, shrugging. “Regular pegasi are built to deal with weather in more temperate climates. Controlling weather, shaping clouds, things like that. Imperials are built for the frozen lands in the north. We are more resistant to cold, have slightly larger and stronger wings to help us maneuver through hail and blizzards, and a different digestive system and teeth for eating meat. We also have special hooves for climbing ice walls.” Reaching her leg across the table, she showed me the underside of her hoof.

Where most ponies' hooves were smooth and flat, Avera's were serrated and rough, jagged edges all protruding in one direction, almost like scales on a fish. As I watched, the rough surface flexed slightly, flattening out before returning to its original appearance.

~That's so awesome~ I signed, staring at the hoof in awe. Suddenly, I remembered something I had seen during the fight with the infected human. Glancing back up at Avera, I asked, ~Is this why when you hit the infected human with your hoof, it looked more akin to claw marks than a hoof mark?~ She nodded in confirmation.

“Yup. They work great at allowing us to climb icy cliffs, or to defend ourselves from potential threats,” she said before grinning. “Or to let that stupid stallion know that we just aren't that interested in the small thing he has going on between his hind legs, and he should really stop trying to flirt with us.” I cringed as Avera laughed.

~But where did you get the meat?~ I asked. ~I thought most species, like cows and pigs, were intelligent and thinking creatures here~ It was Primrose who answered this one.

“There is a system put in place for that,” she said, tossing the smoking end of her blunt onto the table. “Here in Equestria, several different species can have a medical card, that upon the time of their death, their bodies are donated to be processed for the carnivorous members of society. There are actually some butcher shops near the Griffon Empire that allow you to reserve a place for once you've passed on.

“However, you need to have a special card to purchase meat from these places. The cards are distributed by the hospital and regulated by the crown. The only way you get the card is by proving that meat is a necessary part of your diet.”

~What if meat isn't?~ I asked, cocking my head to the side. ~Twilight buys meat occasionally~

“The meat she buys was processed through the Griffon Empire and shipped to Equestria, so there is no restrictions on who can buy it. Most meat given to humans comes from the Empire.”

~What's the difference?~

“Here in Equestria, the process is well regulated. The only creatures cut up and processed are those who are already deceased. The griffons over in the Griffon Empire hunt for their meat, so the creature was still alive shortly before becoming edible.”

“Can we not talk about this?” Ebony asked, looking a little green in the face. “I'm not against you guys eating meat, but I don't want to know the processes behind getting it.” All of us shot her sheepish smiles.

~But, wait a minute~ I signed as Avera took another bite out of her sandwich. ~If imperials are from a different empire to the far north, why are you in Equestria's military?~

The question seemed to throw Avera off slightly, and she blinked a couple of times before speaking.

“You seriously want to know?” she asked. I nodded before taking a quick sip of cider. Putting her sandwich down, Avera frowned slightly as she chewed on her bottom lip.

“Long story short, I was orphaned at a young age, hitched a ride to Equestria on a trader caravan, and happened to join a thieves guild. I remained a member of said guild for several years afterwards. We traveled from city to city whenever the heat got too much for us. That all changed, however, when we arrived in Manehattan.

“We were in the middle of a job when the owner of the house—an elderly mare living on her own—woke up and came downstairs. The excitement was apparently too much for her, as she started having chest pains and trouble breathing. Of course, that's when everypony split.”

~Wait~ I interrupted. ~They all just left her there, in that condition?!~ Avera just shrugged.

“The guild never went out of its way to hurt ponies, but they didn't help them either. We weren't assassins, but if somepony tried to catch us, we used force to get away.”

~So how did this moment change your life for the better?~

“Simple,” she replied, a small smile on her face. “I stayed behind.”

“You stayed to help?” Ebony asked, a smile on her face as well. Avera just nodded, laughing softly.

“Now, I know what you're thinking, and no. I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. Even to this day, I don't know what possessed me to stay and help, but I was halfway to the window when it happened. As all my guild-mates fled, I turned around, grabbed the old mare, and raced to the nearest hospital. The look on the nurses' faces when a pegasus clad in a thief’s outfit and an old mare on her back crashed through the main door was priceless!” Avera laughed as she remembered.

“Anyway,” she continued, taking another bite from her sandwich, “I later found out that I had gotten her there just in time for the doctors to save her. Needless to say, the guards arrived and I was arrested until the mare got out of surgery. They kept me at the hospital under watch. Luckily for me, when the mare woke up she didn't want to press charges. She was just grateful I had decided to help her.

“I'm not sure what was funnier though,” she giggled. “The mare's daughter slapping me for breaking into the house, or the granddaughter hugging me for saving her grandma.”

~So, how did you end up in the guards and not in jail?~

“Strangely enough, Princess Celestia heard about the incident and happened to be in Manehattan at the time, so she stopped by. I about had a heart attack when she stepped through the door. I thought for sure I was bucked. Upon seeing I was an imperial, though, she offered me a place in the guards, and I accepted. Didn’t really have a choice in the matter, but in retrospect I’m glad that I did.”

“You were in a thieves guild?” Primrose asked suddenly, her voice cold. She glared at Avera with steely eyes, a small frown on her face. “It wouldn’t have happened to have been the Blackhoof guild, would it?

“No,” Avera answered, a look of confusion on her face. “They didn't really have a name for themselves. They just called themselves 'The Guild'.”

Primrose visibly relaxed at that, nodding her head.

“Anyways,” Avera said slowly, eyeing Primrose wearily, “that’s about it for my tale.” She shrugged before popping the remaining of her sandwich half into her mouth and swallowing.

I nodded as I took another drink from my mug. Glancing over at Ebony, I cocked an eyebrow. After several seconds, she glanced up at me, blinking in surprise when she saw my look.

“What?” she asked.

~I’m waiting for you to tell me that you’re not a regular unicorn. We’ve got a bloodsucker, and a meat-eater right here~ I signed, motioning towards Primrose and Avera. ~You’re not going to tell me you’re a siren or something, are you?~

This just caused her to laugh.

“No, nothing like that,” she said. “I’m just a regular mare from Canterlot, whose family happened to consist of more brothers and sisters than I know what to do with. Some siblings went off to law school, some went off to the guard. I went to the School for Gifted Unicorns before joining Academy and becoming a Battlemage. That’s all there is to tell.”

“What about you, Primrose?” Avera asked, looking over at the batpony. “What’s your story?” Primrose just looked down at the table and sighed heavily.

“...don’t want to talk about it,” she said softly, her ears splaying backwards.

“Come on,” Ebony said, her tone warm. “We’re all friends here. We won’t judge. Besides, it can’t be worse than Avera being an ex-thief, can it?” Avera stuck her tongue out at Ebony, causing her to giggle.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Primrose said, more forcefully this time, a slight hint of an accent slipping in. It sounded almost Russian to me.

Lifting her head up, she pulled another blunt out of the pouch around her thigh. Placing it in between her lips, she proceeded to light it and give it a long pull before continuing. “The road goes ever on. The past is in the past, and there is nothing we can do about it. I’d rather keep my ghosts to myself, if it’s all the same to you guys.”

Avera opened her mouth to say something but I stopped her with a wave of my hand. Shaking my head, I glanced over at Primrose and gave her a small smile.

~That’s fine. This is just a nice chat between friends. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to~

“Thanks, big guy,” she said, giving me a weak smile in return. The silence that fell over the room was broken by the basement door opening. Twilight’s head appeared, glancing down the stairs into the basement. Upon seeing me, she motioned with her hoof.

“Come on, you,” she called down. “It’s time for your medicine, and then you need to get some rest.”

~Yes, mom~ I signed, rolling my eyes as I stood up. I headed towards the stairs, but not before quickly stealing the other half of Avera’s ham sandwich when she wasn’t looking. Chewing happily as I darted up the stairs, I was already at the top by the time she noticed. Her indignant cries were muffled as I quickly shut the basement door behind me, Primrose and Ebony’s laughter echoing up the stairs.

Twilight was waiting in the main room, a pill and glass of water in her magic. She handed me both, and I put the pill in my mouth, using the water to help me swallow it quickly. Not quick enough, however, as I still managed to get a horrible taste in my mouth.

Once that was done, Twilight took the glass from me and levitated it into the kitchen. Turning back to me, she pointed up the stairs.

“Come on,” she said softly. “You need to get some sleep.” Nodding my head, I proceed up the stairs, albeit at a slow pace, with Twilight following close behind me. Reaching the living room, I headed towards my couch, but was stopped by a wall of pink.

“Oh, no,” Twilight said from behind me. “You are not sleeping on the couch in your condition. You need to be in a comfortable environment.” I yelped in surprise as I was suddenly lifted into the air.

With me suspended in her magic, Twilight proceeded to head towards her room instead. Opening the door, she trotted over to her bed, and dropped me upon it like a sack of potatoes.

“You will not be sleeping on that couch tonight,” she said. I tried to sit up but she pushed me back down with her magic. “No, no you will be sleeping in a bed tonight. You’ll get better rest in an actual bed.”

~But this is your bed~ I signed.

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “Tonight it’s your bed. Now, go to sleep.” She turned to walk away, but I reached out quickly and grabbed a hold of her.

“What the—” Twilight yelped as I pulled her into bed with me. “W-what are you doing?”

~I’m not making you sleep on the couch tonight~ I signed, making sure that she didn’t escape my grasp. ~If I can’t sleep on the couch, you can’t either~

“B-but—” she tried to protest, but fell silent when I nuzzled the top of her head, snuggling deeper into the bed. I could feel my eyes slowly beginning to droop as I sunk into the comfortable mattress. My nose could just pick up the faintest hint of lavender on the sheets—or it could be from the mare in my arms—and my body relaxed further due to the scent.

As I slowly began to slip off to sleep, I felt Twilight place one of her wings over my chest, her head resting upon my stomach. I wasn’t completely sure, but I think she was humming.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sunny sat in the middle of the throne room of Canterlot Castle, fighting to keep her eyes open.

For the past three days she had been questioned by Princess Celestia herself about everything she knew about Darkflare’s secondary warehouse in Manehattan. It was now nearing the end of the third day, and her fatigue was finally beginning to catch up with her. She would like nothing more than to collapse upon a bed and sleep, but there was one last topic that needed to be discussed.

Lifting up her head, Sunny glanced over at the throne, upon which Princess Celestia sat. The Solar Princess was currently distracted by a large stack of papers, most of which were notes taken by the scribe during the last three days. Reviewing the information, Celestia hummed softly to herself, her magenta eyes slowly drifting over the pages before her.

Sighing heavily, Sunny tried to keep her annoyance in check. She could understand the need for information in order to keep ponies safe, but couldn’t anypony but her see that the longer they wasted talking, the more likely it was that Darkflare would get to Manehattan before them?

“We’re wasting valuable time,” she growled beneath her breath, ruffling her wings.

“Relax,” said a voice beside her. Looking to her right, Sunny glanced over at Stacker. The large, gray pegasus was standing slightly off to the side, leaning against a nearby pillar with a calm expression on his face. He was unarmored; the only article of clothing adorning him was his signature dark gray cap.

Beside him, in the shadow of the pillar, stood Ivory Pyre. She was unarmored as well, although her current attire was much more bizarre. A pair of dark-red-tinted sunglasses rested upon her face, hiding her eyes from view. A kerchief—the same color as Stacker’s hat—covered her muzzle. The skull pattern upon the kerchief gave Ivory the appearance of having skeletal jaws.

When Sunny had questioned her as to why she was wearing both the glasses and the kerchief inside, Ivory just shrugged, before simply saying, “It’s cold”.

“Relax? Relax?!” Sunny hissed, her ears splaying backwards. “How can I relax knowing that each second we waste here increases the chance of Darkflare getting to Manehattan before us?!”

“We aren’t going anywhere without the proper information,” Ivory said, her voice muffled by her kerchief. “The worst thing we can do is run blindly into the situation. If we aren’t prepared, we could end up with more dead soldiers, especially if Darkflare is already there.”

“And if Darkflare gets to Van before us?”

“Then there isn’t much we can do about it,” Stacker said with a shrug.

“But—” Sunny began, but was cut off as Ivory shook her head.

“You’re thinking with your emotions. We survive by thinking with our heads. The more we know about what we are heading into, the better prepared we’ll be to face it. Besides,” she added, nodding her head towards the distracted Princess of the Sun, “this is the last day of questioning. Then, you can get some rest while we work on the prep work.”

Sunny’s face visibly brightened at that information, her mind already wandering to the possibility of heading down to Ponyville for a visit. As if sensing what was going on in her head, Stacker shook his, giving her an apologetic grin.

“Sorry, ma’am. Gotta stay in Canterlot,” he said. “Just in case.” Sunny tsked, ruffling her feathers in annoyance.

She had just returned her attention back towards the throne when Celestia lowered the paper she was reading and glanced up. Smiling softly at Sunny, the princess handed the paper to her assistant, who immediately tucked it into a large folder, which was already packed full of paper.

“Sorry for the delay,” Celestia spoke, the smile still on her face. “I just had to make sure we finished our discussion from yesterday. It appears that we did, in fact, cover more than we originally planned. At this point in time, we are just about done. There is only one thing left to discuss.”

“And what would that be, your highness?” Sunny asked, bowing her head respectfully.

“Tell me everything you know about the human called Van.” Sunny blinked, her ears splaying back at the request.

“E-everything?” she asked, her mouth suddenly very dry. It felt like her tongue had suddenly become cotton.

“Everything,” Celestia repeated, nodding her head. “Start from the beginning, and go from there.”

Sunny sighed heavily, closing her eyes as she gathered her thoughts. Everyone waited patiently—the princess on her throne, Stacker and Ivory by the pillar—as Sunny tried to remember as much information as she could.

After a few minutes, Sunny opened her eyes again, and began to speak.

“Darkflare first purchased Van almost nine years ago from a band of armored bears whose caravan was passing through the northern region of Equestria. His sire was said to have been found wandering around the barren lands of the Far North. An aggressive human, the bears didn’t know where he had come from, but they could tell by the condition of his body that he had been a fighter.”

“And what condition was that?” Celestia asked. Beside her, her scribe was quickly writing down every word spoken.

“A muscular build, scars covering his limbs,” Sunny began, ticking off each new trait on one of her feathers as she continued to rattle them off. “Right eye missing, steel plates nailed to his left arm, bloodied bandages upon the right arm, his orange pants covered in bloodstains. He even supposedly carried a weird ax-like device with him, rusted with blood.”

“That’s awfully descriptive, isn’t it?” Ivory spoke up. “It’s almost like you saw him.”

“I did,” Sunny said with a shudder. “The bears kept him chained and locked in a cage. He just sat there, glaring out at the world through his mask made from the skull of a griffon.”

“The bears found him and, despite his appearance, decided to not only capture him alive, but breed him?” Ivory asked, incredulous.

“Yes,” Sunny nodded, “and Van was the result. Darkflare bought him, and made him his personal human. He trained Van personally, and entered him in human fighting rings. It quickly became apparent that Van had inherited his sire’s lust for battle, and he was near invincible in the ring.

“Darkflare loved that human. Well, as much as Darkflare could love something other than himself. Liked to give him fresh meat as often as possible.”

“Was Van used just for human fighting?” Celestia asked, her smile no longer present during the morbid discussion.

“No,” Sunny said, slowly shaking her head. “He also used him as a tool of fear. Anypony that tried to double-cross him would be shoved in the cage with Van. Any human that proved to be too troublesome went into the cage. If any ponies came snooping around the gang’s hideouts, Van was the welcoming committee. One way or another, Van got his fresh meat.”

At this, Celestia actually looked a little ill, her white cheeks tinted the faintest shade of green.

Before Sunny could continue, however, Stacker spoke up.

“Wait, you said he used Van to take care of troublesome humans, right?” When Sunny nodded, he continued. “So, you’re saying that if the Desert Anomaly acted up when you first found him, Darkflare would have given him to Van?” Sunny’s eyes widened and she gaped at Stacker, shocked.

“Oh, buck,” she breathed. “I didn’t even think of that. It’s a good thing Max was silent and well-behaved those first couple of weeks.”

“I’m tellin’ ya,” Stacker said, shaking his head. “That kid has the luck of the Maker with him. Ten bits says that if he had tried to show any of you that he was intelligent…” Stacker trailed off, grimacing slightly.

“Twilight wouldn’t have a human right now,” Celestia finished for him, a grim look on her face. “It seems that his paranoia about revealing himself was sound after all, if only for his time aboard the train.”

Sunny shivered as she thought about what could have happened. If he had tried anything, it would have been like his time in the pit, only Twilight and I wouldn’t have been there to save him.

“So, we’ve clearly established that Van is dangerous,” Celestia said, snapping Sunny out of her thoughts. She glanced up at the princess, who was currently looking at her expectantly, her head cocked to the side. “So, tell me. Is there a way to control this beast? A carrot to tempt him with?”

“Back on the train, you said that he only listened to Darkflare,” Ivory said, glancing over at Sunny from behind her shades.

“Yes, but that’s not entirely true,” Sunny said. “While it is true that Darkflare was the only pony Van would listen to without proper motivation, if you had a piece of meat in your hooves, Van would listen to you. That is, until he deemed that you looked more tasty than the meat.” An involuntary shiver ran down Sunny’s spine, and she swallowed thickly.

“Found that out the hard way,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, yet it still carried in the silent throne room. “I can sometimes still hear Silverwing’s screams. Van just ate, and all Darkflare did was stand there and laugh.” Silence fell over the room as everyone shifted uncomfortably, no one meeting anyone else’s eyes. Sunny rubbed one of her forelegs with a hoof, her head hung low.

After a long pause, Celestia spoke, her voice soft and tender, “I am impressed, Sunny Breeze.” Sunny glanced up, giving the princess a confused look. “You have endured much, far much more than anypony in your position should, and yet… you appear to have come out of it for the better.

“You are kind to other ponies, as well as humans. You have gone out of your way to help those who you have not known for that long. You have taken responsibility for your previous actions, and have worked to fix them.” Sunny’s cheeks flushed red as the princess complimented her. Her ears splayed backwards, and her wings twitched nervously.

“Now,” Celestia continued, straightening up. “Concerning Van. I’m normally against putting a human down, but in this case it sounds like it might be necessary—” a sour look crossed Celestia’s face “—especially seeing as ponies have died because of him. However, I would like to hear what you think about him, Ms. Breeze, before I make my final decision.”

“My personal opinion is that I want to stay as far away from Van as possible,” Sunny said. “However, if you deem it necessary to recover him, then make sure you have enough meat to keep him distracted until you can knock him out.”

Celestia was silent for several minutes, staring down at the floor, lost in thought. Sunny took that time to glance over at her companions. They were both standing perfectly still, watching the princess as she chewed on her lip.

The group stiffened as Celestia raised her head, a determined look on her face, though her eyes appeared to be dimmer than usual. Glancing over at the two Coming Dawn guards, she spoke, “Lieutenant Pyre. You and your team are hereby tasked to find Van and bring him back to Canterlot. Alive, if possible, but if he proves too much, do not be afraid to put him down.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ivory said, saluting. She paused though, as she lowered her hoof, cocking her head to the side. “If I may ask, ma’am, why are we trying to bring him back alive?”

“If we can somehow… rehabilitate him, think of the help he could be in the Guard,” Celestia said softly.

“And if he can’t, think of how many ponies will die by his hand,” Sunny muttered under her breath.

“Ma’am, what if he proves to be too much for the Royal Trainers?” Stacker asked, raising an eyebrow as he glanced sideways at Sunny.

“Then we shall have to have him put down,” Celestia said with a hint of finality in her voice, before smiling down at Sunny. “Ms. Breeze, you are dismissed. Go get some rest.”

Sunny smiled weakly as she stood up and bowed. Turning, she trotted towards the large double doors, thoughts of her bed already filling her head as they closed behind her.

Chapter 41: The Anomaly Meets the Vagabond

“Alright,” Twilight said as she adjusted the half-full saddlebags on her back. Double-checking the straps one last time, she turned her head to look at me, a determined expression on her face.

“Are you ready?” she asked. I nodded, pulling my jacket a little tighter around me. Beside me, my three guards stood, fully armored.

Today marked the fourth day of our quarantine within the library due to my infected human bite. The bite itself seemed to be healing fine, but, wanting to be on the safe side, Twilight had taken the recommended three days and made it four.

Now, here we were, on the fourth day, getting ready to head back to the hospital to see if I was still a hazard. Twilight had sent Spike a letter through his dragonfire, which instructed him to forward it to the hospital. It would be safe, as Spike’s dragonfire would torch any spores that might still be clinging to life. About half an hour later, we received confirmation that the hospital was ready for us.

The quarantine wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it was going to be. Twilight had gotten several fires roaring in the multiple fireplaces throughout the library, keeping the entire tree at a stuffy temperature. The heat, combined with my fever, made it so that I basically slept through most of the past four days.

The time that I was awake had been interesting, though. The giant purple bubble around the library had drawn the attention of most of the ponies in town. It was shortly after the end of the second day that the story had gotten out about me being attacked by an infected human.

The next morning found Fluttershy tapping on the magic dome, a first-aid kit in her mouth and a worried look on her face. She left after Twilight explained that no one was coming into the bubble until the infection was gone, but that didn’t stop her from coming back the next morning to double check.

Bless her soul, she was persistent.

“So, what’s the plan?” Avera asked. Her long mane was pulled back in a bun, keeping it out of her eyes.

“We’re going to teleport back into the room Max was kept in originally,” Twilight said. “From there, he gets examined. Hopefully all of the spores are gone, or else I’m not sure what we'll do from there.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Primrose said. “I just can’t wait to get out and stretch my wings!” As if agreeing with her, her two bat-like wings twitched, unfurling slightly.

“You and me both,” Avera growled in agreement. “I’m going stir crazy in here.”

“Well, if everything goes fine, you’ll—”

thump thump thump

We all turned to look at the door as the thumping continued, evidence that someone was knocking on the magic dome.

“I thought I told Fluttershy she couldn’t see you until the doctors gave you a clean bill of health,” Twilight said with a frown. I shrugged my shoulders before moving to the door and opening it. Sticking my head outside, I blinked in surprise when I saw not Fluttershy, but Pinkie Pie.

She was pressed up against the dome, knocking against the magic barrier with a hoof. Her face—smushed firmly against the wall of magic—bore a sorrowful expression, her mane hanging limply around her.

Upon seeing me, she perked up.

“Maaaaaaaaax,” she whined, her voice muffled by the dome. When I only blinked in response, she inhaled, her cheek still pressed against the barrier. Opening her mouth, the hyperactive pony began to earn her name by talking a mile a minute.

“Max, I’m really, really super duper sorry that we left you alone during the snowstorm. It’s just that I thought you would be able to make it back home safely because, well, you seemed to know where you were going, and if I had known that the bells would have started ringing then there was no way I was going to leave my human friend alone in the—”

I shut the door, silencing her voice to a barely audible murmur. Staring at the closed door for several seconds, I released the doorknob and turned back around. All four ponies were staring at me, a look of confusion on their faces.

“Was that Pinkie?” Twilight asked, glancing over my shoulder. I just shrugged in response. “What did she want?” Again, I shrugged my shoulders. The thumping sound resumed outside, and very faintly I could hear Pinkie's voice.

“Maaaaaaaaaax.”

Twilight’s ears perked up and she glanced at the door for a brief second before looking back at me. I just cocked an eyebrow, giving her a bemused look. I may have gotten lucky with the infected human, but there were two ponies that I wasn’t going to be interacting with anytime soon. Pinkie was one of them. The other one I had caught glimpses of as she circled the library the past couple of days, but she had yet to try and talk with me. Which was all good, cause I wasn’t exactly willing to ‘talk’ with her either just yet.

“Anyways,” Twilight said slowly. “Let’s get going. The sooner you get examined, the sooner we can put this behind us.” Her horn began to glow softly a few seconds before a small bubble of magic formed around me.

My stomach lurched slightly as I was suddenly lifted into the air, bubble and all.

“Hold on.” I heard Twilight say, her voice warped. There was a bright flash of light, and I was hit by the feeling of vertigo for a brief second before both it—and the light—faded.

Blinking stars from my eye, I groaned slightly, trying to keep my stomach from voiding its contents into the bubble with me. Trying to take my mind off of the sensation, I glanced around the room we were now in. As far as I could tell, it was the same room I had been during my brief stay after the infected human attack.

The operating room was almost completely bare, the only object within being a large metal table with several medical instruments upon it, as well as what looked like a microscope. The large observation windows near the ceiling on one of the walls remained dark, although I thought I saw something shift behind them.

I had barely finished looking around the room when the sealed door swung open, allowing a pony in a HAZMAT suit to enter. As they approached, they motioned to the door with a hoof.

“The four of you can go outside in the hall,” the pony said in a clearly feminine voice. It sounded familiar but I couldn’t place a name with it at the moment. “We have this part of the hospital sealed, and a team of doctors standing by to make sure you aren’t carriers. They’ll check to see if there are any spores on you, and are prepared to sterilize you if need be.”

Twilight nodded before both her, and my guards, headed towards the door, leaving me behind.

“Leave the bubble around your human until after the door closes,” the HAZMAT mare called after them. This earned her a look of irritation from Twilight before she headed out the door.

As the door closed with a loud thud, the mare turned to look up at me. At least, I think she did; it was rather hard to tell through her tinted visor. After a few seconds, the magic around me flickered before vanishing completely. I was prepared and managed to land on my feet as I fell through the air.

I stretched happily as the mare began to circle me slowly, keeping her distance. After a few seconds, she nodded her head, before motioning towards the table.

“Shall we get started?” she asked. As I approached the table, she picked up a large needle in her hooves, fiddling with it. Once it was connected to a series of tubes, she turned to face me.

“Crouch down, please,” she said, pointing at the floor. “I need to get a blood sample.” Removing my jacket, I did as instructed, wincing as she grabbed my arm roughly with a covered hoof. Holding my limb firmly in her grasp, she paused for a brief second before wiping it with an alcohol swab and sticking the needle into my vein. Immediately, blood began to flow down the tube, heading to an empty vial attached to the end.

Once the vial was sufficiently full, the mare pulled the needle from my arm, placing a cotton ball and tape over the miniscule prick.

“Just give me a second,” she muttered as she placed the vial into a receiver in the side of the microscope. Looking into the eyepiece, the mare fell silent as she studied the sample. As she adjusted the various knobs upon the machine, I just stood there, watching her work.

After a few minutes, she leaned back, sighing heavily.

“I don’t believe it,” she said, reaching up and beginning to unclasp her headwear. Pulling the helmet off, she shook her head to clear the pink stains of hair from her face before looking at me.

“There are no spores present within your blood,” Nurse Redheart said. “Congratulations. You are now the first human in history to survive the Black-Vine Virus.” As she spoke, she removed the rest of her HAZMAT gear, tossing it into a corner. Putting her hair up into a bun, she motioned towards the floor beside her.

“Have a seat, please. I need to check on your injury.”

As the bandages were pulled off of my arm, I winced. The bite mark was scabbed over, the skin around it red and raw. The skin within the center of the bite radius was an ugly yellow color, mixed with splashes of black and blue.

“Yeah, it may look nasty,” Redheart said, eyeing the wound with a critical eye, “but it appears to be healing properly. The bruising should disappear within a few more days, hopefully, but you’re definitely going to have another scar.” Giving the wound one last look, Redheart turned and grabbed a thermometer from the table.

“Open wide,” she said, holding it near my mouth. I did so, and she stuck it under my tongue. As she waited for the thermometer to get a reading, she moved her head down to my chest.

“Okay, take a deep breath,” she said, pressing her ear against my skin. I did as instructed, breathing deeply through my nose. She then moved to the other side and had me repeat the process. Afterwards, she left her ear against my chest for several more seconds before pulling back.

“Lungs sound good, no buildup of fluid. Your heart is also beating strongly, which is a good sign.” The thermometer in my mouth beeped, and Redheart quickly pulled it out, glancing at the results. “And your abnormally, freakishly high temperature is back down to being normally freakishly high. You appear to be in good health, all things considered.”

Lowering the thermometer, Redheart gave me a quick smile. It quickly faded, though, and was replaced with a look of contemplation. She chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at me, tapping her hoof on the floor.

Licking her lips, her ears twitched once before she spoke, “H-how… how would you feel about giving us some of your blood?”

I blinked in surprise, my eyes widening slightly. Reaching into my bags, I pulled out my notebook and wrote one word.

+Why?+

Redheart blinked upon seeing the written word before glancing back up at me.

“Well,” Redheart said, tapping her hooves together, “during the past couple of days, while you’ve been recovering, we’ve been studying your blood work a bit closer. My… initial assessment of how your body was ridding itself of the spores was—while accurate—not the entire truth.” She motioned a hoof towards the vial of my blood that was now resting upon the table.

“You seem to have enzymes and blood cells that we’ve never even seen before. It seems that they, combined with your higher temperature, allow you to fight off infections and diseases that would be harmful—or even fatal—to humans here in Equestria.”

+So, you want my blood to experiment on?+ I asked, raising an eyebrow. Redheart just gave me a sheepish smile.

“We kinda already did some experiments on the sample we took a few days ago,” she said. “After we removed the spores with heat, we started introducing different bacterias and viruses into it. So much so that we don’t have a clean sample to work with. That’s why we’re hoping that you’ll give us some more.” She trailed off at the end, giving me a large smile.

+And if I say no?+

“We’d be willing to pay you,” Redheart offered quickly. “Four hundred bits for a pint of blood.”

+Seven hundred bits+

“I can’t believe I’m haggling with a human,” Redheart muttered under her breath. Looking up from the note, she huffed, “Five hundred bits.”

+Seven hundred bits+ I pressed, underlining my previous offer.

“Six hundred,” she said, her eyes narrowing slightly. Reaching out, I tapped the paper in her hooves, smirking slightly as I did so. Redheart stared at me for a few more seconds before lowering her gaze and sighing.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Seven hundred bits for a pint of your blood.” Picking up a different needle, she attached a blood bag to the end of it before motioning for my arm. Placing it in her hoof, I glanced away as she moved to stick the needle into my vein. A small pinching sensation was the only indication that the needle was now in my arm.

I returned my gaze back to Redheart as she slowly collected the blood. We were both silent as the crimson liquid flowed down the tube, filling up the bag. Once she had enough, she pulled the needle out and bandaged up my arm.

As she set about making sure the blood was good to go, I got up off of the hard floor, swaying slightly. Pulling on my jacket, I paused when I felt a tug on my sleeve. A quick glance down showed that Redheart was looking up at me, a warm smile on her face.

“Thank you,” she said. “I realize it’s a little presumptuous to assume that we can just use you like this, but, with your blood, we can work towards better medicine for future humans. With this, we’ll be able to give them better care.” Her statement gave me pause, and I gave her a confused look.

+Why do you care?+

Redheart read the note several times, as if she didn’t understand what she was reading. Finally lowering it, she glanced up at me, an incredulous look on her face.

“Why do I care about humans?” she asked, blinking several times in disbelief. When I nodded in response, she just slowly shook her head.

“It might be true that they aren’t ponies, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care for them,” she said loudly, as though I had insulted her. “They might not be intelligent like us, but they can still show their discomfort, their pain. When a young human female is brought in with a broken leg, she still screams and shrieks in pain just like a foal would. Why shouldn’t I try to alleviate their pain and suffering?”

As she fell silent, we both just continued to stare at each other. Slowly a small smile began to spread across my face, and, reaching down, I gave her a quick scratch behind the ear. It flicked and the look on her face slowly turned to confusion, a small blush spreading across her cheeks.

“W-what was that for?” she asked, rubbing the ear. I just shrugged, gave her a quick smile, and then proceed to head out the door, leaving the confused mare behind.

Closing the door behind me, I turned and blinked in surprise when I saw Twilight and my guards walking down the hall towards me. Twilight had a nervous look on her face, and upon seeing me, her ears splayed backwards.

“Well?” she asked as she drew nearer. I smirked to myself before answering.

~I’m apparently slowly dying~ I told her, my face solemn.

“WHAT?!” Twilight shrieked, her pupils shrinking as her wings flew open. All three guards gaped at me, different levels of shock on their faces.

Slowly nodding my head, I kept my grave expression as I continued. ~Eeyup, it seems I only have eighty years to live~

The hall was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. Twilight continued to stare up at me with a shocked expression on her face, her jaw hanging open. Slowly, her mouth closed and her eyes hardened. There was a flash of light and I yelped as my jacket was suddenly pulled over my head, plunging the world into darkness. A sudden sharp pain in my shin brought me to my knees.

“That was not okay!” I heard Twilight growl as I struggled to free my head. Finally pulling it free of the confines of the jacket, I gave the upset mare a large smile. She just ‘harumph’d’ at me before turning and—after flicking her tail in my face—stalking down the hallway.

“That was uncalled for,” Ebony said, frowning up at me. “She was worried about you, fretting over what was going to happen to you, and then you go and pull that stunt.” Beside her, Primrose nodded her head in agreement.

Rubbing my shin, I stared at the retreating form of Twilight, wincing. They’re probably right, but I couldn’t help myself.

~Maybe~ I signed as I stood back up, grimacing as I put weight on my leg. ~But I think I know how I can make it up to her~

“And how do you plan to do that?” Primrose asked, cocking an eyebrow. Before I could answer, however, Nurse Redheart appeared at my elbow, a bag of coins clasped in her teeth.

“Your bits,” she mumbled around the cloth. My guards’ eyes widened as I took the bag from Redheart, tossing it gently into the air as I nodded my thanks to the mare before she walked off.

As I pocketed the money, Avera found her voice. “Why the buck are you getting bits from her?”

~They wanted a pint of my blood to study~ I signed with a shrug. ~I charged them appropriately~

“And is that how you plan on making things up with Twilight? With bits?” Ebony asked. I laughed, shaking my head.

~No, not even close. This was just a lucky bonus. My plan involves Spike helping me send a message to Celestia~

“Why do you need to talk with her?” Avera asked as we slowly began to make our way after Twilight.

~Because I know what I’m getting Twilight for Hearth’s Warming, and I know she’ll love it~

“You do realize that Hearth’s Warming Eve is just over a week away, right?” Primrose asked as she pulled out a pair of tinted shades and placed them over her eyes. The glass within the shades was dark violet; tinted enough that no one would be able to see her eyes behind the darkened material. It was rather ingenious, now that I thought about it. With the glasses over her eyes, she would be able to walk around in sunlight without ponies seeing her transformed eyes. A quick tug on her scarf covered her muzzle, perfect for hiding her fangs when they grew.

Going out like that, she would look just like any other pony bundled up due to the cold. Well, except for the glowing black armor currently adorning her body.

~I’m well aware of when it is~ I huffed, rolling my eyes. ~My request won’t take that long. It’ll be ready by next week. I’m sure Twilight will love it, and hopefully it’ll make up for all the stress I’ve caused~

“If you say so.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight was waiting for us as we exited out into the main lobby. I winced again as she glared at me, giving her a sheepish smile before I signed, ~What’s the plan now, mistress?~

She froze for a second, her eyes widening, before she shook her head and cleared her throat. Pulling a list out of her bag, she unrolled it with a flourish.

“W-well, seeing as we’ve been stuck in the library for four days without proper preparation, we are in sore need of supplies. We need groceries, as well as a couple of other things. Luckily, the weather schedule says claims that today is supposed to be nice, so we can get most of the stuff in the market.”

As she spoke, her eyes slowly moved down the list hovering in front of her and she began reading off some of the things she had on it.

“We need toilet paper, groceries, and some more firewood. I should also probably pick up some apples from Applejack while we’re at it. Some sweets from Bon Bon’s wouldn’t go amiss either. Also, I need to—”

Suddenly, Twilight lowered the list and groaned, rubbing her head with a hoof.

“What’s up?” Avera asked.

“I just remembered that before all of this infected human stuff, I wanted to go visit Zecora to pick up some ingredients for a potion or two I’m working on.”

“Well, why can’t we go pick them up now?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Because with how much stuff we need to get from the marketplace, there won’t be any time,” Twilight sighed. “I’ll just have to go pick them up tomorrow.”

~Or I could go pick them up today~ All four ponies looked at me, each with the same expression.

“If you think I’m letting you go into that forest after what’s happened, you’re out of your Maker-damned mind,” Twilight said in almost a growl. “After what I… I mean, after what we went through these last few days, you aren’t going anywhere by yourself for a while.”

~What if a guard went with me?~ I asked, motioning towards my three guards. I knew why Twilight was hesitant to let me go into the forest, but for some reason I felt that I needed to get her ingredients for her. It had been my own stupidity with the infected human that had made it so she had to wait, so why not do her a favor and get the ingredients while she shopped?

Something in my heart told me that that was the right thing to do. It was the generous thing to do.

Twilight stared up at me, chewing on her bottom lip. She looked torn between two decisions: really wanting the ingredients, and not wanting me to be in potential danger. Whatever the potions she was working on were, they must be important to her.

Eventually, she sighed, running a hoof down her face in the process.

“Fine,” she groused, “but you’re taking all of your guards with you. Fully armored. No arguments.” As I nodded in agreement, Avera groaned behind me.

“Yay,” she muttered, “we’re going into the forest of evil creatures!”

“Zecora lives right on the edge of the forest,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “All the major threats are further in.”

“Ha,” Avera laughed, shaking her head. “You can’t fool me! I know who got attacked by three manticores last time.” As she spoke, she pointed a hoof at me. I growled softly as I kicked the mare with my foot.

~What are we picking up from her exactly?~ I asked Twilight, who was beginning to look like she was regretting her decision.

“Well, I need some powdered everstone, which I know Zecora has, as well as some sess root.”

~Got it~ I spun around, a large smile on my face. ~Onward!~

“I can’t believe that we’re doing this,” I heard Avera mutter. Ebony just laughed.

“Don’t be that way. This will be exciting!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Well, this is new.”

The journey through the forest had been, thankfully, uneventful. No timberwolves, no manticores, no infected humans. Everything was going fine until we reached Zecora’s hut.

The hut itself was inside a twisted, hollowed out tree, the branches warped and deformed. Jars, each containing a glowing liquid, hung from the branches, casting an eerie glow around the hut. A tribal mask was tacked over the doorway, staring out at the clearing in front of the hut with empty eyes.

All-in-all, it looked like a witch doctor's hut alright, but that wasn’t what was giving the four of us pause.

It was the large, reptile-like creature currently lying beside the tree.

It was huge; easily the size of a horse back on Earth. The skin around its back and sides was black, standing out against the white winter background, while its underbelly was a bright orange. It had six legs, each one folded beneath its large body. The head was flat, almost spade-like in appearance. Reins rested in its mouth, running to a cushioned howdah strapped upon its back, accompanied by several large bags. To complete the weird scene, a large circle of snow around the creature had been melted, leaving a bare patch of earth.

As we stood there eyeing the creature, it was doing the same to us. Its yellow eyes drifted slowly over each of us, a disinterested expression upon its face.

Eventually, the creature seemed to grow bored with us and returned to what it was doing beforehand. Lowering its head, it rested it upon its first pair of legs, and proceeded to fall back to sleep.

“It doesn’t appear to be dangerous,” Primrose commented, still eyeing the creature. “And it has reins, so it's clearly been domesticated.”

Staring at the beast for a few more seconds, I just shrugged my shoulders before proceeding to head towards the door. My guards were close on my heels, keeping their eyes locked on the creature as we neared.

Casting one last look at the slumbering beast, I reached up my hand and knocked three times. There was a brief moment of silence before the sound of hoofsteps reached my ears and the door swung open.

There, standing in the light of a fire within the tree, was a zebra mare. Her striped mane was done up in mohawk, and golden rings covered her neck and left foreleg.

As I stared down at her, she stared back up at me, her cyan eyes filled with curiosity as she cocked her head to the side.

“And what have we here, out in the snow? A face I fear that I should probably know.” I blinked in surprise, an eyebrow raising slightly as the zebra spoke in rhyme.

Leaning to the side, the zebra glanced behind me at my guards.

“A scarred human, and guards as well. This will be interesting; I can tell.” As she turned her eyes back to me, I reached up and unbuttoned my jacket. Pulling it open, I allowed her a glimpse of Twilight’s cutie mark before closing the jacket again.

Upon seeing the emblem, the zebra’s eyes widened.

"You belong to Twilight Sparkle, this much is true. She has often spoke quite highly of you. A human hailing from a different dimension, something of which I've had no comprehension.”

I’m… flattered? I thought, looking down at the mare.

“I’m sorry to intrude, but are you Zecora?” Primrose asked, casting another glance over at the large creature before turning her full attention to the zebra.

“Indeed, I am she,” the zebra, Zecora, said with a nodded and a smile.

“We don’t mean to interrupt anything you might be doing at this time, but Twilight sent us to pick up some supplies she needed,” Primrose continued, bowing her head slightly. “If you wouldn’t mind getting us the things we need, we’ll be on our way.”

“It’s no trouble at all, please come on in,” Zecora said, pulling the door open further. “I hope you don't mind my visiting cousin.”

“Thanks,” Primrose said as she slipped around me and into the house. I followed behind her only to stop and glance back at Avera and Ebony, who hadn’t moved.

“We’ll stand watch out here,” Ebony said when I gave them a questioning look. Rolling my eyes, I ducked into the hut, closing the door behind me.

As I straightened back up again, I saw that there was a second zebra within the hut, resting by the fire in the center of the room. This one was clearly male, his striped mane hanging around his face in long strands, framing a brilliant pair of green eyes. He had red tribal markings upon his muzzle, running just below his eyes. The only attire he wore was a dark desert scarf that was wrapped around his neck.

As Zecora moved towards some shelves holding various jars, the new zebra leaned forward and spoke, “What have we here, cousin dear? Visitors?”

“A human owned by my friend, Twilight,” Zecora called back over her shoulder. “But don’t be fooled, for he is very bright.”

“An intelligent human, you say?” the male zebra said, sitting up straighter. “I never thought I’d see the day!” As he continued to look at me, I started to get a little nervous. There was something in his eyes that just caused my skin to crawl. Not in a bad way, mind you; I sensed no malice in his gaze.

It was almost like he was staring into my soul.

“And where are you from, my intelligent friend?” he asked me, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “There are no smart humans from here to Zebrica. At least, none that I know of, and I know that area like the back of my hoof!”

“That’s classified by the princesses,” Primrose responded.

“I’m sorry,” the stallion said, holding up his hooves in a placating manner. “I meant no offense by it.”

“No offense taken,” Primrose said, nodding her head. “We aren’t exactly hiding that’s he’s intelligent anymore, but we are hiding where he came from.”

“You can’t tell me where he is from, but, if it’s within my power to do so, may I ask where did you find him?” the stallion asked. I gave him a bemused look, cocking my head to the side. Primrose just answered with a shrug.

“Out in the desert.”

“Ah,” the stallion grinned, his eyes lighting up. “You were in my territory!” Holding out a hoof, the stallion smiled up at me.

“I,” he said with a flourish, “am the Desert Vagabond. Or just Vagabond for short.”

“You’re from the desert to the south?” Primrose asked. Upon seeing the stallion nod, she motioned towards the door with her head. “Is that your beast out there?”

“Beast?!” Vagabond cried, giving Primrose a mock hurt look. “Sasha is no beast! She is a salamander, a loving creature of immense intelligence! She carries me across the desert sands with such grace and wonder.”

Soft laughter from the corner caused us to glance over at Zecora, who was currently in the process of crushing something in mortar.

“You’ll have to forgive him, if he seems a bit strange. He doesn’t talk to others much in the desert range.”

“It’s true,” Vagabond said with a nod and a dopey grin. “My travels tend to find me alone in the sand, with just Sasha for company. Although, there is an occasional human wandering around for me to converse with, but they don’t usually have much to say back. Mostly because they are dead from dehydration. Makes them good listeners, though, and they have yet to tell other souls about my secrets.

“However, I figured that I’d forgo the burning sands and take advantage of the holidays to visit my cousin in the cooler north.”

“Well,” Primrose said, her wings twitching by her side. “As soon as we have what we need, we’ll allow you to get back to your family bonding moment. Sorry to have interrupted.”

“As I’ve told you before, it’s quite alright,” Zecora said. “I’m always more than happy to help Twilight.” Motioning with her hoof to Primrose, Zecora held up a jar of some sort of powder. “My friend, here is the first ingredient you need. I'll have the second in a moment, guaranteed.”

As Primrose moved to accept the jar, I just continued to stare down at Vagabond. He was rubbing his jaw with a hoof, eyeing me curiously. I noted that one of his pupils was slightly smaller than the other.

“You talk, boy?” he asked, pointing a hoof at me. I shook my head before miming out writing with my hands. This just caused Vagabond to snort.

“Bah, that takes too long,” he said, shaking his head. “Although, I don’t really need to speak with you. I just hoped that I might have been able to have a conversation with a human. It would have made an interesting tale for when I encounter travelers in the desert. That is, if they aren’t dying of thirst when I find them.

“No, I can see all I need in your eyes… or eye, as the case may be.” He winced as he gazed at my bad eye. “By the All-Mother, that’s a good one. Kinda reminds me of a giant worm that I met several years ago. He had a large scar across his head as well. Anyways, I can tell by the look in your eye all that I need to know!” With that, he turned and started to root around in a large bag he was currently using as a pillow.

As he searched through the contents, he continued to speak, “I come from a land—a faraway place—where such things are a rarity, but I still know it when I see it. That look, it always brings a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart… or maybe that’s the heat from the sun. Anyways, it’s normally not on the faces of humans, but that doesn’t matter. The All-Mother wants us to love all, and that includes humans. Normally I’m quite content to let humans run their course without bothering them, but with you, my smart, intelligent, sophisticated friend—” he giggled something that sounded remarkably like a Joker laugh “—for you, I think I’ll make an exception. And I have been saving this for a rainy day, after all. Why not a snowy one instead?”

With that, Vagabond straightened up again, something held in his hooves. It looked like a small jar, wrapped up in a brown cloth.

He held it out to me, a large smile on his face, revealing that he was missing some of his back teeth. Picking it up gingerly in my hands, I stared at the thing for several seconds before glancing back down at the zebra.

“Normally this is a hard thing to make, and harder still to use, but I think you might be able to find proper use for it,” he said with a smirk. “It’ll give you a… different perspective on life, that’s for sure. Allow you to see things from a new point of view. It might be educational, it might be amorous.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I raised an eyebrow before looking back down at the jar in my hands. Am I really going to take a mysterious liquid from an unknown zebra? Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I nodded before slipping the jar carefully into my bags. I’ll get Twilight to look at it later. If it turns out to be something dangerous, I can just use it as a weapon later. Turning back to Vagabond, I bowed my head in thanks before straightening back up.

“That should about do it,” Primrose said as she trotted back over, a wing closing her saddlebags as she walked. “We’ve got everything we came for. Let’s get back and find Twilight, shall we?”

As she trotted towards the door, I turned and gave Zecora a large bow and a quick smile. She flinched slightly upon seeing my smile, but quickly recovered and gave me a genuine one in return.

“The pleasure was mine, my new human friend,” she said, returning my bow, “to see the one that Twilight praises to no end. I’m sorry our meeting was brief for today. Do come back again sometime, if you may?”

I bowed again before exiting the hut, crouching slightly to avoid hitting my head on the door frame.

Closing the door behind me, I stepped out into the clearing, only to almost trip over Primrose who had come to a dead stop in front of me.

~Why’d you stop?~ I asked after I regained my balance. Not turning to look at me, she pointed her hoof forward. Glancing up, a smirk slowly began to work itself across my face as I saw what had given her pause.

During our time in the hut Avera and Ebony had somehow managed to cuddle up next to the salamander, leaning against her belly. Each had a content look on their face, their eyes closed.

That is, until Primrose started snickering.

Cracking an eye open, Avera glanced over at us. She glared at us for a few seconds before closing her eye again.

“You laugh, but this thing is incredibly warm.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight walked through the marketplace, uncomfortably aware of all the eyes that were upon her. Glancing quickly around at all the ponies that were staring at her, she lowered her head, her ears splaying backwards.

Ponies whispered to one another as she passed, hiding their mouths behind their hooves. She could just barely make out what was being said, even though she didn’t really need to hear the words to know what everyone was talking about.

“...he got bit by an infected human, but hasn’t turned yet.”

“What!? But it’s been nearly a week, hasn’t it?”

“I heard that he just basically shrugged it off and went about his business like nothing happened!”

“Then what was the deal with the bubble around the library?”

“Do you think it’s safe for him to be free?”

“I don’t know, but if it’s true that he’s immune to the infection, I wouldn’t mind paying Twilight for the privilege to breed him.”

Twilight grimaced, her right eye twitching as the whispers continued. She had to resist the urge to grind her teeth together in frustration. She should have seen this coming, she really should have. It was only logical, considering what had transpired, but she had been too concerned with the health of her human to have planned for it.

It had happened only a few minutes after leaving Max and his guards at the hospital. She had been approached by a group of ponies, all of whom were curious as to what had happened between Max and the infected human. They had wanted to know how it was that a human had been bitten, yet remained uninfected.

Unfortunately, their questions had startled Twilight, and, being rather flustered, she had answered with the first thing that had come to her mind: he was still alive because of his breed.

She had instantly regretted it, and now it was going around town like wildfire that Max was immune to the Black-Vine Virus, and could possibly pass the immunity on to his offspring.

“Relax, Twilight, relax,” she muttered to herself as she passed another group of muttering mares. “Just keep telling them 'no', and everything will be fine. Max wouldn’t do it anyways, and I’m not going to force him. Just keep telling them 'no'.”

Slinking through the crowd of ponies, Twilight tried to make herself as small as possible. She just needed to get apples from Applejack’s stand and then she could head home and hide within the library. Now, she just needed to get around the fountain and she would be in the clear.

“Excuse me, Miss Twilight?” Twilight closed her eyes, groaning quietly. So close…

Turning around, she put a fake smile on her face, which quickly became a look of surprise when she saw who was standing there. “Lotus?”

The spa pony gave Twilight a warm smile, her blue eyes sparkling. She had a pink scarf wrapped around her neck; the same color as her sister’s fur.

“What can I do for you, Lotus?” Twilight asked, a genuine smile touching her muzzle.

“My sister and I heard ze news zat your human vas attacked and bitten by an infected human—” Twilight smile slowly slipped from her face “—and I just happened to see you valking through town today, so I just had to ask—” Twilight felt her eye twitch “—is he alright?”

Twilight froze, her eyes widening in surprise as she gazed into the concerned face of Lotus.

“...what?”

“Is he alright?” Lotus repeated. “For vat ve’ve heard, he is immune to ze infection, but is he himself alright?”

“He seems to be unaffected by the attack,” Twilight said, eyeing Lotus curiously. “Why do you ask?”

“Because he still remains my most favorite human customer thus far,” Lotus explained with a giggle. “And I haven’t seen him recently. Vith all zat ve’ve heard he’s been up to, ve just vanted to check up vith him.”

“Check up with him?” Twilight asked, her ears perking up.

“Indeed,” Lotus said with a smirk. “He is intelligent, is he not?”

Twilight’s jaw fell open and she took a step back from Lotus, shocked. Glancing around quickly, she made sure that no ponies were listening in before turning back to the grinning spa pony.

“How did you know that?” she whispered.

“Vell,” Lotus said, chuckling softly. “He is ze only human I’ve ever seen zat can write. I saw him writing to Applejack one time vhen he vas in the marketplace.” Her smile faltered upon seeing the look on Twilight’s face, and she raised a hoof nervously. “Vas… vas I not supposed to know about zat?”

“No, no, it’s alright,” Twilight sighed. “We aren’t exactly hiding the fact anymore, but neither are we going out of our way to spread the word. It’s fine that you know, just please don’t tell anypony else.”

“I vouldn’t dream of it,” Lotus said with a smile. “Like I said, he is my most favorite human customer.”

“Thanks, Lotus,” Twilight said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but froze, her ear twitching, when more whispering giggles could be heard behind her. Groaning, she rolled her eyes before returning her attention to Lotus.

“I don’t mean to seem rude, Lotus, but I’ve got to get going. I want to get home as soon as possible, and I just need to grab some apples.”

Lotus nodded her head, glancing over Twilight’s shoulder with a small frown on her muzzle.

“Yes, I’ve heard ze rumors and gossip going around,” she muttered, shaking her head. “It’s rather a shame too, seeing as you’ve already said that you don’t vant to breed him.” Chewing on her bottom lip, Lotus was silent for several seconds before looking back at Twilight.

“I’ll see vat my sister and I can do about dissuading some ponies from spreading ze gossip,” she said, smiling softly.

“Thanks, Lotus,” Twilight said, smiling as well. “Any help would be appreciated.” Nodding, Lotus gave Twilight a quick hug before trotting off, humming softly to herself.

Glancing around one last time, Twilight lowered her head before slipping around the fountain. She moved quickly, darting from stand to stand until she reached the one cart run by a familiar orange mare.

Applejack jumped as Twilight appeared beside her, giving off a small yelp. Upon seeing her friend, Applejack sighed, placing a hoof over her heart.

“Shoot, Twilight. Ya tryin’ tah give me a heart attack?”

“Sorry, Applejack,” Twilight said sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s alright, Twi. Ah know ya didn’t mean anythin’ by it,” Applejack said, giving her friend a smile. There was a brief second of silence before she inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. Whirling around, she grabbed Twilight and pulled her into a massive, back-breaking hug.

“Twi! You’re out of the library!” she cried, unfortunately drawing attention to the pair as ponies stopped to see what the commotion was about. Twilight just gasped, tapping Applejack on the shoulder as she gasped for air.

Suddenly realizing that her friend couldn’t breathe, Applejack released Twilight, who immediately started taking deep breaths.

“Sorry,” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “It’s just that y’all have been stuck in the library for the last few days, and we haven’t seen hide nor hair from any of ya.” Glancing around, she leaned in and lowered her voice. “How’s Max doin’?”

“Better, now that he’s finally out of the library,” Twilight replied. “He was getting restless.”

“So it’s true then,” Applejack said, giving Twilight an incredulous look. “He got bit by an infected human and is still alive?”

“Yes, his higher body temperature killed off the spores before they could infect him,” Twilight replied quietly, aware of the stares. “He still had spores within his blood, however, so we had to keep him locked down in the library until his body killed them all.”

“Ah see,” Applejack said. She stared at Twilight for a few more seconds, fidgeting with her hooves, before she sighed and hung her head. “Twi, Ah want tah apologize.”

“For what?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Max was at my place before he got attacked, and I was the one that sent him home during the break in the storm,” Applejack explained sadly. “If Ah hadn’t told him tah get while the gettin’ was good, he wouldn’t have been attacked and none of this woulda happened.”

“No, Applejack,” Twilight said softly, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault. What happened was a mixture of poor planning and miscommunication.” When Applejack gave her a confused look, she explained further, “I didn’t tell Max what the bells meant, Pinkie and Rainbow were supposed to be looking after him, and he didn’t take any of his guards with him. There really is no one pony to blame for this.” Nodding her head, Applejack closed her eyes and sighed.

Opening them again, she gave Twilight a weak smile. “Well, that makes me feel a little better, though Ah still feel partially tah blame. Anything Ah can do tah help you folks out?”

“Actually, there is,” Twilight said, glancing around nervously. “I need two dozen apples quickly. I want to get back to the library as fast as possible.”

Blinking in surprise, Applejack glanced around as well. She raised an eyebrow upon seeing the number of ponies looking in their direction, even if it was out of the corner of their eyes.

“What’re they all lookin’ at?” she muttered, scratching her head. Twilight winced.

“I may have been ambushed by a few ponies after leaving the hospital, and I may have accidentally told some ponies that the reason Max is fine was because of what breed he is,” Twilight explained sheepishly. “Now it seems several ponies may want me to breed Max out to see if the offspring will have the same… immunity.”

As she finished explaining, Applejack gave her a blank look.

“That’s the stupidest thing Ah’ve ever heard,” she snorted, shaking her head. “Not only do none of these ponies have enough bits, but Ah highly doubt Max would agree tah it. Plus, half the mares lookin’ over here ain’t got a human tah breed him with.”

“I know, but the whispering still bothers me, so I’d like to get back to the library as soon as possible,” Twilight sighed.

“Well, that Ah can help ya with,” Applejack chuckled as she started to place apples into a bag.

As she worked, Twilight’s ears perked up as a whistling sound filled the air. Glancing up, she blinked in surprise when she saw a rainbow blur heading right for her. She moved to sidestep the incoming missile, but Rainbow flared her wings at the last second, coming to a hovering halt just above Applejack’s stand.

“Hey, egghead,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath, “I see that the bubble around the library is gone, and you’re out here. That’s good to see. Um… do you know where the big guy is?”

“You mean Max?” Twilight asked, cocking an eyebrow. When Rainbow nodded, she continued, “No, I’m not sure where he is. The last time I saw him was when we parted ways at the hospital.”

“You left him all alone?” Applejack asked, glancing up from her task. “After what happened?”

“He has his guards with him,” Twilight said with a shrug. As Applejack continued to stare at her, she fidgeted before rolling her eyes and muttering, “And I may have placed a spell or eight on him when he wasn’t looking in order to protect him against several different things that might happen while he isn’t with me.” Applejack gave her a knowing smirk before returning to bagging apples.

“So you don’t know where he is?” Rainbow asked, her ears drooping slightly. Twilight shook her head.

“Nope. Sorry, Rainbow.” The pegasus deflated at that.

“Shoot,” she muttered, glaring at the ground beneath her.

“Why are you looking for him?” Twilight asked as Applejack finished packing the apples. Accepting them with a soft ‘thank you’, she placed the apples into her saddlebag gently before glancing back up at Rainbow.

“Uh… no reason,” Rainbow said quickly, her eyes darting back and forth. “Just want to… um…” Fidgeting, she chewed on her bottom lip before suddenly snapping her wings open wider and zipping off through the air, leaving Twilight and Applejack to stare after her in confusion.

“What was that about?” Twilight asked, keeping her eyes on the retreating pegasus. Applejack just shrugged, scratching her head with a hoof.

“Ah’m not entirely sure,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s been actin’ like that for the past couple o’ days.”

“Hmmm, I wonder if I should go talk to her,” Twilight said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “I hope it’s nothing serious—”

“Hey, Twilight,” a mare interrupted, walking past Applejack’s stand, her hips swaying slightly. “How’s your human doing?”

“And just like that, I don’t care anymore,” Twilight deadpanned as the mare walked away slowly, giggling to herself. “I’m sorry to run, Applejack, but I need to get back to the library before I say something I’ll regret.”

“Alright then, catch ya later, Twi,” Applejack called after her as Twilight quickly trotted away. She tried not to break out in a gallop as the eyes continued to follow her every movement.

This is getting out of hoof, she thought to herself as she hurried past another group of giggling mares, all of whom were eyeing her with coy smiles on their faces. Thank the Maker we’ll be spending almost a week in Canterlot soon. Hopefully that’ll give everypony enough time to calm down before we get back.

Twilight had just about made it back to the library when, due to her distracted state, she ran face first into something. Yelping, she fell backwards onto her flank, her wings flaring by her sides.

“Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing her nose with a hoof. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

~Yeah, I could kind of tell~

Twilight perked up instantly as a pair of sandal-clad feet entered her vision. Lifting her head, she found Max staring down at her, an amused smirk on his face.

“Max!” Twilight cried, a large smile spreading quickly across her face. “You’re back already?”

“Yup,” Primrose said as she stepped out from behind the human. “The zebra had company, so we decided to make our stay brief.”

“She had visitors?” Twilight asked, surprise.

“Yeah, her cousin from the desert,” Primrose replied, fishing around in her bags. “A little nutty, methinks, but friendly nonetheless.”

Pulling out the ingredients, Primrose passed them to Twilight, who grabbed them with her magic. As she placed the containers gently into her saddlebags, she asked, “Was there any trouble?”

“Nope,” Avera answered. “The forest was quiet, Zecora got us what we needed, we made a new warm friend, and now here we are.”

“Warm friend?” Twilight asked, looking at her in confusion.

“A large salamander,” Ebony explained. “Zecora’s cousin uses it to travel, and it was really warm.”

“Well, seeing as they tend to be found around volcanoes and hot springs, I’d imagine so. They’re known as lava-swimmers for a reason,” Twilight said with a chuckle. “I’m just glad that nothing weird happened.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Primrose said, her brow furrowing slightly. Though her mouth was covered by her bandana, Twilight could still tell she was frowning. “I didn’t notice it leaving town, but coming back, most of the mares and some of the stallions have been eyeing us, or more specifically, Max.”

Max jerked his head back, his eyes widening as he glanced down at Primrose with a frown. ~They have? I didn’t notice anything~

“You guys too, huh?” Twilight asked, her ears splaying backwards. “Ever since I left the hospital, I’ve had ponies staring at me. It’s getting rather annoying.”

“Any idea why they’re staring?” Ebony asked, glancing around to see that Twilight was indeed speaking the truth: everypony seemed to be staring at the group, their eyes wide in shock and wonder.

At Ebony’s question, Twilight’s cheeks flushed red and she looked away.

“I have no idea,” she grumbled. “I just want to get to the library and make it stop.”

“Yeah, you know, it’s not ‘cause we have a human that survived an infected bite or anything,” Avera said, rolling her eyes. Max raised any eyebrow before glancing down at the arm that had been bitten. Primrose snicked at his expression, her bandana fluttering with her breaths.

“Anyways,” Ebony said, glancing around again. “I agree with Twilight. We should probably get into the library as soon as possible before anypony makes a scene.”

A low growl rumbled nearby and all four ponies glanced at Max, who blinked in surprise before glancing down at his stomach.

“Perhaps get something to eat as well,” Avera snickered, smirking up at the human, who just pouted down at her.

“Yeah, come on,” Twilight said with a smile, motioning towards the library with her head. “Let me unpack my bags and we’ll all get something to eat.”

“That sounds like a marvelous idea,” Primrose purred as she grabbed the door handle and pushing the front door open.

Everyone froze as a loud gasp came from within the library. Before anyone could react, there was the sound of fluttering wings before a yellow and pink blur flew past the guards and Twilight, and slammed into Max.

The human toppled backwards with a yelp as the pegasus currently clinging to him cried out, “I WILL HEAL YOU!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > ? ? ? < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As Kindness continued to cling to Max’s chest, I flitted around the both of them, my wings twitching in distress. His guards crowded around, oblivious to my presence even when I phased through them. The Magic Alicorn just stood there, the expression on her face a mix of amusement and confusion.

“Oh… I can’t believe it,” I gasped, dancing on my hooves as I looked down at the struggling human. “I leave you alone for a few days and look what happens! You could have died! Oh, I knew—I just knew—that I shouldn’t have left!”

Trying to extract the pegasus from his chest, Max continued to ignore me as he did every time I tried to talk with him. Kindness continued to hold on with surprising strength, a medical kit strapped to her back.

“It was just luck that stopped you from becoming infected,” I whimpered, hopping from one side of him to the other. “You have to be more careful!”

Finally pulling Kindness from his chest, Max stood up, holding the pegasus at arm’s length as he gave her an amused look. Slipping up behind her, I looked into Max’s eye.

“Do you hear me? More careful!” I said, trying to be stern. “I’ve invested too much into you to have you ruin it with your stupidity. I did not save you from death within the pit just so that you could die later! You can’t be getting yourself into danger! You can’t be so reckless! You can’t hear anything I’m saying, can you?”

Looking into his eyes for any signs of comprehension, I sighed when I saw none. Sitting back on my haunches, I chewed on my bottom lip as I watched Max interact with the ponies around him, holding Kindness at bay with good humor as she squirmed in his grasp.

As the group slowly entered the library, I turned my gaze towards Canterlot, a small frown upon my muzzle.

Chapter 42: Music and Your Human

I laid splayed out across the cushions of one of the seats within the Royal Coach as the train sped down the tracks, staring at the cards in my hands. The train chugged along, carrying us forward towards Canterlot at a steady pace.

With Hearth’s Warming Eve coming up, Twilight had explained that we would be staying at the palace in Canterlot for the holidays. Since Twilight’s parents lived in Canterlot, and Shining and Cadance—both of whom would be coming to visit—would be staying at the palace as well, it was supposedly the best place for us to stay.

Though the holidays were three days away, Twilight had insisted that we head to Canterlot early. She had said that she had something planned that required us to arrive a few days before everyone else.

I was perfectly fine with that, as I had nothing planned, just like always. Plus, it got me out of Ponyville for a while. Ever since the infected human attack, ponies seemed to whisper to one another whenever I was outside of the library, so I was perfectly fine with the vacation.

So Twilight, myself, and my guards were all heading to Canterlot for the surprise that Twilight had set up. We had left in the early morning, hoping to beat the morning rush, as well as the whispering crowd. It was now approaching noon, and we were almost to Canterlot.

Twilight had spent most of the trip reading, her book floating beside her head as she hummed quietly to herself. Ebony was reading as well, though she held her book in her hooves. Spike was passed out beside Twilight, snoring lightly as he napped.

Upon the train leaving the station, Primrose had immediately pulled her trusty deck of cards out of her pouch, and Avera and I had quickly joined her in a card game. We had spent most of the trip playing Old Maid, which I had taught them during our lockdown at the library. Primrose had taken an immense liking to it, and seemed to be extremely talented at getting rid of the old maid whenever she acquired it.

“I still don’t know why you can’t tell us why we’re going to Canterlot early,” Avera huffed as she held out her cards to me face down. Reaching out, I picked one of the cards near the middle of her hand. A quick glance showed me that it was an eight, which I did not have in my hand. Sliding the card into my own collection, I then offered my cards to Primrose.

“I told you, it’s a surprise,” Twilight said, not glancing up from her book. Primrose grabbed one of my cards—a Luna—before grimacing and slipping it into her hand. Fanning out her cards, she offered them to Avera.

“Does it have anything to do with the other princesses?” she asked as Avera picked a card.

“Nope,” Twilight replied as she turned a page.

“Does it have anything to do with Max being bitten by the infected human?” Avera asked as she held her cards out to me. Grabbing one, I smirked as I got a three, which I immediately paired with the one in my hand. Both Primrose and Avera groaned as I discarded the pair.

“Of course not,” Twilight snorted, rolling her eyes. “We’re trying to avoid that kind of attention, remember?”

“Why can’t you give us any hints?” Avera whined.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad,” Twilight said, eyes still on her book. “In fact, it’s going to be fun!”

“As long as it’s nothing stupid,” Primrose groused, rolling her eyes. With it being overcast weather today, she didn’t need to wear her tinted glasses, although she had them perched on top of her head just in case the cloud cover started to break up.

“It won’t be,” Twilight replied. “Besides, the surprise doesn’t involve you. It involves Max.”

I paused in my choosing of a card from Avera to give Twilight an incredulous look. Shaking my head, I huffed before turning my attention back to the card game. Pulling a card, I glanced at it before grimacing. I don’t need a two!

I held out my cards to Primrose, and she quickly nabbed the two that I had just acquired. Looking at it, she smile before tossing it and another two onto the seat beside her. Avera groaned.

~I hope it’s nothing bad~ I signed, placing my cards face down in my lap.

“Nope,” Twilight said with a smile. “You’ll like it, I promise. It’s a little something from me to you.”

~Still no hint?~ I asked, giving her a pleading look, pouting slightly. She smirked as she looked up from her book, silently shaking her head at me.

Picking up my cards again, I resumed playing, reaching out to grab one of Avera’s offered ones. Silence fell over the coach as we continued our game. Cards exchanged hands at a steady rate, paired ones being thrown to the side for later.

Soon enough, it was just me and Avera, Primrose having already discarded all her cards. I had one card left—a Celestia—while Avera had two. One was the card I needed, the other was the old maid.

As she held out her cards, one in each hoof, I glanced back and forth between the two. I was unable to tell by her expression which card was which, as she stared straight ahead, her expression blank.

I hesitated, my hand hovering over the right card before moving to the left. I wiggled my fingers, frowning softly, before plucking the left card out of her grasp. Flipping it quickly, I threw my hands into the air and hooted in triumph when I saw a Celestia staring back at me. Avera growled as she slammed her head on the cushion in front of her.

“Buck it,” Avera growled, her voice muffled.

“Look’s like you’re buying the drinks next time,” Primrose snickered as she began to gather the scattered cards.

As she shuffled the deck, I sat up and glanced out the window. The scenery flashed by as the train sped along, traveling through the shadow of the mountain of Canterlot.

Running a hand through my hair absentmindedly, I glanced down at the base of the mountain. The hole that was being dug out had expanded greatly since the last time I had laid eyes on it. Wooden planks and walkways crisscrossed the empty space, providing the guards and the digging humans with a means to quickly descend. The hole seemed to delve into the earth, being swallowed in darkness the deeper it went.

A thin trail of ponies, accompanied by minecarts, exited the shaft, each cart filled with rocks and dirt. The debris was carried off, dumped off to the side of the site in a massive pile. The entire site was roped off by a large fence.

~They’re still at it~ I mentioned offhandedly as our train slowly circled the site. Twilight glanced up, giving me a confused look before glancing out the window herself.

“Oh,” she said, leaning forward as well. “Wow, they really are still working on that. I would have thought that they would have been finished by now.”

“They ran into a mass of crystal veins. Stopped the digging humans dead. They have since managed to break through and are back on schedule,” Ebony said, not looking up from her book. “Whatever’s down there is still emitting random bursts of magic, and they believe that our diggers should be able to reach the source by spring.”

~How do you know that?~ I asked, tearing my gaze from the window to look over at her.

“I was part of the team that discovered the source,” Ebony answered, glancing up at me. “I sent the info to Princess Celestia and she allowed us to start digging. When I was reassigned to watch Discord, my friends still at the dig site kept me up to date. I still receive letters from them about once a week.”

“You were part of the team that first sensed it?” Twilight asked, giving her a surprised look. “How did you first pick up the frequency? What tests were you doing at the time that picked up the magical resonance?”

Ebony rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, smiling sheepishly.

“We were kinda using magic to… throw pieces of chocolate into our mouths without moving,” she admitted, blushing as she looked away. Twilight blinked several times, giving her an incredulous look.

“...You discovered it by accident?”

Ebony chuckled weakly, her ears splaying backwards.

“How we discovered it doesn’t matter,” she defended. “It may have been an accident, but in the end that didn’t matter. We compiled our findings, and sent them to both Celestia and the Archmage. Celestia acted on our findings quickly, with the Archmage taking over soon after.”

“Any idea what’s down there?” Primrose asked as she began to deal out cards again. I picked up my cards, fanning them out in order to see what I had. I grimaced inwardly when I saw that I had the old maid right off the bat.

“No idea,” Ebony said with a shrug. “All I know about it is that whatever it is, it’s got a massive amount of magic the likes of which I have never felt before.”

“Could it be potentially dangerous?” Avera asked, tilting her head back to look at Ebony. The unicorn just shook her head.

“We're not sure. It’s not organic; it’s artificial, much like a talisman or artifact.”

“So, no giant monster is going to burst out of the base of the mountain and kill us all?” Avera asked, holding her cards out to Primrose. The batpony took a card, and immediately threw down a pair onto the cushion beside her.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ebony said, giving her a confused look.

“Good.”

Primrose held out her cards to me, and I grabbed one. Discarding the two threes I now had, I offered my cards to Avera. A small smile touched my face when I saw that she had grabbed the old maid. She gave me a quick glare before holding out her cards to Primrose.

As the three of us fell back into the swing of our game, Twilight returned to her book. Flipping open to her bookmark, she settled down on the cushion, leaning her shoulder against me as she did so. After a few seconds, I felt her tentatively place her wing against my back. I leaned back, nestling up against her as I pulled a card from Primrose’s hand.

I felt Twilight hum happily as the train continued to roll along, taking us nearer to our destination.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I gave off a low, impressed whistle as I stared up at the building before us. It was smaller than the other estates surrounding it, possibly the smallest one on the block, but that didn’t make it any less impressive.

Two stories tall, the building was designed so that it looked like it had been entirely made of carved marble. A large patio, covered by a second-story balcony, sat upfront, completely surrounded by green bushes, covered in white snow. A tiny fountain bubbled happily in the center of the small yard, a stone music note decorating it. Steam rose from the water, indicating that it was heated.

We were in, for lack of a better term, the rich part of Canterlot, making me even more confused as to what Twilight had planned for me. Only high-end nobles lived up here, and if it weren’t for the fact I know Twilight, I would have been getting rather nervous of her intent.

“Okay,” said Primrose, eyeing the fountain curiously. “Now I’m even more curious as to what you’re up to.”

“You’ll see~~~,” Twilight sang happily as she trotted towards the front door. As Twilight climbed the steps to the patio, my guards looked at me. Chewing on my bottom lip, I just shrugged.

~Let’s just see where this goes~ I signed before following after my owner.

By the time I caught back up with Twilight, she had already knocked on the front door and was patiently waiting for a response. My guards followed behind, scanning the area carefully. Their armor clinked together quietly as they ascended the stairs to stand behind me.

We had only been standing there for a few seconds before the sound of a dead bolt being pulled back came from the other side of the door. There was a brief pause before the door swung inward.

I blinked in surprise, my eyes widening when I saw the pony standing on the other side of the door. She was a grey earth pony, her coat brushed and fetlocks trimmed. Her mane, a darker shade of grey than her coat, was brushed back, cascading down around her shoulders. She had on a single article of clothing: a pink bow tie.

It’s the cello goddess from the Gala! I thought as I looked down at her.

She gazed out at us, a look of confusion crossing her face when her eyes landed on the three armored ponies behind me. The confusion left and a small smile touched her face when she caught sight of Twilight.

“Your majesty,” she said, giving a small bow.

“Please,” Twilight said, returning the smile, “just Twilight will be fine.”

“Certainly,” the mare replied, giving another bow before pushing the door open wider and motioning us in.

As I entered behind Twilight, I glanced around. The inside of the house wasn’t anything like the outside. While the outside of the estate had looked almost spartan and professional, the inside had a warm, homely feel to it. Instead of hardwood, cushy carpeting covered the floors, my toes practically sinking into the comfortable material as I slipped out of my sandals and placed them into my bags. A hint of cinnamon filled the air, wafting up from lit scented candles.

Just off of the entryway, a two-step landing led into an open living room. A large couch rested in the center of the room, facing a massive brick fireplace. There was a fire crackling merrily within, providing sufficient heat for the room. Large bay windows rested upon the far wall, providing a breathtaking view of the Equestrian countryside far below. Looking out the window, I was suddenly made aware of just how close to the edge of Canterlot city we were.

Soft classical music filled the room, emanating from a small record player resting on a nearby table.

As I looked around, I heard Twilight speak up beside me, “Good afternoon, Ms. Melody. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

“Please, call me Octavia,” the mare said, placing a hoof on her chest and giving Twilight a warm smile. “Besides, it’s not every day that you get a letter from royalty asking for a private meeting. There was no possible way I could have said no.”

“Still, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to see us.”

“Well, just between you and me,” Octavia said with a light giggle. “I’m not actually all that busy around the holidays. The conductor likes to give us the time off to spend it with family.”

“We aren’t intruding on anything, are we?” Twilight asked in alarm, her ears splaying backwards. “I didn’t want you to cancel any plans you had just to accommodate us.”

“Oh, no,” Octavia said, waving her hoof dismissively through the air. “There were no plans to interrupt anyways. My sister is currently in Manehattan, and I don’t really talk to my parents anymore. The only ponies here right now are me and my marefriend, and she’s currently asleep.”

“We won’t wake her, will we?” Twilight asked. This caused Octavia to laugh, her purple eyes dancing with mirth as she raised a hoof to cover her mouth.

“Forgive me for laughing,” she said when Twilight gave her a confused look, “but a train running through her room would not be enough to wake that mare. With how deeply she can sleep, if it weren’t for the fact she was breathing, I would mistake her for being dead.”

“Yeah,” Avera breathed, smirking up at me. “We know that feeling.” I gave her a small pout before nudging her with my foot, causing her to stumble slightly. Octavia glanced over at us, raising an eyebrow slightly before returning her attention back to Twilight.

“Well, Ms. Twilight, pleasantries are all good and such, but what brings you out here today? I’m afraid your letter was rather vague.”

“I have heard through the grapevine that you are one of the best cellists out there,” Twilight said, giving her a warm smile, “and I’ve recently found myself in need of your help.” The eyes of all three of my guards lit up, and they all exchanged knowing glances. I was still a little confused as to what was going on.

Octavia’s face lit up at Twilight’s words, and a small smirk slowly spread across her face.

“Oh my,” she said, a hoof going to mouth. “Could it be that Princess Twilight Sparkle wants to learn how to play the cello? I must say, I’m deeply honored that you’d choose me for such a task. I must ask though, what’s brought on the sudden longing?”

Twilight chuckled nervously, tapping her hooves together in front of her in an agitated manner. She glanced over at me, her ears folding back before returning her gaze back to the smirking Octavia.

“Well, you see—” she gulped, her wings twitching by her side “—I’m not actually here to learn how to play the cello.”

The smile left Octavia’s face and she gave Twilight an incredulous look. “Beg pardon?”

“The reason I contacted you wasn’t so that I could learn to play the cello,” Twilight said softly, not able to look the mare in the eyes.

“So why did you contact me?” Octavia asked, cocking her head to the side. Twilight just motioned towards me.

“I came because of him.” I gave Twilight a quick, confused look before returning my attention to Octavia as she glanced over at me.

She gave me a hard look, her purple eyes narrowing before she closed them completely. Giving a heavy sigh, she then hung her head, giving off a low groan.

“I see,” she muttered, keeping her eyes closed, her ears pressing against the back of her head. She seemed to deflate slightly, her tail drooping. The previous joy on her face seemed to disappear, replaced instead by a cold professionalism.

“Is that a problem?” Ebony asked, cocking an eyebrow at Octavia, who just shook her head, her eyes remaining closed.

“Of course not,” she said, her voice emotionless. “There's no problem at all. If you all would follow me.” Turning, she trotted towards a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. I glanced down at Twilight, who just gave me a bewildered look before hurrying after the retreating mare.

“I guess we should follow,” Ebony said, her tone uncertain as she moved forward. Avera nodded before making her own way towards the stairs.

I had taken only a couple of steps forward myself when I felt something hard bump into my leg. Glancing down, I found Primrose practically stuck to my leg.

~You okay?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow. Her ears were pressed tight against her head, and her tail was flicking back and forth in agitation. Her whole body was tense, and she was sticking so close to me that I was practically tripping over her. From behind her bandana I could hear her inhaling deeply, almost sniffing the air.

“I... I don't like this,” she muttered, her wings furling and unfurling by her sides. “I don't like this at all.”

~What's wrong?~ I paused, glancing around the room. Octavia and Twilight had just about reached the top of the stairs, and my other two guards were almost halfway up. Still enough time to make a break for it.

“The scent,” she growled, inhaling again. “The scent... I don't like it. It's too strong... too potent.”

I blinked in confusion, glancing over at the scented candles in confusion.

~You mean the cinnamon?~ Primrose’s wings unfurled again, her tail thrashing against my leg as she stuck close to me.

“...Y-yeah,” she muttered. “It's the cinnamon.”

I cast a quick glance up at the others, who were now all at the top of the stairs, giving us confused looks. Crouching down, I signed, ~We can leave if you'd like~ before scratching behind the batpony's ears.

“N-no, it's alright,” she said shakily, relaxing slightly under the attention my hand was giving her. “The smell’s just... getting to me.”

“Is everything alright?” Octavia called down to Primrose, her eyebrows raising.

“Everything's fine,” Primrose called back up, her voice returning to its usual strength. “Everything's just fine,” she said, softer than before, almost like she was trying to convince herself.

As I stood back up, she shook herself, her armor clinking together noisily. She looked up at me, her eyes hidden behind her shades, before moving towards the stairs. I frowned slightly as I watched her walk, my eyebrows furrowing. She was nervous about something, and that was in turn making me nervous as well.

Casting one last glance around the room, I followed quickly after her.

As Primrose and I reached the top of the stairs, Octavia gave us a quick look before turning and trotting off down the hall.

“Ms. Melody, please,” Twilight called out, fluttering down the hall after her. “What's the matter? Was it something I said? I apologize if I said something insulting or rude.” Octavia paused, glancing back over her shoulder at us. Her eyes landed on me, and she sighed before lowering her head.

“Nothing insulting, I assure you,” she said softly as she turned back around and continued walking.

“Then what...” Twilight began, but trailed off as Octavia gave another sigh.

“If you must know, it's the reason you're here that causes me grief.”

“I'm... sorry?” Twilight said, blinking in confusion. Octavia glanced over at her, frowning slightly.

“You aren't the first to come to me, asking that I teach your human how to play an instrument,” she said. “Many nobles have arrived on my doorstep, waving their bits in my face and commanding me to teach their human to play for them. They want their humans to serenade them while they eat, to impress their friends, or to make them seem better than the other noble's humans. Many think that, because of my abilities, I should be able to teach their human to play any instrument their owner's desire.”

“You've taught humans to play?” Ebony asked, surprised.

“Tried to,” Octavia replied tiredly. “I've tried to in the past, multiple times, and all that I've achieved is thirteen broken cellos, seven smashed violins, a bent trombone, and a smashed bass, brought down upon the owner's head.

“And of course, in not being able to train their humans, I have proven to the nobles that I am not as 'amazing as I claim to be'.” Octavia rolled her eyes, huffing heatedly in disgust. “I've tried to explain to them that I never claimed that I could train humans. I don't even know where that rumor got started.”

As we walked down the hall, Primrose walked close to me, behaving almost like a dog that knew she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. I looked around the hallway, trying to figure out what was making her so nervous. The smell of cinnamon had long since faded, and I couldn't see anything that would cause her to be nervous. We passed by several closed rooms, as well as a handful of paintings on the walls. I frowned when I realized that, unlike the floor below us, the second floor didn't appear to have any windows.

Stepping quickly, I nudged Avera with my foot. When she glanced back at me, I motioned to the walls before signing quietly, ~Windows?~

She blinked before glancing around at the walls herself, her ears perking up.

“Excuse me, Ms. Melody,” she called up, causing Octavia to pause in her conversation with Twilight. “Why are there no windows up here?”

“I was just starting to wonder that myself,” Ebony muttered.

“The second story contains both my studio, as well as my marefriend's,” Octavia explained. “There are no windows, so that we aren't able to tell the time by the passing of the sun. It helps us remain focused on any new pieces we are working on. No clocks are up here either.

“Plus,” she added with a soft chuckle. “My marefriend is a bit of a night owl. She works the nightshift over at one of the nightclubs here in Canterlot, so she tends to sleep during the day. Despite the fact she can sleep through anything, she still prefers the lack of sunlight when sleeping.

“Anyways,” she said, coming to stop outside of one of the closed doors at the far end of the hall. “Here we are.”

Twisting the door handle, she pushed the door open and entered. As we filed into the room, I glanced around. It was a medium-sized room, windowless, with dark hardwood flooring. Chairs and music stands scattered the floor. Several cellos rested in specially made stands along the far wall, each a different color of wood: dark wood, light wood, and burnt wood to name a few. There was even a black cello, polished to a wonderful sheen, resting in a rack.

“Do forgive the mess,” Octavia said as she stepped around the chairs. “I was composing last night, and haven't had a chance to clean up yet.”

As she picked up slightly, I glanced around the room, impressed. Some recording equipment rested off to the side, along with some noise-canceling barriers. There was a small closet along the far wall, the door to which was open. I could see multiple instruments resting inside: violins, basses, and cellos. I even noticed a harp among the instruments. The smell of rosin and paper filled my nose and I inhaled happily. There's that smell, I thought, remembering my time in the orchestra.

I glanced over at Twilight, whom I saw watching me out of the corner of her eye. As I looked at her, she glanced away quickly, a small blush touching her face. I smirked, shaking my head slightly.

~Did you do this for me so that I could play again~ I asked quietly as I walked up beside her, ~or so you could hear me play?~

“So you could play again,” she said, a small smile touching her muzzle. “I figured since you used to play, you might want to do so again. It's just a happy coincidence that I'll hear it.” I shook my head, chuckling softly. Reaching out a hand, I scratched behind her ear, earning a happy coo from her.

“Alright,” Octavia said, moving a set of chairs over and placing them in front of us. “Let's get this over with.” Turning to Twilight, she gave her a strained smile. “Now, I'm willing to try teaching a human again, since you've come all the way out here just for this. However, I just want you to be aware, this probably won't work. Don't be surprised if he just breaks the instrument instead of playing it.”

“Oh, I know,” Twilight said with a smile. “Please, relax, Octavia. Despite what you might think, I didn't come here to have you train my human. I came to hear you two play.”

Octavia stared at Twilight, blinking in confusion.

“...I beg your pardon?”

As the two talked, I slipped away, towards the row of cellos. Running my hands over the smooth surfaces, I smiled softly. Gently picking up one of the middle ones—a nice dark-brown one—I gave the strings a quick pluck, smiling when I heard the crisp note. It was perfectly tuned, and ready for play. Grabbing the bow that was hanging beside it, I proceed to head back over to the mares.

“...But why are you here then?” Octavia asked as I approached. She was so focused on Twilight that she didn't see nor hear me sit down in one of the chairs. My guards were watching me, smiles on Ebony and Avera's faces. Primrose just gave a nervous flick of her ears, lifting her sunglasses to perch them upon her head.

“I told you,” Twilight said with a giggle. “I want to hear you play.”

“But your human...” Octavia said, her face scrunching up.

“I want to hear him play too,” Twilight said. “I was hoping to hear both of you play together.”

“But that would require me teaching him first!”

“Oh,” Twilight smirked, glancing over at me, “I think Max can take care of that himself.” Octavia opened her mouth to say something, but I took that exact moment to play a quick D-Major scale, running up and down the scale with perfect ease.

Glancing up, I saw Twilight giving me an amused look, while Octavia was standing there, mouth agape.

“But... t-that's impossible,” she muttered, slowly shaking her head in disbelief.

“I'm not sure about the other humans you've tried to train before,” Twilight giggled, “but Max here is unique.”

I gave Octavia a small smile before playing a G-Major scale, followed by a C-Major scale, warming my fingers up and getting used to the cello again after not having played the instrument in so long.

“How is this possible?” I heard Octavia ask as I ran through the scales.

“Max is different from other humans,” Twilight said.

“Being intelligent probably helps too,” Avera snarked, a large smirk on her face.

“Intelligent,” Octavia muttered, staring at me with a curious look on her face. “He can understand us?”

“Perfectly,” Twilight said happily, nodding her head.

“...And he can play the cello,” she muttered, more to herself than anything else. She tapped her chin, a thoughtful look on her face as her eyes narrowed slightly.

After several seconds, she asked, “Can you play more?”

A large smile slowly spread across my face, causing Octavia to take a step back, her ears splaying backwards. Putting my hand into position, I placed the bow upon the strings and began to play.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: I started out rusty at first. It had been a long time since I had last played the song, and a few bad notes earned me a couple of flinches from my listeners. However, as I continued to play, the memories returned and I found myself smiling as I fell back into my old groove. I hadn’t even realized how much I had missed playing the cello until this moment.

As the notes continued to flow from the strings at the ministration of the bow, the ponies slowly began to gather around me. Avera and Ebony were just watching curiously, amused smiles on their faces. Primrose looked like she was beginning to relax, a small smile on her face. Octavia was eyeing me with a critical look, a neutral expression on her face as she watched my movements closely. She almost reminded me of my old music teacher. Twilight was watching with a large smile on her face, her ear twitching in time with the music.

As the song came to an end, I lowered the bow, sighing happily. Twilight clapped her hooves together, giggling happily. “That was amazing!”

“Incredible,” Octavia said. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes: a human playing a cello. The way his fingers moved across the hoofboard with such ease, it was breathtaking.” Chewing on her bottom lip, she continued to stare at me for a few seconds before a smile broke out across her face.

“This is truly magnificent,” she cooed, her purple eyes sparkling. “Max, was it?” I nodded my head, tapping my fingers against the top of the cello. “Despite the rocky start, you played that piece beautifully. At least, I think you did. I’ve never heard that particular piece before.”

She tapped her hoof on the wood as she pursed her lips. Her eyes drifted over to the rack of cellos, and her ears slowly perked up. I cocked my head to the side as she trotted over and grabbed a cello of her own. Sitting down in the chair across from me, she plucked at the strings, checking to see if they were in tune.

Satisfied, she glanced up at me, a mischievous smirk on her face.

“How about a game I like to play with my students?” she asked. “One of us plays a part of a song, and the other tries to copy it. Kind of like what the ponies over in Appleloosa play—Dueling Banjo Strings—I believe, only more refined.”

I nodded my head, earning me a large smile from her. “Excellent! How about you start, and I’ll follow!” Scratching my neck, I mentally ran through the list of music I knew, trying to find an appropriate song. My eyes lit up as I decided on a song.

Placing the bow, I began to play, lightly dragging the bow hairs across the string. After a few seconds, I began to tap on the side of the cello as I continued to draw the bow slowly across the strings. Octavia watched me closely, her ears perked and trained on me.

Smiling softly, I stopped tapping and placed my hand on the neck of the cello, my fingers dancing across the vibrating strings as I played. Ears twitched as I pulled the bow harshly, causing quick bursts of sound to come from the instrument.

After I had been playing for a while, Octavia joined in, hesitantly playing out a couple of notes before gaining more confidence. Soon enough, we were both playing, each of us echoing what the other was playing. I would call, and Octavia would answer, only a few octaves lower.

During a brief pause from Octavia, I quickly swapped out my bow for my fingers, plucking at the strings, my pizzicato causing the ponies to cock their heads to the side in confusion. I chuckled softly as I continued to pluck for a few more seconds before returning the bow to the strings.

Octavia and I played for a few more minutes before we both trailed off at the same time. The last notes seemed to hang in the air for a few, long seconds before the room became silent. Both of us just stared at each other, oblivious to the other ponies who were beginning to stomp their hooves in applause.

“While I’m not exactly used to that type of music,” Octavia said, a large smile on her face. “I must say it was quite a thrill to play.” Her eyes narrowed playfully and she licked her lips.

“Know any more?”

I chuckled as I placed the bow back onto the strings.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

We continued to play for several hours, one song after another. Octavia seemed unable to get enough of anything I played. She was almost like a little kid in a candy shop, a large smile on her face as she watched me play.

There were several times that she had asked me to repeat a song, just so she could play it again. Once or twice she had stopped playing to grab some paper, writing down certain phrases or bars that caught her fancy.

She was able to pick up on the songs quickly, playing along with me only after hearing the main bars once. There were even moments where she could play parts she had never heard before. I just chalked that up to the music of harmony, much like when Twilight had sung parts from Phantom of the Opera.

“Come on,” Octavia pleaded, gazing up at me with soulful eyes. “One more song?” Sighing, I shook my head, chuckling softly.

Shifting in my chair to get myself into a more comfortable position, I held up one finger and nodded in agreement. Lowering my hand into position, I plucked at the rosin-covered strings as I began to play.

Once again, without ever having heard the song before, Octavia entered precisely when she needed to, her bow—which had several broken hairs now—pulling slowly, and with purpose, across the strings. Her hoof slid up and down the neck of her cello, the edge of her hoof pressing into the string much like my fingers would.

After a few seconds she slowly closed her eyes, her entire body swaying in time with her bow strokes. The smile slowly left her face as she played more, a look of calm soberness falling over her.

I continued to pluck my part along, tapping my bow on the string occasionally to get a better sound. Octavia put her entire bow into it, pulling from tip to frog and back again with professional procession.

A few tears trickled down her cheeks from her closed eyes as we neared the end of the song. The last note finally rang out, hanging precariously in the air for a few seconds before fading completely.

Lowering her bow, Octavia gave a low sigh before opening her eyes and smiling.

“Beautiful,” she murmured, her eyes slightly unfocused. “Simply beautiful.” She blinked a couple of times, glancing over at me as I chuckled. “You laugh, but that truly was a magnificent experience. It’s been too long since I last experienced something so unique.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Twilight laughed, moving to stand beside me. She glanced up at me, nudging my arm with her wing. “You looked like you were having fun as well,” she smirked. I stuck my tongue out at her, but laughed nonetheless.

“Well, it wasn’t my preferred music genre,” Avera said, standing up and stretching, “but I’ll admit it. I’m impressed.”

“Indeed,” Ebony said, nodding her head twice. “You play very passionately.”

“That’s one word for it,” Octavia said, running a hoof through her mane, straightening it out. “I must say, despite how I came across in the beginning, I would not be opposed to you coming back for another visit.”

“Another visit?” Avera asked with a smirk. “But I thought you didn’t want to deal with humans.”

Octavia opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming shut down the hall. Glancing at the door in surprise, a small smile touched her muzzle.

“It would appear that Vinyl is up early today,” she said, shaking her head. “It must have been a slow night for her. She usually sleeps later than this, although, truth be told, I’m not sure what time it is exactly.”

“You sure we didn't wake her?” Twilight asked, worried. “The two of you playing was rather loud at some points.”

“I'm positive,” Octavia chuckled as the sound of hoofsteps came from the hallway. “I've screamed in her face before and failed to wake her. The sound of cellos from down the hall wouldn't have fazed her.”

As the hoofsteps grew in volume, Primrose tensed up beside me, her ears standing at attention. Her face paled as she inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring. She moved to stand beside me, her wings twitching sporadically.

“What's your problem?” Avera asked, giving her a bemused look.

“N-nothing,” Primrose growled. “Just... just... nothing.”

“Sure doesn't look like nothing,” Avera said, raising an eyebrow. “You look like you’re about ready to bolt.”

“Just shut up,” Primrose snapped, glaring at her. Grabbing her bandana, she pulled it up, over her muzzle.

Avera blinked in surprise, but before she was able to respond, a voice came from the hallway.

“...Tavia?”

“In here, dear,” Octavia called out, glancing towards the door. Her eyes flicked over to our group and she added, “We have guests over.”

Soft muttering came from the hall, followed by the telltale sound of magic. A few seconds later, the door to the room swung open fully and a pony walked—or more like stumbled—in. My eyes widened in recognition as I saw that the pony was the unicorn mare who had saved me from Blueblood at the Gala.

Her short two-tone blue mane was a mess, strands sticking out at odd angles in one of the worst cases of bedhead I had ever seen. A pair of dark shades rested over her eyes, completely blocking them from view. Her earrings glinted as her ears flicked, and she gave off a loud, jaw-cracking yawn as she entered the room.

“Mornin' Tav',” she muttered, moving to lay her head on Octavia's shoulder. Primrose stiffened, her eyes never leaving the mare as she drew nearer.

Octavia giggled before leaning over and pecking the new mare on the cheek.

“Good afternoon, Vinyl,” she said. “You're up early, aren’t you?”

“Couldn't sleep,” the mare, Vinyl, muttered sleepily, resting her cheek against Octavia's.

“And why's that? Don’t tell me that it because we were being too loud, because the day I wake you due to the noise level is the day I eat my cello.”

“Too hungry,” Vinyl murmured, turning her head and nipping at Octavia's neck playfully. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Primrose quiver slightly.

“Vinyl, please,” Octavia giggled, pushing the mare's head away from her neck with a hoof. “We have guests. Important guests too.” Vinyl raised her head, and I could tell she was blinking her eyes behind her shades, trying to get the sleep from her eyes.

Glancing over at us, a small smile touched her face. “Princess Sparkle. It's been too long. I think the last time I saw you was at your brother's wedding.”

“It was, Lady Scratch,” Twilight said with a nod. “Though, I do believe you’ve been in Ponyville several times for Pinkie’s parties. And I really wish you'd just call me Twilight.”

“And I wish you wouldn't call me 'Lady Scratch',” Vinyl said, a sour look on her face.

“But that's your title,” Twilight said with a smirk.

“You know damn well that I only accepted that title was because Luna was insistent,” Vinyl snorted. “Buck, I don't even show up to any of the Lunar Courts. Drives the rest of the nobles batty. I prefer my turntables to the backstabbing, anyways.” Scratching the back of her head, she yawned again, her jaw popping. As she recovered, she turned her head in my direction.

Upon seeing me, she froze.

“Aw, buck, Tavia,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I thought you said you weren't going to try and teach humans again. Remember what happened last time? It took us over fifteen minutes to get that bass off of the stupid mare’s head.”

“I know what I said, Vinyl, and I still stand by it,” Octavia said before smirking, “but this is a special circumstance.”

“What's so special about it?” Vinyl asked, turning to look at her. “I know he's a human to a princess, but I don't see how that makes him unique. I mean, I know he’s a looker, but still.”

As she looked away, I reached down into my bags and pulled out my notebook and a marker. Uncapping it, I quickly wrote out a message.

“He's different from other humans,” Octavia said, waving a hoof at me. Vinyl raised an eyebrow before glancing back at me as well.

“How so—“

I smiled at her, holding up my sign in the process. +Thanks for saving me from Blueblood+

“He's intelligent,” Octavia said with a smile. “Amazing, isn't it?”

Vinyl didn't reply. She just stood there, staring at me. The small smile that she had once had on her face was now gone, replaced by a neutral look. Her ears were perked up, and her hackles were raised slightly.

“An intelligent human,” she muttered. It wasn’t a question.

Even though I couldn't see her eyes, I had the distinct feeling that she was looking into my eyes; straight through them and into my soul. I shivered, growing uneasy under her stare. For the briefest of moments, I felt like I was a mouse beneath the eyes of a hawk.

And then, just like that, it was gone. Vinyl moved, walking towards me with slow, even steps. Primrose stiffened further as the mare began to circle, her hidden eyes studying me closely. The room was silent except for the clip clop of her hooves on the wooden floor.

After several circles, she suddenly moved to stand in front of me, her nose inches from mine. I could feel as she inhaled deeply, sniffing me, taking in my scent. Her nose twitched once before her face scrunched up and she snorted loudly.

Leaning back she gave me one last look before muttering under her breath, “...He’s got a good heart, unlike him...”

She snorted once more before shaking her head, turning, and trotting back towards Octavia. Twilight gave her a curious look as she walked past, but Vinyl ignored her.

“Well, have fun, Tavia!” she sang, instantly reverting back into her relaxed nature. She nipped at Octavia’s ear as she passed, causing it to flick. “I’m going to go get something to eat before I die of hunger.” With that, and a quick flick of her tail, she was out the room and down the hall in a flash.

Octavia stared at the open door, a bemused look on her face as she blinked owlishly.

“That was strange,” she said slowly, her brow furrowing. “I was expecting her to be more excited about that then she was. She tends to love strange stuff like this.” She motioned towards me with a hoof. “An intelligent human. What’s more strange than that?” She shot a quick glance at me. “No offense.”

I gave her a smile, causing her to shiver in response. “Quite.”

Setting her cello gently down onto the ground beside her chair, Octavia stood, groaning happily as she stretched.

“Well, that was certainly more fun than I’ve had in a while,” she said, straightening her bow tie. “However, I do believe I have kept you for longer than we originally planned. I do apologize for that. I don’t normally get so caught up in the music like that.”

“That’s quite alright,” Twilight said quickly, giving her a warm smile. “We had nothing else planned for today, so there’s nothing to apologize for. Especially seeing as you two played such wonderful music.”

“That may be so, but I still feel bad about taking up so much of your time,” Octavia said with a bow. “If Vinyl is already up, then that means that it’s getting late. We better get you going before it gets too dark out.”

“Alright then,” Twilight said, returning the bow. “Thank you, once more, for allowing us the use of your instruments, and your talent.” Glancing at me, she gave a small nod of her head towards the door. “Come along, Max.”

I kept a firm grip on the cello as I stood up, pushing my chair back. Walking to the racks, I gently placed the instrument back into the same space I had taken it from, loosening the bow before I placed it back on the hook.

Turning, I gave Octavia a quick bow and a smile before walking up beside Twilight.

“The pleasure was all mine,” Octavia smiled, inclining her head. “Thank you for this wonderful experience, and please, don’t be a stranger.”

Pushing the door open, Twilight led the way as we made our way down the hall, heading towards the front door. My guards followed behind me, their armor clinking and clanking softly as they moved. Ebony and Avera appeared at ease, but Primrose was a different story.

For whatever reason, she didn’t relax again until we were out of the house, through the gate and halfway down the street.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The fire crackled loudly behind the Archmage as he stared down at the chessboard set out before him. Tapping his hoof absentmindedly upon the table, he eyed the chess pieces with a small frown upon his muzzle. His blue eyes narrowed as his gaze landed on one piece in particular.

One particular piece that had been a thorn in his side since day one.

Growling softly, he picked up the white pawn, glaring at it as it hovered in front of his face. The human, its expression frozen in the white marble, stared at him with a blank look, its eyes unseeing.

Out of all the pieces that were currently on the board, this one alone was causing him the most grief. Even the white king wasn’t as troublesome as the godforsaken pawn.

With a flash of his magic, the white pawn was back beside the white bishop, a small alicorn with its wings spread wide. Leaning back in his chair, the Archmage closed his eyes and sighed.

With a grunt, he stood up and stretched, his tail flicking back and forth lazily.

“That is an issue for another time,” he muttered, eyeing the pawn with distaste as he walked out from behind his desk. Outside, in the distance, the clock tower chimed out the hour, informing the Archmage that it was nearing nightfall. Everyone at the Academy had most certainly already left for the evening, leaving him alone.

Outside, by the light of the setting sun, snow could be seen falling, starting to cover the city in a growing blanket of snow. At the rate it was falling, combined with the amount already on the ground, it would make getting home difficult for anyone still out and about at this time. Not that it mattered to the Archmage; he had taken to sleeping on the small cot in the side room.

Pulling the curtains closed, the Archmage also closed the fireplace screen. Double-checking that the door to his office was locked, he then turned his attention to a large, full-length mirror that stood in the corner of the room.

Staring at his reflection for several seconds, a small smirk crossed his face before his horn lit up, and the entire mirror was enclosed in a yellow light. Casting one last glance over his shoulder, the Archmage moved forward, and stepped into the mirror.

The reflective glass washed over his form like water as he pushed his way through. There was a brief tightness in his chest before he slipped through, the entire world seeming to rotate on him until he felt like he was upside down. There was a bright flash of white before he found himself standing in a dimly lit cavern.

Several unicorns gathered around an active fire pit glanced up as he appeared, eyeing him with blank stares before returning to their card game. Each one had a bandana somewhere on their body, a red piece of cloth with a black flame on it.

Snorting loudly, the Archmage walked past the group, not even glancing in their direction. They didn’t matter to him anyways; he had simply released them from prison. They were Darkflare’s responsibility now.

Walking deeper into the cave system, the Archmage passed by other groups of unicorns. Some were relaxing around other fire pits, crackling merrily away, while others were sleeping. The majority of them, however, were watching as the Archmage slowly made his way through their midst, stopping what they were doing to watch him walk by.

Reaching the far end of the cavern, he approached a large steel door that was embedded within the rock face. It was one of several, each one sturdy and unyielding.

Constructed near the doors was a large, wooden platform with lanterns hanging from several of the beams. Wooden stairs led from the platform up towards several passageways that led deeper into the cave system.

Eyeing the makeshift base, the Archmage raised a hoof and pounded upon the metal door. Once that was complete, he took a few steps back and waited.

He didn’t have to wait long before the sound of grinding gears reverberated through the door, and it swung open with a groan. There was a brief pause before a large, red unicorn exited, his black mane hanging in front of his ice-blue eyes.

Several large, blue feathers floated in his magical grasp, and he twirled one absentmindedly as he glared at the Archmage.

“Seriously?” the Archmage asked, staring up at the feathers with a displeased look. “I realize she’s your prisoner, but must you torment that mare so?”

“Oi, don’t even start with me,” Darkflare growled, bearing his teeth. “You abandoned us, left us in the dark, and then just pop up out of the blue and start giving me the what for? I don’t think so. Now, what do you want?”

“I find myself in need of your services again,” the Archmage said, his face still neutral.

“I ain’t some pup you can just summon when you need shit to get done,” Darkflare snorted. “What makes you think I’m gonna help you after you up and disappeared on us for a month?”

“It’s rather hard to remain in contact with you when I have Celestia breathing down my neck,” the Archmage said, a hint of anger soaking into his words. “She suspects me, but currently hasn't acquired enough proof to act. This is the first chance I’ve gotten to get away, what with her distracted by Hearth's Warming Eve preparations.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Darkflare snorted, his eyes narrowing. “What makes you think I’m even going to help you?”

“I’m willing to pay you—” Darkflare snorted, shaking his head “—double the usual price.” This caused the stallion to blink, his blue eyes widening slightly before a smirk touched his lips.

“I’m listening.”

The Archmage had to fight the grimace of disgust that threatened to flash across his face. Stupid pony. All he cares about is money. If it weren’t for the fact he knows how to get things done, I would have left him to rot in the dungeons.

Lighting up his horn, the Archmage lifted a large bag of bits into the air. Darkflare’s eyes immediately locked onto it, the hunger clearly visible.

Slowly waving the bag back and forth, the Archmage growled, “There’s someone I need you to retrieve from Manehattan.”

Interlude: Sunbutt, part 3 ☼

A/N: A continuation of Interlude: Sunbutt, part 2.

~ Sunbutt ~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Side Story: Part Three: Run, Maxine, Run! < < ~ ~ ~ ~

"...not a word," I growled at the pair of gaping alicorns, the sound of my feminine voice causing my already bad mood to worsen. Glancing away from the pair, I turned my attention to the table instead.

Reaching out a hand, I grabbed a piece of toast off of the serving plate. Spreading some jam across it, I bit into it, chewing angrily. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore Celestia and Twilight, who were still staring at me in shock.

After a few minutes, I heard Celestia clear her throat. "Um..."

"Not a word," I repeated, not opening my eyes as I took another bite of toast.

"But—"

"Nah!"

"Just—"

"Nah!"

"If you'd just—"

"NAH!!!" Opening my eyes, I glared at Celestia. "Not. A. Word." Silence fell over the dining area again as I tired my attention back to my breakfast. Only the sound of my chewing could be heard as both alicorns continued to stare at me. I just ignored them to the best of my ability, trying to focus instead on my slightly burned piece of toast.

Finishing it off, I reached for another piece and proceeded to smother it with jam as well. As I raised the food to my mouth, the silence was broken again, this time by Twilight.

"Um... why don't you have any pants on? Or underwear for that matter?" Pausing, I just stared at the toast in front of me for several seconds before answering.

"I don't want to talk about it," I grumbled before taking a huge bite out of the toast.

"Did something bad happen?" Twilight pressed on, tapping her hooves together nervously. Slowly, I turned my head to stare at her, then glanced down at my chest that was now protruding more than it should have been. When I returned my gaze back to Twilight, she was blushing slightly, her ears folded against her head. "I mean, besides the obvious."

"I don't want to talk about it," I repeated, returning to my breakfast.

"I promise not to laugh." Closing my eyes, I sighed heavily before hanging my head.

"I woke up with a full bladder and was halfway to the bathroom when I saw myself in the mirror, and my reflection startled me."

Twilight stared at me with a blank expression for several seconds before her eyes widened in understanding. "Oh... ooooooooooh." She placed a hoof over her mouth, and it took me a few seconds to realize that she was trying to hold in her laughter.

Growling in annoyance, I shoved the rest of the toast into my mouth before standing and stalking off.

"No, wait," Twilight called after me. "It's—" snirk "—I'm n-not—heheh—l-laughing at y-y-you!" Ignoring her, I proceed to storm out of the dinning area, slamming the door behind me.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Stalking down the hall of the palace, I growled softly to myself, blowing my new length of hair out of my face. This wasn't the strangest thing that had happened to me since coming to Equestria, but it certainly was one of the tamer ones. That thought didn't stop me from deciding that—even if it took me a lifetime—I was going to get Luna back.

I was so aggravated that I wasn't even watching where I was going, and as I rounded the corner of the corridor, I ran headlong into a pony going in the other direction. With a yelp, we both fell backwards.

"Terribly sorry, darling," the pony said, getting to her hooves. "I must have had my head in the clouds—" Rarity's words died in her throat as her eyes landed on me. She blinked several times, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

"...Max?" she asked tentatively when she finally found her voice. I nodded my head and her eyes widened further. They slowly drifted downwards, and a blush crossed her face. "Ah, do forgive me for my rudeness," she continued, "but what happened to you?"

"Luna," I growled, my eyes narrowing. "Revenge for the Tower Prank."

"I see," said Rarity slowly, her gaze still directed slightly downwards. "Is that why you currently have a... well, a..." She trailed off, her blush intensifying as word failed her.

Confused as to what she was getting so flustered about, I glanced down as well. My eyes widened and I gasped loudly when I realized that I was lying on the ground with my legs spread wide open, giving Rarity a clear view of my new... private parts.

Quickly sitting up, I closed my legs and covered myself with my hands, my cheeks turning bright red.

"S-sorry," I stammered, unable to look Rarity in the eye. "I'm... I'm not used to this body."

"That's quite alright dear," Rarity said absentmindedly, still staring downwards, even though there was nothing to see. Her voice lowered as she added, "By the looks of it, there's certainly nothing for you to be ashamed about." Her brow furrowed for a brief moment before she shook her head to clear it.

Glancing back up at my face, she gave me a confused look.

"Um, dear, I don't mean to pry, but why aren't you wearing anything but a shirt?" she asked. My blushed deepened, and I groaned softly.

"Because all the other clothing I have is... dirty, and I have nothing else to wear," I grumbled. I froze, perking up slightly as I realized who I was talking to.

"Rarity!" I cried, finally looking back at her, a smile spreading across my face. "You can make me more clothing, yes?"

This caused her to blink several times before replying, "I could. I certainly have the supplies here, and it wouldn't take that long, seeing as I've had to fix clothing for you in the past. You certainly get up to a lot of activities that cause horrible wear and tear on your clothing. Yes, I'm pretty sure I can make you some more clothing."

My smile grew, and I silently cheered.

"However..."

I froze, my smile vanishing as Rarity's eyes narrowed and she gave me a sly smile.

"I certainly would be interested in trying something new. After all, I haven't had much of a chance to experiment in female human attire."

I gazed at her in horror as a measuring tape, gripped in her magic, slowly levitated up beside her head. Her sly smirk slowly turned into a bone-chilling smile as she took a step towards me.

"I wonder what you'll look like in a dress..."

::part one ~ part two ~ part three ~ part four::

Chapter 43: Hearth's Warming Eve and the Oblivious King

“...Max.”

I groaned softly as I slowly regained consciousness. With a thick blanket of drowsiness still hanging over me, I kept my eyes closed, hoping to drift off to sleep once more. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I knew for a fact that it was too damn early for me to be up without a reason.

“...Max.”

Still closed, I felt my right eye twitch as a soft voice reached my ears, barely audible. It was feminine and soft-spoken, that much I could tell. Other than that, it was too quiet to make out what it was saying exactly.

As I laid there, my tired mind slowly processing the voice, I realized that it was familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it. I was reminded of a comforting presence in a time of great agony and stress, when my entire body was wracked with pain. My closed right eye twitched again.

“...Max.”

Dimly, I was aware of something standing beside me. Something large, and radiating a peaceful aura that seemed to calm my very soul. I felt the faintest sensation of feathers being dragged across my skin, causing goosebumps to break out as the gentle sound of cooing filled my ears.

The feeling continued, and I felt myself slowly drifting back off to sleep, a content sigh escaping my lips.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The feeling of something touching my leg caused me to jerk awake. My eyes snapped open and I sat up quickly, drawing a sharp gasp from someone standing right beside me. Whipping my head around, I stared into the startled face of Celestia, her hoof resting upon my leg.

I was lying on the couch in one of the guest rooms of the palace. We had arrived yesterday after our little visit to Octavia’s house, just as the sun was setting. My three guards had gotten the room beside us, leaving Twilight and I to our own room (something that made Avera laugh every time she said it).

There had been a small dispute between me and Twilight about sleeping arrangements, seeing as there was only one bed in the room. She had insisted on sharing it, saying that it was big enough for the both of us. I, of course, had disagreed. Not because it wasn’t big enough; it was a king sized bed, after all. I declined because she appeared embarrassed by the thought, her cheeks flushing and unable to look me in the eye.

I’m such a good person.

Still, she had continued to push the offer of us bunking together. I, naturally, had solved the problem by picking her up and tossing her onto the bed before collapsing onto the couch in the corner. She had tried to pick me up with her magic, but I had tossed a pillow in her face, disrupting the spell. I had received the pillow being launched back at me by Twilight before she dropped the matter and we both fell asleep.

As I laid there, getting my breathing under control, Celestia gave me a sheepish smile.

“I apologize,” she whispered, keeping her voice as low as possible. “I did not mean to surprise you like that.” I nodded, rubbing sleep from my eye. Glancing around, I looked towards the clock, only to see that it was just barely past seven in the morning. Fuuuu… too early.

Turning back to Celestia, I gave her a questioning look.

“Come with me,” she whispered, motioning with a hoof. “I have something for you.”

I pushed myself up off of the couch and tiptoed behind Celestia as she silently made her way past the bed that contained the still-sleeping form of Twilight. Reaching the door, she pushed it gingerly, swinging it open on the well-oiled hinges.

As we both stepped out into the hall, she closed the door behind me with a soft click. Turning, she gave me a warm smile.

“It’s good to see you again, my dear human,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I was not present when you arrived last night, but there were some last-minute things I had to attend to in order to be free today.”

Nodding my head in understanding, I covered my mouth with my hand, stifling another yawn. This just caused Celestia to laugh softly, her eyes twinkling.

“I see that somepony isn’t a morning person,” she said, laughing again as I shook my head. “Well then, follow me and we’ll get this over with quickly, and get you back onto your… couch.” She paused, giving me a bemused look. “Why were you sleeping on the couch?”

~Because Twilight’s sleeping in the bed~

“But…” she paused again, before sighing softly and shaking her head. Giving me a small smile, she just motioned down the hall with her head.

The soft clip-clop of hooves on marble echoed down the corridor as I fell in step beside her. We walked in silence for several minutes, Celestia just enjoying my company, and myself too tired to really care that nothing was being said.

Eventually, Celestia glanced over at me, a quizzical look on her face.

“So, how has your time in Ponyville been?” she asked.

~Decent~ I signed. ~Despite several strange events and a few mares~ This earned a chuckle from Celestia.

“Yes, I did suspect that might be the case,” she said. “Twilight has often written to me about your adventures. I do find most of them rather humorous, and they give Luna a good laugh as well. We made sure to send that particular Scratchers a substantial donation for their troubles.

“However, not all of the letters we receive carry good news,” she said, her face becoming solemn as she stopped suddenly. “There is one particular letter that caught my attention, actually.”

Her horn lit up with a soft, golden glow as she magically lifted up the sleeve of my shirt, exposing the still-healing bite mark on my upper arm. The bruising had all but vanished, leaving behind only the scabbed-over teeth marks.

“Remarkable,” Celestia breathed, eyeing the wound closely. “Truly remarkable, to have survived an infected human bite. You are extremely lucky to have such an amazing immune system.”

Giving the bite mark one last look, Celestia resumed walking. Pulling down my shirt sleeve, I followed after her.

~I don’t feel lucky~ I signed. ~I feel stupid. I should have known what the bells meant, but I blindly continued on my way and ended up getting into trouble~

“Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty,” she laughed. “There are certainly times where I’ve kicked myself for not having seen something coming. The Changeling Invasion, the Griffon War, the Rise of Nightmare Moon. There are many things that, in retrospect, I could have prevented if I was paying attention. However, there is nothing we can do about the past, but learn from it and move on.

“Have you learned anything from your mistake?” she asked, giving me a playful smirk.

~Yeah~ I signed. ~Twilight can be scary when she’s upset~

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the lesson you were supposed to have learned,” Celestia said, rolling her eyes.

~But it was a good lesson, nonetheless~ I countered. ~As long as I keep my owner happy, I’ll be happy~

Celestia paused, giving me a searching look before slowly resuming her walk, the smile absent from her face.

“Tell me,” she said, her tone calculating, “how do you view Twilight?” I blinked, giving her a confused look.

~What do you mean?~

“It’s just, you have referred to her as ‘your owner’ more often than not. And you have just expressed the belief that in order for you to be happy, she needs to be happy. Is that how you really view her? As your owner? Your master? The one you must please in order to be at peace?”

I scoffed as I scrunched up my face, shaking my head.

~No~ I signed. ~The term ‘my owner’ is more of a nickname than anything else. As for wanting to make her happy, that’s more because of the fact that I put her through a lot of undue stress~

“Undue stress?” Celestia asked, cocking an eyebrow.

~The pit, the timberwolves, the manticore attack, the gala, the infected human~ I listed off, causing Celestia to blink. ~She might not admit it, but I can tell that those have been stressful times for her, which is why I want to make her happy~

“Are those the only reasons?” Celestia asked, a small smirk playing across her lips.

~Well, it doesn’t hurt that’s she cute when she blushes~ I replied, a smirk of my own on my face.

“That she is,” Celestia chuckled as she came to a stop outside of a large pair of golden doors. They were emblazoned with a picture of the sun and moon crossing in the middle of the sky.

Looking at me, Celestia motioned her head towards the doors. “I have a quick little something I have to take care of before we continue on. Do you mind waiting a second?” Shaking my head no, I leaned against the wall as she opened the door with her magic and slipped inside, making sure the doors closed behind her. From the other side of the doors, I heard the sound of a muffled conversation. There was a quick, barking laugh before silence fell again.

As I waited, I glanced out of a nearby window at the world outside. The sun was just beginning to break over the horizon, coloring the snowy landscape in a glorious pink color. The stars slowly began to wink out one by one as the sun continued to climb higher into the sky.

I glanced back over at the door as it swung open. Celestia walked out, as well as—to my surprise—Luna. The latter of the two blinked in surprise upon seeing me standing there before giving me a warm smile. “Ah, good morrow, Max.”

~Morning, Luna~ I signed before covering my mouth as I yawned again. ~What are you up to?~

“Lowering our moon for our sister’s sun,” Luna answered, giggling slightly at my display of exhaustion. “We have done our duty for the night. Now we must see about getting a quick nap in before today’s activities.”

I just nodded sleepily, not really caring. I had already had a long discussion with Twilight about this during my first few weeks staying with her. I wasn’t going to get in another argument with the two mares responsible for it.

As Luna turned and trotted down the hall, Celestia looked to me.

“You know, you were more than welcome to join us,” she said. “It’s quite a sight, so I have been told. We even have a few humans wander into the garden in the morning and evening just to watch us.”

~I’m good, thanks~ I respond as we begin to walk again. I walk beside Celestia, using her head and crown to help keep the light of the rising sun out of my eye. Celestia seemed quite content to walk in silence, a small smile upon her face.

After a few minutes we rounded the bend in the hallway, approaching the guest room again as we made a full circuit.

As we came to a stop in front of the door, Celestia blinked before chuckling softly to herself.

“My goodness. I was enjoying your company so much, I nearly forgot my original reason for wanting to see you.” Turning to face me completely, her horn lit up and, in a flash of white, three large tomes were floating beside her¹.

My face lit up at the sight of the books, and a large grin flashed across my face.

~Are those what I think they are?~

“Indeed,” Celestia said with a smile. “I must admit, I was quite surprised to receive a letter from you, but after reading your request, I must say I was more than happy to help. Using the instructions you sent in the letter, I was able to successfully navigate through your device. After finding the three books you indicated, it was just a simple matter of using a quick spell to transcribe them onto actual paper.”

~And the second part of the request?~ I asked, giving her an uneasy look. The request had been asking a lot, and I wasn’t sure if she would appreciate what I had asked of her.

Her soft smile calmed my nerves.

“As you asked, after completing the transcription spell, I had Luna use a simple memory-revision spell to erase the knowledge of the contents of the books from my mind. As it stands, after you give them to her, Twilight will technically be the first Equestrian to read them.”

~Excellent. Thank you~ I signed before reaching forward and taking the books from her. Turning them around in my hands, I ran my eye over them, a small smile touching my face. I cracked one of them open and flipped through the pages, all of which were filled with words.

Pausing on a random page, I read several sentences before closing the book and glancing up at Celestia.

“Are they to your liking?” she asked, her ears perked. When I gave her a nod, she smiled. “Splendid! I’m sure Twilight will enjoy this gift, especially since it’s from you.”

I returned her smile before yawning again, my jaw cracking. This earned another giggle from Celestia and I shot her an annoyed look.

“Sorry,” she apologized, “it’s just that, with all your scars, you have a fearsome look. However, when you yawn like that, it’s just plain adorable. Especially when your tongue pokes out.

“Here,” she said, her horn lighting up. The door to the guest room swung open silently, and she motioned towards it with one of her wings. “I’ll let you try and get a little more sleep before the day truly starts.”

As I entered the room, Celestia closed the door behind me with a soft click, plunging me into semi-darkness. From the sounds of her breathing, Twilight was still fast asleep. Moving as silently as possible, I tiptoed over to my bags and slipped the books inside. They would stay there until we left for breakfast, at which I would hide them under one of the couch cushions until later.

Making sure the bags were secured, I then turned and flung myself back upon the couch, a content sigh escaping my lips as I sunk into the cushions. Slowly, the sweet embrace of slumber found me again, and I drifted back off to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The sun slowly rose above the city of Manehattan, causing the snow covering it to glisten. The ponies that called the monstrous city their home were beginning their respective days.

City workers labored on clearing the snow off of the streets and sidewalks. Garbage collectors began their daily routes, hurrying along to get back to their warm homes and families as quickly as possible. Last-minute shoppers flitted from store to store, looking for any deals on possible presents for loved ones. Groups of carolers happily sang Hearth’s Warming Eve songs on street corners, ringing silver bells as they tried to spread their good cheer to any who were willing to stop and listen.

Festive decorations covered shops and buildings, and tinsel hung from every street lamp. Foals ran through the street, pulling each other along on sleds and flinging snowballs with reckless abandon. Pegasi were flying clouds around, snowing on any unsuspecting soul they could find. Good cheer was abound as everyone prepared for Hearth’s Warming Eve.

Nobody was aware of the group of ponies that were slowly slinking their way through the underbelly of the city. The small, six-pony squad made their way through the tight alleys, their white camouflage armor helping them blend into the background.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” Ivory Pyre growled, stalking through the shadows cast by the large, towering buildings, trying very hard to remain out of the sunlight. As she walked, she tugged on her skull-pattern kerchief, pulling it higher up her muzzle. The tinted visor of her helmet was pulled down low over her eyes, hiding them from view.

“Well, Ms. Breeze did say this was our best bet for finding the warehouse,” Stacker replied, adjusting a strap on his own armor. “That, and Princess Celestia agreed to it as well. Besides, you had the entire train ride to think of something else, but you didn’t. So deal with it.”

“I joined the guard to get out of the back alleyways,” Ivory grumbled, skirting around a particularly full dumpster.

“Well then, look at it this way,” Stacker said, smirking. “The sooner we find the target, the sooner we can get out of here.”

“It’s not far now,” Sunny said, glancing around the corner of a building before moving forward.

“This guy better be able to help us,” Ivory muttered, “otherwise this is just a huge waste of time.” Sunny glanced back at the complaining unicorn before looking sideways at Stacker.

“What’s her problem?” she asked, keeping her voice low. Even so, Ivory’s ears twitched and she glanced up at Sunny.

“Just ignore her,” Stacker said, keeping his eyes forward. “She’s just a little grouchy in the morning. She’s more of a night pony after all, has issues with the early morning hours.”

“Ah, that would explain it,” Sunny said before giggling.

“I don’t have problems with mornings!” Ivory called from the back. “I’d just prefer it if they came later in the day!” This just caused Sunny to laugh louder. “What’s so funny?!”

“S-sorry,” Sunny choked out. “It’s just, I’ve heard somepony say that exact thing before.”

“Really?” Stacker asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Who was that?”

“Max,” Sunny replied with a smile. “He isn't exactly the most active in the morning either.”

“Ya hear that, lieutenant?” Stacker called back over his shoulder. “You think like a human!” This earned chuckles from the other guards, as well as a low growl from Ivory.

“You’re all gonna get demoted,” she huffed. Stacker opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted when Sunny stopped abruptly, almost causing him to trip over her.

“We’re here,” she said, motioning to the building in front of her. As the guards glanced up at the building, Ivory snorted loudly.

“It’s a loading bay on an abandoned factory,” she grunted.

The building before them was in shambles. The windows were boarded up with decayed wood, the glass cracked or, in some cases, missing. The paint had faded and chipped, exposing the brick beneath. The loading bay doors were rusted to the point of having holes in them. Beside one of the loading docks, a large cart sat on broken wheels, covered in a large tarp. Garbage scattered the ground, empty bottles and plastic wrappers sticking out of the snow.

“What were you expecting? A penthouse suite?” Stacker asked as one of the guards examined a nearby pile of litter with distaste.

Not waiting for Ivory’s response, Sunny trotted forward, towards the door that the cart was in front of. Lifting her hoof, she gave the door several hard kicks, causing a loud, metallic clack to echo around the area. Silence fell as the group waited for a response.

“Dusty? You home?” Sunny called out after a long pause, pounding on the door again. She jumped in surprise, letting out a yip as a loud cough came from the covered cart behind her. The guards tensed as something under the tarp began to move.

After a few seconds, a pony stuck their head out from beneath the tarp. It was a stallion, his light brown coat matted and dirty. His dark brown mane hung around his face in thin, greasy strips, clearly in need of a good wash.

The stallion blinked his bloodshot eyes, glancing around at the group of ponies gathered around the cart. As his eyes landed on Sunny, they narrowed and he squinted at her, a confused look on his face.

“Oi, Sunny, ‘s that you?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “It’s been too long, lass.” Pulling a large pipe out from under the tarp, the stallion clamped the bit in his teeth before giving it a long pull. He held it in for several seconds before exhaling, a large torrent of purple smoke escaping his lips. A content smile crossed his face before he dissolved into a fit of coughing a few seconds later.

“Aw, Dusty,” Sunny sighed, staring down at the coughing stallion from her perch on the loading dock. “You know that stuff is bad for you, so why do you do it?”

“Not to mention highly illegal,” Ivory said coldly, her hidden eyes glaring at Dusty. Dusty scrunched up his face, blinking dumbly at the armored ponies.

“...what are ya, a guard?” he asked, his eyes slightly unfocused.

“The shit I put up with…” Ivory muttered under her breath. Dusty ignored her, or just didn’t hear. Lifting the pipe to his mouth again, he took another pull on it before glancing back over to Sunny.

“Ta’ what do I owe this visit, sweetflanks?” he asked, the pipe still clamped in his teeth. Scrabbling against the cart, Dusty pulled himself out from underneath the tarp, revealing a pair of tattered wings, feathers sticking out haphazardly.

“I need your help, Dusty,” Sunny said as the stallion flopped onto the snow-covered ground. Sitting up, he checked his pipe for any damage that could have happened from the fall. Once satisfied that it was unharmed, he put it back in his mouth and stood up.

“Help?” he asked, purple smoke wafting from the corners of his mouth. “What kind of help do ya need, Sunny?”

“How about you put that thing out for starters,” Stacker growled, waving a hoof in front of his face, trying to dissipate the purple haze slowly consolidating around the group. “Seriously, what if a city guard came around and saw you?”

Dusty snorted, a cloud of purple smoke erupting from his nostrils in the process.

“Guards will never arrest a pony with a huge pipe,” he chuckled. “Why? They fear this pony. They know that he sees further than they can, and he will trap them with ancient logic.”

Smiling, Dusty lifted the pipe to his mouth again to take another pull, but yelped when it was encased in cloud of red magic and jerked out of his hooves. It hovered in the air for a brief moment before, with a loud crack, it was split in two. The contents fell onto a snow pile in a smoldering heap, followed shortly by the shattered remains of the pipe.

As Dusty stared down at the smoking remains in shock, Ivory growled, “Did you see that coming?” Dusty’s gaze snapped up and he glared at Ivory through bloodshot eyes. Before he could do anything, however, Sunny jumped between the pair.

“Ivory, please, don’t do that again,” she said, glancing at the scowling unicorn before turning her gaze to Dusty. “And as for you, calm down. I know for a fact you have another pipe in your cart. The sooner you help us, the sooner you can get to it.”

“...Still don’t know what ya need,” Dusty grumbled, rubbing the side of his head with a hoof.

“We need to get into the warehouse where Darkflare is storing Van. Since you feed him, you know where it is and have the keys to get in,” Sunny said. Dusty winced when Sunny said Van’s name, his wings twitching at his side. His ears splayed backwards and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“...Do ya really have to go see that beast again already?” he asked, glancing off to the side. “I really don’t fancy seeing ‘im again so soon. I was hopin’ to not go back for a couple o’ more days.”

“Sadly, yes,” Sunny said, a grim look on her face. “This is rather important too, so—”

“Wait,” Ivory said suddenly, taking a step forward. Dusty yelped in surprise as she grabbed him with her magic, pulling him towards her.

“What do you mean you 'don’t want to see him again so soon'?” she asked, her voice cold and deadly. Dusty struggled in her grip, trying to break free.

“Oi, let me go, ya crazy mare!”

“Tell me!” Ivory growled, dragging the pegasus further along the ground. “What did you mean?”

“Your boss, Darkflare, came through late last night and went to see ‘im!” Dusty shouted, flapping his wings uselessly.

“What?!” Sunny yelped as Stacker swore under his breath. Stopping his struggling, Dusty glanced over at Sunny, a confused look on his face.

“I thought ya knew,” he said. “Aren’t y’all part of his gang?”

“Not anymore. I quit,” Sunny said. “What do you mean Darkflare came through last night? He’s supposed to be on the run!”

“Didn’t look like he was on the run to me,” Dusty grunted, wincing as Ivory’s magical grip dug into his neck. “He just waltzed in shortly after midnight last night with a group of unicorns and demanded that I take them to the warehouse. Since ‘e’s paying the bits, I didn’t think nothin’ of it. I took them, unlocked the door, then left. I swear!”

“You are going to take us there as well,” Ivory growled. “Right now!”

“And why would I do that?” Dusty asked, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the unicorn. “Ya broke my pipe. Why should I help you out?”

With a flash of her horn, Ivory pulled Dusty forward until they were nose to nose. Grabbing the bottom of her bandana, she yanked it down at the exact moment she used her magic to lift her tinted visor.

Dusty’s eyes shot wide open, the color draining from his face in an instant. His pupils shrunk to pinpricks as he opened his mouth in a silent scream. His wings flared wide in an instinctive fight-or-flight response, and he kicked his hooves feebly through the air.

“You are going to take us to the warehouse,” Ivory growled, her voice low. From her position, Sunny couldn’t see Ivory’s face, but she could practically feel the fury wafting from the unicorn. It sent shivers down her back, and caused her wings to flex as if preparing for flight. Beside her, Stacker tensed up, looking like he was preparing to jump in and break up the pair.

Dusty just stared at Ivory in horror, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Ivory snarled, shaking him with her magic. “Do I make myself clear?!”

“Okay, okay!” Dusty yelped, flailing his hooves. “I’ll take ya, I’ll take ya! Just put me down, ya demon!” The magic around his neck instantly fizzled out and Dusty fell to the ground in an unceremonious heap.

Pulling her bandana up over her muzzle again, Ivory lowered the visor before glancing back over her shoulder at the others.

“Ms. Breeze,” she said, her voice steely. “Grab our new friend here and get him walking. We’re moving out, now!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Come on, Pinkie!” Rainbow whined, hovering beside the pink pony. The mare in question was currently splayed out across my lap as I scratched lazily at her belly. Her eyes were closed and she had a content smile on her face, squeaking occasionally as my fingers hit a particularly sensitive spot.

Digging my fingers into her fur, I couldn’t help but chuckle softly at Pinkie’s antics. Her hooves were crossed over her chest in a cute manner, and her tail swished back and forth in a lethargic display. In this position, I could easily see the slight pudginess of her belly; a testament to all of the sweets she’s consumed.

She gave out an adorable squeak—her eyes flicking open for a brief second before closing again—as I ran my hand over the side of her stomach. This just caused Rainbow to huff in aggravation.

“Come on,” she whined, waving her hooves in front of her. “Just tell me how you got him to forgive you! I’ve been trying for, like, forever!”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Primrose said, speaking up from her spot beside me, “but there was a mountain of food involved, and a lot of popping up in random places, and she did actually say the words ‘I’m sorry’ to him… over and over… and over again.”

We were currently in the throne room of Canterlot palace. Pinkie had gone all out in the party planning, and the entire room had a festive feel to it. Tinsel and streamers hung from the pillars and ceiling, the usual sun and moon banners replaced with ones bearing snowflakes. Several pine trees had been brought into the room and thoroughly decorated. Candles flickered happily along the walls.

The biggest change, however, was the massive fireplace that Twilight had been able to magically create. Located along the side wall of the throne room, it stood nearly six feet tall. A large fire crackled merrily away within, spreading warmth throughout the entire room.

I was sitting on the steps leading up to Celestia and Luna’s throne, Pinkie having quickly claimed my lap shortly after I had sat down. Primrose was lying across the top step, completely bare of her armor except for her tinted glasses, which were perched on top of her head.

The others were gathered around the fireplace, chatting softly with one another. Luna had yet to arrive, and Celestia had excused herself to go find her. Rarity was talking with Fluttershy, the pair of them giggling occasionally at whatever it was they were discussing. Avera was napping while Twilight was chatting with both Ebony and Applejack, the latter of whom was snacking on some food that came from a buffet table nearby.

Every so often, Twilight would shoot a glance over in my direction, her brow furrowed slightly.

“But, I can’t cook,” Rainbow grumbled, crossing her forelegs as she glared at the floor. Primrose just shook her head, sighing heavily before placing her joint back in her mouth.

“Of course that’s the one she goes for,” she muttered under her breath so that Rainbow couldn’t hear her. Glancing back up at Rainbow, she gave her a deadpanned look. “Well, you better figure out a way to make it up to him. Pinkie was able to do it, so I’m sure you can too.”

“Come on,” Rainbow whined again. Turning, she stuck out her bottom lip, giving me a pouting look.

“Come on, big guy,” she whimpered. “You know I didn’t mean to leave ya hanging. I thought Pinkie was still with you!”

“Yeah, Pinkie said something similar,” Primrose growled, the end of her blunt flaring as she inhaled. “Look, if you’re just gonna whine about this, please go away. I’m sure Max ignoring you for a couple more days isn’t the end of the world.” Rainbow groaned loudly before throwing her hooves into the air and floating away.

I watched her go for a few seconds before returning my attention to Pinkie. You know, when you get right down to it, ponies have amazingly soft stomachs. As I scratched away, I wondered idly if Twilight would allow me to do this to her. I’m pretty sure that it would help relieve some of her stress. Heck, Pinkie was practically a puddle of mush in my lap.

As if to confirm the fact, Pinkie hummed happily, groaning loudly as I dug into a particularly plushy part of her stomach.

“Thank the Maker she left,” Primrose sighed when Rainbow was out of earshot. “Her voice was starting to grate a little.” Pulling the blunt from her mouth, she glanced over at me. “So, have you really not forgiven her yet, or are you just teasing her at the moment?”

~A little of column A, a little of column B~ I signed, causing Pinkie to whimper in distress as I stopped scratching her. ~In truth, I’ll probably start paying attention to her again once we get back to Ponyville~ Returning my hand to Pinkie’s stomach, I chuckled again as her distraught expression turned back into one of contentment.

“Good,” Primrose said, clamping the blunt in her teeth again. We fell into silence after that, the batpony puffing away while I continued to provide Pinkie with belly scratches.

~Hey, got a question for you~ I signed suddenly, looking back over my shoulder at Primrose. She blinked once before cocking her head to the side.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

~When we were visiting the cellist yesterday, why were you so tense around the unicorn?~ Primrose froze, her ears quivering slightly. ~We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to~ I signed quickly. ~I was just curious~

Primrose was silent for several seconds, staring intently at the floor, before sighing heavily.

“Lambs don’t belong in a wolf’s den,” she muttered softly, her ears splaying backwards. I was unsure of what she meant, but after a quick glance at her face, I decided to drop the subject and we just sat there in silence.

After a few minutes, the sound of the main throne room doors opening caught my attention. As all of us turned our gazes toward the doors, one of them swung open slightly. I blinked in surprise as Shining Armor poked his head in.

“Shining!” Twilight cried, standing up quickly and hurrying forwards. A smile touched Shining’s face before he withdrew his head. A moment later, the door swung open wider and he walked in, followed shortly by Cadance.

I blinked again, my eyes widening. A very large—and very pregnant—Cadance.

As she walked in, a smile on her face, I couldn’t help but stare at her abdomen. It had grown immensely, now clearly bloated. She walked with the tenderness of one who carried a precious burden, which, given her state, she did.

I wasn’t the only one to notice. Twilight slid to a halt, her eyes widening in shock as she stared at Cadance. This just caused Cadance to giggle, covering her mouth with a hoof.

“Does this mean that we aren’t doing our usual greeting?” she asked, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Shining snickered as well, smirking at his gobsmacked sister.

Twilight just sat there, gaping at the pair before a loud squealing noise escaped her lips and she dashed forward, a large smile on her face.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she squealed, dancing on her hooves in front of Cadance. The others weren’t far behind, swarming the pair as they cried out congratulations. I let off a loud ‘omphf’ as Pinkie launched off my lap, her back hooves barely missing my groin by inches.

The only ponies that hadn’t moved to enclose the pair were my guards: Avera was still passed out in front of the fire, Primrose was lying beside me, and Ebony was just watching with a small smile on her face.

As I sat there, rubbing my stomach where Pinkie had used me as a launching pad, Primrose glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.

“Not going over to congratulate the lucky couple?” she asked, a small cloud of smoke escaping her nostrils. I just shook my head, watching the giggling group of mares with a growing smirk on my face.

“What’s the matter? Not a foal kinda guy?” Primrose asked, her tone playful. Once again, I shook my head, giving the group one last look before turning to face the batpony.

~It’s not that~ I signed. ~I just don’t see what the big deal is~

“What, are you blind?” Primrose asked, giving me an incredulous look. “I know you have a foggy eye, but you should still be able to tell that she’s pregnant.”

~I can see that~ I signed, snorting as I rolled my eyes. ~I just don’t see what the big deal about it is~ Primrose opened her mouth to say something, but I kept going. ~Bloated stomach, nausea, increased urination, raging hormones, cravings, fatigue. It all sounds horrible, and not like something you should congratulate someone about~

“Sooo, you aren’t even the littlest bit excited about this?” Primrose asked, cocking an eyebrow as she motioned towards the group.

~Sure I am!~ I signed as I got to my feet. ~I’ll just wait for her to squeeze the foal out before I start swooning over it~

“You have, by far, the weirdest way of thinking I have ever seen,” she said, slowly shaking her head.

~Hey, until it’s born, it’s just a parasite~ I signed, a playful smirk on my face letting her know I wasn’t completely serious. Straightening my saddlebags, I turned and stepped down the stairs to the throne and began heading towards the side doors.

“Oi,” Primrose called after me, scrambling to her hooves, “where do you think you’re going?”

~To take a piss~ I signed, glancing back over my shoulder. ~Don’t wait up!~ With that, I pushed open the doors, and proceeded to wander down the hallway, heading towards the bathroom.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Rainbow Dash < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Even as she congratulated Cadance on her pregnancy with the rest of her friends, Rainbow’s mood didn’t improve much. Watching out of the corner of her eye as he got up and left the throne room, she couldn’t help the frown that touched her muzzle.

She could understand that Max was probably upset about her leaving him alone before the infected human attack, but it wasn’t completely her fault! The snowstorm had been scheduled for later in the evening, but some featherbrained idiot in Cloudsdale had gotten jumpy and released the storm clouds early.

She had to find cover. Not only was flying in a blizzard dangerous, it could have been lethal. Despite her natural resistances to the cold, her pegasus magic couldn’t have protected her long in those conditions. Plus, that kind of weather was a wing-killer. All those frozen particles would cling to her wings. That was a one-way ticket to the hospital, and she didn’t do hospitals.

So, when the snowstorm had hit unexpectedly, she did what she had been drilled to do since an early age: she had flown to the nearest cover she could find and waited it out. Finding shelter in one of Applejack’s older barns that was never used anymore, Rainbow had waited out the storm. Even when the bells were tolling in Ponyville, she stayed where she was, believing that Pinkie had stayed with Max and would see him safely home.

It hadn’t been until the storm had quieted down and she had flown to Applejack’s did she learn about the attack on Max. Oh, how that had destroyed her. The Element of Loyalty leaving one of her friends alone during an infected human attack? She was pretty sure that she had almost made two sonic rainbooms on her way to the library to see him. However, by the time she had gotten there, the magic dome had already been raised, locking her out.

The next four days had been the longest in Rainbow’s life, and she barely got any sleep during that time. Unable to sleep, and unable to be with her injured friend physically, she had decided to be with him in spirit instead. She had spent most of the four-day quarantine circling the library, guarding it.

She knew that she didn't need to; Twilight’s skill with magic shields was second only to her brother, but still, it made her feel better than sitting at home doing nothing.

Then one morning she had awoken from her brief nap to find that the dome had been dropped. She had zipped around town, searching for Max in desperation. Sure, Fluttershy had said that according to Twilight, Max was unaffected by the infected human’s bite, but Rainbow had to see it just to be sure.

It had taken her several hours to find him, but when she did, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There he was, out walking around as if nothing had happened. That had been totally awesome in her opinion, and made her respect for him grow even more. He had faced down one of the scariest things Rainbow could think of, and had come out on top.

But then she found out that he blamed her and Pinkie for getting him into the situation by abandoning him. Oh, how that word had hurt her to hear it applied to her. Abandoned. She hadn’t abandoned anypony since Discord had corrupted her when he had first escaped.

Now one of her best friends, and the awesomest human in Equestria, believed that she had abandoned him. Needless to say, she had to correct that immediately, but he was refusing most of her attempts to apologize.

Why can’t he just accept it and move on? Rainbow grumbled silently to herself as she watched the others chat happily amongst themselves. I mean, he was much more forgiving that one time I accidentally gave him a black eye, for Maker’s sake!

Brow furrowing, Rainbow continued to feel sorry for herself until she was snapped out of her funk by someone pulling on her tail.

Glancing down, she opened her mouth to tell Pinkie to cut it out, but paused when she saw, not her pink friend, but Shining Armor staring up at her.

“Is everything alright?” he asked when she floated down closer to him.

“Yeah,” she said, giving him a confused look. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, it’s just that you appear to be glaring at my wife,” Shining said with a chuckle. “I hope we haven’t done anything to upset you.” Rainbow’s eyes widened and she immediately flailed her forelegs in front of her.

“No, no, no, I wasn’t glaring at her!” she said quickly. She paused, before continuing, “Okay, so maybe I was, b-but it has nothing to do with her. Just got something on my mind, is all.”

“Care to talk about it?” Shining asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Eh, it’s nothing big,” Rainbow said, glancing to the side as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Just something between me and the big guy.”

“Max?” Shining asked, cocking his head to the side. “Is this about the play fighting you two do? He isn’t hurting you, is he?” Shining’s eyes narrowed, his ears perking up.

“No, nothing like that,” Rainbow said quickly, shaking her head. Shining visibly relaxed before perking up again.

“Does it have something to do with recent events?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “Like Max getting attacked by an infected human?” This caused Rainbow to inhale sharply, her eyes going wide.

“How do you know about that?” she asked.

“Twilight wrote us a letter,” Shining replied with a shrug. “Still can’t believe it myself, but I don’t think it’s something Twilight would joke about. Did you have something to do with it?” Rainbow’s ears splayed backwards, and she lowered her head slightly.

“...Yeah,” she muttered, “I did.”

“How so?” Shining asked, keeping his voice soft and kind. Behind them, Rarity squealed at something that Cadance had just said, a large smile on her face.

“Well, Pinkie and I were supposed to be watching him at the time,” Rainbow said, avoiding Shining’s eyes. “We had asked Twilight if we could borrow him for the day, and she agreed. A snowstorm blew in early, and we lost track of him in the weather… and then he got attacked by the infected human on the way back to the library.”

“Where were his guards?” Shining asked, cocking his head to the side. “I was under the impression that Princess Celestia and Luna gave him three guards to look after him so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.”

Rainbow winced, lowering her head further.

“We… asked if Max could leave them behind,” she muttered so softly that Shining had to lean in to hear her. “They stayed behind at the library.”

“Why would you do that?” Shining asked, blinking in surprise before his eyes narrowed. “It’s their job to look after Max. If something bad happens to him, they are the ones that get in trouble. That’s like… that’s like somepony telling you to ignore the weather for a day, then getting mad at you when it storms.”

Rainbow winced again before closing her eyes and gritting her teeth.

“I know,” she ground out, “Twilight’s already given me a hard time about it, and the big guy is ignoring me. It’s just, those guards—” she paused, licking her lips as her eyes flicked over to the ponies in question “—I don’t like them. Especially the pegasus. She gives me the creeps. Always watching us, the other girls and I, like a hawk.

“I mean,” Rainbow huffed, looking up as her wings twitched, “it’s not like we’re a threat to him. We’re his friends, for Maker’s sake!”

“They’re just doing their jobs, Rainbow,” Shining said, shaking his head slightly. “You can’t blame them for that.” Rainbow sighed, her head drooping along with her wings.

“I guess not,” she breathed, her ears folded against her head. Shining eyed her for a brief moment before a small smile touched his face.

“As for Max, I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” he said. Rainbow glanced up at him from beneath her bangs, giving him a confused look. “From what I’ve seen and my own past experiences, humans, as a species, are extremely trusting,” he explained. “They have to be, seeing as they need us ponies to look after them most of the time. A human trusts his owner to look after him, feed him, provide him with shelter and lodgings. That’s why some humans will defend their owners and handlers with unsurpassed loyalty.

“Max is no different,” Shining continued. Rainbow opened her mouth to interrupt, but was silenced when he raised a hoof. “Granted, he might be more intelligent than most of the other humans here in Equestria, but the concept still applies. He has to trust us. It might not seem that way, but it’s true. He needs to trust us to keep him safe, and to protect him from ponies who would use him for personal gain.

“When he went out with you and Pinkie, he was placing his trust in your hooves. When you got separated from each other—intentional or not—it got him attacked, and his trust in you was broken.” Rainbow felt her eyes begin to water, and gritted her teeth, blinking back tears.

“However,” Shining said, causing her to perk up, “I can’t see Max holding a grudge against you for long. Especially after a few months of wrestling together.” Shining paused, a small frown touching his lips. “He’s not being mean to you, right? Just ignoring you?”

“Yes,” Rainbow started to say, but stopped, her brow wrinkling. “Well, sorta. This morning I asked him to pass me the apple juice, and he did. He just won’t acknowledge me.”

While Rainbow was talking, Shining’s frown slowly became a smirk, his eyes narrowing mischievously.

“So, he’s just ignoring you,” he muttered, rubbing his chin with his hoof. After a few seconds, his smirk grew and he gave Rainbow a calculating look.

“You want him to acknowledge you, right?” he asked suddenly. Rainbow blinked before nodding slowly. “Well, I can think of a way that might work.” Glancing back over his shoulder at the group of gossiping fillies, he made sure that they were distracted before turning back to Rainbow.

“I have it from a reliable source that you and Max are keeping score on who bests who, is that right?” Rainbow nodded. “And he’s winning?” Rainbow nodded again, and Shining’s smile grew. “It so happens that he’s also besting me in that department.”

Glancing over his shoulder again, Shining then leaned close to Rainbow and whispered, “How would you like to get him back?” Rainbow’s head snapped back and she gave Shining an incredulous look.

“W-what?” she asked, an ear twitching.

“How would you like to get him back?” Shining repeated, the smirk still on his face.

“What do you mean?” Glancing around one more time, Shining’s horn lit up and the saddlebags upon his back opened. A bundle, wrapped in pale-pinkish light, emerged from the bags and hovered in front of Shining.

Rainbow eyed the bundle of clothing for a brief second before her eyes widened. “Is that…?” Shining just nodded.

“It is. I had it specially made up in the Crystal Empire. Had to guess on some of the measurements, but I think it worked out for the best. I was planning on breaking it out later tonight when Max wasn’t expecting it, but...” Shining trailed off, shrugging his shoulders as his smile grew.

Rainbow stared at the light yellow dress that was hanging in Shining’s magic, a small frown on her face. Her eyes darted back and forth between him and the dress.

“I-I… I don’t know,” she said as she chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t think that would be the best idea.”

“Why? Because Max is mad at you?” Shining scoffed, rolling his eyes. “This isn’t going to make Max dislike you. It’s a prank, nothing more. If anything, it might loosen him up a little.”

Reaching out, Rainbow ran a hoof absentmindedly over the silk dress, her mind racing. On one hoof, she didn’t want to upset Max further. He might be a very forgiving person, but she didn’t want to push him further. She should just lay low and wait for him to forgive her before she tried anything.

Then again, on the other hoof, the dress was one of the frilliest things she had ever seen, with pink ribbons and bows adorning it. It would be sweet payback if they could manage to get Max into it. Especially after that pumpkin incident on Nightmare Night.

Rainbow’s mind continued to race for several minutes, her eyes locked firmly on the dress as she waged a mental battle with herself. The dress would put her almost even with Max in the prank department, but it could also ruin her chances of making up with him. Rainbow was a mare of action; she wasn’t used to doing this whole 'think of the consequences' thing.

Her hind legs twitched as she shifted from hoof to hoof. Finally, she opened her mouth to give Shining her answer, but she was interrupted by the side door to the throne room opening.

Turning her head, Rainbow watched as Max walked back into the room. His head was hung low, his focus on his hands as he tried to buckle his saddlebags back around his waist. As the clasps clicked together, a quick smile touched his lips. The smile disappeared as quickly as it had come, however, when he glanced up and saw both Rainbow and Shining staring at him.

His one good eye darted back and forth between the two of them quickly before it drifted to the article of clothing floating between them. It was a few seconds before his eyes widened, and he took a step back.

Time seemed to freeze as the trio just stood there, staring at each other in silence for that brief, breathless moment in time. Max eyeing the dress, Rainbow and Shining staring at Max, the latter with a large, evil smirk on his face.

Then, everything sped back up. The other ponies chatted happily around the trio, oblivious of what was going on around them. Max took one last look at the pair before turning and sprinting back out the door he had just came through.

Rainbow paused—just for a heartbeat—before a large, devilish smile crossed her face. Yanking the dress out of Shining’s grasp, she covered the distance between herself and the door with a single flap of her wings, tearing after Max. With a whoop of joy, Shining raced after her, slamming the door shut behind him.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I tore down the hallway, my bare feet pattering against the marble floor as I ran for my life. Behind me, I could hear the swish of wings and the pounding of hooves, my tormentors hot on my heels.

I hadn’t seen much when I had returned to the throne room, but the look in Shining’s eyes and what he had been holding was enough to tell me that it was time to run. That dress…

I shivered slightly, increasing my pace to try and put as much distance between me and them. There was only one reason Shining would have a dress and had been staring at me like Freddy Krueger, and I was hellbent on not finding out what he had planned. I know that revenge is a dish best served cold, but this is ridiculous!

I zipped around the corner, startling several guards that were patrolling in the opposite direction. Their wings flared, and they shouted in surprise as I was forced to jump over them to avoid crashing. The sound of crashing metal and a loud yelp told me that Shining had not been so lucky.

I was going to risk a glance back, but decided against it as the rug beneath me slipped slightly. As I scrambled to regain my balance, I felt something small and furry slam into my back. Staggering into the wall, I yelped in surprise as Rainbow’s hooves wrapped around my chest.

“Gotcha!” she cried happily as her grip tightened on me. I grunted, trying to pry her off of me as I pushed myself off of the wall. Stumbling due to her extra weight, I fell to the ground, landing on top of Rainbow.

She gasped in pain as the air left her lungs, her grip on me loosening. I pulled myself free from her hold, scrambling on my hands and knees for several feet before standing back up. I resumed running down the hall, leaving Rainbow behind to catch her breath.

My legs pumped as hard as I could get them to, my breath coming in short bursts. Paintings, windows, and startled guards zipped by as I ran as fast as I could. Reaching the end of the corridor, I dashed up the staircase that was located there.

I was halfway up the stairs when the sound of wing beats reached my ears again, a clear warning that Rainbow was back in the game.

“You’re not getting away this time, big guy!”

Sonofabitch! I groaned inwardly, closing my eyes briefly. Of course Rainbow was already behind me again; she was fast and nimble. My only saving grace was the fact that we were indoors, the narrow corridors working more in my favor than hers.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I made a quick right, shooting down what looked like a small passageway that was meant for servants. I had to crouch slightly to avoid hitting my head on the ceiling of the passage, my shoulders brushing the walls as I ran. I could hear Rainbow scrabbling to follow me, her wings too wide to fit in the enclosed space.

The corridor took a sudden right angle, and my arms slammed against the wall, followed by my body, as I tried to make the turn without smashing my face in. A quick glance behind me showed me that Rainbow had given up flying and was now chasing me on hoof, a determined look in her eyes. I gulped loudly before returning my eye forward.

I shot out of the side passageway, startling a gray unicorn stallion, his dark gray mane streaked with white. His eyes remained locked on me as I ran around him, the blue orbs boring into me as I took off down the open space before me. The sound of wing beats told me that Rainbow was now airborne again.

“You’re just making it worse for yourself, big guy!” Rainbow shouted from behind me, almost bowling over the unicorn as she zipped by him. A quick glance told me that she still had the dress held tight in her hooves.

I was halfway down the hall when a loud crack rent the air. There was a flash of white light and then Shining Armor was standing in front of me, a triumphant look on his face.

I yelped in surprise, my feet skidding across the floor as I tried to stop quickly. Shining’s horn lit up as he threw up a magical barrier between us. Unable to stop in time, I slammed into the shield, hissing in pain as my injured arm smashed into the magic shield.

Shining’s shield shimmered once before disappearing in a crackle of energy. His eyes widened as I careened into him, both of us falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Lying there, my eyes rolling in my head as my arm throbbed in pain, I heard Rainbow land beside me. There was a brief pause before her head appeared above me, a smirk on her face.

“Gotcha now, big guy,” she chuckled, staring down at me. I just groaned, my vision still unfocused as my brain bounced around within my skull. Rainbow’s smirk slowly slipped from her face, replaced instead by a look of concern.

“Hey, dude, are you okay—” Groaning, Shining stood up, rubbing his head with his hoof. Unfortunately for both ponies, due to their positions, as Shining rose, the top of his head slammed into Rainbow’s jaw. This caused her to fall onto him, causing him to crash back onto the floor.

Taking advantage of the fortuitous circumstance, I untangled myself from the pile and stood up. I took quick stock of my surroundings, my gaze falling onto a nearby door. Opening it, I glanced inside before an evil smile touched my lips.

It was a supply closet for the cleaning crew.

Hurrying back to the dazed ponies, I grabbed both of them, one in each hand, and proceeded to chuck them both into the closet. Shining fell headfirst into a mop bucket, while Rainbow landed in a pile of dirty towels.

As both of them groaned in discomfort, I closed the door and dragged one of those small, decorative pillars in front of it. Once that was done, I turned and sprinted down the hall, determined to put as much distance between them and me before they recovered and continued the chase.

Several minutes later saw me dashing down a deserted corridor, the only sound being that of my feet upon the floor. Chancing a glance behind me, I doubled-checked to make sure that neither of them were coming up behind me. I didn’t want any more sneak attacks.

Unfortunately, in the brief moment that I glanced over my shoulder, I failed to notice the staircase approaching from my front. I let out a loud yelp as my foot met open air, and I tumbled down the stairs head over heels.

Luckily for me, the staircase wasn’t a big one; only a dozen steps or so. I landed on my stomach with a loud grunt, just narrowly avoiding biting my tongue. My bags burst open, spilling their contents upon the floor. Journals and charcoal sticks went flying in a flurry of paper.

There was the sound of shattering glass followed by something splashing across my face. I grimaced as some of the bitter tasting substance got in my mouth. Immediately, a large spike of pain erupted in the back of my head, fading just as fast as it had arrived. It was followed by a slight numbness in my hands and feet, as well as a weird tingling sensation across my skin.

Skidding to a stop, I remained on the ground, my eye closed as I felt the room spin around me. After several minutes, my sense of vertigo started to lessen, and I tentatively cracked my eye open.

I noticed something lying beside my head, and I blinked several times as it slowly came into focus. My eyes widened when I realized what it was. The jar that the Vagabond had given me had slipped out of my bag and shattered upon the floor, its contents pooling outwards in a large pool of rainbow liquid.

And some of it had gotten in my mouth.

I reeled backwards quickly, scrambling into a sitting position. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noticed that the way I was sitting felt weird, but I ignored it. Spitting, I tried to clear my mouth of the unknown substance. I had planned on having Twilight take a look at it, but never got around to it. There was no telling what was going to happen. I just prayed that if it was a poison, it would act quickly and painlessly.

After several minutes of nothing happening, I slowly began to relax, my breathing returning to normal. Reaching up, I wiped my muzzle with my foreleg, trying to clean the liquid off of it.

As I lowered my arm I froze, my breath hitching in my throat. I slowly lifted the limb back up, staring wide eyed at the sight before me. Cautiously, I tried to move my fingers, but that only resulted in the sole of my hoof flexing slightly.

As I stared down at my new appendage in horror, only one thought came to mind.

“...What the fuck?!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The Coming Dawn hooves pounded against the snow-covered ground as they hurried down the back alleys of Manehattan, taking care not to be spotted by the revelers out on the main street.

Ahead of the group, Dusty fluttered along, his wings beating furiously as he tried to stay in front of the guards. Every so often he’d glance back, eyeing them fearfully. Sunny wasn’t sure what Ivory had shown him, but she had never seen Dusty move this fast in his life. He was a lazy stallion who would sometimes not eat because that entitled getting up off his flank. To see him running (or more like stumbling along quickly) at all was a shock to Sunny.

Rounding the far corner of a building, Dusty landed with a thud, sliding on a patch of hidden ice. Lifting a hoof, he pointed at a small warehouse several blocks away.

“That’s the one,” he panted, his chest heaving as his lungs struggled to draw air. “That’s the one you want.”

“Excellent,” Ivory growled. Stalking forward, she grabbed Dusty by the scruff of his neck with her magic and forced him forward. “Get moving. You’re unlocking it for us.”

“Alright, alright, I’m movin’!” Dusty yelped, his legs scrambling beneath him. He cast another fearful look at the unicorn before turning and darting off down the street, his tail tucked beneath him. Snorting, Ivory ran after him, the rest of the squad following behind her.

Sunny gasped for breath as she ran, a cramp in her side twinging with every step she took. Stacker ran beside her, barely winded from their run.

He must have incredible endurance, Sunny thought as she glanced sideways at him. With all this armor on, I feel like I’m about to pass out.

“So, there’s one thing I’m curious about,” Stacker said suddenly, snapping Sunny out of her thoughts. Swallowing thickly, she licked her lips, clearing them of foam, before responding.

“What’s that?” she gasped, lungs burning.

“Darkflare hates pegasi, right?” Stacker asked, keeping his eyes forward as he ran. Sunny nodded. “Then why does he pay one to feed his human?”

“Who’s the first... one that Van’s... going to attack… if he gets out… during feeding?” Sunny asked between large gulps of air. Stacker paused, his eyebrows creasing for a moment before returning to their original position.

“Hadn’t thought of that,” he muttered under his breath. Sunny just puffed and wheezed beside him, trying her best to keep up.

They eventually reached the warehouse, the group settling around a small door located on the side of the building. As Dusty fumbled with a set of keys he pulled out of his wing, Ivory glanced back at the rest of the guards.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” she said, her voice low. “We don’t know what we’re going to find in here. For all we know, Darkflare is waiting for us. Keep together, and be ready for anything.” Turning to one of the guards, a unicorn mare with a short green mane, she added, “Arcane shields up once we get inside.” The mare nodded once, before a soft glow surrounded her horn.

Still catching her breath, Sunny reached up and patted the pouch on her hip, double-checking that her Iron Hoof was still there. Beside her, Stacker did likewise, checking his hunting knives before resheathing them. Around them, the other guards were checking their weapons as well.

“Oi, I got it,” Dusty called out suddenly, his words followed shortly by a loud clunking sound. Stepping back, he threw the padlock off of the door and pushed it open.

“There, I got ya’ in. Can I go now?” he asked, turning to glance at Ivory as he slowly started to slink away. He paused when she held out her hoof.

“The key, if you’d be so kind,” she growled. Dusty placed the key on her hoof, careful to not allow his own to touch hers. Once that was done, he turned and shot off down the street, leaving a cloud of snow in his wake.

“You sure we should let him go?” one of the guards asked, eyeing the retreating pegasus with a sneer.

“He’s not a threat,” Ivory said, moving to stand beside the now open door. “Let him be. He’ll have enough nightmares as is.”

As the rest of the guards moved to stack up next to Ivory, Sunny fell in line behind Stacker.

“Remember,” Ivory said as she peered through the doorway. “Stay close, stay alert, and be prepared.” She paused briefly before moving forward through the door and into the warehouse. Everypony else filed in after her, their heads swiveling around as they took in every detail.

The warehouse was silent. Faint sunlight streamed through the dirty windows, illuminating the spacious room. Crates were stacked high, nearly touching the ceiling in some places. Dust covered most of the surfaces, cobwebs filling the cracks and holes. Near the ceiling, nearly invisible to the naked eye, barbed wire dangled, waiting patiently for any unsuspecting pegasi that might wander in.

As the guards moved through the maze of crates, the two unicorns both kept up a magical barrier: a three square feet of energy that hovered in front of them like a shield. It swiveled with their heads, always staying in front to provide ample protection.

Nearing the center of the room, Ivory paused, staring at something on the ground.

“Sergeant, check this out,” she said, calling back over her shoulder to Stacker. Moving forward, he glanced over her shoulder, a small frown touching his face when he saw what she was pointing at.

“The dust on the floor has been disturbed,” he said, his gravelly voice quiet. “Looks like the colt was telling the truth. Darkflare’s been through here.”

“Right,” Ivory muttered, staring down at the hoofprints clearly visible in the dust. She was silent for several seconds before lifting her head and glancing to the left.

“The tracks go off in that direction,” she said, pointing towards a large gap in the wall of crates. “Seeing as there are no tracks returning, they’re either still here, or left by a different door.”

“So… what’s the plan?” Sunny asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. Ivory and Stacker glanced at each other briefly before Ivory spoke.

“We follow the tracks and see what Darkflare was up to.”

“We already know what he’s up to,” Sunny countered. “He’s here for Van.”

“In that case, he’s probably long gone and we have nothing to worry about,” Ivory replied, starting to follow the tracks in the dust. The rest of the guards moved after her, and Sunny was forced to follow, lest she be left behind.

The Coming Dawn followed the tracks carefully, skirting openings and peaking around corners in case there were any ponies waiting in ambush. The only sound that could be heard throughout the warehouse was the muffled movements of the guards. Even so, Sunny couldn’t help shake the feeling that something was watching her. Glancing around, she saw that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary anywhere. Just some crates, boxes, barrels, and an old mirror with a tarp cloth hanging haphazardly atop it. Nonetheless, she stroked the Iron Hoof through the pouch again, making sure that it was still there.

As the group neared the back wall of the warehouse, Ivory paused again, her nostrils flaring. She let out a confused grunt before reaching up and pulling her bandana. Moving her head around like a dog seeking a scent, she sniffed again before asking, “Does anypony else smell something burning?”

The rest of the group froze, lifting their noses in the air to sniff as well. Sunny scrunched up her face at the smell of smoke. It was faint, almost nonexistent, and if it hadn’t been for Ivory pointing it out, she would have missed it completely.

“Yeah, something’s burnin’ alright,” Stacker grunted, looking around as he continued to sniff.

“Some restaurant burning its food?” one of the guards offered. Ivory shook her head slowly.

“Highly unlikely,” she said. “For one, none of the buildings around this one were restaurants.” She glanced over her shoulder, giving the guard a deadpan look. “Plus, how many restaurants do you know of that are open on Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

“Residential?” another guard asked. “ Somepony burning their holiday supper?”

“No,” Stacker said, “it’s not that.” Sunny glanced over at him, noting that his ears were perked and he was gazing forwards with an intense look on his face.

“What makes you so sure?” the guard asked. Stacker said nothing, just lifted a hoof and pointed. Glancing in the direction he was indicating, Sunny’s eyes widened in alarm when she spied what he was staring at.

Visible through the crates, in the back of the warehouse where the records were kept, a dull light shone through the office windows. Even from where she was standing, Sunny could make out the telltale flicker of flames. A slight haze hung over that part of the building as well, giving further evidence to the fact that a fire was currently growing.

“Buck,” Ivory growled, her eyes narrowing beneath her glasses.

“Why would they light a fire in the warehouse?” the unicorn guard asked, staring at the glowing windows through the magic barrier in front of her.

“Getting rid of information and resources,” Stacker said. “Everything burned is one less thing we can use against them.”

“Come on. It doesn't look that big. We should be able to put it out,” Ivory snapped, moving forward. Beside her, Stacker started forwards as well. Sunny followed with the rest of the guards, the other unicorn bring up the rear, her shield still active.

As the ponies neared the back of the building, the smoky haze became much thicker, hanging over their heads and forcing them to cough. The distinct sound of crackling flames slowly become audible the closer they got. Sunny’s eyes begin to water as her nostrils burned. She could still see fairly well, but the smoke was slowly becoming denser and denser as the unseen fire continued to grow.

When they were standing beside the office doors, Ivory paused and glanced over at Stacker. Through the glass of the door Sunny could see the orange light flickering, an occasional ember jumping into view. Even with the door closed, she could feel the heat coming from the other side. Her instincts were telling her to run, to fly, or get as far from the flames as possible. However, the determined expressions on all of the other guards’ faces kept her from fleeing. If they can do it, you can do it too.

“Alright, sergeant,” Ivory said, having to speak loudly to be heard over the crackle of the flames. “When we go in, you and the pegasi try and save as much as you can. Corporal Shine here—” the unicorn mare’s ear twitched as she was mentioned “—and I will work on putting out the flames. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Stacker grunted, pulling out a bandana of his own and wrapping it around his muzzle, trying to block out the smoke. The other guards did the same, Stacker pulling an extra one out of his pouch for Sunny.

Once they all had their mouths and nostrils covered, Ivory turned to the office door. Pausing for just a second, she dropped her shield and wrapped the door handle in a red glow.

“On three,” she growled. “One… two… thr—”

CRUNCH

A loud shriek behind her caused Sunny to jump. It was followed quickly by the sound of something wet and meaty hitting the floor and a loud gagging noise. Wheeling around, it took Sunny’s mind a brief second before it registered what she was seeing.

And when it did, she froze, her heart stopping in her chest.

Standing there, the orange, flickering glow from the fire casting demented shadows upon his frame, was a human. He was tall, standing at a height that—Sunny believed—would allow him to stand eye to eye with Max. Wearing only a dark pair of tattered pants, most of his lithe body was exposed. Muscles rippled across his frame, scars accenting the flesh. A trio of fireballs, all spinning around each other, were branded upon the right side of his chest. His left hand was wrapped around the throat of one of the pegasus guards, who was struggling to break free.

The sound of groaning drew Sunny’s eyes to the ground. Corporal Shine lay at the human’s feet, her horn sparking uselessly as blood slowly pooled around her head. Quickly jerking her eyes back up to the human, Sunny flinched as his cold gray eyes glared down at her. His lips pulled back in a silent sneer, revealing his teeth, many of which had metal caps on them, giving them a sharpened look.

As Sunny took a step back, away from the human, she heard Stacker swear behind her.

“Is that…” he asked, not finishing his question. Sunny nodded anyways, her ears splaying backwards as her pupils shrunk.

“Van,” she whimpered, taking another step back.

Van growled softly, his eyes darting between the remaining guards, his posture relaxed even as the pegasus continued to struggle in his grasp.

“What the buck is he doing here?” the remaining guard shouted. “I thought Darkflare came to get him!”

“Fire behind us, mad human in front. This complicates things,” Stacker grunted, moving to stand in front of Sunny, his wings spread wide.

“No, it doesn’t,” Ivory growled. “It makes our job easier. Now we don’t have to track him down!”

“And how do you plan on restraining him?” Stacker shouted, not taking his eyes off of Van. As the human slowly turned his head to face him, the heckles on the back of his neck raised.

“Easy,” Ivory sneered. “Magic!”

Sunny’s eyes widened and she whipped around, crying out, “No, wait! Don’t!”

It was too late, however.

As Ivory’s horn lit up, Van’s eyes immediately snapped to her. Letting out a loud barking snarl, he pulled his arm back and chucked the pegasus guard at Ivory with strength that didn’t seem possible considering his thin form. Ivory didn’t have any time to react before the pegasus crashed into her, sending both of them tumbling to the ground.

“Shit, lieutenant!” Stacker cried. The shout caused Van’s attention to snap to Stacker instead.

The whites of Sunny’s eyes were showing as Van slowly lifted his right hand, brandishing a large sledgehammer. Behind her, the sound of crackling flames had evolved into a roar, and she could practically feel the hair on her flanks beginning to curl. Instinctively taking a step forwards to avoid the flames, Sunny flinched as she realized that she had brought herself closer to Van.

“Pick your poison,” Stacker muttered, his wings twitching by his side, half spread. “Shall we burn in fire, get attacked by a human, or get tangled above in barbed wire?” Sunny just whimpered in response.

Van charged.

Swinging the hammer in a wide arch, the human brought it crashing down with a roar. Moving on instinct alone, Stacker rolled to his left, pulling Sunny with him. The hammer smashed into the floor where the pair had been standing seconds before, a shower of sparks erupting from the head.

Following through with his roll, Stacker flipped to his hooves, pulling his hunting knives out in the process.

“Try and take him alive,” Ivory cried out from beneath the pegasus guard as she tried to push him off her.

“Are you mad?!” Stacker shouted back, not taking his eyes off of Van. Holding his knives in a defensive posture, he interposed himself between the human and Sunny, his wings spread wide.

“Princess Celestia requested him alive!” Ivory shot back, struggling underneath the weight of the stallion. Her horn was still sparking uselessly, her magic unavailable. “Use the tranquilizers!”

“The princess isn’t exactly here right now, is she?” Stacker growled as Van began to stalk closer. “And how the buck are we supposed to get close enough to tranquilize him? I really don’t want to become this big boy’s dinner!”

“Just do it!” Ivory yelled, managing to free one of her back legs from the unconscious guard.

Stacker opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as Van let out a terrible, ear-splitting roar before dashing forward, the hammer raised above his head.

~ ~ ~ ~ > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

After everyone had calmed down from the initial excitement of finding out about Cadance’s pregnancy, the group had retreated back to the fireplace, enjoying the warmth the flames provided.

Resting upon a cushion, Cadance was laid out on her side, making sure to keep pressure off of her swollen stomach. The rest of the mares had grouped around her, with the exception of Avera, who was still asleep, and Primrose, who was still sitting by the thrones, puffing on her joint. The batpony still eyed the group from a distance, ears perked.

As Cadance readjusted herself into a more comfortable position, Twilight couldn’t help but squeal again for the umpteenth time.

“Ohhh, I can’t believe I’m going to be an aunt!” she cooed, clapping her hooves together happily. “I can teach them all sorts of spells I know, it’ll be so much fun. It’ll be like having my own student!”

“Easy, Twilight,” Cadance smirked. “We don’t even know what it’s going to be yet. Wouldn’t want you to get all excited only to find out it’s going to be a pegasus, now would we?”

Twilight blushed, giving her a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Cadance said, her smirk turning into a warm smile. “I must say, you’re only about half as excited as I was when I found out I was having a foal. You should have seen your brother, walking around the castle in a daze, the biggest grin ever on his face.” She giggled into her hoof. “It was one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you have any idea what gender it’s going to be?” Fluttershy asked softly, peeking out from beneath her mane. Cadance just shook her head.

“Nope, although Shining is hoping for a colt. Truthfully, I’ll be happy either way, as long as they’re healthy. Although—” she paused, poking her bulging belly gently with the tip of her hoof “—with how big I’m getting, I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be twins.”

“Oh, you aren’t that big, darling,” Rarity said, batting her mane. She paused, eyeing Cadance out of the corner of her eye. “Although, it must be tiring, walking around like that. I can’t imagine you’re able to fly anymore.”

“True,” Cadance said with a giggle. “Thankfully, I was never a big flyer, so it hasn’t hindered me much. And it’s not as tiring as you might think. The biggest issues I’ve had is the morning sickness, and crazy cravings.”

“Cravings?” asked Pinkie, perking up. “You mean, like for chocolate chip cookies and pies and cakes?”

“Yes,” Cadance replied, “but also chocolate-covered mushrooms, pickles smothered in mustard, and deep fried grapefruit.” As everyone stared at her in fascinated horror (Rarity looking positively green), Cadance just shrugged. “You’d think it’s disgusting, but they’re all surprisingly good.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Rarity said uneasily, covering her mouth with a hoof.

The sound of the main throne room doors opening drew the group’s attention, and they watched with some amusement as Shining and Rainbow walked back into the room. Glancing around, Shining spotted his wife by the fire and immediately headed in her direction.

“So, did you manage to get Max?” Cadance asked her husband as he reached her.

“What?” he asked, rubbing tenderly at a small bump on his head. “Oh, um… no. He managed to get away from us.” Shining gave her a sheepish smile before collapsing onto a cushion next to her, nuzzling her neck lovingly. Rainbow did likewise, lying down next to Pinkie before starting to preen her wings, trying to get the feathers back into position.

“You left Max out there, alone, without his guards?” Twilight asked sharply, her eyes widening. Before she could get too worked up, however, Ebony rolled her eyes.

“Relax, Twilight. We’re in Canterlot Castle. There are at least four guards for every noble here, and everypony is probably at home with their family. I doubt anything bad will happen before he can get back to the throne room.”

“You say that, but the last time we were here, Blueblood tried to kidnap him,” Twilight replied, her ears splaying backwards. This earned confused looks from Cadance and Shining, but neither pressed the issue.

“You really think Blueblood is going to try again, after what happened?” Ebony asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s not Blueblood I’m worried about,” Twilight muttered. “It’s the nobles. You know how they are with the humans of the other nobles.” Ebony sighed before shaking her head.

“Nothing bad is going to happen to him,” she said. “The worst that will happen is he’ll probably get lost and need to be escorted back here by a guard.”

“I guess,” Twilight said, biting her lip. “It’s just—”

“And,” Ebony continued, cutting off Twilight, “I know for a fact that you have a location spell active on him right now, letting you know where he is at any given moment.”

“East Wing, near the bedrooms,” Twilight murmured, her horn glowing softly. She slowly lowered her head as the others stared at her.

“Twilight, why do you have a locator spell on him?” Cadance asked, shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s entirely necessary.”

“Trust me, it is,” Twilight defended. “You don’t know the kind of trouble that Max can get up to when he’s by himself. Heck, there are even times he’s with somepony where trouble seems to find him. Ever since he got attacked by the infected human I’ve been placing the locator spell on him, just so I’ll know where he is.”

“Will that help you protect him?” Shining asked, cocking an eyebrow. Twilight flicked her ears, glancing away.

“No… but it makes me feel better.”

“Normally, Ad’d agree with ya on that Cadance, but Max does seem tah attract a lot of attention,” Applejack said.

Rarity slowly turned her head to smirk at the farmer. “You’d know that from past experience, wouldn’t you, darling?” A large blush crossed Applejack’s face and she lowered her hat, her ears splaying backwards.

Choosing to ignore the statement, Cadance just shook her head.

“I still think that’s over the top,” she sighed, shifting slightly on her cushion. She winced as her back legs squeezed together. “Ohhh,” she groaned, “that’s one thing that I’m not happy about.”

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, worry in her voice. Cadance just nodded, wincing again as she shifted her legs.

“Yes, although I must say that I’ve never noticed how much my legs rub against my teats until they became tender. The increased size doesn’t help much either,” she added with a weak chuckle. Glancing over at Rarity, she smiled.

“I may have to commission some skirted saddles from you, Rarity.” The fashionista gave her a large smile.

“Certainly, darling. I’d be more than happy to make you some. Although,” she added, cocking her head to the side, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at saddles the same way again after what Max has told me about them from his world.” Immediately after saying that, Rarity’s eyes flew open wide and she clamped a hoof over her mouth.

Glancing over at Twilight, her ears splayed backwards at the intense look the mare was giving her.

“What was that?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the side.

“N-nothing, darling,” Rarity said uneasily. “I was just saying that I would be happy to make Cadance some saddles!”

“Noooo,” Pinkie said, shaking her head. “You said something about Max, and saddles, and his old world. What do they use saddles for there? Oh, oh, I know! They use them for a special type of sport involving hurdles, jumps and obstacle courses, right, right?!” She bounced in her seat, a large grin on her face.

Rarity stared at Pinkie for several seconds before sighing. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”

“Nope!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. Beside her, Twilight nodded her head, her curious gaze still locked on Rarity.

“I’ve talked with Max about his world many times, and I don’t remember him saying anything about saddles,” she said, her wings twitching by her side. “When did he tell you?”

“Of course he hasn’t told you,” Rarity muttered under her breath, her voice so low the others couldn’t hear. Closing her eyes, she sighed again before lifting her head. “It was shortly after we had finished up at the human show. We were on our way back to the library when I asked him about it. Rather, I asked him about ponies from his world.”

“Why in tarnation would ya do that?” Applejack asked, frowning slightly.

“Remember when he showed us the pictures of his home?” Rarity asked, earning a nod from most of the group. Shining and Cadance’s eyes widened, but they kept their comments to themselves. “Well, I happened to notice a distinct lack of ponies in the pictures, and decided to ask him about it. The answer was… rather startling.”

“Why do you say that?” Pinkie asked, still bouncing in place.

“Because,” Rarity said, closing her eyes, “it turns out that ponies from his world are—pardon me saying—as stupid and animalistic as the humans in ours. Humans there use saddles on ponies as a way to dominate and control them. It gives the human a place to sit while they use the pony as a beast of burden.”

The silence that followed that statement was deafening. Rarity winced as everyone stared at her with varying levels of shock on their faces. The smile had completely left Pinkie’s face, and she had ceased bouncing. The only pony that seemed unaffected by Rarity’s words was Rainbow Dash—having heard it from the human’s mouth—who was still preening her disheveled wings.

“Wait just a darn moment,” Applejack said suddenly, pushing her hat back on her head. “Are ya tryin’ tah tell me that, on Max’s world, we’re nothin’ but a bunch of dumb animals?”

“It would seem that way, yes,” Rarity said solemnly, nodding her head.

“Ah’m sorry, but that there’s a mighty big pill tah swallow,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “Ah don’t think Ah like the sound of that, bein' a wild beast.”

Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy who spoke up next.

“Now hold on,” she said, her normal quiet voice stronger than usual. She was looking at Applejack with a small frown on her face. “We shouldn’t get all worked up about this. Imagine it from Max’s perspective. He was taken from a world of intelligent humans and forced into our world. Is it so hard to see it in reverse?”

“Ah’m just sayin’, imagine comin’ across a pony that was just a mindless animal,” Applejack argued. “That just doesn’t sit right with me.”

“It’s something that Max has to go through every day,” Fluttershy countered. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to encounter any of them here in Equestria. They’re all back on Max’s world, where they belong, with their herds and families.”

“Ah suppose you’re right,” Applejack grumbled, looking off to the side. “Ah still don’t like it, though. Not bein’ in charge of your own actions.”

“You just don’t like it because you have an entire farm full of humans,” Rainbow grunted, her teeth clamped around a few feathers. Applejack opened her mouth to reply, her angry expression telling that she was readying herself for an argument with her winged friend, when Rarity cut in.

“That is neither here nor there,” she said, glaring at the two. “You asked me what Max had said, and I told you. It was because of that conversation I was thinking of putting a halt to my saddle line. I was thinking about possibly taking up socks instead—”

“Twilight, are you alright?” Cadance asked, her voice sounding worried. The sudden question caused everyone to glance at the pony in question.

Twilight was staring off into the distance, her pupils the size of pinpricks. Ears pressed tight against her head, she sat there, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly, her breaths coming in quick bursts. Her wings were hanging limply by her side, and every so often her body trembled slightly.

“Twilight, darling, are you alright?” Rarity asked, placing a hoof on her shoulders. Twilight flinched, her jaw clicking shut as she swallowed thickly. Opening her mouth again, she spoke, her voice barely audible as she continued to stare into the distance.

“...dumb beasts.” Rarity glanced around at the others, clearly confused. When all she got was a couple of shrugs in response, she returned her attention back to Twilight, chewing on her bottom lip.

“I’m sorry, darling, I didn’t quite catch that,” she said, a weak smile on her face. “What did you say?”

“Ponies from his world are dumb beasts,” Twilight said again, this time slightly louder. Her voice sounded strained, as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. “We remind him of dumb beasts. We look similar to animals to him.”

“Indeed, a rather interesting predicament, isn’t it?” A musical voice spoke up from behind, causing everyone to jump. Glancing around, they watched as Princess Celestia approached, a small smile on her face. Behind her, Luna trotted along, still blinking sleep from her eyes. Her ethereal mane, while flowing regularly, also seemed to stick out in several directions in an odd case of bedhead.

“Princess,” Twilight said, trying to greet her mentor normally, but her voice cracked halfway through. Celestia walked up to the group, her smile remaining on her face as she drew nearer.

Leaning down to nuzzle Cadance when she arrived, Celestia said softly, “It’s good to see you again Cadance, and congratulations. I wish you and Shining Armor good luck in the trials ahead, even though they will prove to be happy ones.” Cadance returned the nuzzle, sighing happily.

“Thank you, auntie,” she cooed. “I’m looking forward to it, but what did you mean ‘an interesting predicament?’”

Lifting her head, Celestia let her eyes drift over the assembled ponies before coming to a rest on Twilight.

“I was informed of the relationship between ponies and humans on Max’s home world by Avera—” she nodded at the pegasus, who was still snoozing, oblivious to the world around her “—who learned it at the same time as Rarity. I must say, while I did find it rather alarming at first,” she said, nodding towards Applejack this time, “I must say that I am rather pleased to know of this information.”

“Why would you be pleased about that?” Cadance asked, her eyes widening.

“Because it speaks volumes about him, doesn’t it?” Celestia said, a twinkle in her eye as she smiled. “Despite the fact that we remind him of animals from his home world, he still treats us with respect and dignity that, frankly, I do believe some of us don’t deserve.” Seeing the confused faces before her, Celestia explained, “Though he is as intelligent as us, we tend to still occasionally treat him like we treat the humans here in Equestria. Be it in mannerisms, or just in how we act around him—” Rarity shot Applejack a smug look “—we, myself included, sometimes forget that he isn’t the same as the humans we are used to living with.

“That being said, I have yet to hear of a case where Max grabbed a saddle and rode a pony around,” Celestia chuckled. Rainbow froze, her face buried in her wing. Her body stiffened and her ear swiveled around, pointing at Celestia. The part of her face that was visible slowly began to darken into a blush.

“He views and treats us the same way he would treat any other intelligent creature,” Celestia concluded. Moving behind Twilight, she slowly lowered herself, her legs folded beneath her as she sat down. Luna, still half-asleep, quickly nuzzled Cadance before joining her sister.

After getting comfortable, Celestia leaned her head down and nuzzled Twilight, who seemed a bit calmer than she was before, but still looked somewhat tense.

“I agree with Tia,” Luna said, stifling a yawn with her hoof. “Although, Max did have a more… abrupt introduction to the idea than we did.”

“True,” Celestia said with a nod. “We each learned of it in a somewhat controlled environment. Max was thrust into it without a choice. That just makes my point even more stronger.”

“T-that is a good point,” Twilight spoke up, running a hoof through her mane. “Getting caged unexpectedly by a species you used to think was unintelligent could be a real shocker for anypony. That might actually explain some of his behavior during his first week in Ponyville.”

“Y’all mean that week he was troublesome?” Applejack asked.

“Yes,” Twilight nodded. “It was a very stressful week, although he did work hard at making it up to me afterwards.”

“Speaking of making it up to you,” Celestia said suddenly, a smirk slowly playing across her muzzle, “has he given you your present yet?” Twilight perked up, craning her head back to look at Celestia.

“Present?” she asked, blinking in confusion. “What present?”

“I’ll take that as a no,” Celestia chuckled softly, shaking her head. Upon seeing Twilight still giving her a confused look, she just smiled. “It’s not my place to reveal what he has planned, although I will say that I think you’ll like—”

scritch scritch scritch

Celestia frowned, her ears perking up as she glanced at the throne room door, the others quickly following suit. The sound continued, just barely audible over the sounds of the fire. It sounded like a pony was outside, fumbling with the massive rings that made up the door handles.

As the scratching continued, Luna peeked over her sister’s shoulders.

“What’s that?” she began to ask, but was cut off by a loud thunk coming from the doors, followed by muffled swearing. There was a brief pause before another loud thunk was heard. One of the doors groaned before slowly beginning to slide open. A quiet murmur rippled through the observers as a gray stallion slipped between the gap in the doors.

Twilight frowned as she watched the stallion draw nearer. She couldn’t recall ever having seen him before in the palace, and court wasn’t open today.

He walked with a pronounced limp, his legs moving as if he wasn’t sure which hoof should go where next. His head was lowered, his messy brown mane hiding his face as he kept his eyes firmly on the ground in front of him. Narrowing her eyes, she could just make out something held in his teeth.

The group watched the unknown pony approach with a mixture of caution and curiosity. Behind her, Twilight could feel Celestia shift, preparing to stand. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a curious look on her mentor’s face as she eyed the stallion closely.

Turning her gaze back to the stallion, Twilight felt her breath hitch in her throat when her eyes landed on the saddlebags perched up on his back. They were clearly not designed for a pony, the opening facing forwards instead of up. Dyed black, she could just make out her cutie mark upon the sides of the bags.

There was no doubt in her mind: those were Max’s saddlebags.

Why does he have those?! Twilight thought, fear rapidly growing in her chest. Images of Max lying in a puddle of his own blood at the bottom of the pit filled her mind, causing the small embers of panic to flare into an inferno. Immediately lighting up her horn, she cast the locator spell, preparing herself to teleport to where her human was the instant she had his location. She would leave her friends to deal with this stallion.

It took a few seconds for the location spell to activate fully, but when it did Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. It was still working, which meant that, where he was, Max was still alive. She concentrated, focusing on the spell. According to her spell, her human was right… in… front of her?

“Wha…” Twilight muttered, staring at the stallion in shock, her mind reeling as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Behind her, Celestia shifted again.

“Can I help you, my little pony?” she asked as the stallion stopped a few feet away. Everyone was staring at him, each with a different expression on their faces, going from curious (Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie) to cautious (Shining, Rainbow and Applejack) to confused (Cadance and Luna).

The stallion was silent for a moment, his head still lowered, before he spat out the object clenched in his teeth. It clattered to the ground with a sharp tinkling sound, instantly recognizable as the remains of a shattered jar.

As the stallion licked his teeth and lips, grimacing slightly, Twilight could feel her heart racing. Her ears were perked and she was staring at him with horrified fascination. It can’t be…

“Yeah,” the stallion suddenly said. His voice held a strange accent that sounded familiar, yet Twilight couldn’t quite place it. The sound of his voice caused a shiver to run down her spine. She knew that voice; it had been troubling her dreams for quite some time now. With her heart beating in her throat, she watched as he lifted his head and his messy mane fell away from his face, revealing it.

Twilight couldn’t help herself; she gasped. Around her, she heard several of her friends doing the same. The stallion had a large, familiar scar running across his muzzle to his right eye, which was milky white in color.

Ignoring the gasps around him, he glared up at Celestia with his one good eye before speaking, “Figure out what’s wrong, and fix me.”

Celestia jerked back, her eyes widening in shock.

“Max!?” she squawked, jumping to her hooves. She stared down at him for several seconds, her mouth opening and closing silently. Around the group, eyes widened and jaws fell open as everyone suddenly realized who the strange stallion was.

“What… what happened to you?” Celestia asked when she finally found her voice.

“The fuck if I know,” the stallion—Max, Twilight reminded herself weakly—growled, swaying slightly on his hooves. “I was running away from these two—” he jerked his head towards Shining and Rainbow, nearly collapsing as his legs shifted underneath him “—when I finally managed to lose them. I then tripped down some stairs, and when I landed, this thing—” he managed to kick the jar remains without falling “—shattered and I got some of its contents in my mouth. The next thing I knew, I was like this.”

“You can talk,” Celestia stated dumbly, a blank look on her face.

“Yeah, the only good thing to come out of this,” he grunted, a displeased look on his face.

“You’re a pony, and you can talk.” Celestia blinked several times before her gaze slowly drifted down to the cracked glass jar in front of her. As she picked it up carefully in her magic, Pinkie jumped up, a huge smile on her face.

“Yay!” she cheered, bouncing around the ponified human. “Maxie can talk! I can throw him a ‘hurray for not being mute anymore’ party, as well as a ‘congratulations on becoming a pony’ party!” Throwing her legs around Max from behind, she picked him up in a big hug, nuzzling him as she did so. He grimaced, whimpering weakly as she squeezed the air from his lungs. His tail thrashed back and forth as he squirmed.

“Pinkie… can’t breathe,” he wheezed, face turning blue.

“Oops, sorry, Maxie,” she giggled, releasing him from her grip. Max fell to the ground with a yelp, his legs failing to support his weight. Despite herself, Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the sight; he almost looked like a newborn deer, unable to walk on its spindly legs. The sound caused Max to glance over at her. His ears perked up, and tail wagged upon seeing her, only causing Twilight to blush a deep crimson.

As Max struggled to get to his hooves, the sound of laughter suddenly filled the air. Rainbow had fallen onto her back, kicking her hooves in the air as she roared with laughter, nearly choking on her own spit. Tears streamed down her face and she rolled back and forth, cackling with uncontrolled mirth.

“Aw, man,” she wheezed out in between gasps for air. “This is better than what we originally had planned!” She sat up, hiccuping slightly as she wiped tears from her eyes. Glancing over at the unamused pony-Max, she snorted once before breaking out in laughter again.

“Glad you find this so amusing,” Max growled, eyeing her with annoyance. His teeth ground together, and an ear flicked against the side of his head.

As Rainbow continued to laugh uproariously, Twilight couldn’t help but gawk at the pony standing before her. He stood just slightly bigger than her brother; a good head taller than her. Muscles rippled underneath his steel-gray coat, giving him an athletic look. The fur around his chin and fetlocks was shaggy, giving him a scruffy look that actually worked for him. A brown mane, highlighted with some blonde strands, hung down in front of his face. His only good eye was a rich chocolate brown and seemed to twinkle slightly in the firelight.

Overall, he was a rather handsome stallion, and Twilight could feel her cheeks beginning to heat up the more she stared at him. Every so often he would flick his head in cute manner in order to get the hair out of his eyes. It was a familiar movement that she recalled Max used to do back when he had longer hair.

Twilight was snapped out her musings by Celestia humming thoughtfully.

“This looks like a Transformation Potion, with pony hair as a catalyst,” she said, slowly spinning the bottom half of the jar in her magic. Tipping it upside down, she watched as a single drop of rainbow liquid fell from the cracked glass. “No doubt that when it got in your mouth, you transformed into a pony.”

“Wait!” Twilight cried suddenly, her eyes widening in alarm. “Where in Equestria did you get this? The one I was brewing isn’t complete yet!” It took her a few seconds for her mind to realize what it was she had just said. She squeaked, hooves flying to her mouth as her cheeks burned red.

Max gave her a confused look, his right ear twitching. “I got it from Zecora’s cousin when we went to get your supplies. I didn’t know what it was at the time and was going to ask you, but forgot.” He cocked his head to the side as he gave Twilight a curious look. “Why are you brewing one?”

“N-no reason,” Twilight stuttered out from behind her hooves. “It was a... side project, for curiosity’s sake.”

“Looking to transform yourself into a human, hm?” Twilight’s ear flicked as Celestia whispered into it. She could practically hear the smirk in her teacher’s voice. “You know, I know a simple spell that can do that exact same thing, and last for as long as you can maintain the magic.” Twilight’s cheeks grew even redder, and she hid beneath her mane, her wings twitching by her side. She heard Celestia chuckle softly before straightening up.

“It’s a rather difficult potion to make,” she said to Max. “It takes a while to brew, but when it’s complete, it’s truly a remarkable thing. Just add a few hairs of any species you desire, and upon drinking, you’ll become that species.”

“So, I’m stuck like this?” Max asked, his ears drooping in dismay. Celestia glanced up from the remains of the jar and gave him a reassuring smile.

“No, the effects of the potion are merely temporary. The amount you ingest determines how long it’ll work, and seeing as you didn’t drink the entire potion, it’ll only last for a little while.”

“How long is 'a little while'?” Max asked, his eyes narrowing. Twilight’s ears twitched and she tried her hardest to hide the dopey smile that was fighting to work its way onto her face. She could listen to his voice for hours without losing interest. The gruffness of it, the strange accent; it was unique, especially considering that he was usually mute.

“Considering you said you just got a little in your mouth, I’d say a few hours, maybe less,” Celestia replied, lowering the jar. Max sighed, lowering his head as his ears drooped again. “Why?” she asked, giving him a curious look. “Is there something wrong with being a pony?”

“No,” Max replied slowly. He continued to stare at the ground for a few seconds before glancing up at Celestia. “...and yes. It’s more like a series of minor annoyances than anything else. I’m not used to walking on all fours, but it feels almost natural to me. Hooves have different traction than feet and I fell more times than I’d like to count just trying to get back here. I feel like a newborn. It took me forever to fold up my clothes just using my mouth and to get them back into my bags. Same thing with my notebooks. This fur is rather itchy, there’s a muzzle constantly in my vision, and these ears won’t stop twitching and moving on their own!” he said, his voice slowly rising into a scream before he placed his hooves upon his ears, which had been twitching and swiveling throughout his entire explanation. Another giggle escaped Twilight’s lips.

“Aw, what’s the matter? Can’t control your ears?” Pinkie asked with a large grin on her face. “It’s easy. Look!” Her ears began to flap up and down before beginning to alternate. Behind her, Rainbow began to snicker again, biting on her bottom lip to try and control herself.

“Pinkie…” Max sighed, closing his eyes, ears drooping. “Stop. Please, just stop.”

“Sorry,” Pinkie said, smiling sheepishly as her ears returned to their normal positions.

“It’s alright,” Max sighed again. “It's just… this isn’t as fun as it looks. Sorry if I’m a little snippy.”

“Well, you were right when you said that there were some benefits to this,” Rarity said, a small smile on her face. Upon Max giving her a confused look, she chuckled softly, “We can actually have a conversation with you without having to wait for you to write out a response.”

“Yippie,” Max said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Sighing again, he reached a hoof back and unfastened his saddlebags, allowing them to slide off his back and onto the floor. Another gasp traveled through the group as a cutie mark was revealed: a red human hand print, fingers spread wide.

“Yay! Now I can throw you a cute-ceañera as well!” Pinkie cheered as she began to bounce around again. Max groaned loudly before falling backwards onto his flank. Unfortunately, the way he was sitting exposed a rather personal part of his anatomy, giving everyone in the room a very clear view of it. Cheeks lit up around the room, and several mares stared unabashed. Twilight’s face flushed, and she could feel her wings slowly beginning to stiffen.

“Um, Max,” Rarity coughed, glancing away only to look back at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Darling, you’re kind of… exposing—” The glare he shot her was more than enough to silence her, as well as cause most of the others to look away as well.

“I’d like to see you all do better if the situation was reversed,” Max growled, pulling his saddlebags into his lap, covering himself up in the process. “I could just see it now: humanized ponies stumbling everywhere, trying to figure out how to walk properly on two legs.” He trailed off as he began to root around in his bag, digging through the contents with a small frown on his face.

“Several ruined notebooks, soaked pair of clothing, broken charcoal sticks,” he grumbled, trying to pull a rainbow-soaked notebook out of his bags with his hooves but failing spectacularly. Watching him struggle, Twilight giggled again before standing up and moving to sit beside him. Her horn lit up and she levitated the ruined notebooks out of the bag.

Glancing up, Max gave her a grateful smile, his tail wagging, before resuming his digging. “My only comfort is knowing that I took Twilight’s gifts out of here before we left our room, otherwise those would be ruined too.”

“You… you actually got me something?” Twilight asked, her cheeks lighting up for the umpteenth time in the past hour. Her heart started to pound in her chest at the possible meaning behind the present. Usually such things were reserved for family during Hearth Warming Eve. Friends rarely, if ever, got presents for one another.

“Well, duh,” Max chuckled, rolling his eyes. “Of course I got you something! I know how much crap I make you put up with, so it’s kinda my way of saying thanks… and I’m sorry.” He gave her a quick smile before burying his head into his bag, trying to reach the depths.

Twilight swallowed thickly, her mind beginning to race, before standing up, her legs shaking beneath her.

“Excuse me for a second,” she practically squeaked out, before turning and hurrying towards the doors, determined to get some air. Behind her, she could hear the others beginning to talk with Max, Pinkie and Rainbow teasing him about his transformation.

She had almost made it to the door when she was stopped by a hoof grabbing her shoulders. Yelping, she jumped, only to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw it was just Cadance with a concerned look on her face.

“Twilight, are you okay?” she asked, her eyes scanning Twilight’s face with worry. Twilight flinched before giving Cadance a weak smile.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. Just getting a little too warm by the fire. Gonna go cool off.” She made to turn back to the door, but was stopped again by Cadance.

“Twilight.” She said the name slowly, drawing it out, and causing another flinch from the mare in question. “What’s wrong? Come on, you can tell me.”

“...I don’t have a present for Max,” Twilight whispered, staring at her hooves. Cadance cocked an ear and leaned in closer.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“I don’t have a present for Max,” Twilight said, slightly louder than before, her ears splaying backwards. This caused Cadance to blink in surprise. For a few seconds she stared at Twilight, before her face scrunched up, a confused expression on her face.

“Is that what was bothering you?” she asked. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I didn’t get Auntie Celestia or Luna anyth—”

“Not a big deal? Not a big deal?!” Twilight hissed, an eye twitching. “Of course it’s a big deal! He got me something and I didn’t get him anything! I mean, if it was some silly get together I could understand that, but this is Hearth’s Warming Eve for Maker’s sake!” Twilight groaned softly as she danced in place. “Oh, how could I be so stupid! I should have planned for if he got me something. Friends don’t usually get friends stuff for Hearth’s Warming. I mean, I didn’t even get the others anything. Well, I got Spike some books and some rare gems, but that’s beside the point! Only special someponies get each other gifts, and he got me something and I didn’t get him anything and now he’s going to think I don’t care about him. How am I supposed to show him I care about him more than a friend if I can’t even get him a present for Hearth’s Warming Eve?!”

“Twilight, calm down,” Cadance said firmly, grabbing ahold of the panicking mare. “Take a couple of deep breaths, calm down, it’s going to be fine. It’s—” she paused, her brow furrowing slightly before her eyes widened. “You haven’t even told him how you feel yet?!” she yelped, staring at Twilight in shock. The answer was clear in Twilight’s guilty expression.

“Twilight,” Cadance said, slowly shaking her head. “We talked about this months ago. You still haven’t told Max how you feel about him? What could possibly be stopping you?”

“It’s never felt like a good time to tell him,” Twilight whined, her ear twitching sporadically.

“Twilight, it’s never going to be a good time,” Cadance said, still holding onto Twilight’s shoulders. “There’s not going to be a ‘perfect moment’ to tell someone you love them. The sooner you tell him, the sooner you can move on to loving one another!”

“I don’t even know if he likes me like that!” Twilight cried, her gaze darting to Max, who was still digging through his bags. “For all I know, he just wants to be friends! What if I ruin our current friendship trying to pursue a romantic relationship?”

“He got you a Hearth’s Warming Eve present,” Cadance deadpanned. “That should tell you how he feels.”

“But he said that was just a way of saying sorry for all the stress he’s put me under,” Twilight whimpered, her ears twitching madly.

“Twilight—”

“No, I’m sorry, Cadance,” Twilight said quickly, pulling herself from Cadance’s grip. “I’ve… I’ve got to get some air.” Turning, Twilight opened the throne room doors and dashed through them, leaving Cadance to stare after her, a concerned look on her face.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh, come on, dude. It can’t be that bad!”

I ignored Rainbow, continuing to root around the inside of my saddlebags, trying to remove all the remains of broken jar. I smiled to myself as I managed to find one, a large shard that was hiding beneath my folded up shirt. Now, all that remained was to get it out without cutting myself.

Glancing down at my hoof, a small frown touched my face as I studied it. Tentatively, I tried to flex my nonexistent fingers again. The bottom of my hoof rippled as I did so.

I continued to stare at it for a few more seconds before shrugging. Reaching into the bag, I placed my hoof on top of the glass shard, and flexed my muscles, mentally closing my invisible hand around the glass.

Slowly, I pulled my hoof from the bag and, to my surprise, the glass came with, stuck to my hoof like a magnet to a piece of metal. I couldn’t help but stare at the piece of glass in wonder, shaking my hoof slightly as I tried to dislodge it. It didn’t move. Gradually, I relaxed my grip, imagining myself opening my fingers. The piece of glass was still for a moment before falling off my hoof and landing on the ground with a sharp clatter.

As I stared at the discarded shard, I heard Fluttershy giggling, probably at my awed expression. Nudging the glass with the tip of my hoof, I snorted once before returning my attention back to my bags.

“Aw, come on!” Rainbow cried as I ducked back into the bags. “You can’t still be mad at me. This isn’t even my fault! Besides, this has to be better than what Shining and I were going to do to you!”

“I’d prefer the dress,” I grumbled, face half-buried in my bag.

“Oh, come now, darling,” I heard Rarity speak up. “It can’t be that uncomfortable being a pony. All of us have been since birth.” I lifted my head out of the bag and eyed her with a blank expression.

“My legs bend in ways they shouldn’t,” I deadpanned.

“You’re being too negative about this,” Rarity sighed, rolling her eyes. “This is truly an amazing experience, isn’t it? I mean, just look at yourself, darling. You make such a handsome stallion, if I do say so myself. Although—” she paused, glancing over my new form with a critical eye “—the things I could do to your mane.”

“You put any ribbons in my hair and I’m leaving,” I said. “Besides, this is thankfully temporary, so no touching the hair… mane… whatever.”

“All the more reason to do it now!” Rarity chirped happily. I paused, glancing up to give her an unamused look.

“You’re no fun, darling,” she pouted.

A loud snort from behind me stopped my retort. Lifting my head, I glanced over my shoulder and a bemused look crossed my face as I watched Avera stir. She sat up, yawning before blinking dazedly. Her eyes slowly drifted around the room before stopping on me.

She paused, obviously still half-asleep, before a tired smirk flitted across her muzzle. “Hey, good lookin’—”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll rip your wings off and shove them so far up your ass, you’ll be spitting out feathers for a week,” I growled, eyes narrowing. Avera blinked before frowning.

“Ouch.”

“Do forgive Max, darling,” Rarity said. “He’s feeling a little… brutish at the minute.”

“Max?” Avera glanced between Rarity and me, a bemused look on her face. Her muzzle scrunched up, an ear flicking, before she stood up with a grunt. As she staggered off, I heard her mutter, “I’ve got to stop drinkin’ cider before bed.”

I rolled my eyes before picking up my bag in my hooves, fumbling with it slightly. Turning it upside down, I scattered the remainder of my stuff onto the floor in front of me.

Running my eyes over the upturned contents, I moved my bags back into my lap before beginning to sift through stuff. I pushed the ruined notebooks to the side, intent on throwing them out later. The ones that survived the soaking I placed on top of my bags for later use. I tossed aside the severely broken charcoal sticks, but decided to keep most of the other ones. Even when broken in half, they were still usable.

As I reached for my clothing, I paused, my new ears perking up at the sound of approaching hoofsteps. They twitched with each clip-clop, tapping against the side of my head. Huffing, I tried to ignore them as I glanced up. I blinked in surprise when I saw Cadance heading towards me, a small frown upon her face.

As she stopped in front of me, I felt my ears lower and my tail pressed against my flank.

“We need to talk,” she said, her voice firm. Her eyes darted to the others for a second before returning to me. “In private,” she added.

“O-okay,” I said, blinking in confusion. Taking one last glance around at my stuff, I placed my saddlebags off to the side and shakily moved to stand up. Cadance moved forward to help me up, and I gave her a grateful smile in return. With that, she led me away from the fire, towards the center of the throne room.

When we were a far enough distance away that she was sure no one was going to hear our conversation, Cadance suddenly stopped and turned, eyeing me with a critical gaze.

“So,” she said finally, “how are you?”

“Um… good,” I said slowly, one of my ears folding against my head as I gave her a confused look.

“That’s good.” There was a brief pause. “How is it living with Twilight?”

Slowly, my eyes drifted down to stare at my changed body. They flicked back up to Cadance and I said, “Well, it’s certainly not boring.”

“I can see that,” Cadance replied, her eyes drifting to my foreleg. Her brow furrowed and a small frown touched her muzzle. Glancing down at my leg as well, I tried to figure out what she was staring at. There, just barely visible beneath the gray fur, you could still see the healing bite mark the infected human had given me.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Only when you hit it,” I said with a shrug. “Nurse says it’s healing fine. It’ll probably leave a scar, though.”

“Pinkie said that she and Rainbow are responsible for that, and you blame them,” Cadance said, nodding to the bite mark. It was more of a question than a statement, like she was wanting confirmation.

“'Blame' is such an ugly word,” I said, scrunching up my face. “It’s more like… they’re responsible and I’m disappointed with them? It’s hard to explain. I don’t really hate them, but I don’t totally forgive them yet. Make any sense?”

“And what about that one?” Cadance asked, pointing a hoof at my muzzle, causing me to go cross-eyed. Due to the new, extended appendage, I could actually just barely see the scar on my nose. “Do you still blame Twilight for that one?”

My gaze instantly snapped back to Cadance, my eyes narrowing and ears splaying back.

“That one is not Twilight’s fault,” I snorted, my tail lashing back and forth in aggravation. Cadance’s eyes widened for a brief moment before returning to normal.

“But you acquired it due to Twilight’s actions, no?” she asked, head cocking to the side. “The same as with Rainbow and Pinkie.”

“They are not the same,” I grunted, an ear flicking against my head.

“How do you figure that?” Cadance asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. “All ponies involved did something that resulted in you getting hurt.” Her eyes narrowed, ears perking up. “Why are you so quick to pardon Twilight?”

“I’m not—”

“How do you view Twilight?” Cadance inquired suddenly, cutting me off. I froze, my eyes widening as she asked me the same thing Celestia had asked me earlier this morning.

“...What?” I asked dumbly.

“What is Twilight to you?” Cadance asked again, her face devoid of any emotion. She stared at my face with an intense look of concentration, her eyes practically drilling through me.

I paused, one of my ears twitching involuntarily.

“She’s a very good friend to me,” I replied, “and I will do anything for her.” Instead of smiling, however, a frown crossed Cadance’s muzzle.

“Do you only see her as a friend?” she asked.

“I don’t view her as my actual owner, if that’s what you’re implying,” I huffed, the ear starting to tap against the side of my head in at a quicker pace. It, combined with the look of pity Cadance was giving me, was starting to get on my nerves. What’s with all these questions?

“That’s not what I was implying,” Cadance said, shaking her head. “I was asking if you see her as anything else besides a friend. A… sibling, perhaps? An older or younger sister?”

“Wouldn’t know,” I said, my right eye twitching as I tried to ignore my flapping ear. “I was an only child back home.”

“That’s not… ugh,” she groaned, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. “Look, I’m just asking if you only view Twilight as a friend!”

“Why are you making such a big deal over how I view Twilight?” I asked, scrunching up my face. Luckily, my ear finally stopped twitching, and instead flattened out against my head as I cocked my head to the side.

“I can’t believe I actually have to do this,” Cadance muttered under her breath, stomping a hoof in frustration. Closing her eyes, she sighed before glancing back up at me. “What I’m trying to say is that Twilight lov—”

Pain—indescribable pain—erupted in the back of my head, causing me to cry out involuntarily. Stars exploded in front of my eyes as I collapsed to the ground, my legs no longer holding my body aloft. I heard Cadance shout something, the alarm in her voice clearly audible. Someone was screaming.

I jammed my hooves against the side of my head as another eruption of pain lanced through my head, causing my body to convulse. More shouts were coming now, the sound of pounding hooves barely reaching me over the roaring sound slowly filling my hearing. Something grabbed me roughly and flipped me onto my back.

Pushing through the pain, I cracked my eye open. Primrose was standing over me, yelling something. However, despite the fact that her lips were moving, no words reached my ears, just the ever-growing scream. Twilight suddenly appeared beside her, her horn glowing softly, a horrified look on her face.

Another burst of pain, worse than the one before, ripped through my entire body, causing me to cry out. It felt like something was moving inside of me, rearranging my bones and muscles in the process. The last thing I saw before my eye shut again in agony was the two of them leaping back, their eyes widening in shock and alarm.

The screaming had grown now to an almost deafening shriek, and I could feel my new ears folded tight against my head, trying in vain to block out the noise. Then, without warning, another voice was added to the screaming, then another, and another, until it sounded like there was an entire horde of tormented souls surrounding me. The darkness all around me seemed to be singing with the cries of the damned.

As I laid there, my body feeling like it was being torn apart from the inside out and the unholy screaming ringing in my ears, I whimpered pitifully, tears flowing down my face. I was blind to the outside world, unsure of what was going on or what was wrong with me. I could only pray that the pain would stop, or that I would pass out.

Luckily or not, it was the second option that was given to me, and I could feel myself slowly slipping into unconsciousness as the pain grew too much to bear. My last, conscious thought before I slipped away was the realization that there was something else there, beneath the screaming. A single word repeating, over and over again.

"...rise ...rise ...rise.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > ? ? ? < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“No, no, no, no, no!” I chanted fearfully, dancing on my hooves, unsure of what to do.

Before me, Max was still thrashing around, clearly in pain. Forcing magic down my horn, I quickly bathed him in it, trying my best to help him. I could feel the chaos magic running rampant throughout his body, and it surged upon being touched by my own magic. It lashed out like an enraged beast, practically traveling down the arcane trail back to my own horn.

Realizing that I was doing more harm to him than good, I ceased the flow of magic running down my horn. The surge of chaos magic died down, but still continued to flow heavily through his body, like an eddy in a river.

Unable to revert the process currently taking place within Max, I chose to do the next best thing. Flaring up my horn one last time, I quickly cut his consciousness from his body, sending him into a dreamless sleep.

The surge of chaos magic nearly consumed me, and I quickly teleported away.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The Archmage froze mid-step, his breath catching in his throat. A shiver ran down his body from the tip of his horn—which sparked horribly—to the base of his tail. His eyes flashed white for a brief moment before returning to their regular icy blue.

“What the…” Blinking slowly, he turned his head, staring through the solid wall beside him towards the source of the disturbance. The chaos magic was so intense, he could practically feel the world around him shift slightly. His eyes narrowed slightly before widening in shock.

“I don’t believe it,” he muttered under his breath, one of his ears twitching. “That’s not possible.” Concentrating for a moment, his horn lit up with a golden glow. His eyes flashed white again, before fading, leaving behind a shocked look in the blue depths.

“That’s not possible,” he repeated. He didn’t want to believe it, but the magic signature didn’t lie. Neither did the source.

It was that goddamn princess’s pet!

The Archmage snarled, his eyes narrowing. It just wasn’t fair. This wasn’t fair. Out of everything that could have happened, it had to be this. The thorn in his side, the one piece of the puzzle that didn’t know its place, and it had suddenly gained—

“No,” he grunted as the magic around his horn died suddenly. Breathing a sigh of relief, he shook his head, chuckling softly. The magical signature was correct, but it wasn’t as strong as it should be. The source was only temporary, soon to be gone. Even now he could feel the chaos magic slowly dispersing.

“Enjoy your taste of godhood, kid,” the Archmage growled, turning and continuing down the corridor. “It won’t happen again.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Deep within the Royal Gardens, covered in a thick layer of snow, thin cracks slowly began to form across a particular stone statue. It trembled once before falling still again. The cracks faded, but the minute damage they had caused remained.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight sighed heavily as she headed back towards the throne room, her hooves clicking softly against the marble floor. Her quick walk around the palace hadn’t done much for her stress, but at least it had given her some time to get a quick breather.

Reaching the large doors, she paused for a second, took a deep breath, then pushed the doors open and slipped inside.

Glancing around the room as she closed the door quietly behind her, she noted that everyone was still where they were when she had left. Princess Celestia and her friends were still sitting in front of the fireplace. Shining was talking quietly with Luna. Primrose was watching everything from her spot by the thrones. Cadance was talking to Max.

Twilight froze, her eyes widening as she inhaled sharply.

Cadance was currently talking to Max, and by the expression on her face she wasn’t happy. Max, on the other hand, just sat there, his muzzle scrunched up in clear confusion. With his head cocked slightly to the side and one ear perked up, Twilight couldn’t help but notice that his body language was similar to that of a foal’s: unsure of what to do with his body.

As she watched, Max said something to Cadance, which in turned caused her to snort, stomping her hoof in frustration.

“Cadance, what are you doing?” Twilight whispered fearfully, her ears folding against her head as she moved quickly forward. Please, Cadance, don’t tell him anything. Not like this. I’m not ready!

She had crossed about half of the length of the throne room when Max’s whole body stiffened suddenly. He cried out, his legs crumpling beneath him as he fell to the floor.

“Max!” Twilight cried in horror, her shout mirrored by Cadance. He clutched his head in his hooves, his whole body twitching and jerking sporadically. His cutie mark began to glow with an eerie blood red color.

At Twilight and Cadance’s cry, Celestia’s head whipped around, her eyes widening when she saw the convulsing stallion. She was immediately on her hooves, with Luna close behind her, startling those who were sitting around them. Primrose was airborne in an instant, streaking towards Max like a bolt of lightning.

Max cried out again, snapping Twilight out of her shocked daze. Shaking her head, she raced forward, her brain beginning to try and figure out what was affecting her stalli—her human.

As Twilight drew nearer, Primrose landed beside Max with a thud. Cadance quickly stepped aside, allowing the batpony to grab the twitching stallion by his withers and flip him over.

“Max,” she shouted, grabbing his head in her hooves. “Breathe! Remain calm and breathe. Everything is going to be okay!” Twilight slid to a stop beside Primrose, staring down at Max in horror. His eyes were barely open, with tears of pain sliding down his cheeks. Instinctively, she pushed magic through her horn, but paused as she realized she didn’t know what to do. She was unsure of how to help her human without causing more damage.

Max’s eyes shut and he cried out as his entire body jerked suddenly. There was a loud crack, and Twilight and Primrose jumped back, yelping in shock. Twilight could only watch in alarm as Max’s body started to warp and shift, the muscles beneath his fur rippling like water as they elongated.

The sides of his head suddenly split open as two large ram horns erupted forth, one black and one white. The hair upon his right foreleg slowly began to recede back into the flesh as the hoof crumbled away, allowing five digits to emerge from the end of the limb. The flesh of his left foreleg twisted and convulsed until it tore apart, revealing dragon scales and a dragon paw. His right hind leg morphed into that of a wolf, the claws scraping against the floor as it shifted and moved. The hoof on his back left leg grew, the entire limb shifting into that of a goat’s. His tail slowly hardened, becoming thicker and longer until it formed that of a shark’s, the fin slapping weakly upon the ground. Wings flared up upon his back, one that of a bat, the other that of a butterfly, the different shades of the rainbow all mixing through the membrane.

As the transformation died down, silence fell over the throne room, all the ponies standing motionless. The fire continued to crackle in the background, unaware of the drama happening around it. The new creature’s chest rose and fell weakly as its breaths came in short, uneven bursts.

Twilight swallowed thickly, her brain trying to wrap around what she was seeing. Lying there where her human-turned-stallion once was, his mismatched limbs splayed out at awkward angles, was Discord.

She blinked, her eyes narrowing slightly. No, the limbs weren’t right. It wasn’t Discord, but it was still a draconequus nonetheless.

Steeling herself, Twilight took a tentative step forward, then another, and another.

“Twily, wait!” Shining called out, but she ignored him, slowly approaching the unconscious draconequus. His body had grown, now nearly sixteen feet in length from his muzzle to the tip of his tail.

Circling around him slowly, she inched towards his head, which was still that of a pony’s. Leaning over his body slightly, she stared down at the draconequus’s face. The gray fur of his muzzle was marred by a scar that ran to his right eye. Upon peeling the lid back as gently as possible, she was greeted by a milky orb.

She couldn’t help but breathe a small sigh of relief at the sight. Firing up her locator spell, she double checked what her eyes were telling her. It came back positive. It’s still Max.

Straightening up, she glanced over her shoulder at the others, who were waiting with baited breath.

“It’s Max,” she said weakly, a slight tremor in her voice. “I’m not sure how… but it’s him.”

“But… that doesn’t make sense,” Ebony muttered, stepping forward cautiously. “The potion was pony-based. How did it change him into a draconequus?”

“Forget why,” Primrose growled, eyeing Max’s transformed body curiously. “I want to know what made it take so long to change him. Those potions are supposed to be instantaneous, aren’t they?”

“Yes, and they’re also not supposed to be painful,” Twilight added, watching the rise and fall of Max’s chest, her mind racing. What had happened to cause the potion to not only change Max into a pony, but a draconequus later on? Was it permanent? Was this going to cause irreversible damage to Max? What did it all mean?

Her musing was cut short as a golden glow surrounded Max’s body. Looking around, she watched as Celestia slowly and gingerly lifted him off of the ground, suspending him in midair. His long tail dragged along the ground, his wings twitching once before falling still again.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Moving him to a better spot,” Celestia replied as she began to levitate Max towards the fireplace. Glancing over her shoulder, she gave Twilight a strained smile. “We’ll get him comfortable before we figure out what’s going on.”

Twilight blinked before nodding and falling in step behind her teacher. The others soon followed, and the ponies slowly gathered around the fire and the unconscious draconequus.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sunny yelped as the sledgehammer came down inches from her head. Rolling to the side, she avoided a second swing, the head of the hammer hurtling by overhead, missing her by mere inches.

As she scrambled to her hooves, she stifled a cough. The room was slowly filling up with smoke, and it was beginning to seep through her mask and into her lungs. Blinking tears from her eyes, she looked around quickly, only to duck as the hammer came swinging past her from the opposite direction of its previous attack.

Van growled as he hefted the hammer, holding it in both hands as it rested upon his bare shoulder. Behind him, the inferno roared, sucking in more and more oxygen as the fire continued to consume the warehouse.

“N-now, Van,” Sunny stammered as the human took a step towards her, “calm down. Stop! Stay! Please? If you stop I’ll give you some nice, tasty mea—OH SWEET CELESTIA!” Sunny dove to the side as the hammer arced through the air towards her. Sparks leapt into the air as it glanced off the ground with a metallic thud.

“Any time! Now would be appreciated!” she yelled, tucking her tail between her legs as she dodged and weaved.

“I’m looking! I’m looking!” Stacker shouted back. Ripping the lid off of one of the crates, he glanced inside. Upon seeing it filled with cloth, he swore before kicking it aside and moving on to the next crate.

“There isn’t any meat in these things!” he shouted at Sunny as he continued to look through the crates.

“There’s got to be!” Sunny yelped, dropping to her stomach to avoid another attack. “Otherwise, we’ll be the meat!” Van lunged for Sunny again, managing to grab a hold of her helmeted head. Reaching up quickly, she undid the straps around her chin. The helmet was promptly ripped off her head as she squirmed free. Van took one look at the piece of armor before tossing it aside, his gaze locking onto the fleeing pegasus.

“How did I get picked to be the distraction?!” Sunny screamed as she raced around the room in circles. She leapt over boxes and crates, constantly reminding herself not to fly too high, lest she get tangled in the barbed wire above her. Van raced along behind her like a dog chasing a cat, plowing through anything that stood in his way.

“Corporal Shine and Private Cloudspire are down, and Corporal Thunderspark is currently battling the fire. Besides, you’re the quickest!” Stacker replied, cracking open a barrel and peeking inside. “Hay? Why is somepony keeping hay in a barrel? That’s just stupid.”

“Horseapples!” Sunny yelled as she shot past Stacker. “I know for a fact that you are faster than me!” Stacker ducked down behind the barrel as Van charged past.

“Okay, so I delegated the job to you,” Stacker said, standing back up once Van had passed. “That’s how it works. The newest member of the team gets the shittiest jobs.”

“I hate you so much right now,” Sunny growled, ducking through an open barrel. Stacker just chuckled.

“Love ya too, darlin’!”

As Sunny jumped over one of the crates, her back hoof clipped the edge of the wood. With a yelp, she tumbled to the floor, skidding to a stop several feet away. That tumble was all Van need to close the gap.

Sunny rolled onto her back with a groan, only to freeze when she saw Van standing over her, his teeth bared. Time seemed to slow down to the point where Sunny could’ve sworn she saw individual embers lazily drift off of the fire behind Van. The hammer was held high in his hands, the head glinting in the light of the flames.

It was in the brief moment of time that Sunny dimly remembered one of the things her mother had taught her when a younger Sunny had started wandering the streets of Canterlot alone.

Moving—almost instinctively—Sunny’s hind leg cocked backwards, her muscles coiling like a spring. It quivered briefly, before shooting out and nailing Van dead center in the crotch.

Despite herself, Sunny had to give Van credit: he took that blow like a champ. He staggered backwards, grunting in pain as the hammer fell from his grasp. As he stumbled around, Sunny pulled herself to her hooves. Dashing forward, she grabbed the hammer in her hooves and tried to fling it into the fire. She was stopped however by the sheer weight of the instrument.

“Oh dear Celestia,” she groaned, eyes closed and muscles straining. “Why does this thing weigh so much?” She continued to strain until, suddenly, the hammer jerked into the air. Not expecting the sudden movement, Sunny was pulled with it, her back hooves leaving the ground completely.

Opening her eyes, Sunny froze, her blood turning to ice. She was dangling by the handle of the hammer, which was currently being held up by an angry-looking Van. His face was close to hers, their noses practically touching. She could smell his rancid breath, the scent of meat and decay lingering in her nostrils.

“How did you recover so quickly?” she asked the human. She paused, her brow furrowing as her ears splayed backwards. “Darkflare had you neutered, didn’t he?” Van blinked once, his lips skimming back as he growled. Sunny swallowed thickly before giving him a nervous smile.

Van roared.

“Sorry!” Sunny cried as she released the hammer, her hooves scrabbling to find purchase upon the ground when she landed. As Van roared again, swinging the hammer above his head, she cried out, “Staaacker!”

“Lieutenant, we could really use some help over here!” Stacker called out, tossing an empty crate onto the floor.

“I’m trying,” Ivory growled, a snarl of pain on her face as her horn sparked uselessly. Standing off to the side beside the unconscious guards, she was rubbing her horn with her hooves. “The damn bastard managed to hit my horn mid-cast. I’m trying to get the energy flowing again, but the pathways are still backed up. I’m getting magical feedback!”

“Well, any time for it to start working again would be wonderful!” Sunny shrieked, almost jumping into the fire because she was too focused on Van. The human just plowed through the embers, ignoring the burns on his feet as he focused solely on Sunny.

“It’s not that simple,” Ivory huffed, wincing as her horn continued to spark.

“What do you mean 'it’s not that simple'?!”

“Try flying after you’ve been hit in your wing joint!” Ivory snapped.

“I’m seriously thinking about starting to fly now—GAH!” Sunny cried out in shock as one of Van’s hands wrapped around her hind legs. Her hooves slipped out from under her and she hit the ground hard. The impact forced her pouch open, and the Iron Hoof skidded across the floor and out of reach.

Sunny barely had a second for her mind to register the pain before she was flipped onto her back. Van glared down at her, still holding tight to her leg. Slowly, he began to lift the hammer over his head, his gray eyes focused intently on her face.

Sunny opened and closed her mouth wordlessly, trying to call out for help, but the words failed her as her throat constricted. There was a brief pause before the hammer dropped, as Van swung it at her head with all his might.

Sunny closed her eyes, waiting for the blow.

It never came.

Cracking an eye open, Sunny glanced up, confused. Van was still crouched over her, the hammer quivering inches from her face. The human’s entire body was frozen, his gray eyes wide. His mouth was slightly open, and he had a look on his face that almost seemed to Sunny to portray shock.

The hand holding Sunny relaxed, releasing her. She watched in shock as Van, the cold-blooded killer, completely lost interest in her and slowly got to his feet. Turning, he stared at the far wall, the hammer hanging limply in his hand. He blinked, before chirping softly, the weird sound ending in a slight growl. He inclined his head slightly before straightening back up.

There was a moment of silence, filled only with the roar of the fire, before Van returned his attention back to Sunny. Raising his hammer, he took a step towards her only to be stopped when a red glow surrounded his body.

“Got ‘im!” Ivory cried out, her horn glowing with the same colored aura.

With a flap of his wings, Stacker appeared, jamming two needles into Van’s pinned arms. The human roared, writhing about in the magical grasp as the tranquilizers went to work. Slowly, his muscles began to relax, and his eyelids started to sag.

“How much sedative did you give him?” Sunny asked as she unsteadily got to her hooves, adrenaline still coursing through her system.

“Double dose,” Stacker said with a shrug, watching as Van slowly slipped into unconsciousness. “30cc, I believe. Maybe more.”

“That’s a lot,” Sunny said, moving to stand beside him. “What if it’s too much and he dies?”

“Oops,” Stacker said, the tone of his voice indicating that he didn't really care. Sunny just stared at him blankly before slugging him as hard as she could in his shoulder.

“Ow,” Stacker grunted, rubbing his shoulder. “What the buck was that for?”

“I spent all that time running around, dodging Van and his hammer and potential death, only to have you possibly kill him with an overdose in sedatives?!” Sunny threw up her hooves, huffing, “You know what? Forget it. I don’t care. You can carry him back to the train. I’ve had enough exercise for the day.”

“Calm down,” Ivory said as she trotted up. “You did splendidly, Ms. Breeze.” Glancing over at the fire, Ivory grunted, her face contorting in discomfort before a barrier of red magic formed around the flames. Slowly, the barrier began to shrink, slowly smothering the flames until they died out completely. The barrier continued to move forward, phasing through the walls and crates as it made short work of the flames.

“And why couldn’t you have done that earlier?” Sunny asked as she watched the dying flames with a blank expression.

“My magic wasn’t working,” Ivory grunted, sweat dripping down her brow. Sunny shook her head.

“No, I meant before Van attacked.”

“It takes a lot of magic and concentration to do this,” Ivory replied. The barrier wavered slightly as she spoke. “I was going to save my magic for Van, but then he horn-blitzed me.”

“Whatever,” Sunny grumbled, trotting forward and picking up her discarded Iron Hoof. Slipping it back into her pouch, she closed the clasp.

“How are they?” she asked, motioning with her head towards the two downed guards.

“Minor concussion for both,” Ivory said, glancing sideways at the guards. “Corporal Shine has a minor laceration on the side of her head where Van hit her. They’ll need to see the medic and will probably be hospitalized, but they’ll live.”

As Sunny returned to stand next to the Stacker, Corporal Thunderspark emerged from one of the destroyed windows of the office. Pulling himself through the window, he fluttered to the floor, his singed wings flaring to slow his descent. He was completely covered from head to hoof in soot and ash, his once pristine white armor now a sickly charcoal gray.

As he landed, he pulled the bandana covering his muzzle down, exposing the white fur—untouched by ash—beneath it.

“You find anything useful?” Ivory asked him as she lowered Van’s unconscious body to the floor. Thunderspark removed his goggles, wiping them with a hoof as he tried in vain to clean them.

“The fire was definitely magical in origin,” he grunted. Sunny had to resist the urge to snicker as a cloud of ash billowed from his mouth. Coughing, Thunderspark shook his head before continuing, “Not sure if it was on a delay, or if Darkflare was here minutes before us. Either way, the fire made short work of everything in there.”

“Still don’t see how he got here without detection,” Stacker tsked. “It would take days to walk here, the trains are too risky for somepony on the run, and there’s no way he teleported here.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Ivory said, before waving a hoof at Thunderspark. “Please, continue.”

“Well, I tried my best to figure out what was important and what was just clutter. Unfortunately, that was harder than it sounds. From the look of things, Darkflare acquired this warehouse from a previous owner who left most of their stuff behind. There were shipping manifests that were older than I am in there.

“However,” Thunderspark continued, pulling his goggles back onto his head, “I did notice something I found odd. Before the fire got to them, I noticed two cages in there. Both appeared to have recently housed humans. I’m guessing Van was one of them, but I didn’t see signs of a second human anywhere.”

“Did Darkflare have a second human you’re not telling us about?” Ivory asked Sunny, her eyes narrowing.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Sunny said, shaking her head.

“That’s not all,” Thunderspark cut in. Reaching into his burnt bags, he pulled out a stack of charred papers. “This was sitting on one of the desks.” He handed them to Ivory, who began to leaf through them.

Curious, Sunny moved to stand beside Ivory, glancing over her shoulder at the papers. Her eyes widened when she saw what was upon them.

On the papers, partially obscured by the singed edges, was a list of humans. Each one had a picture of their face, followed by a quick description of characteristics and where they were located. Most of the pictures had large X’s through them, but some remained unmarked.

As Ivory continued to look through the dozen or so sheets, Sunny eyed the pictures of human faces. A mature male, his brown hair cut short. His face was marked. A young female with short, fiery red hair and green eyes. Her face was marked as well. An older male, black wispy hair hanging in front of a gaunt face. Another mark. A young male with blonde, curly hair. His picture wasn’t marked, and under location it simply read “UNKNOWN”.

“A shipping order for humans?” Stacker asked incredulously as he eyed the list. “Why is Darkflare looking for these particular humans?”

“I’m not sure,” Ivory said as she gathered all the papers back together and slipped them into her bags, “but we’ll report it to Princess Celestia when we get back to Canterlot. It could just be the list of humans he uses in pit fights, or it could be something else.” Turning, she gave Thunderspark a small smile.

“Good work, Corporal. Did you manage to salvage anything?”

“As a matter of fact,” Thunderspark said with a smirk. Reaching into his bags again, he pulled out a severely burnt piece of paper. “This was beside the list,” he said, handing it to Ivory. “Most of the words are illegible, but if you look hard enough, you can make out some of what it says.”

Ivory stared at the paper for several seconds before a large smile spread across her muzzle.

“Well, well, well,” she chuckled as she passed the note to Stacker. “It appears we’ve hit a lucky break.” Taking the note, Stacker glanced at it before smiling as well.

“No wonder they were trying to burn it,” he laughed. “Maker’s sake, this is good.” Glancing over Stacker’s shoulder, Sunny eyed the note.

…manifest of… …gathering of humans for… …digging under… …National Treasury… one week prior to the spring solstice… ...prior knowledge… …Canterlot…

“This is perfect,” Stacker said, handing the note back to Ivory. “They’ve practically given us themselves on a silver platter. The location, the time, how they plan on getting in. We’re golden!”

“I don’t know,” Sunny said with a frown. “This doesn’t seem like Darkflare. For starters, he was never one to write down his plans. Besides, I can’t see him wanting to break into the National Treasury. That’s not his style.”

“Cockiness can make ponies do stupid things,” Ivory said, folding the note and tucking it in with the list of humans. “He’s running on a high right now: escaping from dungeons beneath Canterlot and eluding the guards. He thinks he's on top of the world, and that’s when ponies make mistakes.”

“I don’t know,” Sunny said, chewing on her lip. “I still don’t like it.” Ivory rolled her eyes.

“Look, we aren’t going to do anything about it right now. There’s plenty of time between now and the intended date. We still need to get back to Canterlot and report to the princess.”

“I guess,” Sunny said with a sigh.

“Good mare,” Ivory said, pulling her visor down and covering her muzzle with her skull bandana. “Now, Stacker, grab Van. Thunderspark, help me with Corporal Shine and Private Cloudspire. Mind their heads. Ms. Breeze, if you would kindly begin to lead us out of this warehouse, I would like to be gone before the fire brigade arrives.”

Sunny sighed again before picking up her helmet. She started trotting through the destroyed crates towards the exit, the others following close behind her.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I groaned as I slowly regained consciousness. The first thing I became aware of was the fact that I was lying somewhere semi-comfortable. My body was warm, covered by what felt like a blanket, and I could hear the crackle of a fire nearby. The gentle murmur of hushed voices filled the air, letting me know that wherever I currently was, I wasn’t alone.

Groaning again, I cracked my eye open, wincing in pain as light assaulted it. I stirred and lifted my leaden arm into view. A small smile touched my lips when I saw a hand. Not a hoof, but an actual human hand. I flexed my fingers gingerly before letting my arm fall back down to my side.

As it landed on a cushion with a soft thump, a soft gasp made me suddenly aware of a presence nearby. A lavender face suddenly entered my vision, violet eyes looking down at me with concern.

“You’re awake,” Twilight said softly. “Um… how do you feel?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the moment I tried to speak, pain seared up in my throat, causing me to cough. Twilight’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Careful,” she murmured, placing a hoof on my chest. “The potion wore off. You’re mute again.”

~Did anyone get the name of the Ursa that mauled me?~ Twilight giggled before leaning back out of my sight. A few seconds later she returned, a glass of water hovering beside her.

“Thirsty?” she asked. Reaching up, I grabbed the glass and, with Twilight’s help, carefully lowered it to my lips. I sipped at it once, wetting my throat, before taking a large gulp. Once I was satisfied, Twilight levitated the glass to the side, placing it upon the ground.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by a voice speaking up behind her.

“Is he awake?” the voice asked. I quickly identified it as Celestia. Twilight glanced over her shoulder, nodding.

Gritting my teeth, I reached up and grabbed a hold of Twilight’s shoulder, causing her to squeak in surprise. She slipped her wing behind me, helping me as I pushed myself up into a seated position.

As I rose, I glanced around at my surroundings. I was still in the throne room, sitting atop a pile of cushions near the fireplace. Everyone was gathered around, sitting in their own little circles as they chatted quietly. By the light streaming in through the stain glass windows, I hazarded a guess that it was late in the evening.

As I situated myself, leaning on Twilight for support, I noticed that Celestia was sitting just in front of me, her legs tucked beneath her body.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, a soft smile on her face. I groaned loudly, causing her to giggle, as well as causing the others to turn and look at me.

~What happened?~ I asked Celestia, my arms moving sluggishly. She tilted her head to the side, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

“Well—”

A pink blur slammed into me, causing me to topple backwards onto the cushions with a yelp.

“YAY! Maxie’s better!” Pinkie cried happily as she proceeded to squeeze the life out of me. “It was so scary! You started twitching and screaming and crying and then your body started to change. I was so scared, although you did look kinda cool, but it looked painful too! I don’t like seeing my friends in pain. And then it stopped and Princess Celestia grabbed you and was all like ‘let’s get him comfortable so we can—’”

Pinkie’s muzzle, suddenly surrounded by a golden aura, closed with a click. The aura then slowly covered the rest of her body, lifting her off of me and depositing her onto a nearby cushion.

I sat back up, rubbing my chest as I gave Celestia a grateful smile.

“As Pinkie was so enthusiastically trying to say,” she said as the light around her horn died, “you had an adverse reaction to the Transformation Potion.”

~What happened?~ I asked again. Celestia frowned, her brow furrowing.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” she asked. I frowned as well as I sorted through my hazy memory.

~I was talking to Cadance, then there was pain in the back of my head. It felt like someone was ripping my body apart from the inside, then nothing~

“Well, the ripping sensation you felt was your body changing, again,” Celestia said. “However, instead of a pony this time, you were transformed into a draconequus. The same species as Discord.”

~But I thought the potion was only supposed to change me into a pony~ I signed with a frown. Beside me, Twilight shifted, leaning her shoulder further up against me.

“Normally, yes,” Celestia nodded. “You must understand, in order for the potion to work, it uses a small amount of harmonious magic. The magic in the Transformation Potion is only supposed to change you once, depending on what hairs you mix into the solution. However—and this is just speculation, mind you—I believe that the chaos magic residing inside you reacted with the harmonious magic from the potion in a perverse manner and transformed you into a draconequus, a being born of chaos.

“This theory is supported by the fact that you could talk while you were a pony,” she continued. “With the chaos magic no longer focused, it was running rampant throughout your body, which caused the change.”

~So, when the potion wore off?~

“You returned to normal,” Celestia said with a smile.

I hummed thoughtfully as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. My head still throbbed slightly, and despite the fact I had just regained consciousness, I was exhausted.

Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.

“You okay?” Twilight asked me, her wing twitching against my back.

I cracked open my eye and glanced sideways at her. ~Yeah, although I’ve got to stop hanging out with you ponies if this is how it’s going to end up~

“What do you mean?” she asked, ears splaying backwards. I chuckled softly as I began to list off events.

~Nightmare Night, the Gala, this. It seems like every time we get together for a big event, something weird happens~

“I do believe that is what you call coincidence,” Luna spoke up from beside Cadance.

~Yeah, well, coincidence hurts~ I signed before rubbing the back of my head. Slipping my legs beneath me, I slowly stood up, swaying slightly, my legs feeling like jello.

As I stood up, Twilight quickly got up with me. Positioning herself beside me, she allowed me to lean upon her for stability. Celestia watched me curiously.

“Where are you going?” she asked, not unkindly.

~Bed~ I signed before yawning loudly. A warm smile spread across Celestia’s face and she nodded.

“That would probably be for the best,” she said. “You’ve had a trying day, and I do believe I got you up earlier than you’re used to. Go, get some rest, and hopefully you feel better in the morning.”

“Sleep well, and sleep deep,” Luna added.

I had only managed to take a couple of steps before my path was blocked by a cyan wing. Blinking, I glance down at Rainbow, cocking an eyebrow. She fidgeted, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof as she chewed on her lip. She looked up at me, her ears splaying backwards as her tail tucked between her legs.

“Look, I…” she began before trailing off. Wincing, she glanced over her shoulder at Shining, who gave her what looked like an encouraging smile. Turning back to me, she sighed before seeming to steel herself. “I… I just wanted to say that I’m s-sorry for what happened. If Shining and I hadn’t been chasing you, you wouldn’t have tripped and gotten turned into that… thing. I understand if you don’t want to forgive me, but I just wanted to say… sorry.” She said the last part in a squeaky whisper, her gaze dropping to the floor. After a few seconds she glanced back up at me through her bangs.

I stared down at her with a blank expression as my mind processed what she had said. Under my scrutiny, Rainbow’s ears splayed backwards, and she lowered her head slowly. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead gasped when I reached out and scratched behind her ear. I gave her a small smile before patting her on the head. A smile of her own touched her muzzle, and her wings twitched by her side.

“Thanks,” she muttered before quickly hurrying off to sit with Pinkie.

I moved to start walking again, but paused when my eye landed on Cadance. Frowning slightly as I remembered our interrupted conversation, I turned towards her.

~What was it you were going to say before I passed out?~ I asked. Twilight hesitated for a second before translating.

Cadance blinked once, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. She glanced over at Twilight before sighing and shaking her head.

“Nevermind,” she said, giving me a weak smile. I studied her for several seconds before shrugging.

~Goodnight, then~ I signed with Twilight translating. ~And congratulations~

“Thanks,” she replied, absentmindedly rubbing her swollen belly with a hoof.

“See you two in the morning,” Twilight added before beginning to lead me towards the side door.

As we exited out into the side hall, I sagged against Twilight.

“Come on,” she said, adjusting her wing to better help support me. “Let’s get you to bed.”

We walked down the hall in silence, Twilight practically having to carry me as my legs refused to work properly. When I stated my concern to Twilight, she had said that that was a minor side effect of the potion. My legs were having to relearn how to work again, after having their structure drastically changed.

“They should be back to normal by morning,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile.

As our room came into view, I paused, blinking owlishly as my mind suddenly reminded me of something. Glancing down at Twilight, I asked, ~Where are the guards?~

It wasn’t Twilight who answered me.

“We’re still here,” came a voice from the shadows. Tilting my head to glance over my shoulder, I stared at the pair of red eyes gazing at me from out of the darkness from behind a pillar.

“You gave us quite a scare there, big guy,” Primrose said, her wings adjusting by her side. Her eyes were glowing softly in the shadows, and I could tell by the looks of them that she had recently been in sunlight.

~Where are the others?~ I asked, trying my best to sign as I leaned against Twilight.

“Shortly before you woke up, Ebony took a sample of your blood to some of the Healers in the Royal Infirmary,” Primrose said. “She wanted to get it tested to see if there were any lasting ill effects from the sudden and traumatic transformation. Avera went with her.”

~So, you’re on watch duty then?~

“Seems that way,” she said with a chuckle. She ran her eyes over me before adding, “Get some sleep, Max. You look tired.” With that, she skulked off, keeping to the shadows as she moved down the hallway.

Twilight’s horn lit up as she opened the door to our room, helping me inside before closing it gently behind us. I sat down on the couch as Twilight moved to light a fire in the fireplace.

When her back was to me, I lifted up the couch cushion next to me and pulled out the three tomes hidden underneath. I double-checked them quickly before placing them on my lap and replacing the cushion.

There was a brief flash of light as Twilight’s horn sparked. An instant later flames crackled to life in the fireplace, and warmth began to slowly seep into the room.

“There we go,” Twilight said with a smile. “Now we can—” Her words died in her throat as she turned around and saw the books sitting in my lap. I held them out to her, a small smile on my face.

~Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve, Twilight~ I signed as she took the books in her hooves.

“W-what are these?” she asked, holding the books gingerly in her hooves. She slowly glanced over the covers, her ears splaying backwards.

~Books from my old world that I thought you might like~ I signed. ~I had Celestia help me out with getting them off of my device~ She stared at me for a moment before glancing down at the books in her grasp. ~You’ll be the first pony to read them, too~ I added.

Twilight ran a trembling hoof over the cover of one of the books, blinking back the tears that were threatening to roll down her cheeks. Swallowing thickly, she sniffed once before glancing back up at me.

“But…” she said, her voice quivering, “but, I d-didn’t get you anything.”

I chuckled softly before smiling. Sliding off of the couch and onto the floor, I knelt in front of her.

~You didn’t have to get me anything, Twilight~ I signed. ~You’ve already done so much for me. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to repay you~

Twilight just stared up at me, an awed look on her face. Slowly, her bottom lip began to tremble. Gingerly placing the books down onto the floor beside her, she then flung herself at me, wrapping her forelegs around my neck. I could feel tears rolling down her cheeks as I returned the hug, my neck becoming damp where she nuzzled it.

“Thank you,” she said softly, rubbing her cheek against mine. “Thank you so much.” I just squeezed her a little tighter, running my hand absentmindedly down her back. I felt her shiver slightly before humming happily. Her wings unfurled and she folded those around me as well, enclosing me in a cocoon of lavender feathers.

We stayed that way for several minutes, neither of us willing to break the embrace. Beside us, the fire crackled softly, adding an amorous atmosphere to the room.

Too soon, however, I was brought out of the calming atmosphere by a jaw-cracking yawn. Twilight giggled, her breath tickling my ear.

“Somepony is really tired, isn’t he?” she asked. I grunted, nodding my head slightly, causing my cheek to rub against hers. “Then we better let you get some sleep.”

There was a pause.

“You aren’t sleeping on the couch tonight.”

Another pause.

~Yes, I am~

Author's Note

[1] Frankenstein, The Divine Comedy, Don Quixote

Chapter 44: This is Earth: The Face of Humanity

3:30am. That’s what the clock across the room currently read.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been asleep, or at what time we had retired last night, but it was still nighttime when I awoke. Faint moonlight was shining through the window, the starry sky poking through several holes in the cloud cover. It was snowing gently, with large flakes floating lazily through the air.

The fire had died down during my slumber, the flames reduced to glowing embers warming the hearth. Outside our door, just faintly, I could hear the sound of a patrolling guard walking past, his hoofsteps muffled by the carpeting.

Eeyup, it was early in the morning, and I was just lying there, staring up at the canopy of the bed. I currently had to go to the bathroom, but there was only one thing stopping me: the other occupant of the bed.

During the night, Twilight had somehow managed to snuggle up next to me, a foreleg and wing currently draped possessively over my stomach. Her head was resting atop my chest, a small smile on her muzzle. Every so often her wing would twitch, the feathers brushing against my skin gently.

I’ll admit that she was adorable, and I didn’t want to disturb her, but my bladder was currently demanding release, and the last thing I wanted was to have an accident in bed.

Moving slowly as to not wake her, I slowly worked myself out from beneath Twilight’s wing. The wing flexed once before folding back against her side. She grunted once, her brow furrowing slightly, before her face returned to its relaxed state.

I moved to the edge of the bed and stood up, my back cracking as I stretched. Running a hand through my hair, I shuffled barefoot across the chilly floor towards the bathroom.

Pushing the door open, I blinked once before having to squint as the magic candles inside immediately ignited, illuminating the room. I gave one of the candles a bemused look before licking my fingers and extinguishing it. After a few seconds it relit itself, the flame flickering merrily upon the wick. Sighing heavily, I shook my head before returning my attention to the matter at hand.

Shutting the door behind me, I shuffled over the toilet and proceeded to take care of my painfully full bladder.

After I finished, I made my way to the sink and washed my hands. Glancing up at the mirror, I looked at my tired reflection. My hair was starting to get a bit on the long side again, and my beard could probably do with a trim. My eyes had dark bags under them, and I felt exhausted. Twilight had said that this was another side effect of the potion, and should pass with time.

“Your body uses a lot of energy in order to change into a different species,” she had said as she had forcibly levitated me into the bed. “It’s normal to be a little hungry and tired afterwards. You did it twice, so the effects will probably be doubled.” She had insisted that I sleep in, and she would talk to the kitchen staff about preparing a large brunch after I woke up.

I wasn’t exactly hungry at the moment, though. I just felt like I had pulled several all-nighters in a row.

Turning off the water, I ran my wet hands over my face and through my hair. This just made my bedhead worse, but I didn’t really care. The cold water drew a happy murmur from my lips. I shivered as some of the water droplets ran down my back.

Pushing off of the sink, I stretched, groaning happily as my back cracked again. Lifting my arms into the air, I twisted my neck back and forth. This earned me some more pops and cracks from my joints.

At the height of the stretch, with my hand nearly touching the ceiling, I clenched my fists several times before—unable to resist the urge—I snapped my fingers. Instantly the yellow flames of the candles changed to a bright red.

I paused bring my arms down and glanced around at the changed candles in confusion. Slowly, I lifted up a hand and tentatively snapped. The red flames changed to a cool blue.

I glanced back and forth between my fingers and the candles before a smile slowly spread across my face. I began to snap my fingers continuously, the flames changing color with each snap.

snap

Lime green.

snap

Deep pink.

snap

Teal.

This continued for several minutes; I just snapped my fingers with childish glee as the candle flames cycled through every color possible. When I eventually stopped, the flames were a dark violet color.

As I looked around at the candles, I laughed softly to myself. I didn’t know they could do that.

I cast one last glance around the bathroom before opening the door and exiting, the flames extinguishing themselves as I left. As I shuffled back into the bedroom, my gaze drifted from the bed to the couch. I paused, half-entertaining the idea of going through with my original plan and sleeping on the couch, but upon glancing back at the sleeping form of Twilight, I relented. Her hooves were laid out in front of her across the bed and ever so often they would shift across the sheets, almost as if she was looking for something.

I watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest for several moments before quietly making my way back towards the bed. Lifting up the covers, I slipped back underneath. Twilight’s hooves instantly latched onto my arm, pulling it to her chest with a happy hum. Her wing flexed before unfolding, draping itself across my chest. She sighed happily, nuzzling my arm, before falling still again.

A smile touched my lips as I watched her, and after adjusting myself into a more comfortable position, I closed my eyes and slowly drifted back off to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Two threes.”

~One four~

“Two fives.”

“One six—”

“Liar!”

Avera grumbled as she was forced to pick up the entire pile of cards. Quickly sorting it into her hand, she fished around for a couple of cards before throwing them down. “Three sevens.”

“Two eights,” Ebony said, smirking at Avera as she threw down the cards.

~One nine~

“One ten.”

“One Cadance.”

“Two Lunas.”

~One Celestia~

“One Harmony—”

“Liar,” Avera said nonchalantly, still organizing her cards. Primrose gave her an annoyed look before picking up the stack.

“Two twos.”

“Two threes.”

~One four~

“Two fives.”

“One six.”

“Two sevens”

~Two eights~ The guards stared down at the two cards I had just thrown on top of the discard pile, a look of trepidation upon their faces.

“Those were his last cards?” Ebony asked, giving Avera a nervous look. She nodded slowly, staring down at the cards as if they might explode. Primrose licked her lips, her ears splaying backwards.

Swallowing thickly, Ebony glanced up at me and said tentatively, almost asking, “...liar?”

I threw my arms into the air, a triumphant smile on my face.

“Motherbucker!” Avera cried angrily, throwing her cards into the air. Ebony’s ears splayed backwards and Primrose slammed her head onto the table.

“I don’t believe it,” she grumbled, her voice muffled by the wood, as I collected the pile of bits we were betting over. “I keep losing my money to a human!”

“How do you even have bits to bet?” Ebony asked, waving a hoof at me as I deposited the money into a bag. “You don’t even have a job!” I just smirked at her before collecting all the scattered cards and began shuffling them.

We were currently in the mess hall of the palace, sitting at the far end of one of the dozen or so tables located there. We had retreated here, mostly in my best interest, in order to get away from the others. All of them—especially Fluttershy—had spent most of the day asking me if I was okay. While it was nice at first, it got rather annoying quickly. So when Shining and Cadance had left to go see Nightlight and Velvet and give them the news of their grandfoals, my guards and I slipped out a side door.

We weren’t the only ones in the mess hall either. It was nearing the evening time, so a mixture of Solar and Lunar guards occupied the room as well. The soft murmur of voices filled the air as they ate and socialized.

The Solar guards all looked disheveled, many of them half out of their uniforms already. Messed up manes and tired eyes indicated a long day’s work, most of them looking like they were looking forward to heading to bed and falling asleep.

On the opposite end of the spectrum were the Lunar guards, who looked awake and alert, their dark lavender armor polished to a high sheen. Some had cups of coffee in their hooves, while others had steaming plates of food.

My guards and I received odd looks from some of the nearby guards, but for the most part we were left alone. Occasionally one of the guards would nudge a nearby neighbor, whispering to them as they motioned towards our little group, or more specifically, me. I ignored them, however, and focused on winning more money from my guards.

Grabbing a handful of chips from the bowl beside me, I popped them into my mouth before beginning to deal out the cards.

“I swear I’m going to regret this,” Primrose muttered, reaching into her pouch and pulling out more bits. Ebony nodded in agreement as she did the same.

I had just finished passing out the last of the cards when the door to the mess hall flew open with a loud bang, causing most of the guards—myself included—to jump. Twilight strolled in quickly, ignoring the guards and making a beeline straight for me. She had a package held in her magic, and she was walking with a slight skip in her step.

“Hello,” she chirped as she reached us. Tossing the package to me, she added, “Here, put this on!”

I grunted as the package thumped against my chest. Holding it up in my hands, I glanced at it before giving Twilight a bemused look.

“Oh, yeah, duh!” she said, rolling her eyes before tapping herself on the back of the head. “Your silly nudity taboo.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. Nudity taboo?

My thoughts were interrupted as Twilight’s horn lit up. There was a blinding flash of light followed by the feeling of weightlessness. I felt my stomach rising into my throat for a brief moment before gravity returned and I fell backwards with a yelp. However, instead of landing on the hard floor of the mess hall, I landed on something soft.

Blinking stars from my eyes, I pushed myself up and glanced around. I huffed loudly as I realized that Twilight had just teleported us back to our room. She was watching me with an eager expression, her tail flicking back and forth. Ebony looked indifferent to the teleportation, while Avera had a dazed look on her face and was swaying back and forth slightly.

Primrose was on the ground, rolling back and forth with her hooves over her eyes.

“Gah, bloody buckin’ heart bleed!” she cried as her wings beat uselessly against the floor. “That bucking stings, you mother bucker!” Lowering her hooves, she blinked her watering eyes. Her pupils were contracted, barely visible to the point that they almost disappeared into the iris.

“Warn me before you do something like that,” she growled. “Now I can’t see!”

“Sorry,” Twilight said, giving her a sheepish smile, which was lost on the temporarily blinded pony. Turning back to me, she motioned towards the package now sitting in my lap. “Going to put it on?”

I glanced down at the package before looking back up at Twilight, an eyebrow cocked.

“Go on,” she said, motioning with a hoof. “Open it up and put it on!”

Demanding, much? I thought, picking up the package anyways. Ripping apart the brown paper and twine, I paused as I eyed the black piece of clothing concealed within. As I picked it up, I realized that it was in fact, two pieces of clothing: a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants, both black.

“Well?” Twilight huffed as I stared at the clothing. “Put it on!”

~Why?~ I asked, lowering the shirt in my hands.

“Because, you’ll need it for what we’re going to do,” Twilight said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“And what are we doing exactly?” Avera asked.

“Not you three,” Twilight said, before motioning between herself and me. “This is just for Max and me. Don’t worry,” she added when Avera gave her a skeptical look, “we aren’t leaving the palace.”

~And what are we doing exactly?~ I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, first you’re going to put that on,” Twilight said, pointing at the clothing in my lap. I glanced down at the clothing again before shrugging. What’s the harm? It’s just clothing.

Folding the apparel back into the brown paper, I stood up from the bed and made my way towards the bathroom. As I opened the door, the candles flickered on again, back to their original color. The sight of them caused me to smile. Making sure the door was closed behind me, I snapped my fingers, changing the flames to a happy pink almost immediately.

I snickered, snapping my fingers again—causing the flames to turn a deep, rich purple—before turning my attention to the package in my hands. Letting the brown paper fall to the floor, I unfolded the garb and gave it a closer look. It was made out of a lightweight black material that felt firm, yet was surprisingly stretchy. The apparel was comprised of two parts: a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pants.

I studied them for a few more seconds before shrugging. Stripping off my current attire, I donned the new set. It hugged my body, yet still allowed for comfortable movement. It was tighter than anything I would have worn back home, yet did not feel as restrictive as I thought it would. The end of the sleeves had holes in them that allowed my thumbs to poke through, causing the sleeves to cover most of my hand.

Running my hands over the fabric, I glanced at myself in the mirror, giving my reflection a bemused look. I looked like I was in a black jumpsuit, almost like a ninja or something out of a Metal Gear game.

As I continued to stare at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t help the urge. Lifting the neck of my shirt up over my nose, I proceeded to karate chop the air in front of me, spinning around, and basically making a fool out of myself.

I stopped after a couple of minutes, lowering the neck of my shirt back to its proper place. Giving myself one last look in the mirror, I stooped down and picked up my discarded clothing. Opening the bathroom door, I slipped out, the candles dying out behind me.

As I exited, Twilight glanced up and a large smile flashed across her face.

“Excellent! They fit,” she said, clapping her hooves together happily. “I was afraid that they were going to be too small.” Standing up, she moved past me and into the bathroom, opening her saddlebags as she went. “My turn!”

As the bathroom door closed, I turned to look back at the others.

“Somepony want to take a bet on what’s going on?” Avera asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Buck if I know,” Ebony said, shaking her head. Primrose just shrugged.

~I don’t know~ I signed, ~but judging by what I’m wearing, this is either going to be interesting, or ridiculous~

“I’d put my bits on ridiculous,” Primrose grunted, rubbing her eyes with a forehoof. She paused before her eyes widened and she swore explosively, “My bits are still on the table in the mess hall!”

This caused Ebony’s eyes to widen in alarm as well. “So are mine!”

The pair quickly bolted to the door, racing off down the hallway in a mad rush to get back to the mess hall. Avera gave the swinging door a bemused look before glancing over at me.

“Welp, seeing as we’re not invited to this little shindig, I’ll just be following them,” she said, fluffing her wings. I nodded and she quickly followed after her fellow guards, closing the door behind her.

As silence descended upon the room, I moved over the couch. Sitting down upon it, I picked up my bags and started to sift through them. A rainbow stain covered the side of one of the bags. It was faint, but still visible against the dark violet cloth. Pulling out one of my notebooks, I placed it in my lap and flipped to a blank page. Extracting a charcoal stick as well, I proceeded to doodle while I waited.

Soon I had a cartoonish drawing of an alicorn chasing her tail around in midair, a happy smile on her face. I stared at the drawing for a few seconds, a small smile on my face, before giving her a mustache. And a monocle. And a top hat.

As I closed the notebook and slipped it back into my bags, the bathroom door swung open. I glanced up only to do a double-take at what Twilight was wearing.

She had on a black body suit which hugged her body nicely. Holes along the sides allowed for her wings to be free. The hooves of the suit appeared to be padded, muffling her hoofsteps as she walked.

As she levitated her saddlebags over to the bed, she smiled. “They still fit me, surprisingly. I only had to add some wing holes.”

~That’s nice~ I signed as I stood up. ~But why are we dressed like this?~ Twilight paused before giving me a sheepish smile.

“It’s, uh… it’s a surprise?” she laughed weakly. I raised an eyebrow.

~Am I going to like this surprise?~

“Most likely,” Twilight replied quickly, “although I think I’ll keep it a surprise a little while longer.” I eyed her for a few more seconds before shrugging.

~Well, as long as it doesn’t end up like the last surprise I received, I’m fine with it~

“Excellent!” Twilight chirped happily, clapping her padded hooves together. She glanced out the window before continuing, “It looks like Luna’s already raised the moon for the evening, so this should work out perfectly. Let’s go!”

As she trotted towards the door, I picked up my bags and buckled them around my waist. Moving to stand behind Twilight, I watched as she cracked the door open and stuck her head out, glancing both ways before slipping out.

I exited the room, closing the door behind me. Turning, I paused when I saw Twilight sneaking down the hallway, pressing her body up against the wall as she tiptoed along. I brought my hand up to my face, watching her with a bemused look for a few seconds before chuckling softly. Moving softly, I followed after her, walking down the middle of the corridor.

I wasn’t entirely sure where we were going, but Twilight seemed to not want to be seen. Whenever we came to an intersection, she would check that the coast was clear before darting forward. She would avoid the light of the torches on the wall, sticking to the shadows as much as possible. At even the slightest sound she would freeze, her ears perked up and quivering.

I just followed along faithfully, my hands in my pockets. I would stop when she did, and would start walking again when she moved forward.

We continued this little jaunt for nearly half an hour until I found myself in a part of the castle I had never been before. It had a more industrial feel to it than the rest of the castle. The doors were now metal and appeared to have letters and numbers etched onto them. I glanced at one as I walked past.

Institute for Human Research

R&DT - 129

I paused, staring at the words. Slowly, I turned to look at Twilight.

~Okay, seriously. What are we doing here? Are we even supposed to be here?~

“Shhh,” Twilight shushed me, glancing around fervently. “We’re here to look at something.”

~Okay, but—~

“Shhh!” Twilight shushed me again before slinking forward. I glanced back at the door, chewing on the inside of my cheek. After a few seconds I sighed before slowly following after her. Why am I getting flashbacks to a certain apple farmer?

When I finally caught up to Twilight, she was peeking around a corner, her head low to the ground. She was still for a few seconds before moving slowly around the corner and down the adjacent hall.

She had take only a few steps before she froze, her ears perking up.

“Guard!” she hissed, dashing into the shadows of a nearby pillar. “Hide!”

I just stood in the center of the hallway, a confused look on my face.

“Don’t just stand there, hide!” the shadow hissed at me. “No, don’t look at me!” it added as I glanced towards it.

As I stood there, scratching my head, the sound of growing hoofsteps came from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I eyed the approaching guard. He was a dark gray unicorn decked out in lavender Lunar Guard armor.

He eyed me curiously as he drew nearer.

“You’re out a little late, aren’t you, laddie?” he asked. “Does your owner know you’re out and about?” His eyes drifted to my saddlebags, widening as he saw the cutie mark upon them. “Does Princess Sparkle know you’re wandering around by yourself?”

I just stood there, staring down at the guard with a blank look on my face. He was silent for a few seconds before snorting.

“Well, whatever the reason, don’t stay out too late,” he said before walking around me and heading off down the hall.

A few seconds after the guard rounded the corner and vanished from sight, Twilight emerged from the shadows, an annoyed look on her face.

“Why didn’t you hide?” she asked, an ear twitching. I gave her a confused look.

~Why did you hide? Are we not supposed to be here?~ This caused Twilight to balk, her ears splaying backwards.

“W-well, no, but… we need to…” she paused, staring at me with a blank expression before snorting softly. “Nevermind,” she huffed, stalking past me. “Let’s get moving.” I sniffed, rubbing my nose with the back of my hand before following after her. My stomach growled softly as I walked, a reminder that my body was still lacking in the calorie department.

“You’re still hungry?” Twilight asked in surprise, glancing over her shoulder at me. I nodded, giving her a sheepish smile. She was silent for a few seconds before sighing softly.

“Remind me to get you something from the kitchens after we’re finished here,” she said warmly before turning her attention back to in front of her. She eyed the doors as we walked past, muttering under her breath. Her attention went from the right side of the hall to the left and back again as she glanced at the door numbers.

After a few minutes Twilight stopped suddenly, nearly causing me to trip over her in the process.

“Ah, here we are!” she chirped happily, pointing at a door on the left. Glancing over, I eyed the etched words upon the door.

Institute for Human Research

B&A - 334

~And what’s in here?~ I asked.

“You’ll see,” Twilight said as she sidled up to the door. She glanced both ways down the hall before pressing an ear against the metal of the door. Her horn lit up softly, and she closed her eyes, her tongue poking out in a cute manner as she concentrated.

After a few seconds the door handle took on the same color as Twilight’s magic, and, her eyes still closed, her brow furrowed. There was a loud clunk and she gasped, opening her eyes and smiling widely. Moving her head from the door, she grasped the door handle and gave it a turn. The door swung open silently.

“And we’re in!” Twilight giggled as she peered into the darkened room. A small ball of lavender light appeared at the tip of her horn, pushing back the shadows. She paused, staring into the room for several seconds, before stalking inside.

I poked my head into the room after her. ~Why are we breaking into this room?~

She didn’t answer. She just skulked through the room, glancing side-to-side as she muttered softly to herself. The spotlight from her horn drifted across the room in a searching manner. She paused, glancing under a desk, before resuming her search.

I sighed, shaking my head, before following after her.

As I entered the room, I glanced around, squinting to see in the gloom. From what I could see, several desks, covered in an avalanche of papers and scrolls, dotted the room. There was also a couple of mobile whiteboards, placed at random around the room, each one covered in writing and equations I didn’t understand. Various vials and containers lined one of the walls, bubbling quietly as they simmered.

All in all, it looked like a makeshift laboratory, although for what purpose it had been built, I couldn’t say.

Taking another glance around the room, I noticed a strange device sitting in the corner. It looked like someone had taken an electric wheelchair and combined it with a swivel chair. Wires ran from a small box strapped to the bottom of the contraption, running up to a small machine embedded within the armrest, a red joystick sticking out of the end.

Eyeing the contraption curiously, I took a step forward, only to have something crunch softly beneath my foot. Upon glancing down, I saw that I had stepped into a pile of feathers. They were light brown with hints of gray in them, and upon picking one up, I noticed that they were slightly bigger than Twilight's. If anything, they reminded me of eagle feathers.

Standing back up, I eyed the feather in my fingers curiously, twirling it around slowly.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the cone of light drifted across the room in front of her, Twilight frowned slightly.

“Now, where did they put it?” she muttered to herself, one of her ears flicking against her head. Behind her, she heard Max shifting around, grunting softly. Ignoring her human, she continued to search around for her intended target.

Sifting through papers on one of the desks, she snorted quietly.

“Where is it?” Her tail flicked back and forth in agitation. “Don’t tell me they moved it without telling me,” she grumbled, allowing the papers to fall back to the desk.

Looking up, Twilight made an unhappy sounding murmur as she glanced around the room.

“Don’t tell me that this was a waste of time—” she began to say, but stopped when her eyes landed on something in the back of the room, resting on a stand upon a small desk. Perking up, she took a tentative step forward, her eyes narrowing. A few seconds later her eyes shot open and she squealed happily, dashing forward.

Practically skipping to the desk, Twilight skid to a stop and stared down at the item with a large smile on her face. Max’s iPhone glinted softly in her horn's light, sitting comfortably on a custom-made glass stand. She could see her own reflection in the cracked screen, her eyes sparkling gleefully.

“There you are,” she cooed, reaching forward and picking the device up carefully in her hooves. “Now then, let’s get to work.”

Holding the device in one hoof, she used the tip of the other to press the circular button on the bottom of the screen. Instantly, the screen lit up and the picture of Max’s home world appeared in the center of the screen. Twilight’s eyes quickly flicked up to where the battery icon, as Max had called it, was located. It currently read that it was forty-two percent charged.

“Excellent, it still has a charge,” Twilight muttered. She about dropped the phone, however, when Max’s face appeared next to hers, a confused look on his face.

~This is what we were looking for?~ he asked. ~Why did we break in just to see this?~

“We didn’t break in,” Twilight squawked after she stopped fumbling the phone in her hooves. Max blinked before glancing back at the door, which had been left ajar. He looked back at Twilight, raising an eyebrow.

“We did not break in,” she repeated, huffing as she ruffled her feathers. “I, as a princess of Equestria, have every right to examine this device whenever I feel like it.”

~And the door?~ Max asked, bemused.

“I didn’t feel like bothering the doctor for his keys,” Twilight said, ears flattening against her head as she gave him a sheepish smile. Max stared at her for a few seconds before shaking his head with a huff. With that, he returned to studying the feather gripped between his fingers, clearly uninterested in what Twilight wanted his phone for.

“All the better,” Twilight muttered as she returned her attention to the device. “It’ll be more a surprise that way.”

During the time she had been talking, the phone had turned off, forcing her to press the button again. Once the screen had lit up, she placed the tip of her hoof on the part that told her to ‘slide to unlock’. However, upon trying to slide her hoof across the screen, nothing happened.

“Oh, right, hooves don’t work,” Twilight grumbled with a frown. Staring at the screen for a few seconds, she leaned forward and pressed her muzzle against it instead. A quick jerk of her head, and the phone unlocked with a soft click. She smiled to herself as the ‘main screen’ appeared, the rows of small, square icons covering it.

“Now, let’s see here,” Twilight muttered, flicking through the menus with her nose, her eyes going slightly cross-eyed as she browsed. “It was a picture of a sunflower, wasn’t it? Where is it?” Her muzzle accidentally activated one of the icons, and she blinked in surprise as the screen turned blue and the words ‘Facebook’ appeared in front of her.

“No, that’s not right,” she huffed. “How did Max get out of these before?” Fidgeting around the screen with her hoof, she smiled as it bumped against the circular button again, sending her back to the ‘main screen’.

“Now then, I want the one labeled… ah!” She smiled as she spied what she had been looking for: a sunflower with the word ‘Photos’ beneath it. Pressing it with the tip of her muzzle, she squee'd softly as rows of pictures appeared on the screen.

She began to skim quickly through the photos, her eyes darting back and forth as she searched for a specific picture. Her eyes lit up when she eventually found it. Moving her muzzle to the screen, she tapped the picture with her nose, enlarging it.

The picture was of Max and his ex-mate, both standing side-by-side, hugging. The female was leaning her head on Max’s shoulder, staring out at Twilight with a smile on her face.

Twilight stared blankly at the picture for several seconds before closing her eyes and sighing softly. When she opened her eyes again, she glanced over her shoulder at Max, who was still preoccupied with the feather. Swallowing thickly, Twilight returned her attention to the phone. “Alright, let’s do this.”

Gazing down at the picture, Twilight began to put as much information as she could to memory. She has brown hair, straight, hanging down to her shoulders, small tuft sticking up in the back. Serene blue eyes outlined with a hint of makeup. Soft face, rounded cheekbones. Small gap in front teeth, but teeth are not crooked. Eyebrows appear to be plucked or trimmed, and forehead isn’t as protruded as an Equestrian human's. Nose is also slightly smaller.

After she had absorbed as much information as she could from the picture, she leaned forward and swiped her nose across the screen, moving to the next photo. She continued swiping until she came to another picture with a human female in it. If she remembered correctly, this one was Max’s mother.

Alright, Twilight thought as she began to eye the human. Remember, general characteristics. Terran humans are slightly different to Equestrian ones, and I want to get those details.

This continued for several minutes; Twilight skimmed through Max’s phone, looking for pictures of human females and studying them. While she could have just gone to Applejack’s farm and requested to study a couple of her females, she wanted to get as close as possible to what Max was familiar with back home. After all, if Celestia’s spell worked in the way she had described, Twilight would be able to form the features that she wanted, and she wanted them to be perfect.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

While Twilight fooled around with my phone, I studied the room we were in. Now that my eyes had gotten used to the darkness, I began to notice the piles of feathers dotting the room. Some were in the corners of the room, others were under the desks and tables. There was even a pile of primary feathers atop one of the bookshelves. Either someone was collecting them, or someone had a molting problem.

Bending down to return the feather I had taken back to its pile, I paused. Long scratches marked the hardwood floor, looking like something had scraped at the floor with claws. Or knives, considering the depth of the cuts.

Upon further inspection, I noted that there were scratches all over the floor. They were all the same; always grouped together in three parallel scratches.

What came through this room? I thought as ran my fingers over one of the cuts. Wolverine?

As I stood back up, Twilight shifted slightly behind me.

“Oh shoot,” she breathed, her voice barely audible. “I didn’t mean to hit that.” Ignoring her, I looked around the room again, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Suddenly, I felt a shiver run up my spine, goosebumps breaking out across my skin. The eerie feeling of being watched settled over me, and I whipped my head around, staring into the darkened corners of the room.

There was nothing there, however. I turned slowly, my eye darting back and forth as I searched for any sign of something in the room with us.

Nothing’s here! There was nothing in the shadows; nothing at all except for feathers and dust.

After several moments with nothing happening, I slowly began to inch my way towards Twilight. I had only taken a single step when loud music started playing, scaring me half to death and causing me to jump.

“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid!”

Twilight yelped in surprise, her wings flaring and horn sparking. The phone instantly left her hooves, getting flung high into the air, the music still playing. Her head snapped up, and she yelped again as she watched the phone arch in the air, starting to fall back to the ground. Dashing forwards, Twilight quickly extended one of her wings, using it as one would use a safety net on someone falling.

As the phone landed in her soft feathers, she closed her wing around it, cushioning the fall. Pulling the wing close to her chest, she opened it and quickly began to fumble with the phone, a panicked look in her eyes. After a few seconds the music stopped and silence descended upon the room again.

Twilight slowly lifted her head, turning it to give me a sheepish smile.

“Heheh… oops,” she laughed weakly.

I moved my hands to reply, but was interrupted as the room was suddenly filled with a loud buzzing and clicking sound. Twilight’s pupils shrunk, her ears splaying backwards.

“Oh no,” she breathed, lifting a hoof. “The Doctor’s drones!”

I took a step back, glancing around to find the source of the buzzing. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, the very air thrumming with it.

As the sound increased in volume, I glanced at Twilight, confused. What the hell is going on?

She looked back at me, the whites of her eyes showing. The phone, once the center of her attention, now rested loosely in her hooves.

She swallowed thickly before opening her mouth. Before she could speak, however, a black shape launched itself at her from off of the ceiling. She yelped in surprise and shock as the blob latched onto her, her horn lighting up.

I let out a yelping bark, my eyes widening. Twilight!

Dashing forwards, I moved quickly to help her. As I did so, a second dark blob detached itself from the shadows of the ceiling, flying straight for me. A brief glimpse of red, domed eyes was all I got before the magic around Twilight’s horn fired off, striking me in the chest.

The world went black as my lungs were crushed by an invisible force. I was assaulted by a strong pulling sensation yanking me through the darkness. My stomach lurched into my throat, and a sense of vertigo hit me.

A split second later it stopped, and the world phased back into view with a loud pop. I was suddenly made aware of the fact that I was hugging something warm and soft in my arms. Cracking my eye open, I blinked in surprise as my sight was blocked by a strange, dark-blue wall of fur.

Slowly, my gaze drifted upwards…

...right into the blue eyes of Princess Luna.

She looked down at me, a bemused look on her face, an eyebrow raised slightly. I had my arms wrapped around her neck, my body perched in between her forelegs.

A low murmur of voices cause me to glance around. I had been teleported into the throne room, right into Luna’s lap. Gathered around the throne dais, shocked expressions on their faces, were at least a dozen or so ponies, all dressed in over-the-top, frilly outfits. There was even one with a monocle in front of his eye. Two guards were posted in front of Luna, both glancing back at me, confused.

“Well, hello there,” Luna said, drawing my attention back to her. She had a small, amused smile upon her face.

I blinked before giving her a closed lip smile.

“To what do we owe this pleasure?” she continued, her voice soft, barely above a whisper. Her eyes darted to my shoulder, and her smile grew. Her horn lit up, and I felt something being removed from my shoulder. “Ah, I see you and young Twilight Sparkle were poking around the good Doctor’s lab, weren’t you?” I nodded, barely moving my head. “Let me guess, the drones?” I nodded again, earning a small chuckle from Luna.

She turned her head, glancing down at one of her guards. “Do go down to the Doctor’s labs. We’d best free Twilight before the drones have too much fun with her.”

“Of course, your majesty,” the guard said with a salute before trotting off.

As he moved through the crowd of what I assumed were nobles, one of them stepped forward. He was a white unicorn dressed in a black suit, his red mane slicked back.

“Your Highness, are you alright?” he asked, clearly feigning concern. “This… thing didn’t hurt you, did it?” He shot a glare at me, his eyes narrowing.

“Nay, Silver Stream,” Luna said, shaking her head as she placed a wing across my back. “We were merely startled. It’s not every day that a human so willingly drops into your lap.”

“Such a filthy creature,” one of the other nobles, an older mare, said, looking down her muzzle at me. “Just look at it, so… scruffy looking. Unkempt. It’s clear that nopony has groomed it in a while.”

“Princess Sparkle seems to like the look,” Luna said, running an eye over my beard with an amused look. I suddenly had the feeling she was playing with the nobles. “This is her human, after all.” Another gasp went through the crowd confirming my suspicion.

The red-maned unicorn’s eyes lit up, a smile which sent shivers down my spine flitting across his muzzle.

“Princess,” he cooed, stepping forward. “If you’d permit me, may I return Princess Sparkle’s human to her? She’s probably worried about him, no?”

Luna cocked her head to the side, a thoughtful look on her face.

“That’s an excellent idea, Silver Stream,” she said, Silver’s smile growing wider. “Lieutenant Shade—” she turned and glanced down at the second guard “—if you’d be so kind, please return this human to Captain Primrose. I do believe she can be found in the mess hall at the moment. She can look after him until such time as Princess Sparkle is made free again.”

The smile had completely left Silver Stream’s face.

“Your highness, I must insist,” he began as I got down out of Luna’s lap.

“That’s quite alright, Silver,” Luna interrupted, holding up a hoof. “My guard can handle this task. It's just one human, after all.” Silver scowled, but hung his head and backed off.

The guard approached, waving his hoof for me to follow him. The nobles parted as the guard and I passed, some of the mares eyeing me intensely, small smirks on their faces. I feel like a slab of meat. None of them moved to stop us, thankfully, and we soon reached the throne room doors.

As the massive doors closed behind us, the guard turned to look at me.

“Come on,” he said as he began to walk down the hall. “Let’s get you back to the captain.”

We moved down the corridor, the guard’s armor clinking softly in the silence. Every so often he would glance back at me to make sure I was following him.

As we rounded a corner, the guard almost walked face first into a mare going the opposite direction. By the look of her clothing, she was a noble as well.

As I moved to stand behind the guard, the mare’s eyes darted up to look at me. A small smirk flashed across her muzzle.

“Well, well, well,” she giggled, cocking her head to the side. “What have we here? Princess Sparkle’s human out and about without his owner? This is a surprise.”

“Excuse me, ma’am,” the guard grunted, “but I have to get him back to his handler.”

“Of course,” the mare said, returning her attention back to him. She fluttered her eyelashes, giving him a sultry look. “Or you could leave him with me.”

Aw hell no, I thought as the guard let out a snort.

“I-I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, shaking his head, “but I have my orders. Now, if you'd kindly step aside.”

You tell her! I thought, silently cheering the guard on.

“Oh, those nasty orders,” the mare sighed, leaning against the guard and rubbing his chest plate with a hoof. Her horn lit up, and a bag of bits levitated in front of him. “Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?”

“I… I really shouldn’t,” the guard stuttered, ears splaying backwards. He swallowed thickly as the bag of bits was levitated into his side pouch.

...you bastard, I grunted, shaking my head in disgust. My eye darted off to the side, and I perked up upon spotting a familiar sight. Oh… this is gonna be good.

“Don’t worry,” I heard the mare whisper into the guard’s ear. “I’ll be sure to get him back to Princess Sparkle… when I’m done with him.” Pushing herself off of him, she turned to look me. “Alright, big boy. Let’s get you back to my roo—oh my!” She yelped as I picked her up suddenly, hefting her over my shoulder.

“Well,” she said, smirking down at the flustered guard. “He seems to know what he waAAAAAAHAHAHAYH!” She screamed in surprise as I tossed her into the open cleaning closet just off to the side. Landing unceremoniously inside of a bucket full of soapy water, her back legs thrashed about wildly as she struggled.

I closed the closet door with a click, before pushing a small pillar in front of it. Straightening back up, I dusted off my hands before glancing over my shoulder at the guard. He looked up at me, his ears splaying backwards as he took a nervous step back. “Um… good boy?”

I stared down at him for several seconds before giving him a large, tooth-filled smile. With that, I turned and headed off down the corridor towards the mess hall, whistling softly to myself as I went.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Heart Care yawned, her jaw cracking slightly. Blinking tears from her eyes, she rubbed at them with a forehoof before pushing her glasses back up her nose.

“No more staying up to read crappy romance novels,” she muttered to herself. It was already hard enough to fall asleep when the sun was in the sky; she didn’t need to add to it.

“I just had to agree to do the night shifts,” she sniffed, stifling another yawn before returning her attention back to her work. Walking around the medical table, she eyed the human that was currently strapped down onto the metal surface.

“Human male, found wandering the streets of Canterlot,” she dictated, a quill and clipboard hovering nearby in her magic. “He was acquired by the Lunar Guard early this evening. Showed aggressive behavior upon them trying to catch him, and continued to struggle after capture. Was drugged, but the tranquilizer wore off earlier than expected.

“He appears to be mature, probably around 8 years of age.” Moving to stand beside the human’s head, she glanced down at him, studying his features. The human’s eyes followed her around the room, his head strapped firmly in place. A gag in his mouth prevented him from snapping at her.

“Blue eyes, brown hair, full beard,” she listed off, adding the information to the clipboard before moving on. Pulling back his lips, she inspected his teeth closely, viewing them against the gag. The human growled in discomfort, but Heart Care ignored him.

“His teeth appear to be slightly deformed. Possibly intentional. They look sharper than they should,” she muttered, brow furrowing. “Why would anypony do that to a human’s teeth? I know that pit fighters like to give their humans every advantage possible, but his body doesn’t show any signs of fight damage.” Scrunching up her face, Heart Care clicked her tongue before sighing.

Slowly walking around the human, she poked at different parts of his body with her hoof, humming softly to herself. Lighting up her horn, she lifted the hem of the human’s torn-up shirt, peeking underneath.

“He appears to be slightly malnourished, although muscular,” she said, cutting off her magic and allowing the clothing to fall back into place. Her eyes flicked to his arm, and her brow rose. “Marking on the arm. Not a brand though. It almost looks like an artificial cutie mark. It’s a black box with a yellow star inside, and a smaller white star inside of that. Will mark as possible identification of owner.”

Drawing the symbol onto the paper on the clipboard, she marked some info down before picking up a thermometer in her magic.

“He appears to be in perfect health for a human of his age,” she said, placing the thermometer against his forehead. “No arthritis, no cataracts, no tumors.” The thermometer beeped once, and Heart Care pulled it back, glancing at the readings.

“Temperature is… ninety-eight point six marenheit?” Heart Care blanched, her eyes widening. “That can’t be right!” she squawked before placing the thermometer back on the human’s forehead. A few seconds later it beeped again and she pulled it off, glancing at the display. The temperature still read ninety-eight point six degrees.

“Wha… but… that shouldn’t be… h-how are you still alive?” Heart Care sputtered, staring at the human in shock. It shouldn’t be possible; the average human body temperature was eighty-six point three. Humans became delusional at anything higher than eighty-nine, and prolonged exposure at temperatures over ninety-five degrees was lethal. This human before her shouldn’t be alive!

Yet here he was, glaring up at her, very much alive.

"This is… I’ve got to get Summer Song,” Heart Care muttered, taking a step back from the human. “This is incredible! We have to get more data before we inform… the… princesses.”

Heart Care trailed off, swaying on her hooves. She struggled to keep her eyes focused, the clipboard clattering to the ground as her magic flickered and died.

“Wha?” she slurred slightly before, with one last wobble, she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The human blinked in surprise as the unicorn’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she suddenly dropped to the floor. Silence filled the room, interrupted only by the ragged breathing of the human through the gag.

Trying to move, the human flexed his hands before pulling against the binds. He grunted and strained, trying to free his limbs. The leather straps refused to budge, however, leaving him trapped upon the table. Huffing loudly, the human dropped his arms, glaring up at the ceiling in silence.

Then, the sound of hooves came from the other side of the door.

Turning his head, the human watched as the door handle was suddenly surrounded in a sickly yellow aura. With a click, the door swung open.

The human stared at the gray unicorn stallion that stood in the doorway. His dark gray mane, streaked with white, stuck out in a chaotic mess of hair.

As the unicorn stepped into the room, his blue eyes flicked down to the unconscious body of Heart Care. The clipboard beside her began to smoke slightly before suddenly bursting into flames. Within seconds it was reduced to ashes. The unicorn snorted once, his eyes narrowing, before returning his attention to the human. With a flash of magic, he found himself free of his bindings.

Sitting up quickly, the human proceeded to rip the gag from his mouth, spitting as he did so. Swinging his legs off of the table, the human stood up, towering over the new pony.

Glaring down at the stallion, the human twisted his neck, cracking it loudly.

The stallion just grinned at the show of intimidation. His horn lit up, causing the human to take a step back with a growling yelp. However, the yellow aura surrounded not the human, but the pony’s throat.

“Hello, there,” the Archmage chuckled, smirking up at the human. “I have a… proposition for you, my dogface friend.”

Chapter 45: Tainted Love and Poison

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Primrose said, her eyebrows raised in shock.

We had arrived back home in Ponyville in the early hours of the morning. The sun was just barely poking over the horizon when the train had pulled into the station and we disembarked. No one was up and about yet, allowing us a silent and undisturbed walk to the library.

It appeared that it had snowed more in Canterlot than it had in Ponyville, as the snow was barely up past my ankles. The roads had been cleared, and several large snow piles dotted the sides of the streets. A couple of them looked like the foals had gotten into them and made little snow forts. Tiny snow ponies rested beside the forts, half of them already destroyed.

Nearing the library, it was easy to see that Spike had kept the main walkway clear of snow, and even had a lantern hanging by the front door for us. He had insisted on staying at the library while we were at Canterlot; something about showing Twilight how mature he was. From the outside, the library had looked fine.

Upon stepping through the door, however, we were met with a big surprise.

Spike had managed to keep the place relatively clean. The floors had been swept, the shelves dusted and organized. The mail had been all stacked upon Twilight’s desk for her later inspection. A small fire was crackling away in the fireplace, heating up the room and helping us warm up from our walk through the cold.

The fact that everything was in order and the library was clean wasn’t what had caused us to stop in shock, however.

It was what—or who—was currently sitting in the center of the room, staring at us with her head cocked to the side.

The human female watched us, curiosity in her light blue eyes, one of which was covered slightly by a lock of her poofy, light brown hair. Her hands were folded in her lap, with her legs folded beneath her body. She was young; I wasn’t sure how old she was by Equestrian standards, but if she had been from Earth, she would probably have been in her early twenties. All she had on was a simple-looking white nightshirt that went down to her thighs.

As we stood there, staring at her, she cocked her head to the side, blinking slowly. She gave off a soft chirp, before cocking it in the other direction.

“Where did she come from?” Ebony asked, halfway through levitating her saddlebags to the floor. Keeping her eyes locked on the human, she finished depositing the bags, the magic around her horn dissipating with a soft pop.

“S-she showed up shortly before you did,” came a harsh whisper from the top of the stairs. Glancing up, I spied Spike peering through the bar of the banister, a worried look on his face.

“Spike,” Twilight called out, worry in her voice. She took a step forward, her wings flaring. “Did she do anything to you?”

He shook his head. “N-no, she just wandered in and started looking around. After a few minutes she just sat down in the middle of the room and stayed there.”

Giving the human one last nervous look, Spike then scampered down the stairs before darting over to us. Twilight crouched down, allowing him to quickly climb up upon her back.

As she stood back up, Avera scrunched up her face, squinting one eye.

“Hey,” she said, an ear flicking, “isn’t that the human we ran into at Canterlot after our trip to the Archives?”

I blinked before glancing back at the human, then blinked again. She’s right! The human female before us was the same one that had nipped my neck after we had bashed heads together.

“By the Maker, it is,” Primrose said. She grunted once before rubbing the bridge of her nose with a hoof. “I don’t believe it,” she huffed in annoyance. I wasn’t sure what she was annoyed about, it was just a human.

“What’s she doing here?” Twilight asked, although it nearly came out as a growl. Her eyes narrowed at the human, her ears pressed tight against her head.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Primrose asked as she stopped rubbing her nose, dragging her hoof down her face. When Twilight gave her a confused look, she rolled her eyes. “What time’s coming up that involves humans?” When Twilight expression remained blank, Primrose sighed heavily.

“It’s the start of the humans’ mating season,” she explained with a huff. WHAT?! I jerked, whipping my head around to stare at her. Mating season?

Twilight eyes widened as Ebony swore under her breath.

“I forgot that was around this time of year,” she muttered, shaking her head. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted as Avera suddenly burst out laughing.

“I told you you caught her eye,” she snickered, bumping my hip with her hoof. My incredulous look only caused her to burst out laughing again.

“Should have seen this coming,” Primrose sighed, giving the human female a bemused look.

~Hold up~ I signed, causing everyone to look at me. ~Back up a second. Mating season?~

“Yeah,” Primrose said slowly, nodding her head. “Human females tend to go into heat during the late winter, early spring months as well as in the late fall. When a human female feels that she is going into heat, she searches out a suitable mate. This one—” she pointed at the human, who blinked and chirped twice “—seems to have decided upon you.”

I stared at her blankly for several seconds. ~There is so much wrong with what you just said~

Primrose blinked up at me, a confused look on her face, which was mirrored by the others. “What?”

~Humans don’t go into heat~ I signed.

“Yes, they do,” Ebony said.

~No, they don’t~

“Maybe on your old world they don't, but here, they go into heat,” Primrose said.

“If the females on your world don’t go into heat, what do they do?” Twilight asked, her eyes lit up with curiosity. I sighed heavily, rubbing my face with my hands before replying. I can’t believe I’m discussing this with them.

~About once a month, they tend to get real moody and then—I paused, trying to figure out how best to word it—and then they bleed~ I motioned towards my crotch, causing everyone to cock their heads to the side. Spike just looked disturbed.

“Oh,” Twilight said suddenly, her ears perking up, “you mean they go through a menstrual cycle, similar to what the minotaurs go through. The bleeding occurs due to the body shedding the endometrium, or uterine lining, riding the body of the unused egg. That’s actually a very interesting and startling contrast between your species and Equestria's females,” she added, rubbing her chin with a hoof. She chewed on her lip for a few seconds before continuing, “Well, regardless, the humans here in Equestria do go into heat. While it is possible for a human to be impregnated outside of their breeding seasons, it is highly unlikely and almost never happens. It is guaranteed, however, should they be inseminated during heat.”

~Okay, okay, okay~ I signed quickly, cutting her off before she got rolling. ~That is way too much information for me. I’ll just go with humans in Equestria have a heat cycle and leave it at that~

“What fun is it if you can get pregnant at any time during the year?” Avera muttered, scratching at her ear with a hoof. “Although, that does explain how you have so many humans running around on your planet.”

“I think we’re getting off-topic here,” Ebony chimed in. “What are we going to do about her?” She pointed a hoof at the female human who, through our discussion, hadn’t moved from her spot, still watching us curiously. Upon Ebony motioning towards her, she perked up, cooing softly.

“Well, she doesn’t have any markings on her,” Primrose muttered, scratching her neck with a hoof. “We can take her to the local pound. They’ll send out a notice for anypony who might be looking for her. If nopony claims her, she’ll be put up for adoption.”

“The Apple family usually adopts the females for breeding,” Twilight added, nodding her head.

While they were talking, the female stood up, wincing when she put pressure on her feet. Glancing down, my eyes widened in shock when I saw that the bottoms of her feet were covered in dried blood.

Noticing it as well, Ebony’s eyes widened and she whistled softly.

“Shows how much she wanted to get to you,” she said. “Looks like she walked all the way from Canterlot. Probably sliced her feet up climbing down the mountain.”

“Yup,” Avera nodded. “She totally wants your offspring.” I glared down at her, causing her to snicker again. “You could just mate with her,” she continued. “It would make her happy, and be a great stress relief for you.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, an affronted look on her face, but I beat her to it.

~No~ I signed, growling slightly. ~I’m not mating with her, or any other human. Or any of you ponies for that matter~

“Still upset about that noble?” Primrose asked with a snicker.

~She tried to buy me, so she could fuck me!~

“That’s the nobles for ya,” Primrose said with a shrug. Sighing heavily, I turned back to look at the human, only to pause when I caught Twilight staring at me with an odd look on her face. However, when I glanced at her, she looked away, her ears splaying backwards as a small frown touched her face.

Eyeing her for a few more seconds, I shrugged before returning my attention to the human female. I jerked backwards upon finding her practically face to face with me.

At my movement, her hands shot out and grabbed a hold of the front of my shirt. Pulling me forward, she nuzzled my chin before giving it a light nip. She tried to wrapped her arms around my neck, but I ducked, slipping out of her grasp and backing up quickly.

She moved to follow after me, but was stopped when a rosy glow surrounded her.

“And we’re going to put a stop to that behavior right now,” Ebony said, her horn glowing. I shot her a thankful look as the female began to struggle against the magic. She chirped loudly, head whipping around as she tried to figure out what was going on.

“Well,” Ebony sighed, lifting the human into the air, “I’ll just take her down and drop her off at the pound. Don’t wait up.” Turning, she opened the front door and trotted out. The female struggled in midair, her chirps turning to growls and yelps. As she thrashed her limbs around, trying to get free, her shirt slipped up, exposing herself.

Son of a bitch, I thought, my face flushing as I got a full view. Staring longer than I should've, I finally turned my head away, cheeks red.

The human continued struggling, even as Ebony carried her through the door. Twisting in midair, she wailed loudly, reaching out her arms in a futile attempt to reach me. She let out one last shriek before, with a loud thud, the library door shut, muffling her noises.

Those of us who remained just stared at the closed door, bemused looks on our faces.

~That was weird~ I eventually signed, ~and slightly disturbing~

“That was a human female instinctively trying to guard her mate against potential rivals,” Primrose grunted, using her wings to remove her saddlebags.

~Not her mate~ I signed, glaring down at the batpony.

“Oh, shush you,” she chuckled. “I’m surprised that you haven’t had to deal with this yet. Actually,” she added, her brow furrowing, “I’m surprised that you haven’t had to deal with any territorial males yet either.” She cast a curious look at Twilight, who just shrugged.

“We’ve never really had any problems with aggressive behavior,” she said as Spike jumped off her back. “Most of the males in Ponyville just seem to ignore Max.”

“You must look intimidating enough to scare them off,” Primrose guessed.

“Aw, but he’s not mean,” Avera cooed. “He’s just a huge bundle of fun!” She nuzzled my side before darting off quickly, nimbly avoiding my swipe. Laughing, she stuck out her tongue before disappearing down the basement stairs. Primrose shook her head, chuckling softly as she followed behind at a slower pace.

As the basement door closed with a soft click, Twilight turned to look at me, stifling a yawn. “I’m going to make something quick to eat before heading up to get some sleep. Those early train rides are a killer. You want anything?”

~Eggs~ I signed as my stomach growled loudly. ~Lots and lots of eggs~

“You’ve been a bottomless pit ever since the potion,” Twilight snarked before a soft smile touched her lips. “I’ll make you some scrambled eggs and cheese. Anything to drink?”

~I’m feeling like chocolate milk~

“I don’t think we’ve got any,” Twilight said, chewing on her lip. “Although, I think we have the ingredients to make it. I’ll get started on breakfast while you finish unpacking.” As she headed into the kitchen, I turned towards our bags, scratching absentmindedly at my stomach.

I had just reached down to grab the first bag when I heard Twilight shout from the kitchen, “Spike! What’s with all these empty ice cream cartons?!”

I’ve never seen something so small move so fast, but Spike was out the front door before I could blink, screaming something about visiting Rarity back over his shoulder.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It wasn’t every day that Twilight could say that something made her nervous.

She had done many things since moving to Ponyville. She faced down Nightmare Moon by herself in the ruins of the Everfree Castle until her friends showed up, defeated Discord and his mind games after reversing his spell on her friends, figured out Chrysalis’s deception, and found the Crystal Heart despite King Sombra’s best attempts to conceal it.

She had faced down many dangers, each one almost as frightening as the last.

That being said, the large group of mares that currently had her surrounded was, without a doubt, one of the scariest moments she had ever experienced.

They had cornered her shortly after she had left the market, bags full of grocery items. She had almost made it back to the library when one of the pegasi—Flitter, she believed—had dropped out of the sky in front of her, blocking her path. The others had then moved in, quickly swarming her.

She quickly found herself running out of space as she was forced to back up. Her gaze drifted across the crowd, a few faces standing out. There were the flower ponies, Cloudkicker, as well as a white pegasus with pink and green hair. Blossomforth, Twilight believed her name was. There were a couple of ponies she didn’t know, but had seen around town before. All were giving her what appeared to be eager grins.

“Heya, Twilight!” Cloudkicker chirped happily. “We were looking for you earlier last week, but you were out of town!”

“Yeah, I was in Canterlot, visiting family,” Twilight said, laughing awkwardly. Her eyes darted around the group as she swallowed nervously. “What… why were you looking for me?”

“Well,” Cloudkicker drawled, “it was the holidays, which means most of us got our holiday bonuses last week. So, we thought we’d pool our bits and buy ourselves a little special treat.”

Twilight’s strained smile quickly vanished at those words, her ears splaying backwards at the eager nods of the other mares.

“W-what kind of treat?” she reluctantly asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer.

“A tasty-looking human kinda treat,” Cloudkicker purred, her wings fluffing by her sides.

“I-I don’t…”

“We’ve did the math, and we have slightly over eighty thousand bits,” Cloudkicker interrupted. “That’s the asking price, isn’t it?”

“I… um… w-why do you want Max?” Twilight stuttered lamely. “With that amount of bits, I’m pretty sure that you could get several humans from Applejack.”

“Because your human is better,” Cloudkicker chirped. “Don’t get me wrong, Applejack’s humans have their merits, but yours is unique!” Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but Cloudkicker just kept talking. “He’s survived a pit fight, which means he has stamina, and he hasn’t had to be put down, so his temperament is good. He’s faced down manticores, so he can be rough, yet he’s also good with foals, so we don’t have to worry about him being too rough.

“Plus,” she added, a strange gleam in her eyes, “he’s not that bad looking either.”

At that, the other mares began to add their two cents.

“Lyra was chasing him, and she’s obsessed with humans, so he has to be good!”

“I’ve seen the way he interacts with Rainbow Dash!”

“He got Rarity to remove that stick up her flank when it came to humans!”

“Princess Luna was borrowing him on Nightmare Night!”

Twilight slowly began to back up as the mares continued to shout, each one barely heard above the other. Suddenly, her flank bumped into something large, causing her to squeak in surprise. Tail tucked between her legs, she whipped around, only to freeze when she saw who she had bumped into.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked up at Max’s face, a small smile touching her lips. The relief turned to confusion when she saw that he was holding a sign post over his shoulder.

The squabbling group fell silent as they took notice of the human standing before them. The smile on Cloudkicker’s face grew, and she took a step forwards, licking her lips. There was a brief moment of silence, where the human stared at the ponies, before Max lifted the sign off of his shoulder. He brushed a patch of earth clear of snow with his foot, and, with a quick, deft motion, he raised the sign over his head and buried the tip into the ground.

Giving the top of the post several good smacks with his hand, he stepped back to admire his work. Satisfied, he gave the group of mares one last look, and with a quick salute, he turned and walked back toward the open door of the library.

The mares, Twilight included, approached the sign, giving it curious looks. Painted on the wood with black paint were the words:

Due to rising demand, the asking price for the human, Max, has increased to five-hundred thousand bits.
PER MARE.

We are sorry about any inconvenience.

Thank you.

Twilight gave the sign one last glance—a relieved smile crossing her face—before quickly pushing her way through the murmuring crowd, hurrying after Max. He paused, holding the door open for her as she approached.

Reaching the threshold, she cast one last glance at the group over her shoulder. Their folded ears and disappointed expressions gave her a twist of giddy pleasure. Not my human, you hussies.

Flicking her tail, she turned and trotted into the library with her head held high.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I watched Twilight prance by me, a smirk on her face and her nose in the air. Shaking my head in amusement, I glanced back at the mares currently eyeing my sign. A smirk of my own touched my lips before I closed the door behind me. I made sure to lock the deadbolt for extra security.

Once that was done, I stepped around Twilight, who was in the process of removing her bags, and headed back to the small table set up in the back of the library. All three of my guards were seated around it, cards held in their hooves. The top of the table was covered in discarded cards, mugs of hard cider, and several bits. Several wooden crates sat just off to the side, the lid on the top most one cracked open slightly.

“Finally!” Avera groaned as I took my seat again. “Some peace and quiet. Noisy bunch of tail-lifters, weren’t they?”

“W-what?” Twilight asked, glancing up from her bags.

“Your friends outside,” Primrose explained, eyeing her cards. “We could hear the entire conversation in here. That’s why Max went to help you.”

~I ain't no prostitute~ I signed. ~They aren’t getting into my pants, no matter how much money they have~ I took a sip from my mug before picking my cards back up and looking through them.

“Well, thanks,” Twilight said softly, levitating her bags into the air. “Not even back a day and they’re already heckling me… I mean, us.”

~Well, that sign ought to help out for a while~ I signed, placing my cards face down and glancing back at Twilight. ~Now, so long as they don’t force the issue, we can just ignore them~

“Really?” Avera snickered, glancing up at me. “You’re not even considering sleeping with any of them? It would be an easy way to make bits.”

~If you think it’s worth it, then by all means, go on out there and speak to them~ I signed. ~I’m sure you can get at least one of them to sleep with you~

“Yeah, well, I would just like to be able to go to the market without being stopped by half the town,” Twilight grumbled. Carrying her bags behind her, she turned and trotted towards the kitchen.

“I’m going to put the groceries away,” she called back to us. “Has anypony come into the library today?”

“Nope,” Ebony chirped, staring at her cards. “All quiet here!” Twilight nodded silently before ducking into the kitchen. There was a brief moment of silence before the muffled sound of cabinet doors opening reached my ears.

“Right, where were we?” Avera asked, turning back to her cards.

“I believe we were about to find out who lost this round,” Primrose spoke up, taking a sip of cider.

“Alright,” Avera said, throwing down her cards. “Let’s see what ya got!” The rest of us laid down our cards, revealing our hands. There was several seconds of silence as we glanced at each other’s cards, before Primrose swore explosively.

“Looks like you have the low hand,” Avera snickered. Primrose grumbled, glaring down at her cards.

“Do you want to choose, or do you want it to be random?” Ebony asked, her horn lighting up. Primrose was silent for a brief moment before sighing.

“Random, please,” she muttered, slumping in her chair. Ebony nodded before turning to focus on the crates beside us. A rosy glow surrounded the lid of the top crate, which slowly lifted up. The tinkle of glass was heard before a bottle of light blue liquid was pulled out from within.

“Here you go,” Ebony said, levitating the bottle over to Primrose. She took it in her hooves, staring at it solemnly. The blue liquid glowed softly, bubbles slowly drifting to the surface.

Sighing again, Primrose grabbed the cork with her teeth, pulling it out with a loud pop.

“I hate you all,” she growled before putting the mouth of the bottle to her lips and throwing her head back. Draining the bottle in several large gulps, she lowered it, licking her lips before grimacing.

“Bitter,” she said, but froze as the words left her mouth. Instead of her normal voice, she had spoke in, what could only be described as, a squeaky, helium-filled voice.

Avera jammed a hoof to her muzzle, trying to stifle her laughter. Ebony was just looking at Primrose, a large smile on her face. I was just sitting there, wondering if she would let me put a red shirt on her with a yellow ‘A’ on it.

“Well, this is certainly better than expected,” Primrose squeaked, causing Avera’s laughter to increase. “Certainly better than the previous potion.”

A few hands back, when she had lost, Primrose had drunk a potion that caused her fur to fluff up, making her look like a giant fur ball. It had been hilarious, and we had to pause the game until the potion had worn off and her fur returned to its normal length.

While sorting through some of the random stuff in the storage room of the library, Ebony had found a box full of potions that Twilight had made. I assumed that she had moved them up here when she had cleared out the basement for me, and it seems that she had forgotten about them.

Seeing as it had been a slow day at the library, we had decided to make use of the potions to entertain ourselves. Setting up a table and getting some drinks, we had sat down and started playing cards. However, instead of betting bits, the loser had to drink a random potion.

The effects had been interesting. Ebony had taken two potions so far; one had given her butterfly wings for a brief period of time. The other had turned her into a stallion for several minutes, and had been extremely awkward for her.

“How do you sit down with this equipment?” she/he had grumbled, shifting around in her/his chair.

Avera had two potions that turned her feathers pink, and increased her tongue to a disturbing length, the wet muscle hanging down to practically her hooves.

I had only had to drink one potion so far, and all that did was cause me to sneeze out fire, which, surprisingly, changed colors with each sneeze.

“Alright, I think it’s wearing off,” Primrose said, her voice now halfway between squeaky and normal. Turning, she glanced at Avera. “You gonna deal out the cards, or just sit there?”

“I’m working on it, your filliness,” she huffed, gathering the cards with her wings. She shuffled them quickly before dealing them out.

Picking up my cards and glancing at them, I resisted the urge to grimace at the sight of nothing. Not even a pair. Shit.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I quickly discard the three cards I felt would be most unlikely to help. As Avera dealt out the new cards, I drained my mug, placing it back onto the table with a soft clink. I kept my expression as blank as possible as I slowly picked up the new cards, only to groan inwardly as I saw that I had only managed to get a single pair of twos out of it.

“Alright,” Avera said after everyone had discard and gotten new cards. “Let’s see who’ll be drinking this time. Show your cards.”

Tossing my cards onto the table, I silently prayed that one of the girls had a hand with nothing. A quick glance around me showed that that wasn’t the case, and I banged my head on the table, groaning loudly.

“And it looks like the big guy is our loser this round!” Avera cooed gleefully as Ebony’s horn lit up.

“Do you want to choose, or do you want it to be random?” she asked, levitating her mug to her lips. Lifting my head, I ran a hand over my face while holding out my other hand in a silent request.

Ebony cracked the top of the crate open and glanced inside. Humming softly, she rubbed her chin with a hoof, her eyes darting back and forth as she decided what bottle to give me. Eventually she leaned back, pulling a roundish bottle out. It contained a dark pink—almost a raspberry-colored—liquid that bubbled gently.

Taking the bottle from her magic, I stared curiously at the potion inside.

“Come on, big guy, you know the rules,” Avera grinned. “Drink up.”

I sighed before pulling the cork out of the top of the bottle with a pop. Swirling the liquid inside, I chewed on my lip before, with a grimace, I placed the bottle upon my lips. Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back and began to drink.

As the liquid touched my tongue, I was mildly surprised at the taste. It wasn’t bitter as I had been expecting but was rather pleasantly fruity, like fruit punch. It fizzed, much like a carbonated soda, and tickled my nose as I swallowed. A feeling of warmth slowly began to spread through me as the potion flowed down my throat and into my stomach.

As I drank, I heard Twilight walk into the room, muttering to herself. Her hoofsteps paused, and it sounded like her breath hitched in her throat. “Wait—”

Finishing off the potion, I lowered the bottle as I let out a small burp. I had just started to open my eyes when I was tackled sideways off of my chair and onto the floor. I grunted in pain as the pony that had tackled me landed on top of me, hooves digging into my stomach.

“WHAT THE BUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” Twilight screamed from her perch on top of me. I tried to glance up at her, but my gaze only got to her stomach before she quickly shoved her hooves in front of my eyes.

“NO!” she shrieked. “DON’T LOOK AT ME! DON’T LOOK AT ANYPONY, NOT EVEN WITH YOUR BLIND EYE!” I felt her twist around on my stomach, her tail thwacking against my leg. “Get me a piece of cloth!” she ordered someone.

“What for?” I heard Avera ask, clearly as confused as I was. I had no idea what had set Twilight off, but I was getting rather annoyed now. The hooves digging into my stomach didn’t help matters either.

“Don’t ask questions. Just do it!” Twilight snarled, an unstated you twit clear in her tone. I reached up to push her hooves off my eyes, but she batted my hands away with her magic. “No!” she snapped, restraining them.

“Twilight, what’s going on?” I heard Primrose ask. Thank you! I’d like to know myself. I growled softly, very annoyed now. Without my hands, I couldn’t ‘speak’, which was beginning to feel really restricting. I attempted to roll to the side to throw Twilight off of me, but her next words caused me to freeze.

“He drank love poison!” Twilight said, her voice sounding tense. “That means that the next living thing he looks in the eye, he’ll fall madly in love with, to the point of obsession. If he kisses it, the effect becomes permanent. That’s why we need the cloth. We need to blindfold him until the poison wears off.”

Aaaaaaand just like that, I was no longer trying to escape. Oh… shit. Underneath Twilight’s hooves, I slid my eyes closed. Great, just great. The last thing I needed was to fall in love with the next creature I looked at. Especially with all the mares out there trying to get in my pants.

“Why did you give him love poison?” I heard Twilight ask.

“We didn’t know it was love poison,” Ebony answered, sounding like she was still at the table. “Every other potion in the crate was harmless! Why do you even have love poison?”

“The Crusaders,” Twilight sighed. “They made it over a year ago for one of their adventures. Needless to say, it didn’t go as planned and they learned their lesson, but they had some left over. I confiscated it and placed it with my other potions after clearly labeling it as ‘dangerous’!”

I heard Ebony chuckle sheepishly, shifting in her chair. “Yeah, we might have removed the labels to make the game more interesting.”

“You’re lucky I don’t keep any real poison around the library,” Twilight growled. I felt one of her wings brush against my side, causing me to shift slightly due to the tickling sensation.

“Will you stop moving?” she asked. I growled, snapping my teeth. Unable to speak or move my arms, that was the extent of my ability to communicate. “Quiet, you,” Twilight huffed. “You’re lucky I stopped you before you looked at one of your guards. I can’t believe you’d do something like this, especially after the incident in Canterlot. I thought you were growing up, but you’re still that immature little brat that Celestia sent me in a crate, aren’t you?” By her tone of voice, I knew she was just teasing with the last part; mostly.

Shrugging my shoulders the best I could, I stuck out my tongue and blew a raspberry.

“I said quiet,” Twilight said, trying and failing to stifle her giggles. Slowly, the tension in the room began to fade. I felt the tip of Twilight’s wing brush against my face, gently pushing my jaw closed. It lingered only for a moment before she retracted it.

There was a flutter of wings, followed closely by a clatter of hooves as someone landed beside me.

“Here’sh th' blindfold,” I heard Avera slur through clenched teeth. There was a brief pause before I felt something soft wrap itself around my head slowly, covering my eyes. Taking a risk, I cracked my eye open. Darkness met my gaze, my vision blocked by the blindfold now around my head.

“There,” Twilight breathed, shifting around on top of me. “That should do it. Now, you just need to keep that on until the poison wears off.” I grunted as her weight lifted off of me, her tail brushing against my nose as she apparently turned around. “I’m not sure if the age affects the strength of the poison,” she continued. “Let's go with three hours just to be safe.”

“What are we supposed to do now? The big guy can’t play cards blindfolded,” Avera grumbled, her voice coming from beside my head. There was the sound of magic being used, followed by something hard hitting something soft, and the tinkle of glass striking glass. Avera grunted in pain, the wind leaving her lungs.

“You three are going to go down stairs and relabel all of those potions correctly,” Twilight growled.

“How are we supposed to figure out which one’s which?” Avera asked, her voice sounding strained.

“I don’t know,” Twilight huffed. “Sample them if you have to; just figure it out.” There was the sound of scraping, magic being used, and the clop of hooves before the basement door swung open. The sound of hooves marching down the stairs echoed around the room before the door apparently closed with a click.

I sat up, feeling slightly disoriented due to my lack of sight. I was not only mute, but now temporarily blind as well. Stumbling slightly as I got to my feet, I heard Twilight tsk softly. That was the only warning I got before I was lifted unexpectedly into the air.

I yelped in surprise, struggling slightly before I heard Twilight speak.

“What am I going to do with you?” she asked as I floated there. I was unable to tell if I was moving or stationary, a sense of vertigo causing my stomach to flip-flop.

I smiled in what I thought was Twilight’s general direction, and I heard her snort.

“No, you aren’t allowed to be cute,” she huffed. “I’m trying to be mad at you. You’re like a little foal who doesn’t know when to keep his muzzle out of something dangerous. I thought you’d have been more cautious around potions, especially after the Transformation one, but nope. Here you are, drinking unlabeled potions just because you’re bored. What possibly possessed you to think that this was in any way a good idea?”

Suddenly, I was no longer suspended by magic and I fell onto something soft. Feeling around, I determined that I had been deposited onto the couch. As I sat up, the soft clop of hooves in front of me indicated where Twilight was.

~Because they belonged to you~ I replied as I made myself comfortable. The hoofsteps paused, and I got the distinct feeling Twilight was looking at me.

“What?” she asked.

~The potions belonged to you, so they couldn’t have been anything too bad, right?~

“This love poison doesn’t count as ‘too bad’, hm?” she asked, something in her voice sounding condescending.

~It wasn’t made by you, though~ I signed. ~You were just storing it. All the other potions were harmless~

“That’s an awful lot of trust to place in me not making something bad,” Twilight muttered, and I could practically hear her eyes rolling.

~Well, that’s because I trust you that much~ I signed, leaning against the back of the couch. This was answered with a sudden squeak, followed by the sound of hooves stumbling. I frowned, glancing in the general direction of the noise. ~Are you alright?~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight’s face flushed as she recovered from her stumble. Flexing her wings, she glanced back at Max, only to find him facing her, a small frown on his face.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she said. Swallowing, she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. He trusts me that much? What if I had Hemlock or Bellapuledra in there? He’s lucky I’m not like Zecora!

Keeping her head low, Twilight climbed up onto the cushion next to Max.

~So~ he sighed, licking his lips, ~this love poison makes me fall in love with anyone I look at?~

“If you look them in the eyes, yes,” Twilight replied with a nod. “Although there are potions out there that will do the same thing regardless of where you look at them.”

~Right~ Max signed, before swallowing thickly. There was a brief pause before he asked, ~And I just need to keep this blindfold on for the next few hours, and I’m in the clear?~

“Precisely,” Twilight said with a nod before she remembered Max couldn’t see her.

He shifted in place, clenching and unclenching his hands in a nervous display. Upon glancing at him, Twilight saw that his entire body seemed tense, and he was trembling slightly.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

~Yes~ A brief pause. ~Maybe~ Another pause, followed by Max inhaling. ~What happens if I accidentally look at someone?~

“Well, you’d become obsessed with them,” Twilight said, her ears splaying backwards. “Like to the point of being creepy. As long as you keep the blindfold on, though, that shouldn’t happen.”

~Let’s say that it did happen~ Max signed, swallowing again. ~Is there a way to fix it?~

“We’d just have to keep you away from whomever you looked at for about an hour,” Twilight said. “As long as you don’t look at them again for an hour, the effects will wear off and you’ll return to normal.”

Max just nodded his head, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

The pair sat in silence; Twilight fidgeted with her hooves, her ears flicking at any noise, while Max just sat there, blindfolded. Muffled voices came from the closed basement door, the guards on the other side trying to figure out which label went with which potion.

After several minutes, Twilight licked her lips and moved to stand, but the minute she shifted on the cushion, Max moved.

~No, wait!~ He signed frantically before reaching out and making a blind grab for Twilight. Unable to see, his hand landed on the small of her back, just below her wings. She let out a yelp as he pulled her closer, almost into his lap. Her foreleg landed on his leg, her body pressed against his.

“Wha…” she squeaked, blinking in surprise and confusion.

~Don’t leave~ Max signed before wrapping his arm around Twilight’s neck, causing a small blush to spread across her cheeks.

“I wasn’t going to—” Twilight began, but paused when she felt tiny tremors running through Max’s body. His breathing was increased as well, his chest rising and falling quicker than normal. The leg beneath her forehoof bounced in a nervous fashion, and she could feel his grip tighten against her fur.

Craning her neck backwards, she glanced at his face. His jaw was clenched tight, and she could almost hear his teeth grinding against each other. His cheeks, visible beneath the blindfold, were pale, and she was sure if she touched them, they would be cold.

Watching him, Twilight could only come up with one logical answer for Max’s behavior: he was terrified.

~Don’t leave~ he signed again, keeping his arm wrapped around her neck. ~Don’t leave~

“Max, what’s wrong?” she asked, twisting around in his grasp to better see him.

~Just stay here~ he replied, his hands trembling slightly. ~I don’t want a mare to find me like this~

It took a second for her to register what he had said, but when she finally did, Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. He was asking her to stay with him, so that she could drive off the other mares! Her human was asking her to protect him from the other mares that might possibly wander into the library, to protect him from the mares that were trying to bed him.

Another tremor through Max’s body snapped Twilight out of her daze. Shaking her head, she turned and shot a glance towards the door. The deadbolt was already enabled, but she pushed a burst of magic down her horn, casting an anti-lock picking spell. The metal glowed blue for a moment before fading. Now, no one was getting in unless she said so.

Pulling the blinds down over the windows, she flipped the library sign to ‘closed’. Another burst of magic and a fire roared to life within the fireplace, the crackling flames beginning to warm the room. Max flinched at the initial lighting, but once he was aware of what the sound was, he relaxed.

One last burst of magic saw a book teleported into Twilight’s hooves, and she cracked it open.

As she snuggled up against Max, a small, content smile touched her face. “I’m not going anywhere.” She felt Max relax more at those words, and his grip around her neck loosened. Letting go of her fur, he moved his hand up and began to pet the back of her neck, stroking it gently. This drew a hum out of Twilight, and she flicked her tail, wrapping it around Max’s waist.

With that, the pair settled down, making themselves comfortable as they waited out the poison together.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Lyra Heartstrings < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Lyra sighed heavily as she dangled from her gurney, her eyes half-lidded. There was a small itch on her right ear. However, due to the restrictive nature of the straightjacket that was currently hugging her body, all she could do to satisfy the itch was flick her ear.

Her gaze drifted around the room, sliding over the thousands of piece of paper clippings pinned to her walls. The red strings were still webbed around the room, but it was joined by blue strings as well.

The orderlies had become concerned when she had started connecting different bits of info with the new colored string and had quickly asked her what it meant. She had remained silent, which had only added to their concern. There was talk of higher doses of medication, more trips to the psychiatrists, and even transferring her to Canterlot’s Mental Hospital.

Lyra just ignored them all, and continued to use her blue string to connect her ‘evidence’.

On a completely unrelated note, she was out of red string. She would have to see about Nurse Redheart getting her some more in the near future.

The sound of locks turning brought Lyra back to the real world, and her gaze locked onto the iron door. There was a loud clunk before the door slowly cracked open.

“Ms. Heartstrings, you have a visitor,” she heard Nurse Redheart say before whispering something to somepony outside. There was a brief pause before the door swung open further. Lyra blinked slowly as her visitor slipped in, the door closing with a metallic thunk behind him. Reaching up, the newcomer lifted part of his scarf off of his head, letting it fall around his neck.

The zebra paused, his green eyes staring at her. His red tribal markings seemed to glow slightly in the dim room. Slowly, a smile spread across his striped face.

“Lyra Heartstrings, in the flesh. Or rather, in the straightjacket,” he said. “It’s been entirely too long, my old friend.”

Lyra blinked again before responding. “Vagabond,” she grunted. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“What, can’t a zebra drop in to see his old friend during the holidays?” Vagabond asked, mock hurt crossing his face. “You wound me, my dear.”

“The holidays ended almost a week ago, ‘old friend’,” Lyra sneered.

“Hmmm, so they did,” Vagabond said nonchalantly. Slowly, he began to circle the room, ducking under strands of blue and red as he eyed the paper-covered walls. He paused in front of a large, hoof-made drawing behind Lyra, eyeing it curiously. It was a depiction of a human with a blind eye.

“Have you met him?” he asked, not taking his eyes from the drawing.

“Who?” Lyra asked, trying her best to glance over her shoulder at the Vagabond.

“Your so-called ‘Oblivious King’,” Vagabond replied as he started walking around the room again. “Have you met him? Because I have.” He circled around until he was once again in front of Lyra. “Interesting person. The strong, silent type, wouldn’t you say? I don’t know why you dislike him. He seems like a charming young man.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Lyra snapped, glaring down at the Vagabond. “You came here for a reason. Get to it.”

“Temper, temper, young one,” Vagabond chided as he began to circle again. “You know, it was that exact fiery temper that got us in this mess in the first place. Of course, what can you expect from an archaeologist from Canterlot? Always sticking their noses where they don’t belong. Tombs are meant to bury things, my dear. Permanently.”

Lyra growled at him, baring her teeth. This just caused him to chuckle.

“You’d think you’d be kinder to me, my dear, especially seeing as we’re in the same boat,” Vagabond tsked. He paused, an ear twitching, before continuing, “I take that back. I got exiled from my village; you got imprisoned in yours.”

“Get. To. The. Point,” Lyra snarled. The Vagabond stopped, shooting Lyra a cool look before sighing.

“There is no point to this visit, Lyra,” he said, his smile gone. “I just stopped in to say ‘hi’, and to pass on a word of advice. After visiting my cousin for the holidays, I must take my leave, though I do not travel back to the burning sands. There is a matter of grave importance within the Everfree Forest that has been brought to my attention, and once I am done here, I shall venture forth into that cursed woods.

“I have also come to apologize for past transgressions, for I do not wish to go on this journey with them darkening my soul,” he added. “We are both to blame for our current situation.”

The Vagabond paused, glancing up at Lyra. She just hung there, a blank look on her face as she looked down at him through lidded eyes.

“I liked it better when you rhymed everything,” she grunted.

The Vagabond snorted, before shaking his head and sighing. Turning, he trotted slowly towards the door.

Upon reaching it, he placed a hoof upon the metal surface but was stopped when Lyra called after him. “You said you had advice to give?”

The Vagabond glanced back at her over his shoulder.

“Yes,” he said simply.

“Well, what is it?” Lyra asked. The Vagabond was silent for several seconds before speaking.

“The Oblivious King,” he said. “You may hate him for what you believe he stands for, but in the end, he’s only one side of the coin. In the end, just like the rest of us, you’ll have to choose a side as well.” Green eyes met golden eyes, mismatched pupils gazed into mismatched pupils.

“The Oblivious King, or the Mad God,” Vagabond continued as he pushed the door open and began to walk out. “In the end, you must pick your poison.”

With that, he slipped outside, and the door slammed shut behind him, leaving Lyra alone with her thoughts.

Chapter 46: Rematch of Blood and Timber

“I don’t know why they don’t just use magic and get it over with quickly,” Avera grumbled, throwing two of her cards onto the table. Taking two different cards from the pile, she slid them into her hand before grimacing. “I just don’t see the point.”

“It’s traditional,” Primrose replied, taking a sip of her cider. “Winter Wrap Up was originally done without magic, and Ponyville continues the tradition.” Reaching into a bit bag, she pulled out a couple of bits and threw them onto the table.

My guards and I were currently sitting in the main room of the library, playing a game of Poker. Outside, the muffled sound of singing and music could be heard as the locals worked hard to clear off the thick layer of snow that rested upon the town.

I had woken up this morning to a giggly, bouncing Twilight, who had explained that today was something called Winter Wrap Up: a day where the ponies of Ponyville would work together to clear away the winter gloom to usher in spring.

According to Twilight, it was tradition for everyone within the community to come together to help the process go smoothly. I saw it as a way that the weather team was getting paid to have others do their job.

Supposedly, no magic could be used by any unicorn, as the act of Winter Wrap Up was, in Twilight’s words, "intended for ponies to go back to their roots and feel at one with nature". I laughed because ponies basically controlled the weather, seasons, and animals, so what nature was there to be one with?

Despite my scoffing, I had offered to help out, but Twilight had shot that plan down. “I’m sorry, but there is no jobs that can be assigned to humans, and I don’t have time to make revisions to the plans.”

So, I was stuck in the library for the day, my guards deciding to stay with me. I was actually surprised that Twilight allowed that, considering what had happened a week ago with the love poison.

Although, it hadn’t been all bad. I had gotten to spend a couple of hours with Twilight, relaxing on the couch. She had read most of the time, and, being blind, I was limited in my entertainment. Unable to do much else, I had spent the hours essentially petting Twilight. It was kinda addicting, actually. She had an amazingly soft coat, and the sounds she made when I hit a sensitive spot was pretty adorable.

I paused halfway through picking up my new cards, my cheeks heating up slightly. Careful, Max. We’re trying to avoid that kind of thinking. Don’t want to cause Twilight any problems with the nobles.

But you have to admit, I argued with myself. She was kinda cute, especially when you were able to take off the blindfold and she was practically curled up in your lap.

Clearing my throat, I picked up my new cards and placed them in my hand.

“It’s actually not that uncommon in the smaller cities,” Primrose continued, placing her mug back down on the table with a soft clink. “I know for a fact that the ponies of Oakvale still do it, and they have one of the largest earth pony populations.”

“It still feels like a waste of a day to me,” Avera muttered. “Canterlot’s probably already done with theirs.”

“You could always go outside and help them,” Primrose suggested, not looking up. Avera blew a raspberry at her before scowling.

“I think it’s nice,’ Ebony chirped, sifting through her cards. “It’s a nice change of pace, ponies realizing that magic isn’t an easy out for hard work.”

“But it’s a whole day!” Avera whined, waving her hooves about, unwittingly exposing her cards.

~You should be thankful~ I signed after placing my cards face down on the table. ~At least you know when winter is going to end~

“What do you mean?” Primrose asked.

~Back home, all we had was a gopher that was wrong half of the time~

“Pardon?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side. I winced.

~Nevermind. Point is, we didn’t know when spring was coming, and it usually took several weeks to a couple of months for the seasons to change~

“What? Why?” Avera squawked. She paused, blinking once before slapping her face with her hoof. “Right, no magic,” she muttered. I grinned at her and she snorted, rolling her eyes.

“Fine,” she groused. “I guess it could be worse.”

“Better hold off on that thought until after we’re done with this hand,” Primrose said, dropping more bits onto the table.

“Good point,” Avera sighed. Shaking her head, she huffed once before leaning back in her chair. “Alright, let’s see ‘em.”

“Two pairs,” Primrose said, placing her cards onto the table. “Sixes and threes.”

“Three of a kind,” Avera sneered, tossing down her cards and revealing three fours.

Staring down at my cards, I grimaced before throwing my Celestia-high hand down.

“What? Max doesn’t have the highest hand?” Avera asked in faux shock.

“Nope, I do!” Ebony chirped happily. Flipping her cards around in her magic, she showed them to us, a large smile on her face.

Avera slammed her head onto the table as Primrose whistled, picking up her mug.

“Full house, nice,” she said, taking a sip. “Guess that means you win.”

“Yeah,” Ebony cooed, reaching forward and dragging the pile of bits towards herself. “Come to momma!”

“Why do I keep playing with you guys?” Avera asked, her face pressed into the table, muffling her voice.

“Because you’re a masochist,” Primrose said with a nod. Avera just groaned again, but remained face down.

I sighed, rubbing the stubble on my face as I tried to clear my mind and get my head back in the game. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the image of Twilight curled up in my lap, eyes closed with a smile on her face, out of my head.

Swallowing, I licked my teeth before reaching for my own mug of cider. I rubbed at my right eye as I lifted the mug to my lips and—

WHAM

The front door of the library slammed open, startling me and nearly causing me to spill cider down my front. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to recover completely and some of it sloshed onto my face. Wiping it off with a hand, I placed the mug back onto the table and glanced around.

A tearful Fluttershy stood in the doorway, a large bag clamped in her teeth. Her mane was disheveled and she looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep recently, as there were bags under her unfocused, bloodshot eyes. They darted around the library until they landed on me, at which point I could see that her pupils were constricted, barely pinpricks.

With a grunt and a flap of her wings, she staggered forward, nearly tripping over the bag in her teeth. She crossed the room at speeds I didn’t think possible for the timid mare and slammed the bag onto the table in front of me. I barely had time to move my mug before it was tipped over. Bits and cards went everywhere as the whole table shook and groaned under the weight of whatever was in the bag.

“Fluttershy, what—” Primrose began before having to dart forward to stop her own mug from falling on the floor and spilling everywhere.

Opening her mouth and releasing the bag, Fluttershy gasped for breath as she turned to look at me. There were unshed tears in her eyes, and she looked like she was close to a mental breakdown.

“There,” she gasped, her voice quivering slightly. “T-that’s five-hundred thousand bits. That means I get you for the day, right?”

What?! I thought, standing up so fast that my chair fell backwards.

“What?!” yelped my guards, all of whom were looking at Fluttershy in shock. She just ignored them and continued to stare up at me, a crazed look in her eyes.

“That means you’re mine for a day, right?” she repeated, her voice raising an octave. “Five-hundred thousand bits, that’s how much your services are, right? Right?!” She took a step towards me, and I took a step back. Big mistake on my part.

The minute I moved, Fluttershy launched forward at a speed that would have made Rainbow Dash impressed. Latching onto my chest, she pulled me down until we were nose-to-nose.

“P-please,” she frantically begged. “Please, please, please!”

“Whoa, hold on,” Primrose ordered as Ebony began to try and pry Fluttershy off of me with her magic. She struggled to hold on to me and gave out a cry of distress when I was pulled out of her hooves.

“You do realize what you are trying to do, right?” Primrose continued as Fluttershy hung limply in the air.

“Five-hundred thousand bits,” Fluttershy sputtered out. “That’s what the sign outside says! Five-hundred thousand bits and he’s mine for the day!”

“That sign is meant as a deterrent for ponies who don’t know that Max is intelligent,” Avera growled. “You, on the other hoof, know that he is, which makes this even creepier. Besides, where did you even get that kind of money?”

“What would Twilight think?” Ebony added, shaking her head. Fluttershy whimpered, hanging her head, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

“B-but… but…”

As my guards chided her, I eyed Fluttershy curiously. Even before she knew I was intelligent, she had been one of the few ponies that actually cared about me. She was obsessed with making sure that I always had enough to eat, that I was healthy, and that Rainbow wasn’t roughing me up too much during our scuffles. Never had she ever indicated that she wanted to pull an Applejack on me.

So, why the sudden interest? I mused, eyes narrowing. Something was wrong here. I couldn’t see Fluttershy acting like the other mares of the town, so why did she just try and buy me for the day?

Grabbing a nearby notebook, I flipped it open and quickly scratched one word down before tearing the page out.

Avera had just opened her mouth to say something else to Fluttershy, but paused when I stepped forward and held up the paper. Fluttershy sniffed, raising her head as she glanced at the paper.

+Why?+

She stared at the word for several seconds before, with a hiccup, she broke down and began sobbing. Tears streamed down her face, dripping down onto the floor beneath her.

“I-it’s Angel Bunny,” she choked out between sobs. “He’s… he’s got F-Flash Fur Fever!”

I deadpanned, blinking several times in confusion. That wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. What does a rabbit have to do with trying to buy me for a day?

Primrose blinked, scrunching up her face. “What?”

“It’s an illness t-that can be fatal if not t-treated properly,” Fluttershy continued. “I’ve been t-trying everything to help him, but he just keeps getting worse! If I don’t treat him soon, he’ll… he’ll...” She choked on the words before a long, mewling cry found its way out of her mouth.

I glanced over at my guards, noting that they looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

Clearing her throat, Avera asked, “So… what? You were just going to buy Max and use him to help you forget about the situation?”

“NO!” Fluttershy screamed, startling us. “I was hiring him to help me!”

“Um, care to explain?” Primrose asked, cocking her head to the side.

“T-there is a cure for Flash Fur Fever,” Fluttershy sniffed, tears still streaming down her face. “A flower t-that can be found in the Everfree Forest c-called Rabbit’s Paw due to the shape of the petals. I would normally go to Zecora to get it, but she’s… she hasn’t been home for several days now and I don’t know when she’ll get back.” She paused to wipe her nose and swallow before continuing. “I went into the forest myself to get it, but it’s located in timberwolf territory and they don’t listen to me!” She let out a choked sob, more tears running down her face. “If it wasn’t for Harry the Bear, I wouldn’t have gotten out of there.”

“I still don’t see where this is going,” Ebony said. “What does this have to do with Max?”

“You,” Fluttershy said, pointing at me. “I’ve heard from Rainbow Dash that you have past experience with timberwolves. You’ve dealt with them before!”

+I haven’t really dealt with them before+ I wrote out. +Something else scared them off+

“That’s not what Rainbow said,” Fluttershy hiccuped. “She… she said you held your own against an alpha!”

I started to write something else down, but Fluttershy continued quickly, her tone pleading. “Please! I have the money! I’m willing to pay! Please, I need that flower!”

“I’m sorry, but we aren’t swords for hire,” Ebony said sadly, shaking her head. “We don’t—”

“We’ll do it!” Avera said loudly, slamming her hoof down on the table. Both Primrose and Ebony stared at her, mouths agape.

“I’m… I’m sorry?” Ebony stuttered.

“We’ll do it,” Avera repeated, nodding her head twice.

“But, we aren’t mercenaries!” Ebony cried. “She can’t just hire us!”

“For half-a-million bits she can,” Avera laughed, shaking her head.

“I think you’re missing the big picture,” Primrose growled, rolling her eyes.

“And what might that be?” Avera asked.

“In the end, it’s Max’s decision whether we help or not.” Suddenly, every eye was on me, everyone waiting for my response.

Running my hand over my mouth, I stared down at Fluttershy, thinking. The majority of my experiences in the Everfree Forest weren’t the best, what with the timberwolves and manticores. Fluttershy was asking me to go into the forest, into timberwolf territory, to retrieve the flower that she needed. And she was willing to pay highly for it apparently, judging by the fact she was willing to give up half-a-million bits.

I glanced over at my guards, all of whom were just standing there, waiting with blank expressions on their faces (although Avera’s ears were perked up).

When I returned my attention back to Fluttershy, I found her staring up at me with a hopeful look in her eyes. Her big, tearful, puppy-dog… eyes…

Goddamn it, I grunted, closing my eyes. Those eyes should be illegal.

~I’m in~ I signed as I opened my eye. Avera smiled, Ebony frowned, and Primrose remained indifferent. A confused look flashed across Fluttershy’s face, and her ears lowered.

“Um…” she whimpered, eyes darting over to my guards before returning to me. I stared at her for a couple of seconds before, with a small smile, I nodded my head.

Oof! I staggered backwards as Fluttershy latched onto me, sobbing into my chest.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she cried over and over again, nuzzling her head against me.

“You can’t be serious,” I heard Ebony mutter as I patted Fluttershy on the head. “I can’t believe he’s seriously doing this.”

“Lighten up,” Avera hissed. “It beats sitting around the library all day.” There was a pause.

“I suppose,” Ebony sighed as Fluttershy finally let go of me and fluttered to the ground. She wiped her eyes with her hoof, a large smile on her face.

“T-thank you,” she said again, hiccuping slightly. She sniffed once before glancing up. “T-the flower is bright orange. It oftentimes grows on the side of cliffs. You can’t miss it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ebony sighed, nodding her head. Her horn lit up and she started to pick up the scattered cards and bits. “We’ll get the flower for you,” she said as cards flew around her head. “How many do you need?”

“If you could grab five, that would be very helpful,” Fluttershy said, hiding partially behind her mane. “That is, if you don’t mind,” she added in a squeak.

“Five it is,” Primrose said, eyeing her closely. “Now, go home, Fluttershy. You look like you need some sleep.”

“Oh no,” Fluttershy replied, shaking her head. “I can’t sleep now. I have to go check on Angel, then go and start waking up the little critters while checking on Angel periodically to make sure his condition doesn’t worsen, then I...” she trailed off, her eyes widening. “Oh no!” she squeaked, her wings snapping open. “I forgot to change his wet washcloth!”

“What—” Primrose began, but Fluttershy was already out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“You realize that this is a bad idea, right?” Ebony asked as she adjusted the straps on her caparisons. Satisfied with their tightness, she began to don her armor.

“You realize that it’s half-a-million bits, right?” Avera countered, playing around with her hoof claws. She retracted and extended them several times before leaving them retracted. Grabbing a hunting knife, she slid it into a hidden sheath in her armor.

“We’re members of Equestria’s Guard, not some griffon swords for hire,” Ebony shot back, glaring at the pegasus. “We could get in serious trouble for this if somepony in Canterlot found out we’re doing this.”

“Then don’t tell anypony,” Avera said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, this isn’t the first time we’ve done questionable things.” I chuckled at that, shaking my head.

“That’s different,” Ebony huffed, turning to face us. “This can be considered accepting a bribe, which, need I remind you, could result in a court-martial. We’re unnecessarily putting our charge in danger for money!”

“And we didn’t during the potion incident?” Avera asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I didn’t report that incident, so, as far as Tempest is concerned, nothing happened,” Ebony hissed.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Avera grumbled, picking up her helmet and attaching it to a hook on her hip. “This isn’t the first time we’ve gone into the forest with him, though.”

“That doesn’t count!” Ebony tsked, an ear twitching. “For one thing, we were in there for a grand total of maybe half-an-hour. For another, we were instructed to go by royalty, which means that we had a legitimate reason to do so.”

~We do have a legitimate reason to go into the forest~ I signed. ~We’re helping a friend in need~

Ebony closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with a hoof, growling softly.

“Fine,” she huffed. “Fine. Let’s just get this over with. Hopefully nothing untoward happens.”

“It won’t, now quit complaining,” Primrose grunted as she pulled on the last of her armor. Giving her wings an experimental flap, she double checked to make sure that they wouldn’t get pinched in the armor’s plating.

As my guards finished putting on their gear, I stood in front of my armor. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I eyed the Big Daddy suit in confusion.

~How am I supposed to put this on?~ I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“You’re not,” Primrose grunted, pulling on the last bit of her armor.

~Excuse me?~ I asked, glancing over my shoulder at her. ~Why not?~

“How do you expect to get to the forest while wearing your armor without drawing attention to yourself?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow. “The last thing we need is ponies seeing us.”

~And if we get attacked by timberwolves?~ I asked, cocking my own eyebrow. ~I’m going to want some armor~

“You leave that to me,” Ebony said as she walked past me, placing her helmet on her head. Her horn lit up and she grabbed a spear off of the armory wall. Giving it a quick swing, she nodded once before, with a snap, the spear shaft folded in on itself. She clipped the shortened spear to her back before looking at me. “I have a spell that will take care of that.”

I stared at her for several seconds before grunting and shaking my head.

~Fine, but if something bad happens, you can explain to Twilight why I ended up in the hospital~ Turning, I walked towards the back wall of the armory. ~I’m still taking my axe, though~ I signed before grabbing it off the wall.

“By all means, take it,” Primrose said with a nod. “Just make sure it’s hidden until we get into the forest.”

“Is everypony good to go?” Avera asked, glancing around. Primrose grunted, Ebony nodded, and I took one last look at my armor before, with a sigh, I nodded my head as well. “Good! Let’s get going. Hopefully we’ll be back before Twilight.”

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Ebony muttered as we ascended the stairs. I exited the basement last and made sure to shut the door behind me. Double-checking to make sure that the fire was basically embers, I closed the doors to the fireplace before heading towards the front door.

My guards were already donning cloaks, pulling them around themselves in order to hide their armor. Primrose pulled her hood down low over her eyes, hiding them from view completely.

Grabbing my jacket, I quickly pulled it on before stowing my axe beneath it, making sure that the blade was positioned in such a way that it wouldn’t accidentally cut me. The last thing I needed was to injure myself.

“Remember,” Primrose said as Ebony’s horn lit up and she grabbed the door with her magic, “do not draw attention to ourselves. If anypony asks, we are taking Max for a walk because he’s getting restless. Got it?” In response, I danced back and forth on my feet while making loud whimpering noises.

“Yeah, yeah, ham it up,” Primrose chuckled, shaking her head. Turning to Ebony she nodded her head. Ebony’s horn flashed once, and the door to the library swung open.

Once we had all stepped outside, Ebony quickly closed the door behind us. There was no need to lock it; it wouldn’t stop Twilight from getting in, and nobody was going to steal a book in broad daylight.

The town was in a weird state of seasonal transition: half of it covered in snow, the other half already in spring. Pegasi flew through the air, kicking and diving through clouds, happily clearing the sky in order to allow more sunlight to shine down upon the town. Earth ponies were pushing large snow plows through the streets and hills, clearing off large piles of snow. Behind them, a secondary earth pony drew a garden plow, depositing seeds into the freshly tilled earth. A group of unicorns were going tree to tree, using step ladders to climb up and place hoofmade bird nests in the branches.

Every single pony was still singing happily, repeating the same song over and over again.

Where’s a mute button when you need it? I growled, trying to ignore the song. Regardless of how annoying it was, it was catchy, and was starting to get stuck in my head.

“Step ladders? Really?” Avera scoffed, eyeing two unicorn mares trying to put nests into a nearby tree. One was holding the ladder steady while the other one placed the nests onto the branches with her mouth.

“Do you know how much faster it would be if they just used magic to levitate them up there?” she said.

“No magic allowed,” Ebony grunted.

“At the rate they’re going, they won’t finish today,” Avera noted, glancing around at the working ponies.

“Sure they will,” Ebony snorted. “It’s an all day event. They’ll finish up around sunset.”

“Bet you one-hundred bits they won’t.”

“You’re on,” Ebony said, a smug smile on her face.

“Half-a-million bits sitting back in the basement, and you’re only betting one-hundred?” Primrose said softly. “That’s a waste.”

“Fine,” Avera said, rolling her eyes. “Let’s make it a thousand bits.”

“Works for me,” Ebony said with a nod. A building in the distance caught her eyes, and she smiled. “That, and if you lose, you have to buy me two barrels of Cinnamon Apple Cider from Scratchers!”

“Like that’s going to happen,” Avera laughed. “You won’t be winning this bet. Right, Max?”

~Sorry, not listening~ I signed, grimacing. ~I’m trying not to let this song drive me crazy~

We managed to reach the market place with no problems, only having to stop once to allow a group of earth ponies cross in front of us. I was just about to walk out into the middle of the plaza when I was stopped by Primrose. I glanced down at her, and she motioned forward with her head.

When I looked in the direction she indicated, I saw Twilight standing in the distance, talking with the mayor. She wasn’t looking our way at the moment, but she just had to move her head a few degrees and she would see us.

“Looks like we’re taking side streets,” Primrose said, backing up and heading towards a nearby alleyway. I nodded, watching Twilight for several more seconds before following behind her.

We managed to make it across town without being seen, sticking to the shadows and side streets. It also helped that everyone was too distracted by their singing to take notice of three ponies and a human walking in their midst.

A good fifteen minutes later found us near Fluttershy’s house, on the border of the Everfree Forest. Stepping through the snow that was still upon the ground, I stared up at the trees before us. Devoid of their leaves, the twisted and gnarled branches looked even more evil, almost like fingers reaching out to grab the sky above. Despite the lack of vegetation, it was still dark within the depths of the forest, the sunlight unable to break through.

“Right,” said Ebony as she came to a stop beside me. Lighting up her horn, she opened the flap of her bags and pulled out a scroll. As she unrolled it, I saw that it was in fact a map of the Everfree. It wasn’t that detailed, but had enough information that one could tell where rivers, lakes and clearings were. It also had the territories of the different forest occupants on it in several colors.

“It looks like timberwolf territory is here,” Ebony said, pointing towards a large splotch of red with her hoof. “Fluttershy also said that the flower grows on the side of cliffs, so this spot right here would probably be our best bet.” She pointed at a small cliff that was located near the center of the sea of red.

“Then that’s our destination,” Primrose said, eyeing the map closely before starting towards the treeline. Ebony rolled up the map and slipped it back into her bag before following after her, Avera close on their heels.

I glanced up at the trees one last time before, pulling the axe out of my jacket, I followed after my guards, and slipped into the treeline.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The trees seemed to crowd closer and closer around us as we traveled deeper into the forest. We walked in silence, the only sound that could be heard being that of the snow crunching beneath our feet and the occasional snap of a twig.

Ebony walked in front of me, a soft light emanating from the tip of her horn. It was just bright enough to see by, but dim enough to draw minimum attention to our group. Primrose walked beside her, her hood down and ears perked. Her red eyes scanned the surrounding trees, searching for any signs of movement. At every snap, crack, or hoot that could be heard, her ears swiveled around, locating the source of the noise. Avera brought up the rear of the group, making sure to keep an eye out behind us so that nothing could creep up.

Holding my axe loosely in my hands, I kept my head moving, trying to take in as much as possible with only one good eye.

As we moved further and further into the forest, the path was slowly consumed by the roots of the trees until there was practically no path left to be seen. We were forced to walk in a single file line in order to prevent ourselves tripping over the gnarled undergrowth.

I ducked under a low hanging branch, tucking the axe beneath my arm. ~How much longer until we get there?~

“Not much longer,” Ebony said, pulling out the map to check it. “Probably a couple more minutes, and that’s if we don’t run into any obstacles.”

“Let’s pick up the pace,” Primrose said, her voice low. She glanced around at the surrounding trees, clearly nervous. “The birds have stopped chirping, and that’s never a good sign.”

I paused and concentrated, my ears perking up. She was right: the forest was now deathly quiet. There was no bird calls, no wind through the branches. Not even the groan of trees. It was a silent as a grave.

Ebony reached up and covered her horn with one of her hooves. There was a dimmed flash behind it, and Ebony’s eyes flashed blue for a quick second before returning to normal.

“No nearby life forms,” she muttered, lowering her hoof. “At least, none that I can sense.”

“Then, let’s get while the gettin's good,” Avera grunted, quickly breaking out into a trot. “Don’t want to stick around until something does show up.”

After several minutes of walking, we finally arrived in a clearing. A small cliff was located in the back of the clearing, the top of it covered in a thin layer of snow. Vines covered the rock face, and even from this distance, I could just barely make out several splotches of orange dotting the surface. The flowers appeared to have protection from the snow due to the inward curve of the cliff face.

“Must be a fast growing flower to have grown so early in the season,” Primrose observed from beside me.

“Actually, Rabbit’s Paw is a weed,” Ebony corrected. “I did some quick research on it while we got ready. Not only does it work as a cure for Flash Fur Fever when mixed with elderberry flowers and peppermint, but most herbivorous animals seem to love the taste of it raw.”

“Don’t care,” Avera sniffed, eyeing the border of the clearing. “Let’s just grab what we need to and go.”

“Stallions first,” Primrose said, holding out a hoof while giving Avera a pointed look.

“Age before beauty,” Avera shot back, sticking out her tongue in a childish display. Rolling my eyes, I snorted once before stepping around my guards and entering the clearing. They yelped, scrambling to follow me as I marched purposefully towards the cliff.

“Or we could all enter at once, without checking the surrounding area,” Primrose grunted as she caught up with me. I blew a raspberry at her before heading to the nearest patch of flowers.

There were three flowers grouped together, their stems twining around each other before spreading out in a web of vines. Fluttershy had been correct: they did look like rabbit feet.

Giving one a tentative tug, I found that they were firmly attached to the cliff, the vines burrowing deep into rock face. I gave it a firmer tug, and a bit of rock and dirt came loose, crumbling into dust as I clenched my fist.

Brushing my hand off on my jacket, I lifted the head of my axe up and began to carefully scrape away at the vines surrounding the flowers. I moved slowly, being careful not to damage the flower itself as I worked.

After several minutes of scraping, I was able to free one of the flowers. Slipping it carefully into one of my jacket’s pockets, I started working on the second one.

“Got one,” I heard Avera say from above me. Glancing up, I caught an eyeful of armored-pony ass. She was clinging to the cliff above me, her hoof claws digging into the rock, keeping her in place.

Holding a Rabbit’s Paw in her hoof, she slid it into her saddlebags before glancing down at me. A smirk crossed her face and she chuckled. “Like what ya see?” Her tail flicked, swatting me across the face.

I gave her an unamused look and flipped her the bird, before returning my attention back to the flowers in front of me. I managed to cut another one off and slipped it into my pocket, along with the first.

I had just put the axe blade to the rock for the third flower when I heard Primrose curse under her breath. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at her in confusion only for my eyes to widen when I saw what she was staring at.

Slinking out of the trees, their teeth bared, were a large handful of timberwolves. At least a dozen in all glared at us, their green eyes ablaze with inner fire. They spread out slowly, keeping their heads down as they stalked closer and closer to the cliff.

“Figures,” Primrose growled, pulling a knife out of her armor. “How much longer are you guys going to take?”

“I’ve got… gah, got two!” Avera grunted from above as a rain of dirt falling down on my head.

“I’ve got one,” Ebony said, her horn aglow as she levitated the flower into her bags. Making sure the clasp was closed, she grabbed the spear off of her back. It flicked through the air, extending quickly to its full length.

Throwing caution to the wind, I quickly scraped the blade of the axe across the rock face, slicing the vines and freeing the last flower. Tucking the flower into my pocket, I turned to face the timberwolves. ~I’ve got three~

“Then we have what we came for,” Primrose said, eyeing the approaching wolves with narrowed eyes. She slowly moved until she was standing in front of me, her wings flared by her sides. There was a loud grinding noise behind me, accompanied with a shower of sparks, before Avera landed with a clatter beside me.

“We can take ‘em,” she grinned, her wings spreading. “There’s only—” she paused, eyeing the nearing wolves “—thirteen of them. We have this in the bag!”

“Keep sharp,” Primrose growled, glancing over at Avera. “We don’t want to—” The nearest wolf took advantage of her distracted state and charged. With a snarl, it leapt through the air towards the batpony, jaws spread wide. Primrose’s head whipped around, and before she could react, the wolf was upon her.

However, before it could do anything, there was a loud crunching noise and a new hole appeared in the wolf’s head, courtesy of Ebony’s spear. The light in the wolf’s eyes extinguished and it collapsed to the ground in a pile of timber. Primrose immediately kicked the pieces of wood away with her hoof, scattering them.

“Cheap-ass fire starter,” she grunted. She didn’t have much time to recover, as, with the destruction of its pack-mate, a second wolf rushed us, this time from the left. My grip tightened on my axe, but before I could act, Avera darted forward. Her hoof streaked through the air in a blur, connecting with the side of the timberwolf’s head. Long scratches appeared across its face, and it lost its balance, crashing into the ground. Before it could recover, Avera drove her dagger into its skull, burying it to the hilt. The wolf’s light was instantly extinguished.

Pulling her knife free, Avera slowly backed up, keeping her eyes on the circling wolves.

“Two down,” she said, her voice emotionless.

The other wolves were now slowly pacing back and forth in front of us, trying to find an opening. One of them inched forward, pressing its luck. It yelped in pain as it received a quick blow to the head from Ebony’s spear, the wood on its face cracking slightly.

Suddenly, three wolves darted forward. Ebony’s horn lit up, and large vines exploded out of the ground in front of us. Two of the wolves were immediately seized by the foliage, howling in pain as the enchanted vines began to crush them.

The third wolf managed to slip through the assault, and made a beeline straight for Ebony. Still recovering from her spell, she was unable to bring the spear up in time. Her eyes widened as the wolf pounced…

...only to have my axe cave its face in.

As the crumpled mass of twigs fell to the ground, I hefted the axe back onto my shoulder with a grunt.

“Thanks,” Ebony muttered. Magic pulsed down her horn and her spear rose into the air again. The vines, having completed their tasks, dissolved back into the ground, taking the remains of the timberwolves with them.

“Eight more to go,” Primrose growled. No sooner had the words left her mouth, two of the remaining wolves charged.

With a flick of her hoof, Primrose sent her knife flying towards the closest wolf. It buried itself into the wolf’s shoulder, causing its to collapse on the ground with a howl. She ignored the collapsed wolf, focusing on the second one.

Ducking to the side as the wolf lunged, she latched onto the beast's back. Her mouth open, fangs extending with a sickening sound. With a snarl, she buried them into the back of the wolf’s neck. She gave a quick flick of her neck, and a loud snap filled the air. The wolf’s body went limp, falling to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Stepping off of the carcass, Primrose spat bits of wood from her mouth. “Ugh, they taste terrible.” She moved over to the fallen wolf, watching the remaining pack out of the corner of her eyes.

Reaching the whimpering creature, she grabbed her knife and, with a twist, pulled it free. The wolf’s howl of pain quickly turned into a gurgling yip as Primrose used the liberated knife to slice its throat. As the light left the wolf’s eyes, she moved back to her original position beside me.

“And then there were six,” Ebony said, staring at the remaining wolves.

“See, I told you we had this,” Avera said with a smirk. It was quickly replaced with a frown, however, when a new wolf exited the trees behind the pack.

He was large, standing nearly twice as tall as the other wolves. A large scar ran across his muzzle, and the side of his face was worn and chipped. He glared at me, his large teeth glinting in the gloom of the forest.

There’s a familiar face, I groaned, glaring at the alpha as he drew nearer.

“Friend of yours?” Avera asked upon hearing my groan. She glanced quickly up at me before returning her attention to the wolves.

~Acquaintance more than friend~ I signed around the axe. ~We’ve met before~

“The situation just got worse,” Primrose groaned, grimacing as she eyed the large wolf. He paused as he reached the center of the pack, his fiery eyes still locked on me. Giving him a taunting smile, I waved at the alpha. He pawed the frozen ground before throwing back his head and howling loudly.

“Looks like somepony wants a rematch,” Ebony said, swallowing thickly.

~Yeah, well, I’m not in the mood for a tussle~ I answered before gripping my axe tighter.

“I don’t think he cares,” Primrose growled, edging closer to me.

“How did you get away last time, again?” Avera asked, her previous confidence waning slightly.

~Something else scared it off~

“Great,” she muttered, ears folding back.

“Ebony,” Primrose said, her voice barely above a whisper, “I think it’s time to suit up the big guy.” Ebony nodded once before her horn began to glow brighter.

The minute the light around her horn increased, the alpha let out a gut-churning snarl. With a loud bark, he dashed forward, paws pounding against the ground as he sped towards us. A chorus of howls sounded as the remaining wolves followed suit, mass rushing us.

“Scatter!” Primrose shouted as the wolves descended. I dove to the side as the alpha flew towards me. His claws slashed at the rock wall behind me, leaving claw marks across the stone. I rolled to my feet, only to get tackled by another wolf. Grabbing its neck, I strained to keep it from taking a chunk out of my face. Luckily, just before that could happen, the wolf was blasted off of me by a ball of pink energy.

“Up, up, up,” Ebony squealed, pushing herself under my arm and forcing me to my feet. I staggered slightly before regaining my balance.

“Don’t move!” Ebony instructed, her horn lighting up. However, before she could complete whatever it was she was trying to do, another wolf bit down on her hind leg. The spell fizzled out as she screamed in pain.

I raised the axe above my head, aiming at the wolf’s back. I didn’t get the chance before the alpha’s paw came out of nowhere and caught me in the stomach, sending me tumbling across the ground.

“Max!” I heard Avera shout as I came to a stop. The axe fell from my grip, skidding several feet away from me. Pain flared in my chest, but upon checking, I determined that I wasn’t bleeding. I’d have a bruise, but luckily, the wolf’s claws hadn’t done any damage.

Pushing myself to my feet, I froze when I saw the alpha charging me at full steam, his mouth agape. My legs refused to work as the jagged maw descended upon me, the fetid breath of the wolf filling my senses.

“Max! Don’t move!” Ebony said from somewhere to my right.

As the alpha pounced, I lifted my arm up in a vain attempt to protect myself. Just as my eyes were closing, a burst of light surrounded me, the telltale sound of magic ringing in my ear. With that, the wolf was upon me.

CLANK

The sound of metal being struck echoed through my head accompanied by a pressure around my arm. A heavy weight descended upon my body as I felt something hard wrap around it.

Opening my eyes, I blinked in surprise at what I saw: the inside of my Big Daddy suit’s helmet. Through the viewport, I could see the alpha’s jaws clamped down onto my armored limb, his teeth sinking slightly into the armor plating. Somehow, I was now in my suit of armor, safely protected by the reinforced steel. The armor was glowing softly, encased in a pinkish aura of magic.

Through the helmet, the entire world was muffled. Avera and Primrose fought off the other wolves, their voices indistinguishable from the wolves’ howls due to my helmet.

As residual pink magic slowly dimmed from the armor, I glared at the alpha through the viewport. Despite the force of his bite, he hadn’t managed to pierce the metal with his fangs. He growled, sending vibrations through the armor.

Pulling my free arm back, I paused before ramming it into the alpha’s face. This caused him to release me with a yelp. Staggering backwards, he whimpered as he pawed at his face.

As the alpha recovered, I stooped down and picked up my discarded axe, fumbling with it due to my decreased visibility. My enlarged blind spot had grown further thanks to the helmet.

Standing back up, I turned to face my opponent, who was now glaring at me. I smirked inside my helmet as I hefted the axe in both hands. Time for round two, bitch!

With a howl, the alpha charged. I swung the axe, burying the blade into the shoulder of the beast. I had been aiming for his head. That failed to stop his momentum, and the wolf plowed into me, causing me to stagger backwards. Claws scraped against metal, leaving long scratch marks.

Lifting my foot, I slammed my boot into the wolf’s leg, bring him down to his knees. As he fell, I brought my knee up, slamming it into the side of the alpha’s muzzle. With a crack and a yelp, my axe was pulled free as the wolf tumbled away.

Rolling to a stop, the alpha quickly got to his feet, and I noted with some disappointment that the axe hadn’t done as much damage as I had hoped.

Shrugging off the injury, the alpha charged me again, and again I swung my axe. He managed to duck under it in time, and before I could recover, he pounced. His claws slipped through a gap in my armor and sunk into my sides. I snarled as pain flared up my stomach, the warm feeling of blood trickling down my side.

The alpha pulled his claws from my side, and I responded by punching him in the muzzle again with my left hand. He was ready, and bit down on my hand. I felt the metal shift as his fangs dug into the armor.

Dropping the axe, I wrapped my free arm around his neck and squeezed. With a startled gag, he released my hand and began to struggle. Ignoring my throbbing hand, I latched onto the wolf, refusing to let him go. Applying more pressure, I felt the wood of his neck shift beneath my arms, flexing and warping.

As the wood of his neck began to crack, the alpha suddenly shook, thrashing around. I was thrown about like a ragdoll, holding on for dear life. With one, final shake, he sent me flying through the air.

I yelped as I landed on the ground with a crash, my armor scraping into the frozen earth. Rolling over, I pushed myself up with a groan.

“Use the gauntlets!” Primrose screamed, holding off a wolf that was on top of her. “Red glow is for fire, blue for ice!”

I glanced down at my gauntlets. The right one was glowing bright red, while the damaged left one just sputtered a dim blue light. Looks like ice is out, I thought, eyeing the broken gauntlet. Focusing instead on the right one, I stood up, eyeing it critically.

~How do I use it?~ I signed frantically.

“It uses an enchantment. Just point and shoot!” Primrose yelled, ducking out of the way of the wolf’s bite.

~How?!~

Movement from my periphery caught my attention and, turning, I saw the alpha charging at me again. I threw myself to the side, rolling to avoid his claws. Staggering back to my feet, I held out my hand, pointing it at the alpha.

Nothing happened.

Glancing at the glowing gauntlet, I concentrated, willing a fireball to form.

Still nothing.

Fire! I thought, shaking my hand slightly. The alpha was turning back around to make another pass. Flame on! Fire in the hole? Bang-bang? Sparky Sparky Boom?! Caliente, señor, caliente! The alpha was nearly upon me, and still nothing was happening. I was beginning to panic, trying everything from using my hand as a gun, to 'Spider-Man'ing it.

The alpha dove, his jaws open wide as he aimed for my head. Taking a step back, I raised my hand and, acting on instinct, snapped my fingers.

A pillar of fire exploded out of the ground in front of me, roaring through the treetops and into the sky. The alpha was immediately engulfed within the inferno and disappeared from view. A wave of heat washed over me, threatening to blister my skin through the armor. The snow around the pillar was instantly vaporized into steam.

The roar of flames filled the clearing, sounding like a jet engine. The remaining wolves staggered back, away from the pillar, as their bodies began to smolder. Primrose and Avera covered their faces with their wings, the batpony shutting her eyes tight in pain. Ebony had a magic shield erected in front of her, shielding her from the heat and flames.

I raised my hand in front of the viewport, turning my head to the side. Staggering back a step, I closed my eyes at the intensity of the flame. It hurt to look at it.

Just as suddenly as it came, the flaming pillar was extinguished. Lowering my hand, I crack my eye open and glanced around.

A large charred crater marked where the alpha had been standing. The ground was still smoldering, smoke wafting up from the blackened dirt towards the seared branches. A perfect circle had been burnt through the treetops, allowing a beam of sunlight to stream into the small clearing. The metal edges of my suit glowed a dim orange, heated by the flames.

Silence fell over the clearing, everyone frozen in shock. My guards could only stare at me, their mouths hanging open. At least, Ebony and Avera were. Primrose was busy rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. The remaining wolves were eyeing the charred ring. There was no evidence that the alpha had once stood there: no burnt sticks, no blackened body. Not even a pile of ashes.

One of the wolves stepped forward and tentatively sniffed the smoking ground. Its ears splayed backwards and it whimpered. With that, it turned and, with its tail between its legs, darted off into the trees. The rest of the pack was hot on its heels.

Lifting my hand, I stared at the glowing gauntlet in shock. Whoa…

“Dude,” Avera breathed as she slowly approached. “What the buck was that?”

“I think I made the enchantment too strong,” Primrose growled, rubbing furiously at her eyes. She tried to open them, but closed them again, wincing in pain. “Please tell me the wolves are gone? I can’t see anything!”

“Yeah, they’re gone,” Ebony said, limping over to stand beside her. Leaning against the blind pony, she waited for Primrose to drape a wing over her back before leading her towards us.

“That’s good,” Primrose muttered, ears swiveling around. “It was getting a little too hairy there for a second.”

“We’re alive,” Avera said, wincing slightly as she shifted one of her wings, “and we have what we came for, right?” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her two flowers. Ebony did the same, showing off her flower.

I reached for my saddlebags, only to have my hand slid off my armor. They were no longer on around my waist. Glancing around, I spotted them lying on the ground several meters away.

Stomping over to them, I knelt down and gingerly picked up the singed bags. The belt had snapped in half, making the bags next to useless. I opened the flap of one of the bags and checked on the flowers inside. Besides being slightly charred, they looked to be in good shape.

Standing back up, I draped the bags over my shoulder, holding on to the broken belt.

“We good to go?” Ebony asked me as I approached. I gave her a thumbs up, nodding my head in confirmation. “Excellent. I don’t think we will be able to find more after that.” Glancing over at the cliff, she winced as she eyed the smoldering rocks. Most of the Rabbit’s Paws had shriveled up due to the exposure to extreme heat.

“Everything accounted for?” Primrose asked, her eyes shut tight. “Then let’s get out of this forest. There's no telling what could have been attracted by the fire, and I don’t want to be around to find out.” I nodded before realizing that she couldn’t see.

Picking up my axe, I began to stomp towards the edge of the clearing, my guards close behind me. Ebony limped along, guiding a blind Primrose while Avera brought up the rear, nursing her wing.

Flowers in our possession, we exited the clearing and headed towards Ponyville, leaving a smoldering crater behind us, smoke slowly drifting into the air.

Somewhere, a wolf howled, the sorrowful sound echoing around the forest as the sun slowly began to sink towards the horizon.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Okay, so it didn’t go as smoothly as I thought it would,” Avera said, wincing as she gingerly moved her wing.

After leaving the forest, we stuck mostly to the outskirts of town and somehow managed to make it back to the library without being seen. The sun had just slipped under the horizon when we slipped through the backdoor. Luckily, Twilight appeared to still be out and about.

“It could have been worse, though,” she continued as Ebony carefully removed the armor on her injured hind leg. She grimaced upon seeing the wound, the bite mark clearly visible against her gray fur. It was still oozing blood.

“We could have avoided this if we had stayed at the library like I suggested,” she muttered as she began to clean the wound. Opening a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, she proceeded to pour the entire thing onto her injured leg. As the wound began to sizzle, she gritted her teeth, stifling her scream.

“Doesn’t matter,” Avera replied, dabbing at a gash on her muzzle with a cotton ball. “We got the flowers, and now we have a massive ton of bits! That’s a successful day in my book.”

As I lifted a mug of cider to my lips, my mind drifted to the large bag of bits currently sitting in the basement. Half-a-million is a lot for just some flowers, even with the timberwolves, I mused as the cold liquid flowed down my parched throat. I should probably figure out a way to give some of it back to her.

“Yeah,” Ebony snarked, rolling her eyes. “Successful.” Wiping the excess alcohol off of her leg with a towel, she levitated a roll of bandages over and began to wrap the wound.

Primrose grunted, draining her own mug before standing. “You know, we should probably get out of the armor before—”

With a click, the front door swung open, and in walked all six of the girls and Spike. They all looked tired, but were chatting happily with one another.

“It’s not too much to worry about, Applejack,” Twilight said, removing her saddlebags and placing them on the couch. “I’m positive if we start up again at sunrise, we’ll be able to finish by... noon…” She trailed off as she glanced up, her eyes widening. The others did the same, their mouths falling open as they stared. Rarity looked horrified, Applejack and Rainbow stunned. Pinkie’s mane looked limper than usually, and Fluttershy looked about ready to pass out.

My guards and I just sat there in our charred, bloodied, and battered armor, eyeing the new arrivals tiredly.

“Wha…” Twilight squeaked, her eyes dancing back and forth until they landed solely on me. Her ears splayed backwards as her right eye began to twitch, a hysterical look crossing her face.

I closed my eyes and lowered my head with a sigh. Fuck.

Suddenly, Avera turned to look at Ebony, a large smile on her face.

“Ha!” she shouted, pointing a hoof at her. “I was right! You owe me a thousand bits!” A bit of broken and bloodied armor fell from her leg and landed on the table with a loud clank.

Fluttershy promptly fainted.

Interlude: Aftermath, part 2

“Now, remember, you’ve got to push it in carefully, as to not damage anything important,” Twilight instructed, glancing over her shoulder at me. Her wings flexed, her tail swishing back and forth.

I nodded absentmindedly, eyeing the opening carefully. Closing my bad eye, I tilted my head to the side to get a better look at it.

“But, you shouldn’t be afraid to use some force,” Twilight continued, “but not too much, or else you’ll get tired before we’re finished.” She paused, thinking. “You know what? Just go at a pace that feels good to you.”

I nodded again before, with a sigh, I stepped around Twilight. Moving forward, I crouched down and proceeded to shove the chimney brush into the fireplace and up the chimney as far as it would go. I was immediately rewarded with a shower of ash raining down upon my head. If it weren’t for the bandana currently covering my face (and the goggles protecting my eyes) I’m pretty sure I would have inhaled most of it.

Despite the protection, however, I proceeded to cough, the smokey taste of ash filling my mouth.

“Careful,” Twilight tsked, shaking her head. “I told you not to use too much force.” I glared at her, the effect lost as my goggles were currently covered in ash, blocking my vision. Nonetheless, I gave her general direction the meanest glare.

At least, I think it was her. It could have been the couch, though. Damned goggles.

I quickly rubbed at the goggles with a sleeve, trying my best to clean them, before returning my attention to the task at hand.

“And once you’re done with that, you can begin working on the upstairs one as well,” Twilight chirped, heading towards the kitchen and leaving me to my work.

What kind of home needs multiple fireplaces? I snorted loudly, working the brush up and down the inside of the chimney, trying to dislodge the accumulated ash from all the fires we had over the winter.

Pushing the brush up again, I paused when a loud chirping noise reached my ears. Blinking, I stared at the fireplace in confusion before leaning in and glancing up into the flue. The chirping stopped as a pair of yellow eyes locked onto me.

The raccoon latched onto my face before I even knew what was happening.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As I wiped ash from my face with a towel, trying to clean myself up as best I could, Twilight peered up the chimney, humming softly to herself.

“Not half bad,” she said, stepping back and nodding. “It’ll do. Now, onto the next thing.” Fuck you, Twilight. Do you know how long it took me to get that raccoon out the window? I had to wrestle that little bastard for nearly ten minutes before I was able to open the window and chuck him out. Stupid little piece of meat. I don’t care if Fluttershy had just woken them up from hibernation and he was looking for food.

When I finally got the window open, however, that was a different story. It was the first thing to go down in Raccoon Flight History! Foals would be telling their grandchildren about it. The day that raccoons flew. “I saw him streak across the sky, majestic as fuck!”

...okay, maybe not those exact words, but you get the picture.

Rainbow had been flying by the window when I had tossed the bastard out. I wasn’t even aiming, and it was sheer dumb luck that I happened to hit her. The raccoon flew at her and latched onto her face seamlessly.

She screamed, it squealed, and I laughed in victory. Then she flew off blind.

And that was the second thing to go down in Raccoon Flight History: the first supersonic flight of a raccoon.

After that, I was able to clean the chimneys, no problem.

“I’m actually impressed,” Twilight continued, pulling her head out of the fireplace. “It actually looks like you’ve done this before.” Turning, she opened her mouth, but paused upon looking at me. She closed her mouth with a ‘click’, blinking up at me.

Slowly, a smile spread across her face and she raised a hoof to stifle her laughter. I huffed, crossing my arms and pouting at her.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “It’s just, you look like a coal-mining human.”

~Give me a pick and I’ll dig you a hole~ I signed before scratching at my beard.

“Nope, I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “There will be no digging today. However, you will be dusting the bookshelves next.” I glanced around at the shelves of books before glancing at Twilight and nodding.

It shouldn’t be that hard, I thought to myself. It should only take about half an hour to dust all the shelves—

“That means,” Twilight continued with a smirk, cutting my thoughts short, “you must take all the books off of the shelves, dust them and dust beneath them, and then put them back in their proper place. Also, no getting ash on the books.”

...fuck. I glanced around at the shelves full of hundreds of books, this time with trepidation, as Twilight trotted towards the front door. Looking down at my hands, I wiped them on my shirt futilely.

“I have to go pick up some things in town,” she called back over her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Have fun~~~!”

As the door closed behind her, I sighed loudly before I headed towards the far end of the library and started to take the books of off the shelf. A Book of Spells, volume One, A Book of Spells, volume Two, A Concise Treatise on the Art of Clouding, A History of Wing Fishing for Trout, The Abominations of Oakvale, About a Colt…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The sun was beginning to set by the time Twilight returned to the library, and I was barely even halfway done with the shelves. She glanced around at the piles of books I had taken off of the current shelf I was working on, before turning and trotting into the kitchen with her bags.

I watched her go, stifling a yawn, before returning to my duty. Picking up another book, I glanced at the title before placing it in its proper location. The dusting wasn’t the issue; it was putting all the books back where they belonged.

Twilight would know if I just placed them haphazardly.

She always knew.

You could switch two books, even if they were side-by-side, and she would be able to tell from across the room. It was kinda scary, actually.

Placing the last of the books upon the shelf, I sighed, before moving on to the next one. As I began to remove the books one by one, Twilight stuck her head out of the kitchen. “When you’re done with that, you can start cleaning the windows. I want you to finish with them tonight, got it?”

My forehead ‘thunk’ed against the shelf, and I groaned loudly. Dragging a hand down my face, I lifted the next book off of the shelf, only to yelp in surprise as it fell out of my hand and hit the ground hard.

I stared down at it, incredulously. Why the hell is it so fucking heavy?!

Nudging the book with my foot, I jumped back as it quivered, a muffled giggle coming from its pages. Tentatively, I approached the book, ready to bolt if it made any sudden movements.

I reached down and grabbed the cover carefully between my fingers, earning another muffled giggle from the book. Steeling myself, I took a deep breath…

...then flipped the book open.

There was an explosion of pink, and I fell backwards onto my ass. Blinking in surprise, I yelped when my entire vision was suddenly filled by large, sparkling blue eyes.

“Well, Hiya, Maxie!” Pinkie chirped, a large smile upon her face. I stared up at her with wide eyes, my heart trying frantically to escape from the confines of my chest. Where the hell did she—

My eyes slowly trailed down her body, and my brow furrowed in confusion (my right eye twitching) as I saw that the top half of her body seemed to be sprouting from the inside of the book, like a fucking weed. Seriously, her waist and the book appeared to be fused together.

I don’t even…

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Pinkie asked, lowering down so she could look into my eyes. She glanced down at the book before looking back up at me. Cocking her head to the side, she waved a hoof in front of my face. “Hello?”

I could feel my brain trying to commit suicide. It was soaking itself in gasoline and was looking for a match. There was no way it was going to try and process what the eyes were seeing. There was no fucking way. It would sooner send itself to the glorious cranium in sky than try and process the abomination of logic before me.

“Anyways,” Pinkie said slowly, giving me a concerned look. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood, and decided to stop in to say ‘hi’ and see how you’re doing after beating the mean old timberwolves. Oh, and Rainbow Dash wanted me to give this to you.” She reached into her mane, sticking out her tongue as she rummaged around in it. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she pulled out that goddamn, fucking raccoon!

“She said you can have this little guy back,” she said, placing the raccoon in my lap. It glared up at me, fury raging within its little, yellow eyes. I swallowed thickly, licking my lips as I stared down at the furry abomination.

“Well, I’d love to stay and talk, but I have to get back,” Pinkie said, the smile back on her face. “I’m watching the twins tonight so that Mr. and Mrs. Cake can go out to eat!” She saluted once before—like someone sucking a golf ball through a garden hose—she was pulled back into the book with a sickening ‘ssssschlunk’. The book snapped shut, shivering once before remaining still.

The raccoon and I just stared at each other.

I slowly reached for the nearby feather duster.

The raccoon went for my face.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight was pulled out of her book as the clock began to chime out the hour. Glancing over at the grandfather clock, she blinked in surprise when she saw that it was midnight.

Closing the book, she placed it on her bedside table. She moved to blow out the candle that had been providing her with light, but paused, her ears perked. After listening for several seconds, her brow furrowed. Something was wrong, she just couldn’t put her hoof on it.

With a grunt, she hauled herself out of the warmth of her comforter. Grabbing the candlestick in her magic, she quietly tip-toed out of the room, careful to not wake Spike up in the process.

Carefully slipping down the stairs, she glanced into the living room. Unable to see through the dark, she lifted the candle higher into the air, the flame flickering softly. As more of the room was revealed, she blinked in surprise when she saw the couch vacant. That’s what was wrong, she realized with a soft smile. Max’s usual snoring was absent, a strange silence filling the living room.

Turning, she headed down the stairs in search of her human.

The main room of the library was empty. The bookshelves had been dusted, the books placed neatly back in place. No books out of place, no books missing.

Twilight sniffed, looking around the room in confusion. Then, where is—

A soft sounding caught Twilight’s attention, and her ears swiveled in the direction of the kitchen. Cautiously, she walked over and peeked inside. The sight that greeted her brought a smile to her lips.

Max, clearly asleep, was crouched in the corner of the room, his head resting on the bottom of an upside-down bucket perched precariously on his knee. A trail of drool ran from the corner of his mouth, disappearing into his beard. Every few seconds, a soft snore escaped his lips. A rag was clutched in his hand, slowly dripping water onto the floor beneath him.

Twilight watched him for a few more seconds before moving forward. As she trotted into the kitchen, she glanced around at the windows, pausing at what she saw. Even in the darkness, she could tell that they had been scrubbed vigorously, seeming to gleam in the candlelight.

Quickly sticking her head back into the main room, she saw that the same could be said for all the other windows as well. Her smile grew as she glanced back at the sleeping human.

“I think that’s enough,” she whispered, her horn glowing brighter. Pulling the rag from Max’s grasp, she wrung it out in the sink before using it to gently wipe some remaining ash from Max’s face.

He stirred, face scrunching up slightly, but he remained asleep. Twilight had to bite her lip to prevent herself from giggling.

Tenderly, she slipped tendrils of magic around Max’s body, lifting him slowly into the air. Levitating the empty bucket as well, she placed it gingerly beside the sink, careful to not make too much noise. Once that was done, she turned and—as softly as possible—she began to carry the sleeping human out of the kitchen and up the staircase.

Reaching the living room, Twilight used her magic to grab a clean shirt. Removing Max’s soiled shirt without waking him, she replaced it with the clean one. She left his pants alone to preserve his modesty. Yes, that was the reason she didn’t touch his pants. Although, they did look rather dirty as well...

Cheeks tinged slightly red, Twilight levitated Max, now with his clean shirt and pants, onto the couch. Trying to make him as comfortable as possible, she pulled the blanket off of the back of the couch, draping it over his sleeping form. Max snuggled into the sudden source of warmth, a small smile touching his lips.

This brought a smile to Twilight’s face as well, and she could feel butterflies flutter around in her chest. She watched Max for a few more moments before the smile was replaced with a nervous frown.

Nibbling on her bottom lip, she stared at the sleeping human. He had long since stopped snoring, the rise and fall of his chest accompanied by only the soft sound of him breathing.

The red in Twilight’s cheeks grew as she continued to stare at the sleeping form of Max. She really wanted to… but she really shouldn’t… but nopony was watching.

Swallowing, she glanced back over her shoulder to make sure that there was in fact nopony watching. Seeing nopony there, she turned and quickly leaned forward. With inches left to go, she closed her eyes tight, steeling herself.

The minute Twilight’s lips touched Max’s forehead, they were assaulted by a light tingle, as well as a pleasant salty taste. It felt like a small burst of electricity had raced through her system, the hairs on her neck and withers standing on end. She left her lips there for several seconds before backing off and opening her eyes again. Her face felt like it was on fire, but the butterflies in her stomach were going nuts.

Oh my gosh, I just kissed Max, she thought, giggling drunkenly to herself. I just kissed Max! She knew that it had only been on the forehead, but still her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest due to happiness.

Trying her hardest to stifle her giddiness, Twilight quickly turned and hurried up the stairs. Blowing out the candle, she dove under her covers, giggling to herself like a little schoolfilly as she snuggled into the sheets, the salty taste and tingling sensations still lingering on her lips.

Chapter 47: The Greatest Trick...

*There is no Max in this chapter. Thanks in advance.

Despite the belief held by many that the National Treasury of Equestria is a large, sealed bank vault deep within the heart of Canterlot Castle, the truth is far less grand. Unlike its depiction in multiple books, comics, and tabloids, the National Treasury is neither a vault nor located within the castle.

It is, in reality, a medium-sized building on the very outskirts of the palace grounds[see image A-2]. The entire facility is ringed by tall brick walls, topped with barbed wire. Patrolled by hundreds of Royal Guards, as well as protected by layers of physical and magical security, alarms, and the latest technology, the Treasury is almost as well-guarded as the Solar and Lunar Princesses themselves.

That doesn’t mean that it isn’t impenetrable. There have been several attempts to steal the gold within since it was first built back in 876 AB. None were ever successful, though. The closest a pony has ever come to robbing the National Treasury had been a pegasus calling himself “Spring-Hoofed Tac”[see image B-4], who had managed to catch the slightest glimpse of gold before being contained by nearly thirty Royal Guards that had been stationed there at the time.

In the best circumstances, the Treasury can hold upwards to ten-thousand metric tons of gold and silver, along with assorted gems. And those aren’t the only things held within its vaults.

However, whatever is located within the deeper vaults are for the Princesses’ eyes only. Nopony has ever seen what is stored within the airtight vaults, but there are speculations that…

Sunny slammed her head onto the table, groaning loudly.

“Why am I reading this again?” she groaned, her voice muffled by the table. “I can practically feel my brain oozing from my ears.”

“Uh, because you requested something to read?” Stacker said, glancing over at her from across the table.

“Yeah,” Sunny said, picking her head up to glare at the stallion. “That usually means something other than an academic book on the boring history of a boring building. I mean, seriously! This book is nearly two-thousand pages long. What could they possibly be covering in that amount of pages for a building that’s not even three-hundred years old?”

“Don’t know,” Stacker said, taking a sip from his bottle of cider. “Haven’t actually read it, so I couldn’t tell you.”

Sunny growled at him before slamming the book closed and pushing it away from her.

“Ugh, I’m going to go crazy just waiting around here,” she cried as she stood up and began to pace around the room. The other members of the Coming Dawn just glanced up at her as she passed before returning their attention back to whatever they had been doing to pass the time.

The Coming Dawn were currently within the bowels of the Treasury. They had set up their command post within the main room of the depositor. From the circular room they could easily see each of the six main vaults, positioned in a semicircle across the back wall. The vault doors were open, each containing a handful of Coming Dawn guards, as well as several squads of regular Royal Guards. Everypony was dressed in armor, prepped and ready for any trouble.

“Just sit down and relax,” Stacker said as Sunny paced past him for the eighth time.

“No, you relax,” Sunny shot back, glaring at him. “I’m going to fret. This is a huge mistake! We shouldn’t even be here.”

“The note we recovered—”

“Screw the note,” Sunny huffed, beginning to pace again. “I already told you, this isn’t Darkflare’s style. He doesn’t rob banks, period. He gets all of his money from gambling on the human fights that he tries to rig. You brought me on as an expert in Darkflare’s activity, so I’m telling you, this isn’t his style!”

Stacker looked at her with a level gaze, the small smile never leaving his lips. “According to our records, during his interrogation with Princess Sparkle, Darkflare revealed that he had been hired. While it may be that this isn’t Darkflare’s personal style, we cannot discredit that somepony else is pulling the strings. If that's the case, then what better way is there to throw ponies off the trail than to have somepony do something that they wouldn’t normally do.”

Sunny gave him a blank look, her right ear twitching. “Huh?”

Stacker just rolled his eyes.

“Somepony could have hired Darkflare to do this job because it’s something that he wouldn’t normally do,” he said, leaning his head onto a forehoof. “If they know that you’re working for us, they could be trying to throw us off the trail.”

“What trail?” Sunny asked, her voice rising. “There is no trail! Darkflare somehow escaped from Canterlot’s dungeons, and then proceeded to lay low for nearly a month. Why lay low?” she asked, glancing at Stacker. “If he was truly riding a high from escaping, like you said, then wouldn't he have been capturing more humans for fighting rings?” When Stacker didn’t answer, she continued, “But, no. He remains in hiding until, for some reason, he shows up in Manehattan, only to leave behind his murderous human in the burning warehouse. What’s more, it sounds like he picked up a different human, one which I’ve never seen or heard of before. This isn’t usual for Darkflare. Something is wrong!”

“Precisely,” Stacker said with a smile. This caused Sunny to pause.

“Come again?”

“That’s precisely why we are aiming to capture him,” Stacker explained. “From what you’ve told us, we deduced that Darkflare was not following his normal routine. That can mean several things, the major one of which is that Darkflare is being used by somepony else. That pony is an unknown, and they currently have one of our guards hostage. We are trying to find that pony, and our current lead is Darkflare himself.

“That is why we’re taking what that note said seriously, despite your protests,” Stacker continued. “Any chance at catching Darkflare will be taken, regardless of how ridiculous they may be.”

Sunny’s ears splayed backwards and she took a step back. “I didn’t th—”

“Think? No, you didn’t,” a voice spoke up behind her, making her jump. Ivory walked up beside her, a bored look on her face. She gave Sunny a quick smirk as she walked by. “That’s not your job, though. It’s ours.” Walking around the table, Ivory handed a slip of paper to one of the royal guards, who immediately walked off, before returning her attention to Sunny.

“We do appreciate your concern, Ms. Breeze,” she said, “and I did let the Princess know of your belief in the note, but this is part of our job. It’s what we do. Sure, ponies get upset when the sting is a bust, complaining about ‘wasting taxpayer’s bits’. Yet, these are the same ponies that praise us when we capture dangerous criminals.”

The guard that Ivory had handed the paper to returned and whispered something into her ear. She nodded once, and the guard returned to his original position.

“Right,” Ivory said, turning to Stacker. “It appears that everything is in place. There is a Sensor unicorn within each of the vaults, currently keeping close watch on the ground. A gopher won’t be able to burrow underneath the Treasury without us knowing about it.”

“I’ve talked with the Treasury’s guards,” Stacker said, downing his cider before placing the empty bottle down on the table. “They’ll be doing their normal rounds, and I’ve instructed them to check in with us every half-an-hour.

“There are several squads of Lunar guards patrolling the air around the building, as well,” he continued. “They’ll be keeping away any late-night travelers, as well as keeping an on eye the grounds. To top it off, there is a team of Battlemages patrolling the perimeter of the fence.”

Ivory nodded before, with a sigh, she sat down as well. Taking off her helmet, she placed it on the tabletop in front of her. “Now, we play the waiting game.”

Sunny retook her seat, shaking her head. “This still feels like a bad idea.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Darkflare smirked, his face illuminated by the crimson light shining from his horn. His ice blue eyes twinkled in the gloom with devilish mischief.

Around him, the tunnel was alive with activity. Humans clawed away at the rock face, burrowing through the stone as unicorns observed and directed, using sparks from their horns to keep the diggers in line.

The humans slaved away, yelping in pain whenever a unicorn zapped them. There were burns across their backs, their hands bloodied from the sharp rocks. Sweat dripped down their bodies as they carved their way through the earth.

After a particularly large shock, one of the humans turned and snarled at the offending unicorn. He lunged forward, only to be stopped as fire erupted from Darkflare’s horn, lashing at the human like a whip.

“Back to work,” Darkflare snarled, his voice echoing around the tunnel. The human snarled again, baring his teeth in defiance. Darkflare just sneered as the fire whip lashed out, striking the human across the face. The human howled, rubbing vigorously at the burned flesh. Another crack from the whip, and he turned and resumed digging along with the other humans.

“Dumb beasts,” Darkflare grunted as the fire spell flickered out. “Know your place.” Wiping his mane out of his face, he glared at the humans in distaste. They were a stupid, useless race, good for only manual labor and pitting against one another in the fight pits. The only reason he hadn’t already started using them as fighters yet was because of—

The sound of a throat being cleared drew Darkflare’s attention, and he glanced around. The Archmage stood behind him, a grim look on his face, his blue eyes glowing eerily in the dark.

“Why must you torment them so?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. Darkflare snorted, smirking at him.

“They’re just humans,” he said, turning his attention back to the diggers. “They can’t feel pain like you or me, so what does it matter? I could sear one of their limbs, and they will continue to work regardless. It’s why they make such good fighters.” The Archmage’s eyes flashed red suddenly, rage crossing his face for a split second before becoming calm again. The change was so quick, Darkflare missed it.

Moving to stand beside Darkflare, the Archmage eyed the working humans with a bemused look.

“All the same, I would prefer it if you didn’t treat my—” he paused, an eye twitching “—treat the humans that way. They work far more efficiently when treated properly and with respect. Fear makes them do what you want, but respect makes them willing to die for you.”

Darkflare snorted as he glanced sideways at the Archmage. His smirk vanished when he saw the cold look in the stallion’s eyes. It was enough to send a shiver down the hardened criminal’s spine, but he shook it off. The Archmage was an old stallion, his magic slowly fading. If push came to shove, Darkflare was sure that he could take him.

“You can’t be serious,” Darkflare scoffed, shaking his head.

“...”

“You’re being serious?”

“...”

“You’ve got to be fucking with me. You don’t pay me enough for this shit,” Darkflare growled, rolling his eyes. “You and your bloody bleedin’ heart.”

The pair lapsed into silence, continuing to watch the humans dig. They were getting farther away now, the sounds of their grunting fading as they dug deeper into the earth. Sparks continued to flash in the darkness as the unicorns ‘encouraged’ the humans along, barking out orders.

Soon, Darkflare and the Archmage were alone in the tunnel, the only light coming from Darkflare’s horn. They were silent for several minutes before the Archmage spoke. “You burned everything within the warehouse, correct?”

“As I told you before, yes,” Darkflare said, staring blankly down the dark tunnel. “I waited until the guards were in the building, then set fire to the place. By the time they finished fighting with Van, everything should have been burned to cinders.”

“So, nothing would have survived the flames?” the Archmage asked, staring at Darkflare intently. The unicorn smirked, chuckling softly.

“Nothing important,” he corrected. The Archmage stared at him for several seconds before a smile of his own crossed his muzzle.

“Excellent.”

The sound of hoofsteps brought the conversation to an end, several unicorns materializing out of the gloom. They were wearing makeshift armor, composed of several metal plates bolted onto straps of leather. Black cowls covered their heads, hiding their faces from view.

As the group neared, the Archmage spoke up, his tone bored. “Are your boys ready to go, Dark Spice?”

The lead unicorn paused, turning his head to glare at the Archmage from beneath his cowl.

“The Blackhoof Guild is always ready to go,” Dark Spice growled out, his voice gravely and coarse. “Just keep your pathetic excuse for a gang out of our way.” Darkflare snarled at the unicorn, baring his teeth. A sharp look from the Archmage though, and he backed down, allowing the unicorns to pass.

“Now, now,” the Archmage tsked, smirking as he shook his head. “Play nice with the other children, Darkflare.”

“They’re starting to try my patience with their superior attitude,” Darkflare growled under his breath. The Archmage didn’t reply. He was too busy eyeing one of the ponies bringing up the rear of the group.

Golden Ingot slunk by the pair, his head hung low, ears splayed backwards, and tail between his legs. He glanced at the Archmage fearfully as he passed, trying to look as small as possible.

The Archmage continued to watch him until Ingot disappeared into the darkness with the other unicorns. Glancing at Darkflare, he asked, “How is he doing?”

“The spineless foal?” Darkflare asked with a snort. “Completely and utterly worthless. All the bucker does is sit around and complain. Even caught him trying to escape once, but we quickly put a stop to that. We think he was going to get a hold of the guards, but he claims he was just going out for some fresh air.” Darkflare glanced over at the Archmage, glaring at the older stallion. “Why’d you have to bring him along again? Should have just torched his sorry carcass back in the cells.”

“He’ll play his part soon enough,” the Archmage said, closing his eyes and nodding his head. “When all is said and done, he’ll have played his part perfectly.”

“What part is that?” Darkflare asked, giving the mage a bemused look. The Archmage was silent for a long time, his eyes remaining closed.

“Has he been using any magic?” he finally asked, opening his eyes.

“What?” Darkflare asked stupidly. The Archmage tsked, shaking his head.

“I gave the poor soul a horn. Has he been using it?”

“No,” Darkflare grunted. “It sparks occasionally, but he hasn’t been using it, stupid mudpony. If he’s not careful, he’ll start to get magical build up and, well—” he chuckled darkly, eyes twinkling in the red light from his horn “—a magical surge at his age? I don’t want to be in the same town as that.”

”Yes, well, that might be because, though I gave him the horn, I didn’t give him the means to use it,” the Archmage said, a dark grin slowly spreading across his face.

“Not that I care for the bastard, but why’d you do that?” Darkflare asked.

“Which is better?” the Archmage asked as he started off down the tunnel, heading in the direction of the digging humans. “To have a mug that’s half-empty, or a mug that’s overflowing?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hmmm?” Slowly nodding off, Sunny’s head slipped from her hoof and she jerked awake. Lifting her head, she looked around, blinking owlishly. Stacker smirked at her, shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, what?” Sunny said, stifling a yawn.

“I asked if you had any family, ma’am,” Stacker said. Sunny blinked, earning a chuckle from him. “It was something to talk about to help keep you awake,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we can pick another subject.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Sunny said, waving a hoof. “It was just random, I wasn’t expecting it.” She paused, rubbing her tired eyes with a hoof before continuing. “There isn’t much to talk about, actually. I was born and raised in Canterlot by my mother, who was a pegasus that worked at one of the local coffee shops. Never really knew my father. According to my mother, he left before I was born. She didn’t tell me much about him, other than he was a unicorn.”

“I’m sorry,” Stacker said, his ears lowering slightly. Sunny just shrugged.

“It’s hard to miss somepony whom you never knew,” she said emotionlessly. She sighed, before continuing, “Anyways, I lived with my mother until she passed away from a brain tumor. After that, I was homeless. Little money, barely out of school, and a pegasus within Canterlot. My childhood was a blast,” Sunny deadpanned.

“I’ll bet,” Stacker chuckled, shaking his head. “While beautiful, Canterlot can be one of the more tribalist cities in Equestria. Especially with all the unicorn nobles.” He paused to take a sip from a steaming coffee mug before asking, “So, how did you get into the criminal world?”

Sunny flinched.

“Sorry,” he apologized, wincing. “That came out more coldly than I intended.”

“It’s fine,” Sunny said, glancing off to the side. “I know that my previous… job, if you can call it that, wasn’t the most legal of occupations—” she chuckled weakly “—but it was the only one I could find that would hire me.”

“What of your other family members?” Stacker asked. “Could they have taken you in, helped you out?”

“Didn’t have anypony after my mom died,” Sunny said before correcting herself. “Actually, I had an older brother, but he moved out when I was very little, so I hardly remember him. All I remember is he had a rather weird obsession with pies. Didn’t really know him that well, so I never looked for him.

“Anyways,” Sunny sighed, leaning back in her chair. “Three years after I joined up with Darkflare’s gang, we found this weird human wandering in the desert, and, well, you know the rest of the story.” She trailed off as a guard walked over and handed her a cup of coffee. Thanking him, she took a sip before looking at Stacker. “How about you? You have any family?”

“My father was in the guard before me, but passed away some years ago due to a heart condition,” Stacker began. “My mother is still alive and living in Cloudsdale, happily retired from her job as an outfitter for the Wonderbolts. Other than that, the only close relative I can think of is my cousin who lives over in Ponyville. Nice mare, even has a small filly, but can’t find any stallion. Something about the way her eyes look or something like that.” He shrugged, ruffling his wings. “Their loss, she’s actually quite the cook.”

“That it?” Sunny asked with a blink. “No wife, no marefriend?” This got a laugh from Stacker.

“Nope, no significant other for me,” he said.

“What, are you married to your work or something?” Sunny asked, smirking as she tilted her head slightly.

“No, nothing like that,” Stacker chuckled. “Just ain’t no mare interested, that’s all.”

“What?” Sunny said, the surprise clear in her voice. “Mares aren’t interested in a strong, gruff stallion like you?” The minute she said it, her eyes widened and her a large blush spread across her face as a hoof flew to her mouth. Stacker opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, a stunned look on his normally cheery face.

Across the room, Ivory burst into laughter, pounding her hoof on her table as she gasped for breath.

“I can’t believe I said that,” Sunny muttered, her hoof still covering her mouth. “I can’t believe I said that, I can’t believe I said that, I can not believe I said that!”

“Well, I’m flattered, but…” Stacker laughed, shaking his head. Sunny eep’d before burrowing her head in her hooves, her face bright red and feeling like it had been slapped.

“This night can’t get any worse,” she moaned, closing her eyes and wishing the table would just swallow her whole.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“We’re almost there,” Darkflare growled, staring up at the carved ceiling of the tunnel. Eyeing it critically, he tried to estimate how far they had tunneled into the mountain before glancing back down at the hoof-drawn map in his magic.

“Sixteen metres,” the Archmage said, his tone bored.

“How do you know?” Darkflare asked, glaring at the stallion. The Archmage just smirked, his horn glowing a soft yellow for a split second.

“I may be old, but I still have a trick or two in reserve,” he said, the light around his horn dying.

The humans in front of them continued to dig, shifting through the rock and earth with practiced hands. The unicorns were grouped behind the humans, inching along with them as they tunneled further into the mountain.

One of the humans paused, glancing over his shoulder at the unicorns behind him. Or, more specifically, the Archmage.

The human’s pupils dilated, and he froze for a split second before turning and beginning to dig with increased vigor, almost at a frantic pace. He chirped loudly, causing the other humans to tense up and increase their speed as well.

The Archmage’s smile grew. The humans tunneled faster.

“What was that about not making them fear you?” Darkflare commented, glancing sideways at the Archmage.

“It is not fear that makes them move faster, but rather respect,” the Archmage replied. “They know who the alpha is in the situation, and work harder to get what he wants.”

“Well, whatever the reason, at the speed they’re going, we’ll be there within the hour,” Darkflare snorted, getting rid of the map with a burst of magic.

“Finally,” the Archmage hissed, his eyes flashing, “after months of planning, everything is coming together perfectly.” He chuckled darkly, causing the humans to flinch at the noise. Despite their bloodied hands and tired muscles, they continued to dig as though the devil himself was behind them.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“This is ridiculous,” Ivory grunted, pacing back and forth.

“I know,” Stacker said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He nodded, his head resting on his hoof. “You’d think that criminals would have more respect and show up at a decent time. Right, Ms. Breeze?”

“Huh?” Sunny glanced up from her game of solitaire, which, incidentally, she was somehow losing at. Looking over at Stacker, she blinked several times before her mind caught up with what he had said. “I’m staying out of this,” she said, shaking her head as she returned to her card game, determined to find that one buck three if it was the last thing she did. “You already know my opinion on how big a waste of time this is.”

Ivory growled before beginning to pace again, her ears twitching at random intervals. Her red eyes darted back and forth, almost as if she was reading text that only she could see.

Passing by one of the vaults, she glanced inside and asked, “Anything?”

“Nothing, ma’am,” the unicorn answered, her horn glowing a bright orange. It sent another burst down her body and into the floor through her hooves. There was a brief pause before she added, “There is a family of gophers a few meters down and to the left, but other than that, the ground is silent.” She paused. “Actually, there are a few vibrations coming from the south, but nothing noteworthy so far.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Ivory muttered, shaking her head. “It’s the right date, the right location, the right time. Where the buck are they?”

“And I keep telling you, this isn’t like Darkflare,” Sunny sighed, rolling her eyes. “He doesn’t plan ahead, he doesn’t write notes, he doesn’t keep plans just lying around. It’s just not him. He goes with the flow, doing whatever he feels like whenever he feels like. The only time you’ll ever see Darkflare planning ahead is if it’s how to kill something.”

“So, let’s say Darkflare didn’t write it,” Stacker said, waving a hoof through the air. “Let’s say that whoever hired him wrote the note, and Darkflare was simply destroying it in order to keep us off the trail.”

“But that doesn’t explain why he hasn’t shown up yet,” Ivory growled, stomping a hoof. She glared at the floor for several seconds before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, she sat down and began to tap her hooves together, her brow furrowed in thought.

“Unless…” she muttered, her eyes narrowing.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Darkflare couldn’t help but grin. They were feet, mere feet from their destination. Soon, very soon, all their preparations and planning would pay off. He felt a shiver run down his spine and he laughed to himself.

One step closer to the end, he thought as he watched the humans dug upward at an angle. One step closer to that sweet, sweet payday. Around him, the other unicorns were tense, waiting with bated breath for the few final feet of earth to be cleared away.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Unless?” Stacker asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Ivory was silent for a brief moment before glancing over at Sunny. “You said that Darkflare claimed he was hired by somepony in Canterlot, right?”

“Yeah,” Sunny nodded, “but he didn’t go into any details on the matter.” Ivory fell silent again, her eyes darting to and fro.

“Whatcha thinking?” Stacker asked.

“Darkflare is hired by a third party in Canterlot,” Ivory said slowly, her ear twitching. “He’s placed in Canterlot dungeons, only to escape via mysterious means. Princess Celestia is keeping the details close to her chest, which can only mean that she doesn’t know who to trust. That can only mean one thing…”

“She believes we have a rat in our midst,” Stacker finished, his smile gone. “We already knew that, though, so what’s your point?”

Ivory rubbed her chin, her eyes narrowing. “Would that rat know our procedures?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

One of the humans reached forward and thrust his hand deep into the dirt before him. He yelped loudly, pulling his hand free in a shower of earth and rock. Clutching at his bleeding hand, he gazed up at the iron sheet in front of him, chirping softly. Around him, the other humans slowed their excavation, looking at the iron with blank expressions.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Stacker’s expression was blank for several seconds before his eyes widened and he swore under his breath. “Celestia’s fiery teats.”

Sunny glanced back and forth between the pair, confusion clear on her face.

“What?” she asked, ruffling her wings. When she got no response, she asked louder, “What? What’s the big deal?”

“If the rat knows—”

“I would assume that, if there is a traitor, that they would know your procedures,” Sunny tsked, shaking her head. “That’s kinda the point of a traitor, no? To have inside information?”

Stacker sighed, closing his eyes as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hoof.

“It’s not that simple,” he said, opening his eyes and glancing at Sunny. “You see, each branch of Canterlot’s defense is trained differently. Members of the Royal Guard are subjected to a regiment that helps them better their defensive skills, while the Lunar guard is trained in stealth and espionage. Each branch as different playbooks by which they run their operations. The Royal guard will act differently than the Lunar guard, as well as the Battlemages and Coming Dawn. That’s why you rarely see the different military branches working together.”

“I… see?” Sunny said tentatively, her head cocked to the side.

“That means that a member of the Royal Guard will have no knowledge of Lunar Guard procedures,” Stacker explained. “That’s probably part of the reason the Anomaly’s guards have difficulty working together. They weren’t trained together to follow the same method.”

“But what does this have to do with Darkflare?” Sunny asked.

“The Coming Dawn, being the unique task force that we are, have a pretty exclusive operational playbook,” Stacker answered. “Anypony outside of the Coming Dawn won’t know how we operate. The question is, does the rat have that knowledge?”

“Would it matter if they did?”

“Yes,” Ivory snapped, pacing again. “If they know how we operate, then they would know that we would respond to that note, which means…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The humans shrank to the side as Darkflare stepped forward, a massive grin upon his muzzle as he stared up at the metal before him.

“Jackpot,” he muttered under his breath, his horn lighting up with crimson light. Around him, the other unicorns pushed forward, preparing. The Archmage watched with a cold gaze, his brow furrowed.

With a flash, Darkflare released his spell. There was a horrible screeching noise as the metal was suddenly split apart. In a shower of iron and rock, the end of the tunnel caved in.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“They could use it as a distraction,” Sunny whispered, her eyes widening as she realized the implications of what the guards had been getting at.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Fresh air flooded the tunnel, clearing dust and debris away from the coughing unicorns. They gazed up at the newly made entryway, squinting as fluorescent light flooded the dark gloom of the tunnel.

Darkflare glanced back at the Archmage, who looking at him through the magical barrier he had erected to protect himself from the cascade of earth and iron. The pair stared at each other for several seconds before, with a snort, Darkflare turned and began to ascend the makeshift ramp of debris.

He could not help the dark chuckle that escaped his lips as he stepped up, out of the tunnel, and took his first steps into the Human Research Facility of Canterlot.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Dusty Withers sighed, rubbing at her tired eyes with a hoof. The desk in front of her was covered with scrolls and folders stuffed full of paperwork. An inkwell, nearly empty, rested at the edge of the desk, in danger of being pushed off by the massive pile of paper. Soft music played in the background, provided by a nearby record player.

She sorted through the sea of papers, trying and failing to suppress a yawn. Eventually, she found the form she was looking for, pulling it free and clipping it to her clipboard. Finishing off her mug of coffee, she turned and trotted from her office, heading down the hall with a purpose.

She passed several doors before halting in front of the one she wanted. Pulling her ID card from her pocket, she quickly swiped it, unlocking the door. She pushed it open, making sure that it closed tightly behind her.

Looking around the large lab, she sighed again before moving to glance down into one of the pits built into the floor. Through the hole she could see one of the facility's multiple holding cells, built to look like a natural environment, complete with a small pond and an actual living tree.

The sole inhabitant of the cell, a human female with light blonde hair, glanced up at Withers briefly before returning to cleaning herself in the pond. Withers watched her for a few more minutes before turning and heading towards the back of the lab and the door positioned there.

Pulling out her ID card, she swiped it again. The door clicked open and she entered.

Cages lined the dimly lit room, full of humans. The cages were large, allowing the humans a comfortable amount of space to move around in. The padded floors were heated, piles of faux fur lying in the corners of each cage, providing bedding for the humans. Each cage had a large water dispenser equipped to one of the walls, providing the inhabitant with over ten-gallons of water, that was refilled daily.

Despite PATH’s insistence to the contrary, the Facility treated its human residents very well.

Weaving her way through the cages, Withers eyed their identification tags until she found the one she was looking for. Glancing at the inhabitant—a young male—she grabbed a leash hanging from a hook on the cage.

Opening the door, she entered the cage, quickly clipping the leash to the human’s collar as he stood up. With that, she led him out of the cage, and towards the door to the labs. The other humans watched through the bars of their cages as Withers led their companion along.

The human chirped softly as she fumbled with her ID. After several attempts, Withers finally managed to get the door open and, with a gentle tug, she directed the human through the door and into the lab.

Using a treat, she managed to get the human onto an examination table, and strapped him down. Once the human was properly restrained, Withers picked up her clipboard, and started working.

“Human male,” Withers muttered as she wrote, the quill clasped in her hoof. “Name is Zane, identification number 53595.” Glancing at one of the machines attached to the examination table, she squinted at the data. “Heart rate and blood pressure is normal. His dietary meat substitute appears to be having no negative effects on his vitals. Weight is still the same, so we might try increasing the amount of food he receives.” She gave Zane a warm smile.

“Would you like that, hon?” she cooed, rubbing his head with a hoof. “Extra food, that sound good to you?” Zane chirped, leaning his head into the ministration. “Thought so,” Withers said with a smirk.

Stopping her petting, Withers picked up a syringe from a nearby table. Cooing softly to Zane, she fiddled with the needle for several seconds before managing to prick a vein and drain some blood. Capping off the vial, she tagged it before placing it within a nearby refrigerated cabinet. “Blood sample taken. Will need to get a semen sample before the week is out. I’ll have to inform Lovecraft about that. She always enjoys that part of the job.” Withers shivered, earning her a small chirp from the human.

“You’re being a very good boy, Zane,” she cooed as the human strained slightly at the straps. “Just one more thing, hon, then we’ll get you off of the table.” Picking up a nearby thermometer, she pressed it against Zane’s forehead and activated it. After several seconds, the device beeped and she pulled it away to look at it.

“Temperature is eighty-six point three degrees. Excellent,” Withers said with a smile. “Looks like you’ve got another clean bill of health, Zane.” Placing the thermometer down, she moved around and began to unstrap Zane from the table.

Once the last strap had fallen away, the human sat up, rubbing at his wrists as he chirped softly.

“Come along, Zane,” Withers said as she took a hold of the leash. “I’ve got a little bit of a treat for you.” Moving the human to a nearby table, she sat him down in a chair. Once Zane was situated, Withers opened a drawer located beneath the table and pulled out a plastic graduated cylinder, a wide beaker, and a small bottle of apple cider.

Placing the cylinder and beaker in front of Zane, she cracked open the cider and poured more into the beaker than the cylinder. Zane reached forward, but stopped as Withers held up a hoof.

“Hold,” she instructed firmly. After a brief pause, she lowered her hoof and motioned towards the containers. “Which?”

Zane reached forward again, only to pause, his hand hovering over the cylinder. His brow furrowed as his eyes darted back and forth between the two differently sized containers. Withers noted his hesitation with a tilt of her head.

Picking up her quill, she jotted down a quick note, all while keeping her eyes locked on Zane. “Subject 53595 shows some hesitation during beaker test, despite previous data.”

As she watched, Zane scrunched up his face and grunted. Clenching his hand once, he then reached forward and picked up the beaker with more cider in it.

As he drained the container of its sweet substance, Withers raised an eyebrow.

“Odd,” she muttered, marking down the result. “That’s the first time he’s picked that one.” Taking the now empty beaker from Zane, she refilled it before placing it back down upon the table. Quickly switching the beaker and the cylinder’s positions, she glanced up at the human. “Which?” Again, Zane reached for the beaker, this time with less hesitation.

Withers ran the experiment several more times, each one resulting in the same result. When the cider finally ran out, Withers started at Zane, her mane slightly disheveled.

“That doesn’t make sense,” she muttered, rubbing her temples with her hooves. “They never pick the beakers. Never!” She eyed the human for several seconds before reaching under the table and pulling out three cups and a treat.

Placing the treat onto the table, Withers quickly covered it with a cup. Placing the other two cups down on the table as well, she quickly mixed up their positions until even she didn’t know where the treat was.

Glancing up at Zane, she motioned to the cups and asked, “Which?”

Zane hesitated, just for a moment, before reaching forward and picking up the rightmost cup, exposing the treat underneath. Wither could only sit there in stunned silence, staring as Zane happily munched away on the treat.

“I don’t believe it,” she muttered, shaking her head. Picking up the quill, she quickly marked down the results on the clipboard.

She had just finished writing down her notes when Zane gave off a pained whine, almost like a growl in the back of his throat. Glancing up, Withers gave him a concerned look. “What’s wrong, boy?”

Zane whined again, his eyes darting to something located behind Withers. Her brows furrowed, and she gave the human a confused look before glancing over her shoulder.

Withers froze, her teal eyes going wide as she suddenly came muzzle to muzzle with a crimson unicorn. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared into his cold, blue eyes.

He grinned at her, a grin that sent shivers down her spine and seemed to chill her very soul. “Hello.”

Before Withers could answer, the unicorn’s horn lit up and a band of magic wrapped itself around her throat, lifting her out of her seat. Struggling frantically, Withers gasped for breath as her hooves dangled just off of the floor. Zane chirped loudly, clearly distressed at what was happening to his handler.

“Oh, don’t worry, darlin’,” the unicorn chuckled, his magical grip on her remaining firm. “We won’t be long.” As he spoke, more unicorns emerged into the room from out of one of the observation pits, using a series of ropes to claw their way up.

Three of the intruders, lead by a unicorn in a black cowl, stalked towards the back room where the humans were kept. As they passed her, the lead unicorn’s horn lit up, and Withers’ ID card flew out of her pocket and over to the caster.

Withers began to struggle again as the unicorns swiped the card and opened the door.

“No, no,” the crimson unicorn chuckled, leering up at her. “Don’t worry, we know what we’re looking for. We can get it.” Withers let out a gurgling cry as the unicorns slipped into the human holding area.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up, “Darkflare, leave her! You have your orders!”

Darkflare glanced down, glaring at something behind Withers. He snorted once, rolling his eyes before looking back up at her. “Fine.” His horn suddenly surged brighter, and Withers yelped as she was flung across the room. She slammed into one of the examination tables, which proceeded to collapse beneath her, scattering medical supplies across the floor.

Withers could feel the right side of her face slowly beginning to swell as she tried to push herself up. She could only got her forehooves beneath her before a shadow fell over her. Craning her neck, she looked up into the familiar face of—

“Archmage?” Withers slurred out through her bruised jaw, squinting up at him. The stallion in question just stared down at her, a blank look on his face.

“You weren’t supposed to be here,” he said, his voice cold.

“I… w-what?” Withers wheezed, her forelegs trembling beneath her. The Archmage shook his head slightly, a dark scowl slowly spreading across his face.

“Stupid ponies,” he growled, causing Withers to flinch back. “Always sticking your muzzles where they don’t belong!” He about spat the words from his mouth, his eyes flashing red for the briefest of moments before returning to icy blue.

Withers opened her mouth, but paused, unsure of what to say. Her mind was fogged with pain and confusion, and she could feel blood slowly dripping from her muzzle.

Movement behind the Archmage caught her attention and, adjusting her position with a wince, she glanced around him.

A large group of unicorns were extracting the humans from their cages, herding them with sparks from their horns. The humans, scared and confused, just huddled together, whimpering.

“What are you doing with them?” Withers asked, her words garbled by the slow flow of blood in her mouth.

The Archmage just tsked. “That, my dear, is none of your concern.”

Withers opened her mouth to say something, anything, but was interrupted by a timid voice speaking up. “W-Witty?”

Glancing around the Archmage again, Withers blinked in surprise as another familiar face made itself known, poking out from behind one of the nearby machines.

“Golden?” she asked, not believing what she was seeing. Squinting, Withers tried to clear the haze from in front of her eyes, her foggy mind trying to process who was standing before her. “Golden? What are you doing here?”

Golden Ingot stared down at the crumpled mare, his eyes wide. “Witty?” he asked again, his voice trembling. Withers noted he looked terrible, his usually trim and proper mane disheveled and greasy. There were bags under his bloodshot eyes, and there was a thin layer of grime across his coat.

“G-Golden, you aren’t… you aren’t with them, are you?” she asked, casting a furtive glance towards the Archmage. He was watching the pair closely, a contemplative look in his eyes. She could almost see the gears in his head turning.

Suppressing a shiver, Withers looked back at Golden. Her eyes landed on his horn, and she gasped, before coughing as blood got into her lungs. “G-Golden, w-wha… why do you have a horn? W-what have you done?!”

Golden Ingot just shook his head, unable or unwilling to speak. Withers wasn’t sure which.

“P-please… please tell me you aren’t with them!” she said, her voice slowly becoming hysterical. “Please, Golden—”

“Well, this is truly an interesting turn of events,” the Archmage said suddenly, cutting Withers off. He looked back and forth between Golden and Withers, a large smile on his face. “I take it you two know each other?”

“Y-yes,” Golden said, nodding his head thickly. “We were… we were married, once.” The Archmage’s eyes widened, and his smile grew.

“That makes this even better,” he chuckled, the laughter seeming to suck the warmth from the air. The rest of the unicorns, having finished removing the humans from their cages, just stood in the background, watching silently.

Keeping his eyes locked on Withers, the Archmage slowly paced around until he was standing behind Golden. Leaning in, he hissed into the stallion’s ear, “Seeing as you are… familiar with this mare, I’ll give you the pleasure of killing her.”

Withers froze, her breath catching in her throat. Golden’s eyes shot open wide, and he took a step back, only to bump into the Archmage.

“You… you can’t be serious!” Golden croaked, his ears splaying backwards.

“Oh, but I am,” the Archmage growled, stalking around Golden as he continued to stare at Withers. “She has seen too much. No one was supposed to be here when we arrived. It’s just her bad luck that she decided to stay late to catch up on work. Seeing as we can’t very well take her with us, she must be disposed of.”

“B-but, what about that pegasus mare, the guard that you took with you out of the dungeon?” Golden stammered. “You took her hostage! Why not Witty?”

“Because we have one hostage too many,” the Archmage snarled, suddenly nose to nose with Golden. “It was never my plan to take the guard with us. That was all because of Darkflare’s stupidity. Luckily, it worked out for the best, and we now have an inside source of information. She—” he growled, pointing a hoof at the cowering form of Withers “—offers no such perk. She. Must. Be. Disposed. Of!”

“I…” Golden looked back and forth between the Archmage and Withers. “I… I can’t.”

The Archmage stopped circling, his ears perked. Slowly, he turned his head to stare at Golden, his gaze cold.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” he growled.

“I won’t,” Golden said, his voice slightly stronger than before. He glared at the Archmage, trying to intimidate him. However, it was countered by his shaking legs.

The Archmage stared at Ingot, his right eye narrowing slightly.

“I’m afraid,” he growled, his horn starting to spark, “you don’t have a choice!” Magic suddenly surged from the Archmage’s horn, erupting through the air towards Golden in a chaotic storm of energy. It struck him in the chest, immediately spreading across his body like fire.

Withers could only watch in horror as the sickly yellow magic surrounded Golden Ingot, seeming to seep into his coat. Said coat slowly began to lose its dirty golden color, switching instead to a dull, lifeless gray. His mane, as well as his eyes, followed suit, all losing their colors.

As soon as the last color had been drained from Golden’s coat, the magic around him ceased. He just stood there, staring off into the distance, a blank look upon his face.

“G-Golden?” Withers tentatively asked, swallowing thickly. His eyes snapped to her in an instant.

There was no warmth within his gaze. The twin orbs of gray stared down at her with an icy glare.

A sharp pain in her leg caused Withers to look down suddenly. There, stuck into her foreleg, was a syringe slowly emptying its contents into her body. Her eyes widened as she recognized it as the chemical they used on potentially aggressive humans.

On an average human, it relaxed the muscles, keeping the human calm. On a pony, however…

Withers could feel the cold, numbing sensation slowly seeping up her leg from the needle. Her leg wobbled slightly before collapsing beneath her weight. She whimpered as she heard the needle snap, part of it still stuck in her leg.

“Now,” the Archmage growled, the magic around his horn dying, causing the remains of the syringe to clatter to the ground. Glancing over at the now gray Golden Ingot, he motioned towards the crippled form of Withers. “If you would be so kind?”

Golden nodded once before advancing.

“G-Golden, w-what are you doing?” Withers slurred, the numb sensation slowly spreading across her bottom jaw. She tried to push herself back, away from the approaching stallion, but her legs weren’t responding. All she managed to do was topple backwards, her back landing against the tipped over examination table. She stared up at Golden, the whites of her eyes showing as the stallion paused in front of her.

“W-Why?” she choked out, barely able to move her jaw. “Why are you doing this?” Golden didn’t answer. Behind him, the Archmage chuckled darkly.

“Because, things do not happen,” he growled. “Things are made to happen.” Withers tried to reply, but couldn’t. Her jaw was no longer under her control. It just hung open, a trail of drool slowly dripping down onto her chest.

Reaching her body, Golden looked around, examining the scattered medical tools with a disinterested eye. He paused before leaning down to pick something up. Unable to move her head, Withers didn’t know what he was grabbing. All she could feel at the moment was her heart beating in her ears; the rest of her body now completely numb.

As Golden stood back up, Withers could see a large needle held in his hooves. The kind that they used to take blood samples from humans.

Golden stared at it for several seconds before, reaching up and removing the vial from the back of it. Leaning over, he grabbed her forehoof in his.

Withers tried to cry out, tried to scream for help, as she watched Golden slowly lower the needle to the vein in her leg. She couldn’t do anything to stop it, though. She could only watch in horror as the pony that used to be her husband pushed the needle into her leg. There was a brief moment in which nothing happened, but then, slowly, blood began to trickle from the opening. It flowed down her foreleg to where it started to pool on the tiled floor.

Picking up another needle, Golden did the same thing with her other foreleg before standing up and backing away. Twin rivers of blood flowed down Withers legs, staining her fur red. With the muscle relaxer now in full effect, she could only watch, trapped within her own body, as the life-giving substance was slowly drained from her body.

Golden snorted once before turning his back on her. Looking over at the Archmage, he tilted his head to the side, his face still expressionless.

“Good boy,” the Archmage grinned.

“This is all grand,” Darkflare grumbled from across the room, “but how are we going to get out of here? There’s no way we’re getting our humans, as well as these new ones, back down the tunnel before the guards arrive.”

“Don’t worry,” the Archmage said, waving a hoof through the air.

“Don’t worry?” Darkflare snarled, his hackles raising. “We have the entire Guard looking for us, we’ve just broken into a private facility in Canterlot Castle, we’re basically standing in the princesses' lap, and you tell me not to worry?! What are we just going to do? Just waltz out of here with an armed escort?” Just as he finished speaking, the door behind the Archmage swung open, revealing two Battlemages, decked out in their battle armor.

The intruders froze, their eyes widening at the sight of the armored guards. Horns began to glow, spells being prepared to be cast. Darkflare swore explosively, his eyes narrowing. The Battlemages just stood there, their expressions stoic. They didn’t seem at all surprised to see the group of unicorns within the lab, nor the humans out of their cages.

A smirk slowly spread across the Archmage’s face, and he chuckled. Ignoring the two Battlemages behind him, he looked at Darkflare before saying, “That, my buddy, is the plan.”

One of the Battlemages, a dark stallion with a light green mane, stepped forward and threw a salute.

“Sir, the passageway is clear,” he said, his voice firm. “We have to move quickly before the next patrol arrives. We have about fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you, Sergeant Glory,” the Archmage said, glancing over his shoulder at the stallion. Turning back to the stunned gang, he motioned with his hoof. “Coming, gentlemen? We shouldn’t keep our escort waiting.”

“I don’t believe it,” breathed Darkflare, slowly shaking his head. A smile slowly spread across his muzzle and he laughed. “You bloody bastard! You weren’t kiddin’ when you said you had influence in high places.”

Darkflare laughed again before turning and barking orders at the other unicorns, causing them to jump to attention. Horns began to spark, and, slowly but steadily, the pack of humans began to inch their way towards the main door of the lab. The Battlemages took the lead, guiding the unicorns and humans down the hallway.

Soon, only a few unicorns remained, trying their hardest to rally a female human that was being difficult. Every time they tried to move her forward, she jumped to the side, hissing at the unicorns.

“What’s the matter?” Darkflare hissed, glaring at the struggling unicorns. “We need to leave. Get her moving now!”

“We’re trying,” one of the unicorns whined. “She’s touched in the head!”

Darkflare opened his mouth to shout at them, but stopped when the Archmage held up a hoof.

“You all get out of here,” he said calmly, nodding towards the door. “I’ll handle this one.” Darkflare snorted once, but did as he was told. The unicorns filed out, leaving the human, the Archmage, and the bleeding form of Withers alone in the lab.

Silence fell over the room, broken only by the soft ‘drip’ of blood falling to the floor. The human looked at the Archmage in confusion, her body still tense. She shifted back and forth upon her heels, obviously waiting for him to make the first move.

For his part, the Archmage just stood there, his eyes closed as he took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he glanced over at Withers. The pool of blood she was lying in had grown to an alarming size. The fetlocks on her forelegs were soaked in the crimson liquid that was dripping down from the needles embedded in her legs. Her eyes, once so full of life, were slowly beginning to dull over, her chest barely rising with each breath.

The Archmage watched her for several seconds before snorting. Leaving the mare to her fate, he turned instead to study the human female.

She was taller than average, yet thin; her lanky body almost looking sickly in appearance. Her blood-red hair was long, hanging down well over her shoulders. She watched the Archmage intently with bright green eyes, her brow furrowed.

The Archmage’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the human, his head tilting to the side. After several seconds, his horn started glowing. The human took a step back, growling. The magic wrapped around the Archmage’s throat, and he smiled.

“Hello, there.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Sunny looked around at the carnage with a green face. Coming Dawn guards flitted back and forth around the room, searching for anything that could have been left behind. A medic was tending to the mare that was currently lying in a pool of her own blood, his face grim. He examined her body closely before, with a sigh, he glanced up at Ivory and shook his head.

Ivory swore explosively before kicking a nearby table, causing it to topple over. “Mother bucker!”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Sunny groaned, covering her mouth with a hoof. Turning her head away, she tried to get the image of the bloodied mare out of her head, but failed utterly. She could still see her vacant eyes, staring into nothingness.

“That just ain’t right,” Stacker muttered, shaking his head.

“It gets worse,” the medic grunted, standing up, his knees soaked in blood.

“How?” Ivory asked sharply, her eyes narrowing as her nostrils flared.

“Given what I’m seeing here, she was conscious the whole time she was bleeding out. There were traces of a human-strength muscle relaxant in her system. She bled to death, and there was nothing she could do about it.” Sunny heaved once before rushing over the nearest garbage can and emptying the contents of her stomach into it.

“It appears you were right, Ms. Breeze,” Ivory sighed, speaking over the sound of Sunny’s retching.

“What I don’t understand is, why did none of the regular guards hear this?” Stacker asked, glancing around at the room. “With this much destruction, somepony had to have heard it.”

“I talked with the Battlemages that were patrolling the area at the time,” Ivory said, eyeing the dead mare. “They swear they heard nothing at all that would indicate something was wrong. All was quiet.

“The only thing I don’t understand is—” she tore her gaze away from the blood and glanced around at the disheveled room “—where the buck did they disappear to? Fifty-five humans just up and vanish into the void?”

“Could they have snuck out through the hallway?” Sunny asked, lifting her head out of the waste bin.

“No, the guards would have seen them,” Stacker said with a shake of his head. “A group of unicorns leading a pack of humans? Not very subtle.” Sunny licked her teeth before spitting into the waste bin.

Everyone paused, their ears perking up, as a shout came from within one of the observation pits.“Ma’am, you need to see this!”

Sunny pulled herself from the bin with a groan, moving along with Stacker and Ivory to stand beside the observation room’s railing. Glancing down into the pit, she blinked in surprise when she saw one of the Coming Dawn guards standing next to a hole that had been torn into the floor.

“What do you have?” Stacker called down to the guard.

“It appears to be a tunnel, sir!” she called back. “I’m not sure where it leads, but the metal is warped inwards. I think it’s easy to say that they came in through here.”

“Then it’s easy to say that’s how they got out too,” Ivory growled. Lighting up her horn, she jumped over the railing and into the pit. Her horn flashed once, slowing her fall. Stacker flared his wings before jumping in too, Sunny following behind him.

“What’s the plan, lieutenant?” Stacker asked, glancing into the hole.

“We follow them,” Ivory growled. Her horn began to glow bright red and she jumped into the darkness below. Stacker glanced over at Sunny, giving her a quick nod before jumping in as well.

Sunny sighed once, shaking her head as she looked down into the tunnel.

“I hate being right,” she muttered to herself before, with a deep breath, she leapt into the tunnel, the guard following behind her.

The group traveled down the tunnel, the only light provided coming from Ivory’s horn. Stacker eyed the walls of the tunnel as he walked, a small frown on his face.

“Hand-carved,” he grunted. “Looks like it was dug by humans. I wonder how long they were at this.”

“Um, shouldn’t we have brought more guards with us?” Sunny asked, glancing around nervously. “What if this leads back to their hideout?”

“It won’t,” Ivory said, not glancing back. “We aren’t that lucky.”

They followed the tunnel for what seemed like forever. Sunny wasn’t sure how long they were down in the tunnel, but it seemed to stretch on for miles. Right when she was about to ask if they could turn around and head back, a glimmer of light appeared in the distance.

“Looks like the entrance,” Stacker grunted, eyeing the light cautiously.

“Yeah,” Ivory said before pausing. She sniffed the air tentatively. “You smell that?”

Stacker and Sunny sniffed the air as well.

“Fresh air?” Stacker muttered, blinking in confusion.

“But we’re underground,” Sunny said, taking another sniff. It was indeed fresh air, the faint hint of grass and trees carried through the air. A faint breeze ran across their coat, flowing deeper into the tunnel.

"I don’t…” Sunny began, but trailed off as the light grew, revealing the end of the tunnel.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” the guard muttered, her eyes widening.

“Oh, they’re just fucking with us now,” Stacker growled, shaking his head.

The tunnel came to an abrupt end, moonlight streaming in through a large circular hole. The floor of the tunnel dropped off in a sheer cliff, that extended hundreds of feet to the rocky ground below.

Sunny stuck her head out into the night air, glancing around in confusion. Her eyes widened when she realized what she was seeing.

The tunnel’s entrance originated from the side of Canterlot’s mountain.

“Well, I really don’t want to say it, but I think it’s safe to say that they didn’t go this way. That is, unless they taught the humans how to fly,” Stacker said before sighing in frustration. “Buck…”

Ivory stared out at the countryside of Equestria with a blank look on her face. She could see Ponyville in the distance, the soft glow of the streetlamps barely visible in the nocturnal gloom. She chewed on the inside of her cheek for several seconds before sighing explosively.

Shaking her head, she muttered, “Tempest is going to kill me.”

Author's Note

"The blood of the innocent is a precious thing, yet it is often wasted by the strong in order to water their so-called 'tree of peace'."

~Star Swirl the Bearded

Chapter 48: The Ship Sets Sail

Their bodies were entangled in a writhing mass of pleasure, and Twilight couldn’t help the happy moan that escaped her lips. Pleasure coursed through her body, clouding her mind and dulling her senses to everything but the heat within her core.

She moaned again, this time a little louder as the pressure within her grew. Wrapping her hooves around his neck, she pulled him down, locking lips. She hummed as her tongue explored his mouth, shivering at the feeling of his tongue on hers. He tasted sweet, and she instantly found herself enjoying the experience.

She groaned into his mouth, thrusting her hips in need. Another thrust, and she purred happily, enjoying the sudden full feeling he provided her. Her wings flared, and she broke the kiss with a loud ‘pop’, breathing heavily.

“So good,” she murmured, her tongue lolling from her mouth. She wiggled her hips, her eyes unfocused as she basked in the sensation.

As she laid there, in pure bliss, she felt him lean over her. Teeth scraped gently at her neck, sending shivers down her spine. Groaning again, she leaned into the sensation. She wanted more, she needed more, and the fire within her core demanded it.

“More,” she muttered, reaching up and pulling him down on top of her. Flexing her stiff wings, she managed to fold them around him, encasing him within a heated, feathery wall. Wrapping her legs around him, she made sure he couldn’t back out. “More…”

Twilight thrusted her hips again, pushing up against him as he pushed down upon her. Using her wings, she forced him deep within her, cooing in pleasure as he hit all the right places.

This was paradise, this was Elysium, and she didn’t want to leave. He was here with her, and that was all she needed.

He leaned down suddenly, surprising her as he started nibbling gently on her wing. Twilight let out a yelp, which quickly dissolved into a lust-filled moan as he worked his way down to the base of her wing. Her wings twitched once, and he continued his biting with renewed vigor.

It was so good, so perfect, that she wished it could stay like this forever.

“Please,” she moaned, nuzzling his cheek…

…don’t leave me.”

Twilight stirred, blinking sleep from her eyes in confusion. Her body was uncomfortably hot; warm waves of pleasure coursing through her, making her shiver even as her half-asleep mind tried to figure out what was going on. Her face was flushed, her heart beating an impressive tempo within her chest.

Lifting her head and glancing around, she realized that she was in her bedroom. Her sheets were twisted around her sweaty body, preventing her stiff wings from expanding to their full width. Sunlight streamed through the window, informing her that she had overslept.

Running a hoof through her disheveled mane, Twilight tried to clear her foggy mind. From underneath the covers, her tail twitched.

As she sat there, disoriented, a muffled clattering noise reached her ears, coming from the kitchen. It sounded like somepony was downstairs fixing breakfast. Perking up her ears, she listened closely. It was faint—barely audible beneath the sound of dishes—but she could just make out the sound of humming.

Twilight swallowed thickly, rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. She shook her head once to clear it, before untangling herself from the sheets. Stifling a yawn, she pushed herself to the edge of the bed. She moaned as her nethers dragged across the bedspread, a burst of pleasure jolting up her spine. Her wings snapped open, and she couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran through her body. The warmth within her chest grew.

Twilight froze in sudden realization, her half-asleep mind finally registering the data her body was sending her. She inhaled sharply, and was immediately assaulted by a particular, musky scent. Her ears splayed backwards as her eyes widened.

"Oh no,” she whispered in horror, her wings twitching by her sides. “I’m in heat…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I, for the life of me, couldn’t figure out why the entire week was marked in red on the calendar. There was nothing written with it to explain if Twilight had anything planned, and she hadn’t mentioned any week-long plans with me.

Yet, there it was: the first week of the new month, and it was marked in red.

I stared at it for a few more seconds before shrugging, making a mental note to ask Twilight about it later. Hopefully it wasn’t a week-long reorganization of the library; I’d go crash with Fluttershy if that was the case. I was fond of Twilight, but there was no way in Hell I was going to spend all week moving books from shelf to shelf for her. The library was fine the way it was, no matter how much she wanted to reorganize.

Besides, she was usually the only one who knew where any of the books were for the first couple of days afterwards.

Nodding to myself, I turned and began to rummage around the different cabinets in the kitchen, looking for breakfast. We certainly had enough food; the whole place looked like Twilight had stocked it to the brim within the past couple of days. However, nothing really looked good to me at the moment. I eyed a couple of apples tentatively, before shaking my head and moving on.

Eventually, I settled on pancakes. An unoriginal default, but a good one, especially with the bag of chocolate chips I found in the pantry.

Humming happily to myself, I started mixing the ingredients together in a large bowl, working the lumps out of the mix to the best of my ability. A cook I was not, but I could at least make pancakes. And ramen. Being an ex-college student had its perks, even if I was slightly rusty.

I had just about finished making the batter when I heard a loud yelp and a crash emanate from upstairs. Glancing up at the ceiling, I cocked my head to the side, confused and slightly concerned. Spike was out, taking something or other to Rarity’s. I’m not sure what exactly, I was only half-listening when he had told me. The guards were all downstairs, and the basement door hadn’t opened yet, so that only left Twilight.

What is she… Another thud from upstairs interrupted my thought, and I frowned, my brow furrowing. That didn’t sound good. Placing the mixing bowl onto the counter, I wiped my hands on my shirt before exiting the kitchen.

The library was quiet, not yet open to the public (like anyone ever came here anyways). One of the windows was open, allowing a warm, gentle breeze to drift lazily inside. The distant sound of birdsong could be heard, along with the low murmur of ponies already in the marketplace. It was turning out to be a decent spring day.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I glanced upwards. Listening closely, I tried to make out any more noise coming from upstairs, but I couldn’t hear anything. I considered calling up to Twilight to see if she was alright, but I highly doubted that she would be able to hear my signing from all the way up in her bedroom.

Scratching at my beard, I ran through my options for a brief moment before, with a grunt, I began to make my way up the stairs.

~Twilight?~ I signed as I neared her bedroom. When I received no response, I paused just outside of the entryway. With no door, I had nothing to knock on. Cautiously, I poked my head into her room and glanced around, ready to retreat should I be prying into something private.

However, she was nowhere to be seen.

~Twilight?~ I asked again as I stepped into her room. Glancing around, I realized that I had never really seen Twilight’s room before. Sure, I had been in it a couple of times since coming to the library, but I had never really gotten a good chance to look around. Mostly out of respect, I had avoided being in her room without permission.

Like the library below, bookshelves were carved into the wooden walls, Twilight’s personal collection neatly displayed. Her bed appeared to be on something akin to a raised platform, a set of wooden stairs leading up to the elevated loft. Her bedsheets were disheveled, hanging haphazardly off of the edge of the mattress. A desk rested in the corner of the room, covered in scrolls and books. Sunlight streamed in through the window beside her bed, giving the room a homey look.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I glanced around. I could have sworn the thud had come from up here, but there was no Twilight. I didn’t hear her in the bathroom, so that was out. Where the hell is she?

~Twilight?~ I signed, inching further into the room. ~Twilight, you in here?~ Silence greeted me, and I hummed thoughtfully as I continued to look around.

That’s when the smell hit me.

It wasn’t overly unpleasant, musky yet sweet, with a hint of spice behind it that tickled my nostrils. Scrunching up my nose, I sniffed again, trying to identify the scent. It was… familiar, yet I couldn’t remember where exactly I had smelled it before.

Taking another, deeper sniff, I paused before signing, ~Twilight?~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Covering her mouth with a hoof to stifle her breathing, Twilight sunk deeper into her closet. From between the wooden slots of the closet door, she could see Max standing in her bedroom, a bemused look on his face.

No, no, no, no, she chanted mentally, dancing silently in place. She could feel her tail flick to the side and quickly bit her lip to keep herself under control. It was really hard, though, with the object of her affection standing just on the other side of the door. Just out of reach.

As she stood there, in the gloom of her closet, Twilight cursed her luck. She had tripped on her blankets in her hurry to get out of bed. This had then caused her to fall down the loft’s stairs, the noise obviously attracting Max.

She had panicked when she had heard him coming up the stairs and had made a beeline for the nearest cover: her open closet. She had barely made it inside in time, closing the door just as he had stuck his head into the room. Now, he was standing between her and her estrus medication, and she didn’t trust herself to get past Max to get it.

Please leave, she begged Max silently. Please leave, please leave, please leave. She needed to get to the medication before she lost her cool, but she couldn’t risk getting too close to Max, or else…

She shivered, her eyes widening as her face flushed dark red. No, don’t think those thoughts! she whimpered as her tail flicked again. Instinctively, her hind legs clenched together, and she groaned in despair.

Keep it together, Twilight,she thought, tears slowly welling up in her eyes. This was not good. If Max didn’t leave soon, she wouldn’t… she couldn’t…

She froze as Max suddenly took a deep breath through his nose, his expression turning confused. She could only stand there, mortified and slightly aroused, as she realized that Max was probably smelling her heated scent. Tears slowly began to slide down her cheeks as she felt herself wink.

Please, she whimpered, not like this. Not like this. Please, Max, leave!

~Twilight?~ he suddenly asked, glancing around the room. Twilight inhaled sharply as he looked towards the closet, only for her to sigh in relief when his gaze didn’t linger. Swallowing thickly, she tried to blink back her tears, but failed.

P-please… you need to… leave...

She could feel her mind growing fuzzy, the heat inside of her growing at an alarming rate. She bit into her lip harder, almost to the point of drawing blood.

You n-need to l… -l-lea…

Her legs grew weak, her body suddenly heavy. She swayed back and forth drunkenly, staring blankly out at Max.

You n-n-need to l-le… l-l-le…

Her nostrils flared, and her pupils constricted to mere pinpricks as his scent suddenly flooded her nose, drifting in through the cracks in the closet door.

“...need to l-love me…” she muttered under her breath, a large smile slowly spreading across her muzzle.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Scratching my chin, I continued to glance around the vacant room. My eyes landed on Twilight’s desk, and humming thoughtfully to myself, I slowly made my way over to it.

Shifting through the mass of books and papers, I glanced through the content curiously. There were a couple of letters, which I just pushed aside without reading, along with what looked like detailed reports about Winter Wrap Up.

One of the books, buried under a bunch of papers with diagrams drawn on them, caught my eye. Pushing the papers carefully aside, I pulled the book out from beneath the pile. I glanced at the cover of the book, which bore a weird arcane symbol and the golden letters ‘Advanced Transformations and Transmutations’.

Cocking my head to the side, I cracked the book open and idly flipped through the pages. I stopped on what looked like chapter one and read the chapter title. ‘The Law of Equivalent Exchange’?

I scrunched up my face before closing the book and placing it back on top of the desk. Deciding to leave the rest of Twilight’s things alone, I figured I’d continue my searching elsewhere.

I turned to leave, only to yelp in surprise when Twilight suddenly appeared in front of me, my blind spot hiding her presence until I turned. Placing a hand on my chest, I took a deep breath before chuckling weakly, my heart attempting to escape from my ribs. God damn it. I need to put a bell on her or something.

Lowering my hand, I smiled at her and started to sign ‘good morning’, but stopped when I caught sight of her face.

Tears were slowly rolling down her cheeks, matting her fur. Her pupils were pinpricks, the whites of her eyes slightly red. Both ears were splayed back, the right one twitching occasionally, almost like an invisible fly was annoying her. In contrast, she had a large smile on her face, almost to the point of being creepy. Her tail swished back and forth behind her.

Taking a step back in surprise, I gave her a tentative smile.

~There you are~ I signed. ~I was wondering where you went~ I paused, eyeing her closely. ~Twilight, are you… alright?~

“Oh, yes,” she said, nodding her head. Her eye twitched, and her smile somehow grew larger.

~Are you sure?~ I asked, my brow furrowing. ~You’re kind of crying right now~ Twilight cocked her head to the side, more tears spilling from her eyes as she giggled.

“Of course I’m sure,” she laughed. “I’m fine, really. There’s nothing wrong. Everything’s alright.” Her voice lowered, and her eyelids fluttered slightly. “Everything’s alright,” she repeated, taking a step forward, “especially now that you’re here. With me.”

~I see~ I signed slowly, the first fingers of fear slowly creeping up on me as I took another step back. I didn’t like the way she was looking at me. It reminded me of a wolf looking at a piece of meat. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that I should probably be leaving as soon as possible.

But… it’s Twilight. She wouldn’t do anything to me… right?

“Have I ever told you how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me?” she said, continuing to walk forward. Or maybe not.

~I haven’t really done that much~ I replied, trying to keep the same distance between us as before. My heel bumped against the stairs to the loft, and, with nowhere left to go, I slowly started backing up the steps, Twilight following after me. Something was definitely wrong here, I just didn’t know what it was. Maybe she’s sick, I thought, noting her flushed face. A fever, perhaps? Or maybe it’s stress related. A potion?

“You’ve done more than you think,” Twilight replied, her eyelids lowering. “I’ve never really shown you how grateful I am, have I? Well,” she purred, wings flaring, “how about I give you a little… reward? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Her voice almost became sultry and her tail raised.

My eyes widened and I inhaled sharply, the sweet scent once again flooding my nose, this time stronger than before. I stared at her in shock as my mind processed what she had just said. I remember hearing that exact same tone of voice before. It was the same tone that most mares used when they were trying to get me to follow them for… questionable activities. I’ve never heard Twilight use it before.

After hearing it come from her, though, I wasn’t sure if I was scared or excited.

She’s not serious, is she? I thought, staring down at the smiling alicorn. I was dimly aware of the fact that my mouth had become uncomfortably dry. She’s gotta be joking. I laughed, smiling weakly at her.

~Very funny, Twilight~ I signed. ~You got me~ She continued to slowly approach me, her hips now swaying back and forth seductively. I cursed as I felt my face flush. ~Who put you up to this? Rainbow? Pinkie?~

“Oh, nopony put me up to this,” Twilight laughed. “I just thought that I could give my human a treat he—undoubtedly—deserves.” I was now on top of the loft, Twilight slowly backing me towards her bed. She licked her lips, her gaze not wavering from mine.

~Twilight, you’re starting to scare me here~ I signed, the smile no longer on my face. This caused her to pause, her head tilting to the side as she eyed me curiously. Her tail swished back and forth as her hind legs slowly kneaded into the floor beneath her.

“‘Scared’?” she parrotted, her right ear flicking. A creepy, loving smile spread across her muzzle and she slipped closer to me. “There’s no reason to be scared. We’re going to have so much fun.”

Right, I thought as the back of my legs bumped against her bed. Reasoning with her is out, so… My eye flicked towards the bedroom’s entryway and the safety of the hall beyond it. If I could just get downstairs, to the basement, I could get the guards to help me figure out what was wrong with Twilight. It was only about a five-foot drop to the floor below the loft. I could make it relatively easily. I just had to get around Twilight, and her magic.

Easier said than done, I sighed.

Unfortunately, she seemed to guess what I was planning, because her wings flared wide, blocking my escape route.

“Ah, ah, ah,” she giggled, “I don’t think so.”

~Twilight~ I signed, swallowing nervously. ~I really don’t like this~

“But we haven’t even started yet,” she giggled again, her tail flicking back and forth with more energy.

~You’re making me uncomfortable here~ I signed, growling softly in the back of my throat. What the fuck has gotten into her? This is not like Twilight at all! Twilight would never act like this; she was always adamant about keeping sex-crazed mares away from me, she always made a big deal about giving me privacy when I had to change clothes, and she got uncomfortable around sex jokes (which Rainbow took huge advantage of whenever she could).

This wasn’t the same Twilight; she appeared to already be undressing me in her mind.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she smirked, gazing up at me with smoldering eyes that caused the heat in my cheeks to grow stronger. “You’ll feel real comfortable here in a second.”

Deciding to take a chance at freedom, I started inching along the bedside, heading for the lip of the loft. A few feet separated me from freedom. ~If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to have to decline your offer~

I froze as a rose-colored barrier sprang up in front of me, preventing my escape.

“There are only two ways you’re getting out of here,” Twilight said, her eyes narrowing playfully. “Receiving your reward… or jumping out the window.” I stared down at Twilight before glancing behind me at the aforementioned window.

I looked back and forth between the two a couple of times before, with a loud sigh, I made my decision.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

You know, I thought as I laid on my back, gasping for air, I probably should’ve put more thought into this. High above me, Twilight stuck her head out of the broken window, a shocked look on her face. “Max!”

Her head disappeared from view, before I heard the distinct ‘clop’ of hooves quickly fading away. If I had to hazard a guess, she was sprinting for the stairs. At least she had forgotten she had wings; I really didn’t need to have her flying down after me right now.

Groaning loudly, I rolled over onto my stomach—being mindful of the glass shards beneath me—before pushing myself up. My back was sore from the fall. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that Twilight’s bedroom window was located three stories above the ground. However, due to an incredible stroke of luck, I had hit a thin branch on the way down, slowing my fall. I’d have a bruise on my back, but no broken bones. No cuts from the glass either, I think. There wasn’t any blood, at least. I’d have to check later.

As I stood up, brushing pieces of glass and dirt from my clothing, I glanced around. Ponies stopped dead in the street, staring at me with varying levels of shock plastered upon their faces. One mare in particular looked horrified, the flowers she had been holding in her mouth now down upon the ground along with her bottom jaw. I think her name was Lily, or something.

I glanced around at the crowd, a blank expression upon my face. It was quiet, nobody making any noise.

I adjusted my shirt, maintaining my blank look.

The ponies continued to stare.

A loud crash and a yelp came from within the library behind me, sounding like it came from the ground floor. The noise caused all of the ponies to jump.

Welp, time for me to get moving, I thought. Straightening up, I sniffed once before taking off down the street, heading for the marketplace. As I ran, ponies scattered in front of me, clearing a path. I heard the library door slam open behind me, and Twilight shouted something that I couldn’t make out.

I didn’t really care, though. Right now I had to get as far away from her as possible.

I raced through the marketplace, no real destination in mind as I ducked and dodged around ponies. Spotting a familiar stand, I changed directions and quickly made a beeline towards it.

Diving the last couple of feet, I rolled underneath the stand, much to the surprise of the pony manning it.

“What the—” Applejack yelped as I came to a stop at her hooves. She stared down at me, a blank look on her face as her mind tried to process what had happened. Her eyes widened as she recognized me, a red tinge touching her cheeks.

“M-Max, what are ya doin’ here?” she asked, taking a step back to give me more room. Unable to respond, seeing as I left my notebooks in the library, I just held a finger up to my lips, shushing her.

“But, sugarcube, ya really shouldn’t be out here this time of ye—” I reached forward, clamping a hand over her muzzle to silence her. Her eyes widened, the red in her cheeks growing darker.

I ignored her, instead slowly peeking out over the top of the stall and the apples displayed there. Ponies were looking over at us curiously, and several mares had their ears perked. Surprisingly, I noticed that there weren’t that many stallions out and about today. In fact, I only saw one: the old, grizzled window washer who was slowly working his way around town hall.

Taking a quick glance around, I sighed when I saw no sign of Twilight anywhere. Releasing Applejack’s muzzle, I stood up.

“Max, you should really get back tah the library,” she said as I dusted off my pants. “It’s probably not a good idea for ya tah be out around town today.” I shook my head, pointing in the direction of Fluttershy’s house. I was gonna go hunker down with her until I could come up with an actual plan.

Applejack shook her head, worry clear on her face. “No, sugarcube. Ya need tah head back to the library now. Trust me on this—”

“Max!” The faint sound of Twilight’s cry could be heard over the sound of the marketplace, causing Applejack to pause. I inhaled sharply, my eyes widening as I ducked down behind the stall again.

Applejack gave me a confused look, her head tilting to the side. “What are ya…” She trailed off, her eyes widening as a shocked look crossed her face. “Oh, buck. Ya don’t know—”

“Max!” The cry was closer this time, and without waiting for Applejack to finish, I was off like a rocket, speeding through the crowded marketplace as I headed towards Fluttershy’s.

My bare feet pounded against the dirt road as buildings flew past me. I was able to reach the edge of town without any complications. As the last of the buildings passed by, I left the road, trading hard dirt for soft grass. Running parallel to the road, I chanced a glance back to see if I was being followed. The only pony I saw was the local confectioner, Bon-Bon, giving me a curious look before ducking into her shop.

Returning my attention forward, I smiled happily to myself. I’m in the clear, baby! I would go to Fluttershy’s, get some paper and something to write with, explain the situation to her, and see if she could help me. At the least, she would be able to help me get word to Spike, and he could get a letter to Celestia. If something was wrong with Twilight, she’d be the pony to contact.

I could just barely make out Fluttershy’s house in the distance when I heard a low whistling sound coming from behind me. Acting on instinct, I dove to the side just as a rainbow streak flew by me.

Getting back on my feet, I glanced up as the rainbow blur did a quick u-turn and zipped back towards me. In a gust of wind, Rainbow came to a stop, hovering in front of me with a large smirk on her face. “Whoa there, big guy, where’s the fire?”

I grinned as I looked up at her, throwing my hands up in the air in silent greeting. Rainbow didn’t know hoof-language, and without my notebook I had little to no way of clearly communicating with her.

She was slightly out of breath, her face tinged a faint red, possibly from her workout. Her back hooves seemed to fidget slightly as she hovered in the air.

“So, why are you out here?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “Shouldn’t you be, you know, back at the library with Twilight?” I shook my head, waving my hands in front of me quickly.

“No?” Rainbow asked, her ears perking up. “I would have thought, given what day it is… surely you and she would have...” She regarded me with a contemplative eye, her tail flicking back and forth lazily.

Searching for a way to get across to Rainbow that something was up, I pointed at Twilight’s cutie mark on my shirt before making a looping gesture beside my head. This caused Rainbow’s eyes to widen and her smirk to grow.

My smile faded as she slowly began to circle me.

“So,” she said, “you don’t want to play with Twilight, eh?” I froze, the hairs on the back of my neck pricking up at the tone she used. Oh please, not her too! I took a step back as Rainbow floated around in front of me again.

“Eh, can’t really blame ya,” she said with a shrug, her eyelids hooded. “An egghead like that, probably wouldn’t be able to keep up, ya know?” Rainbow’s cheeks were flushed now, her tail lashing at the air.

“Unlike an athlete like me,” she added with a grin. Licking her lips, her eyes narrowed, locking onto me. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine.

“So, what do ya say?” she cooed softly. “Wanna play with me instead?”

~No, no, no~ I signed quickly—automatically—taking several steps back. My heart dropped into my stomach as her eyes lit up.

“I’ll take that as ‘yes, yes, yes’!” she cried happily, diving towards me with her hooves outstretched. I ducked underneath her, yelping as her tail brushed against the back of my head in passing.

~No, it means ‘no, no, no’~ I signed as she circled around. It didn’t matter, though. She couldn’t understand me. Avoiding her second pass, I turned and booked it back towards town, Rainbow in hot pursuit.

What the fuck is wrong with these ponies today?! I screamed mentally as I zigzagged to avoid Rainbow’s dive bombs. It was just like our regular wrestling matches, except this time if she caught me…

I put on an extra burst of speed, heading towards the cover of the buildings on the outskirts of Ponyville. Reaching the first house, I leapt over the white picket fence. Behind me, I heard Rainbow’s hooves clip the top of the wooden posts.

“Oh, I see,” she giggled. “You wanna play a little before we get to the main event!” No, I want to get the fuck away from you!

Hopping yard to yard was harder than I thought it would be. I had to avoid fountains, flower beds, toys left out by foals. Heck, I almost took out Cheerilee, who was working on what looked like a small garden. All the while, Rainbow Dash was practically breathing down my neck. I think I’d rather take Twilight over this!

Bursting through the hedge of the last house, I had to duck to avoid a cane thrown at me by the crotchety old stallion sitting on the porch.

“Get off my lawn, ya damn human!” he croaked at me as I raced by. I gave him the bird before diving into the hedge on the other side of the lawn. I heard him shout something at Rainbow, and she responded, but I didn’t hear what they said exactly.

As I emerged from the hedge, spitting leaves and twigs from my mouth, I took a sharp left, dashing towards the marketplace, again. Behind me, I heard Rainbow crash through the hedge. Chancing a quick glance behind me, I saw her sprawled out on the ground, her eyes rolling in her head.

Giving a silent cheer, I couldn’t help but smile as I sped away, heading into the market. The smile quickly vanished, however, at what I saw next.

Standing next to Applejack, talking to her with a desperate look on her face, was Twilight. Her mane was now disheveled horribly, and she looked close to having a mental breakdown.

...and she was now staring straight at me, frozen mid-sentence. Applejack glanced back over her shoulder in my direction, a strange look crossing her face when she saw me.

I stood there, frozen, staring at the pair, unsure of what to do.

After several seconds, Twilight’s brain seemed to start working again and a distressed look flashed across her face. “Max!” she cried out, dashing forward.

Oh fuck! Turning, I started to head back in the other direction, only to be reminded of why I was coming from that direction to begin with. Rainbow back on her hooves, racing towards me on the ground, a cocky grin on her muzzle. Oh shit!

Scrambling to regain my balance, I looked around desperately for an escape route. The pair was just about on top of me when I spied the Carousel Boutique on the other side of the marketplace. Instantly, my eye lit up as a plan suddenly sprung into my head. Ponyville was no longer safe, which meant there was only one place left to go.

...and I had been standing still a second too long.

Rainbow slammed into my side, wrapping her hooves around me as she tackled me to the ground. I grunted in pain, wincing as my sides dug into the rocky road.

“Gotcha!” Rainbow cheered happily, pushing herself up to stand above me…

...only to have Twilight slam into her a second later. The pair tumbled off of me, each yelping in surprise as their limbs got tangled together. Rainbow cried out as Twilight accidentally rolled on top of her wing, pinning it to the ground.

Taking advantage of my sudden freedom, I pushed myself up and, ignoring the stares we were getting, quickly dashed towards the Boutique.

“W-wait!” I heard Twilight shout behind me, but there was no way in Hell I was turning around. I needed to get out of town, and there was one quick way to do that.

Reaching the Boutique, I grabbed a hold of the door handle, practically knocking the door off its hinges as I forced it open. Rarity shrieked as I tumbled inside, the dress she had been working on fluttering to the floor as her spell died. Spike, likewise, jumped off of the couch he was resting on as I entered, gaping at me as I laid on the ground, gasping for breath.

“Darling!” Rarity cried out, her eyes wide. “What’s wrong? Why are you out of the—” I stopped listening to her as I pushed myself off of the floor. No time for that!

Scrambling forward, I grabbed a hold of Spike causing him to yelp as I lifted him into the air. I could hear Rarity shouting at me, but I didn’t care.

Holding up Spike, I turned to face the open door. Twilight had just stumbled into the building, a pained look on her face.

“Max, wait!” she cried, wincing as she reached out to me.

Sorry, Spike, I thought as I reached down and grabbed the dragon’s tail firmly in my hand. Steeling myself, I paused for the briefest of moments before, with a strong yank, I pulled down on Spike’s tail.

He cried out in pain, a cloud of green fire erupting from his mouth and washing over my body. The last thing I saw before the green fire consumed me was Twilight's tearful face staring at me in shock.

I felt Spike fall from my hands as the world plunged into blackness, an invisible force grabbing me and pulling me backwards. Intense pressure assaulted me from all sides as I was forced through the void.

After several seconds, the pressure released and a bright flash of green filled my vision as I was thrust back into the real world. I dropped through the air before latching instinctively onto the nearest object.

A fuzzy object.

A warm, breathing, fuzzy object.

Cracking open my eye, I stared at the wall of white fur for several seconds before glancing up into the bemused face of Celestia.

“What is it this time?” she asked—not unkindly—with a soft smile on her face. “I know for a fact that Luna’s asleep, so you can’t blame her this time.”

~Twilight—~ I began to sign, only to yelp as I started to fall backwards, as my arms were no longer wrapped around Celestia for support. Acting quickly, Celestia caught me in her magic before I hit the ground, standing me upright on the floor in front of her throne.

I gave her a grateful smile before starting over. ~I think something’s wrong with Twilight. She’s acting really weird and creepy~

“Really?” Celestia asked, quirking an eyebrow. “How exactly is she acting… ‘creepy’?”

~She’s acting like your nephew~ I signed. When Celestia just started at me blankly, I rolled my eyes and huffed. ~She’s trying to get into my pants~ I signed, motioning towards my hips.

Celestia’s eyes widened, her mouth opening in a small ‘o’, before she smiled and shook her head.

“It looks like you and I are going to need to have a chat,” she said before motioning to something behind me with her hoof. “If you wouldn’t mind waiting outside the doors, I’m currently in the middle of a meeting, but I shall be with you shortly.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I blinked in surprise when I saw there were two ponies standing behind me. One was a gray pegasus stallion, a military cap perched upon his head. The other was a pure white unicorn mare with startling red eyes, a bandana wrapped around her neck.

They were both giving me confused looks, the unicorn’s eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“Go on,” Celestia encouraged. “This shouldn’t take much longer, and then you and I can talk.”

Shrugging, I stepped down off of the throne’s dais. I gave the pair of ponies a curious look as I passed, one which the stallion returned. The unicorn just gave me a bored look as I passed before returning her attention back to Celestia.

Crossing the throne room, the two guards posted on either side of the doors eyed me as I approached. They pushed the doors open as I reached them, their expressions never changing. I slipped through and the doors closed shut behind me.

“Huh… wazza’?”

That was all the warning I got before a blue blur suddenly slammed into me, causing me to stagger backwards. My attacker latched onto my chest and began to enthusiastically… nuzzle my cheek? Yellow hair tickled my nose, followed by the faint scent of vanilla.

“Max!” the fuzzball currently attached to me shouted happily, causing me to pause. Wait… I know that voice. With some difficulty, I managed to pull the pony currently trying to crush my ribs off of me. Holding them out at arm’s length, I stared down into the familiar, smiling face of…

Sunny! A large smile spread across my face and I pulled her back into a hug, which she returned happily.

“What are you doing here?” she asked after I released her. “I would have thought you’d be back at the library with Twilight. Not that I’m not happy to see you, it’s been a while. I’ve been in the palace for a couple of days, though, and haven’t seen you yet! When did you get here?”

~I got here just now~ I signed. ~Weird things are going on in Ponyville. I came here to try and get them sorted out~

“‘Weird things’?” Sunny asked, cocking her head to the side. A look of worry crossed her face. “Nothing bad, I hope.”

~I don’t think so~ I replied, chewing on the inside of my cheek. ~At least, I hope not~

“Well, what’s wrong?”

~Twilight’s acting really weird. She’s being all clingy and tried to seduce me, which is unusual for her~

Sunny snorted loudly, a hoof flying to her muzzle as she tried and failed to hold in her laughter.

I gave her a confused look.

“Y-you… you don’t know what’s going on? What time of the year it is?” she giggled, eyes dancing with mirth. When I shook my head, her laughter grew. “Well, you’re in for a pleasant surprise!” I frowned, my brows furrowing as I glared at the laughing mare.

~What’s going on?~ I asked. She just shook her head, still laughing.

“It’s not my place to say,” she giggled. I huffed in annoyance.

~Well, what are you doing here?~

“I’m an informant for Celestia,” she said as she got her laughter under control. “She originally brought me on to help catch the rest of my old gang, but now I’m helping the Coming Dawn to try and catch Darkflare.”

I froze, my eyes widening as my entire body went rigid.

~What?~ I signed, my hands trembling slightly. Sunny blinked, her ears splaying backwards.

“I’m here to help the Coming Dawn catch Darkflare,” she repeated, this time with a little uncertainty.

~Didn’t you already catch him?~ I asked, swallowing thickly. ~He was caught after the pit, right?~

“He... escaped,” Sunny said, taking a step back. At the look on my face, she added, “You didn’t know? How could you not know?!”

I started to sign, but was interrupted as the throne room doors swung open. Celestia exited, accompanied by the two ponies from before. When she saw me, a soft smile touched her lips. “Now then, with that out of the way, I can—” Upon catching sight of my face, she paused, confused.

“Whatever is the matter?” she asked.

I glared at her for several seconds before signing one word: ~Darkflare~

Celestia recoiled as if I had slapped her, her eyes widening. The two ponies stiffened before glancing quickly over at Sunny.

“I thought he knew!” she defended quickly, ears splaying backwards. She took a step back as the stallion sighed and the mare shook her head. “Why wouldn’t he know?!”

“It would seem that we have more to talk about than I originally thought,” Celestia murmured softly. I nodded my head as I crossed my arms.

Glancing down at the pegasus stallion, Celestia nodded towards Sunny. “Sergeant, if you would be so kind?”

He nodded. “Right. Ms. Breeze, if you’d follow me, we’ll get out of their manes.” Sunny glanced up at me, chewing on her bottom lip. I looked down at her before, with a sigh, I gave her a weak smile and scratched behind her ear. She cooed, leaning into the feeling before backing off.

“I guess I’ll see you later,” she said before slowly slinking off behind the pegasus and the unicorn. She looked back at me one last time before following the pair around a corner and disappearing from view.

I glanced back at Celestia, only to blink in surprise when I found myself practically nose to nose with her. Backing up a step, I gave her a bemused look.

“Walk with me,” she said as she started to move down the corridor. I quickly fell in step beside her. “What do you want to talk about first?”

~Darkflare~ I signed. As much as I wanted to figure out what was going on with Twilight, this new development took priority. I already had a crazy alicorn on the loose after me; I didn’t need a psychotic, evil unicorn too. Best get the details before deciding on how to handle it.

“Very well,” Celestia said with a nod, her face blank. “I’m assuming you know who Darkflare is—” I snorted, rolling my eyes before using a finger to pull the skin beneath my right eye down, displaying the milk-white orb. “Quite,” she said, her tone unamused. “Well, as you were aware, after being capture in Ponyville, he was transported to Canterlot for holding. Unfortunately, he managed to escape, taking the rest of his gang, as well as some new recruits, with him.”

~When was this?~

“Remember the Gala?” I stopped abruptly. Celestia kept walking for several more feet until she noticed that I was no longer with her. Glancing over her shoulder, she gave me a confused look.

~It was that long ago?!~ I asked, staring at her in shock. ~Why didn’t you tell Twilight and me about this?~

“I didn’t wish to burden you with troubles that were not yours,” Celestia said with a shrug. “I doubled the guards around Ponyville just in case, but other than that, I decided to leave you to your life.”

~’Troubles that weren’t mine’?~ I snorted as I resumed walking. ~The fuck it isn’t my problem! That unicorn—~

“Has left you and Ponyville, for the most part, alone,” Celestia interrupted, her voice suddenly cold. I blinked, glancing over at her in surprise.

“Darkflare escaped during the Gala,” she continued. “He has been on the loose this whole time, yet he hasn’t—to the best of my knowledge—been anywhere near Ponyville, or you for that matter. It doesn’t appear that he’s at all concerned about you, so I fail to see why I should have informed you about the situation.”

~But—~

“What would you have done differently had you known the truth?” she asked. “Gone looking for him yourself?” I bite the inside of my cheek, grimacing slightly. She had a point, even if I didn’t want to admit it.

~I could’ve—~

“You want some proof that I am right?” she asked curtly. I nodded dumbly, prompting her to continue. “The other day we had a break in at our human research facility here in Canterlot. Fifty or so humans were taken, and one of our best researchers was killed in one of the cruelest displays of murder I have ever seen. All of this was done by Darkflare. Does that sound like it should concern you?” As she had been talking, I had slowly been inching away from her. This was the first time I have ever seen her this upset, and it was kinda disturbing. A small voice in my head was telling me to run before she started to go crazy too.

Before I could move, however, Celestia sighed and hung her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice returning to normal. “I should not have spoken to you like that. None of this is your fault.”

~It’s… it’s fine~ I signed, my hands trembling slightly. I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. ~I shouldn’t have tried to tell you how to run your country~

“You have a right to fear for your safety and well-being, though,” Celestia said as we both continued walking. “Never, ever be afraid to defend yourself. I know what I told you when we first truly met, but I think I’ll take that back. You have been living here for nearly a year, and have caused no trouble save for what has found you. You are a citizen of Equestria as much so as Twilight or any other pony. Should you find yourself under attack, should it be human, changeling, or pony, defend yourself to the best of your ability.”

~That was the plan~ I signed.

Celestia gave me a bemused look before smiling. “I’m sure that Twilight would appreciate that.”

~Yeah~ I signed, before pausing. ~Speaking of Twilight~

Celestia laughed, the melancholy overtone of the hall dissipating quickly. “Yes, let’s move on to happier topics, shall we?”

I cocked an eyebrow. ~Happier topics? Twilight acting weird is ‘happier topics’?~

“My dear human, Twilight is not acting weird,” Celestia said, glancing sideways at me. “She’s perfectly healthy, although I suspect that you caught her at a bad time, especially considering what time of year it is.”

~It’s spring, so what? What does that have to do with Twilight’s behavior?~ Celestia cocked her head to the side, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“You said you had ponies back on your old world, correct?” When I nodded, she continued, “Then, have you ever heard of the estrous cycle?”

My eyes widened and I stumbled, Celestia quickly moving to hold me up with her wing. As I regained my footing, I looked up at her, shocked.

~Are you saying that Twilight—~

“Is in heat? Yes,” Celestia laughed softly. “You see, in the spring time, when the weather starts to grow warm again, mares in Equestria tend to go into heat. It is during this time that they can conceive, should they so choose to. However, a side-effect of estrus is raging hormones, as well as increased libido and sensitivity.

“You’ve already seen it in action, if I remember correctly,” she said, glancing over at me. I gave her a confused look. “Applejack,” she informed. “When she took you on a, ah… tour of her human breeding barns.”

My face instantly heated up, and I glanced away. This just caused her to giggle.

~Wait~ I signed. ~That was during the fall, though~

“Mares that are out in the sun a lot, such as farmers and carpenters, tend to go into a secondary heat in the fall months. While not as bad as the spring heats, they can still be rather bothersome.”

~So, you’re saying that Twilight was acting the way she was, because her heat turns her into a sex-crazed mare?~

“Most certainly not,” Celestia snorted, shaking her head. “Despite how we appear to you, we are not simple animals driven by instinct. Mares in heat will not lift their tails for just any stallion on the street. Heat increases a mare’s hormones, as well as her senses. With those two things combined, the mare will find herself almost drawn to any pony—or human, in this case—that that mare holds near and dear to her heart.”

~What?~ I signed, completely and utterly confused. Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, the small smile still present on her face. When she opened her eyes again, she gave me a pointed look.

“The reason that Twilight was—as you so aptly put it—'trying to get into your pants', is because she loves you.”

...what? Twilight… loves me? I stood there, staring at Celestia, trying to process what she had just said. I was dimly aware that my mouth was agape.

~What?~ I signed, my brain refusing to work at the moment.

“She loves you,” Celestia repeated. “It is that reason she was acting the way she was with you. There is medication that a mare can take during her heat that helps suppress her hormones. I can only assume that you walked in on Twilight before she had a chance to take them. Seeing you and smelling your scent, combined with her feelings, probably pushed her over the edge, causing her to try and… show you her affection.”

~She… she loves me?~ I repeated, my mind still racing.

“Indeed,” Celestia nodded. “I think she has for quite some time now. Haven’t you noticed?” She gave me a curious look, cocking her head to the side.

~I… no, I didn’t~ I swallowed, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. ~I… isn’t… but, I’m a human. She’s a pony!~ I signed lamely, the obvious excuse causing me to wince internally.

“Your point?” Celestia asked, confused. “It’s not unusual for two different species to fall in love with each other. I’ve seen griffons and ponies, minotaurs and griffons, ponies and zebras. I’ve even had the pleasure of knowing a donkey who married a dragoness, both of whom lived happily within her cave in the north.”

~But…~ I paused, my mind quickly trying to find something, anything to say. ~But, she’s a princess! Doesn’t that mean—~ Celestia’s laughter cut me off, and I blinked owlishly at her.

“Both Luna and I have taken lovers who were not of noble birth,” she said. “Despite what the nobles believe, being a Princess does not mean that we can not marry outside of noble blood. Shining Armor was not a noble, yet Cadance still married him, and happily, I might add.”

I moved to sign something, but Celestia raised her hoof, stopping me.

“No more excuses,” she said, her voice kind. “I am not the one you must talk to about this. That would be Twilight. I just have one more thing to say before we part. A question, actually.” She paused, her magenta eyes boring into mine.

“If Twilight were a human, would you have this much trouble accepting her love?” My hands fell limply to my sides, and I stared up at her blankly, unsure of what to say. She gave a small nod, her face expressionless.

“I’ll let you think about that,” she murmured. She paused, giving me a thoughtful look before continuing. “Now, I do believe our discussion has come to an end. Normally, I’d send you back off to Ponyville, but given the circumstance, I think it would be better for all involved if you stayed here in the palace for the week. You can use the same guest room you stayed in last time.” I nodded weakly, still trying to wrap my mind around what I had just learned.

Before I could, however, my stomach suddenly let out a loud growl, causing both me and Celestia to glance down at it. In the confusion of the morning, I forgot to eat breakfast, and I was only now realizing how hungry I actually was.

Another growl from my stomach caused me to blush, and Celestia gave me an amused look.

“Hungry?” she asked. I smiled sheepishly at her, chuckling softly. “I see. Well, do you remember where the private dining room is?” When I nodded, she motioned with a wing. “Go get something to eat. Afterwards, you may retire to your room, or wander around a bit. Just don’t stray from the palace. Canterlot has the same heat week as Ponyville.”

I nodded again before turning and walking off down the hall, my mind still trying to restart itself.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Celestia watched Max walk slowly down the hallway in a stunned stupor, a blank look on her face. As he rounded the corner, she lit up her horn, a scroll and quill appearing in front of her in a flash of gold.

Staring at it for a few seconds, she scratched out a message before rolling the scroll up. Her horn glowed again and, in a burst of green flames, the scroll disappeared in a cloud of smoke. With that done, she turned, staring out of the nearby window at the city of Canterlot in the distance. Gazing out on the tall buildings, her eyes flicked up to the sun, which had reached its peak and was now slowly heading back towards the horizon.

A little eager, aren’t we? You’re heading down a little early today, she asked mentally, pushing her thoughts out towards the celestial body. It flared once, causing her to chuckle. Alright. I’m sure that Luna will appreciate that.

Celestia watched the sun for several more minutes, a small smile on her face. Slowly, though, the smile vanished, her face became emotionless. Giving her sun one last glance, Celestia turned and began to walk off down the hall.

“Monochrome.” Her voice was soft, yet firm, holding a level of authority that only Celestia could command. Several seconds passed before suddenly a light gray unicorn mare with white hair appeared beside her.

“You called, your majesty?” the mare said, bowing quickly before falling in step beside Celestia.

“Yes, I did,” Celestia said, not glancing down as she continued to walk down the hall. “I have a request that I must ask of you.” This caused Monochrome to hold her head up higher.

“Anything you need, your majesty,” she chirped. “I’ll be happy to do it!”

Celestia was silent for several seconds before continuing.

“I need you to follow the Archmage closely,” she said, her voice low. “Everything he does, I want you to report back to me. Who he meets, what he does, if he sends any letters, who he is contacting, if he has a cold, if he goes to the market to pick up apples. I want to know everything, and I want you to do it without being seen.”

The Battlemage paused, missing a step as she looked up at Celestia, her eyes wide.

“You want me to spy on the Archmage?” she asked in a whisper. Celestia glanced down at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Is that a problem?” A smile slowly spread across Monochrome’s muzzle.

“No, ma’am!” With that, she disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, leaving Celestia to walk the hall by herself. She trotted forward at a relaxed pace, and to any that saw her, she appeared calm and collected. Yet, her mind was not at rest, for there were several concerns that she still had. One of which had just been addressed. Another, however, had fallen straight into her lap.

Turning the corner of the hallway, she slowed before coming to a stop outside one of the private meeting room’s doors. She stared at it for a second before pushing it open and entering.

Stacker and Sunny glanced up from their positions, seated around a large, circular table. As Celestia closed the door tight behind her, Stacker spoke up. “How’d it go, ma’am?”

“The news of Darkflare, or Twilight?” she asked as she took a seat in the nearest chair. When Stacker just continued to look at her, she sighed. “About as well as I expected, although he calmed down fairly quickly. Although, that could be because I was rather short with him.”

“Um, h-how… how is he?” Sunny asked. Celestia glanced over at her, a tired smile on her face.

“Confused about how he feels about Twilight, and concerned about Darkflare,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you much time to catch up. Hopefully you’ll have time before he goes back to Ponyville.”

“Isn’t he leaving right now?” Stacker asked, cocking an eyebrow. Celestia just shook her head.

“No, he’s staying the week.”

“Why?” Stacker asked bluntly.

“Because I asked him to,” Celestia explained. “While it is true what I told him about mares not lifting their tails for any stallion on the street, there are quite a few that wouldn’t say no to some human fun to help relieve their discomfort.

“Besides, I sent a letter to Twilight,” she continued. “She’ll be coming to stay with him.”

“But, isn’t she in heat as well?” Sunny asked, cocking her head to the side. A sly smile slowly spread across Celestia's muzzle. “Oh...” Sunny said before her eyes widened. “Oh!”

“So, the Anomaly’s staying in Canterlot,” Stacker said, shaking his head. “And with Tempest in the mood she’s in right now, this should be interesting.”

“Indeed,” Celestia nodded, staring down at the table in front of her. Her eyes slowly narrowed, her muzzle scrunching up in thought.

“Speaking of the Anomaly,” she said slowly as she turned her head in Stacker’s direction. “I have a job for the both of you.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the train rumbled down the track, Twilight watched the landscape fly by in a blur, completely oblivious to what she was seeing. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, and her usually combed and properly groomed mane was a disheveled mess. The fur beneath her eyes was still damp. She felt ill: her throat was sore, she was nauseous, and felt as if a knife had been stabbed into her chest.

Within the train coach, her friends chatted quietly with each other, occasionally giving her a concerned look, but left her alone for the most part. They had been with her ever since Max used Spike’s fire to run away, and had been helping her through her nonstop panic attacks.

It was about an hour after Max's vanishing act when she had received the letter from Celestia, informing her that Max was in Canterlot, and asking her to come to the palace. Max’s guards had left almost immediately, acquiring a private chariot from a local provider. Twilight had asked her friends to come with her, and they had thankfully agreed. She didn’t want to be alone, but she didn’t want to talk with anypony either. There was only one individual that she wanted to be with right now, and she had succeeded in chasing him away.

She had tried to stop herself; she had been able to muscle through her heat before without the use of medication, especially when she had been cramming for exams. So, why was it that this time had to be different? Why did she have to act like a filly who just went into heat for the first time?

Her mind swirled in chaos as she tried to figure out the best way to address the situation, hundreds of thoughts and ideas flying around inside. How could she explain what had happened to Max without him hating her, or being disgusted with her? Oh… why did I have to wait so long in telling him how I feel?

Twilight groaned softly, closing her eyes and placing her forehead against the glass. The glass was cool against her heated flesh, but it didn’t help her mood. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the look on Max’s face before the dragonfire consumed him. There had been confusion, concern, and fear. He feared her. Twilight winced at that, feeling as though her heart had just been torn out of her chest.

Please, she begged. Please, don’t let him hate me. Don’t let him leave me. I… I couldn’t…

She swallowed thickly, bile rising in her throat at the very thought. She felt like crying again, but knew she wouldn’t. She didn’t have any more tears to cry anyways.

Sighing, she leaned back, pulling her head off of the window. Rubbing her nose with the back of her hoof, she was about to return to her thoughts when part of a nearby conversation caught her attention.

“—I realize that, darling. I’m only curious as to why you were chasing after Max as well.” Rarity said softly. Twilight’s ears perked up, swiveling around to listen in.

“He was out of the library and just wandering around,” Rainbow said, and Twilight saw her shrug out of the corner of her eye. “I figured ‘what the hay’ and decided to see if he was interested. That would’ve taken care of my heat, and he would’ve had some fun. That’s a win-win in my book. Besides, you know what they say about humans and sex. Just imagine that plus the feeling of being in heat! It would have been awesome!”

Twilight felt her eye twitch, her teeth grinding together as she fought down her temper.

“He isn’t your human,” she muttered.

At her words, the conversation stopped suddenly, and Twilight saw the others glance at her in the reflection of the window.

“What was that, darling?” Rarity asked, her ears perked. She had a concerned look on her face, and Twilight knew why. Ever since she had watched Max use dragonfire to run away, she had barely spoken to any of them.

Turning her head, she glared over her shoulder, staring straight at Rainbow, who blinked, ears splaying backwards at the hostility in her gaze.

“He isn’t your human,” Twilight repeated, this time loud enough for everypony to hear.

Rainbow just gave her a blank look, her head tilting slightly to the side. “What?”

“He isn’t your human,” Twilight said, turning to face the group. She glared at Rainbow, subconsciously fluffing her wings to make herself look bigger. “You had no right to do what you did.”

Rainbow balked at the tone in Twilight’s voice, before returning the glare with one of her own.

“Oh, and I suppose he’s yours?” she growled, eyes narrowing. “Last I checked, he wasn’t a pet, and was smart enough to make his own decisions.”

“So that gives you the right to try and rut him?” Twilight snarled.

“Hey, he was out and walking around town,” Rainbow countered, her wings flaring. “You know that the only stallions that are outside during heat season are those looking for a mate. I saw him and figured I’d give him a good time before some other mare got a hold of him!”

“What makes you think he was looking for a good time?” Twilight yelled, slipping down off of the bench and taking an aggressive step towards Rainbow. The others were casting nervous glances at the two mares. Fluttershy was hiding in her mane, trembling slightly as she tried to make herself as small as possible. Pinkie looked like someone told her she couldn’t throw them a party.

“Oh, please,” Rainbow scoffed, crossing her forelegs over her chest. “He wasn’t at the library with you. That should be evidence enough.”

“He didn’t even know it was heat week!” Twilight shouted.

“So?” Rainbow asked, cocking an eyebrow. “That just meant that he was in for a surprise.” Twilight’s eye twitched, and she snorted loudly.

“He’s not your human!” she snarled, her voice almost becoming feral.

“Possessive much?” Rainbow snarled back, pushing her muzzle into Twilight’s. “Why are you making such a big bucking deal out of this?!”

“Because…” Twilight started to yell, only to pause, her ears splaying backwards. All the strength left her legs, and she fell backwards onto her flank with a soft thump. She swallowed thickly before whispering, “...because I love him.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened, and she took a step back. “You what?”

Twilight could feel tears beginning to well up in her eyes again, and she tried to wipe them away with the back of her hoof.

“I love him,” she repeated, her voice trembling slightly. Rainbow fidgeted, glancing over at Rarity, as if asking for some form of help. Receiving none, she glanced back at Twilight and licked her lips.

“Then, uh… w-why haven’t you…” she stuttered. Twilight hung her head, tears slowly beginning to slide down her cheeks.

“Because, I just… I just can’t,” she whimpered. “Every time I try, I either freeze up, or something interrupts me. I’ve wanted to tell him for so long, but I just can’t.” More tears streamed down Twilight’s face as she began to cry in earnest.

Rainbow glanced over at the others, unsure of what to do.

“Sure you can, darling,” Rarity said softly, getting up from her seat and draping a leg over Twilight’s shoulder.

“No, I can’t,” Twilight choked out, her body trembling.

“Well, sure ya can,” Applejack spoke up. “After what happened this mornin’, Ah don’t think ya have much of a choice—”

“It’s not that simple!” Twilight cried suddenly, causing everypony to jump. She sniffed, trying in vain to wipe the tears from her face. “I don’t even know if he feels the same way,” she added.

“Sure he does,” Pinkie piped up, bouncing on her cushion. “I’m sure if you just asked him, he’d tell you the same!”

“He won’t, though,” Twilight insisted tearfully. “I know he won’t.”

“Why do you say that?” Rarity asked gently, rubbing at Twilight’s shoulders, trying to relax her.

“Because everything I’ve seen points to it!” Twilight cried. “Ever since he decided to stay in Equestria, he’s shown no interest in finding a mate or in starting any relationships. I’ve tried hinting at it, using different body signals, but he either doesn’t know what to look for, or doesn’t care. I’ve even offered to share the same bed as him so he wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch, and he just chucked me into the bed, then slept on the couch! He seems put off by pony anatomy, looking away whenever he catches sight of anything private, even if it wasn’t intentional.

“Plus,” she continued, slowly becoming hysterical. “He’s from a world where ponies are filthy, dirty, mindless animals! He probably can’t even see me in a romantic light because of that. Hay, he probably can’t even like ponies like that! He avoids Mrs. Cake like the plague, he doesn’t like the fact that mares are constantly trying to trick him into following them home, and there’s the way he reacted when you—” she pointed at Applejack, who blinked in surprise “—chased him through town last fall. He didn’t leave the couch fort he made for three days straight, and the only reason he finally did was because I stopped bringing him food!

“And that isn’t even counting everything I’ve done to him.” Twilight had stopped trying to fight the tears and was just letting them fall freely now. “I gave him his blind eye trying to save him during the human fight, I abandoned him at the Gala and let Blueblood get a hold of him, and I punished him for helping Fluttershy!”

“I think you’re making—” Rarity began, but was interrupted as Twilight continued her rambling.

“He even told his guards that he was not interested in any ponies!” she cried. “I barely had a chance with him, and then I go and let my heat get the best of me. Now, I’m not even sure he’ll give me a chance to explain.” With that, Twilight completely broke down. Flopping onto the floor, she buried her head in her hooves and cried. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, dampening the fur of her cheeks and dripping to the floor.

Rarity quickly pulled her into a hug, cooing softly as she tried to calm her distressed friend. Fluttershy quickly joined her, positioning herself on Twilight’s other side as she draped a wing over her back. Applejack and Rainbow exchanged glances, unsure of what to do, the latter rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

Silence filled the train car, broken only by Twilight’s sobs.

It took nearly thirty minutes for her tears to slowly stop. Leaning against Rarity, seeking comfort, Twilight rubbed her reddened eyes with a hoof, small sniffles and whimpers still escaping her every now and then.

As Twilight tried to compose herself, Pinkie approached tentatively. Her mane, while not completely limp, did not hold its usual level of poofiness.

“You’re wrong, you know,” she said softly, a weak smile on her face.

“W-what?” Twilight croaked, her throat sore and dry.

“You’re wrong,” Pinkie said, shaking her head. “Max does care about you. He rarely, if ever, blames you for anything, even if it’s your fault. You may blame yourself for his eye, but I think he believes that in doing so, you saved his life. He goes out of his way to try and make you happy. He sneaks into Sugarcube Corner when Mrs. Cake’s on break in order to get you food whenever you are so wrapped up in a project that you forget to eat. He even got you gifts for Hearth's Warming Eve.

“And the big one,” Pinkie said, her smile growing, “is the fact that he stayed in Equestria. He had a chance to go home, but in the end he stayed. For what reason?”

Twilight blinked owlishly, her mouth opened slightly. “Because… because…”

“Give it a chance, Twilight,” Pinkie said, pulling her into a hug. “If you don't cook a flapjack, all you have is goopy, floury, watery batter. And then you don't get to cover it with butter or syrup, and it'll never be as tasty as it could be!” Silence fell over the coach as everypony (except for Twilight, who was returning the hug) stared at Pinkie in shock.

Leaning towards Applejack, Rainbow whispered, “Since when does Pinkie actually make sense?” Applejack just shook her head in response.

As Pinkie and Twilight withdrew from the hug, Rainbow stepped forward, her head lowered slightly.

“I guess I should apologize, Twi,” she said lamely, rubbing the back of her head. “I didn’t realize that you felt that strongly for the big guy. Had I known… well…” She motioned with her hoof, grimacing slightly.

“It’s okay, Rainbow,” Twilight sniffed, rubbing her eyes with the back of a hoof. “I shouldn’t have waited this long to tell him. It’s just made things awkward, and I may have already ruined my chances. However,” she said, lifting her head and straightening up, “seeing as I now have nothing left to lose, I guess it’s time to try.”

“It’ll work out, darling,” Rarity said with a smile. “These things always seem to.”

“Yeah…” Twilight said, sighing weakly. Turning, she gazed out the window at the fast approaching city that was Canterlot.

“I hope so,” she murmured, a small frown touching her lips.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I walked silently through the hallway, my feet making no noise as I traversed the corridors. The sun was starting to set beneath the horizon, elongating the shadows and casting the world in an orange tinge. I had just finished having dinner in Celestia’s private dining room. Neither herself nor Luna were there, but the server seemed to have been informed of me, as she had asked me what I would like to eat, and had waited for me to write down my order.

Belly full, I was now making my way to the guest room Twilight and I had stayed at during our last visit. For whatever reason, Celestia had wanted me to stay in the palace for a week. Something about it being “better for everypony involved” if I did, whatever that meant.

As I shuffled along, a pair of guards watched me from their position beside a large statue of Celestia, their expressions blank. There was a significant increase in guards compared to my previous visits to Canterlot. Almost everywhere you looked they were there, either patrolling the corridors or standing watch at their designated posts. Despite the fact that most of them never showed any emotion, they seemed slightly more… grim to me than usual.

They also appeared to be keeping an eye on me more than usual as well, or maybe I was just imagining things.

Rounding a corner, I nearly bumped into two Battlemages heading in the other direction. Their softly glowing armor clinked as they shifted to avoid me. As we passed each other, one of them—a tall mare with flame-orange hair—did a double-take, staring at me with wide eyes over her shoulder as the pair continued patrolling.

When she saw I was staring back at her, she whipped her head around. She continued to trot along, back straight and head held high as if nothing had happened. Her partner gave her a curious look, but didn’t say anything.

I continued to watch them curiously until they rounded the corner and disappeared from view. The instant they were out of sight, I heard the mare start to whisper to her partner, although I couldn’t make out what she was saying.

Sighing heavily, I turned and continued on my way, deciding that it wasn’t my concern. My brain was already bogged down with the all the information Celestia had given me earlier. Twilight’s in heat… and she’s in love with me.

I groaned softly, rubbing the bridge of my nose. How was I supposed to go about figuring this out? I wasn’t even one hundred percent sure of my own feelings for her. I hadn’t really put much thought into it, and now I wasn’t sure what to do.

In retrospect, I probably should have seen it coming. Twilight had been becoming rather clingy as of late. She took every opportunity to nuzzle my hands, or hug me goodbye if she had to leave the library for anything. I had assumed that those actions were just the signs that she considered me a good friend, but now I realized that they meant something else.

I had to admit, though, that she looked really cute when she was asking for a hug. The big eyes, the quivering lip. It was almost as cute as the time that she had tried to convince me to sleep in the same… bed… as her.

...oh. I groaned, closing my eyes in sudden realization. She wasn’t blushing because she was embarrassed, she was blushing because… oh, geez. I winced as I remember how I had picked her up and tossed her onto the bed in response. Fuck.

I stopped walking, rubbing at my temples as I tried to fight back a growing headache. The sound of metal clinking against metal drew my attention and I glanced to my left. A pair of guards stood a couple of yards away from me, positioned at the entrance to the Princesses’ private living quarters. As they watched me, one of them slowly cocked an eyebrow, but other than that remained emotionless.

Staring at them for a couple of seconds, I suddenly flipped them the bird before continuing on my way. They didn’t know what it meant, and it made me feel slightly better for some strange reason.

As I neared the guest room, I stifled a yawn. Gathering up all the thoughts currently buzzing around my head, I tried to stuff them into a mental box for later. I was getting rather tired, and sleep was sounding pretty good right now. I’d deal with the issue with Twilight tomorrow.

Reaching the guest room door, I grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.

The room was dimly lit by the fire currently cracking away in the fireplace. The balcony doors were open, the curtains billowing gently in the breeze.

I crossed the room carefully, as to not stub my toes on anything hidden in the gloom, making my way towards the bed, and the lamp located on the table next to it. I twisted the small knob on the side of the lamp, and with a tiny ‘poof’ the wick combusted into a small flame.

Standing up, I smiled softly as I watched the flickering flame. With a small groan, I stretched, cracking my back in the process. With that, I turned around, and promptly froze.

Sitting on the couch in the corner of the room, watching me with red-rimmed eyes, was Twilight. I had walked right past her in the gloom of the dark without even seeing her. Her eyes seemed to shimmer in the dim glow of the lamp, and she chewed on her bottom lip as she eyed me nervously.

In the light of the lamp and the fire, she looked a mess. Her mane was horribly disheveled, her eyes bloodshot. She had obviously been crying a lot recently, and that caused me to wince internally. The feathers on her wings were in disarray, several of them looking close to falling out. As she stared at me, she absentmindedly stroked her tail, which she had wrapped around her.

Upon seeing her, I instinctively took a step back, remembering what had happened the last time we were this close. Her eyes widened, and her ears splayed backwards as a hurt look crossed her face. She swallowed thickly, and I could just barely make out a low whimper escape her.

I stayed where I was, eyeing her wearily. She was unfortunately between me and the door, so I’d have to go over her to get out that way. The balcony was also a no go, seeing as I couldn’t fly.

Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, I took a half-step back. ~Twilight~ I signed slowly, my eye locked on her in case she tried anything. The minute her horn began to glow, impeded or not, I was making a break for the door.

She shifted on the couch at her name, lowering her head and swallowing loudly as her body started to tremble. Licking her lips, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. She held it in for several seconds before, with a sigh, she exhaled through her mouth.

Opening her eyes again, she looked up at me, a nervous yet determined look on her face. She paused for a second before saying five simple words.

“Max, we need to talk.”

Author's Note

End of Season 2 of Your Human and You

Chapter 49: Your Human and You

“Max, we need to talk.”

The words seemed to hang in the air, their presence remaining even after Twilight had finished speaking. I stood stock-still, staring at her with wide eyes. My body was tense, ready to bolt at even the slightest sign of trouble.

The tension in the room was stifling, almost to the point where it was getting physically difficult to breath. The only sound that could be heard was the soft crackle of flames coming from the fireplace.

I dimly noted that Twilight was trembling, her wings twitching sporadically by her sides. However, despite her clear nervousness, she still managed to keep constant eye contact with me. Her ears were pressed firmly against the top of her head, and she seemed to be trying to control her breathing.

We remained like that for nearly a minute, neither of us taking our eyes off of the other, before I exhaled loudly. She flinched, obviously not expecting the noise or action. Swallowing, I began to move around the room slowly, heading for a chair sitting opposite of the couch. I kept my eye on Twilight the entire time. As I neared the chair, she moved to stand, but stopped when I held up a hand and shook my head. She sat back down, a hurt look crossing her face for a split second before it disappeared, and she went back to looking nervous.

Finally reaching the chair, I sat down with a groan, my tired muscles immediately celebrating the sudden relief. Cracking my neck, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then looked at Twilight.

~Alright~ I signed, keeping my face neutral. ~Let’s talk~

She broke eye contact with me, glancing down at her tail, which was still resting in her hooves. She stroked it absentmindedly, almost in a comforting manner. Her eyes darted back and forth, and I could almost see the gears in her head whirling as fast as possible, trying to think of what to say first.

After a brief moment of silence, she looked back up at me. Licking her lips, she gave me a shaky smile.

“Um… h-how are you doing?” she asked, voice cracking. She winced seconds after speaking, seeming to wilt. Not what she wanted to say, huh?

~I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse~ I answered truthfully. ~My back hurts, although that is to be expected after I jumped out of an upper story window~

Twilight recoiled, a look of shame and horror on her face.

“Are you injured?” she asked quickly, more of her old tone bleeding through her trepidation. She leaned forward ever so slightly, trying to get a better look at me. “I mean, did you get any glass stuck in your back or arms? Did you break anything? Any difficulty breathing? Did you get somepony to look at it?”

~No, no glass~ I signed. ~It’s definitely going to be bruised, though. And I haven’t had anybody look at it yet~

“We should get you to the castle physician then!” she said, quickly jumping to her hooves, wings fluttering at her side in agitation. “You don’t want—”

I cleared my throat loudly, interrupting her, and pointed at the couch. She was not getting out of this that easily.

She squeaked before sitting back down, head lowered.

“Sorry,” she muttered, soft enough that I almost missed it. “About your back, I mean,” she added, slightly louder than before. “I… I didn’t mean to put you in that position.”

~Then why did you?~ I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

She swallowed loudly before muttering something under her breath, not looking me in the eye.

~I’m sorry?~ I signed, cocking a head to the side.

“I’m in heat,” Twilight said again.

~I know that already~ I signed.

Twilight blinked in surprise, her mouth hanging open. “...what?”

~Celestia told me when I asked her~ I signed with a shrug. ~I was concerned about you and didn’t know what was wrong. She explained. For the most part~ I added.

“Oh, I see…” Twilight squeaked, her cheeks flushing slightly. Her right eye twitched and she shivered slightly.

~What I want to know is, why?~

“Why what?” Twilight asked tentatively, giving me a confused look.

~Why did you go all psycho on me back in your room?~

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but seemed to choke on her words. She fidgeted with her hooves, playing with her tail to the point she began to split hairs. Her ears splayed back, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. She seemed close to hyperventilating, her pupils the size of pinpricks.

“I… I…” she croaked out, only to whimper, tears slowly welling up in her eyes.

I remained motionless as she struggled to form words, watching her with a blank look on my face. Celestia had given me the reason already, but I had to hear it from Twilight herself. Just to be sure.

Tears were slowly rolling down her cheeks now, her face scrunched up. She appeared to be waging a mental war with herself, and I was unsure of what side was winning. Every so often, her eye or ear would twitch. Her jaw was working back and forth, and it took me a second to realize that she was grinding her teeth together.

Getting slightly worried, I had just lifted my hands to sign something when she exploded.

“I LOVE YOU!” she screamed, her eyes clenched shut tight. “That’s why, okay? I love you, and when I woke up this morning, I was already having trouble controlling myself because of a stupid dream I had, and then you walked in before I could get to my medicine, and… and I couldn’t help myself!” she cried, her words spilling out in rapid succession. She kept her eyes closed, tears still streaming down her face. “I was trying to keep myself under control until you left, but then I caught wind of your scent, and I… I lost it.

“I… I didn’t want you to find out like this, but… I just…” Her voice failed, and she choked back a sob.

I bit my lip as I watched her, unsure of what to do. Do I try and comfort her, or just let her cry herself out? I was never good at dealing with this stuff back home, which was probably why my old girlfriend had left me. ‘Lack of empathy’, she had called it. I had just said it was lack of experience.

As Twilight slowly got her crying under control, I coughed lightly, scratching the back of my head.

~Can…~ I began to sign, but paused, fidgeting with my hands. ~Can I ask why me?~

Twilight rubbed at her eyes with the back of a hoof, trying futilely to dry them. Sniffling, she swallowed thickly before answering, her voice sounding hoarse.

“Why? Because… well, because you’re you,” she said lamely. “I… I mean, before you showed up in Equestria, after I became a Princess, I wasn’t… wasn’t exactly happy. The nobles, the increase in responsibilities, the lack of being able to see my friends. It was too much, and I was close to having a mental breakdown when Princess Celestia sent me back to Ponyville. Even after that, I rarely smiled.

“But then, you showed up, and that all changed,” she continued, finally looking at me. Her eyes were red, and shimmered slightly in the fire light.

~I made your life horrible the first week I was here~ I argued. ~I had you in tears by the end of the week, if I recall correctly~

She nodded in agreement.

“Yes, you did,” she hiccupped, “but afterwards, when you finally revealed yourself… It was subtle at first, according to my friends, but it became more noticeable as time went on. I wasn’t as depressed, I smiled more, and I was much more willing to leave the library. I didn’t even relate the two events until Fluttershy pointed it out. Your reveal corresponded with my improving mood, almost to the day.”

~That can’t be the only reason~ I signed, scrunching up my face.

“It’s not,” she confirmed.

~So then, why…?~

“Because, well… it was a lot of little things,” she said, chewing on her lip. “Back when we were first learning about each other and our different worlds, you always listened to what I had to say, even if you didn’t fully understand it. I can barely get through a discussion with Rainbow about weather without her falling asleep, but you were attentive, and you remembered what I said.

“You also showed me kindness,” she continued. “Helping out around the library, watching Spike for me, staying up late to sort the returned books. If I lost myself to my studies, you always made sure that I got something to eat. I’d fall asleep at my desk, only to wake up in bed, and I know that Spike can’t pick me up.

“Then, there’s your generosity. You often go out of your way to help out a friend, even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. You put up with Ponyville’s guards testing your aggressiveness after your fights with Rainbow Dash. You even participated in the human show for Rarity and Rainbow.”

~Yeah, but—~

“And then there’s your loyalty!” she said, speaking over me. She was talking quickly, almost as if she had been wanting to get all of this off of her chest for a long time. All things considered, she probably did. “You went into the Everfree Forest and faced off against a pack of Timberwolves, twice, for both Rainbow and Fluttershy! For Maker’s sake, you carried the Crusaders and Spike through the forest while trying to escape from a pack of manticores, even though you were injured.”

~I couldn’t just leave them there!~

“That’s another thing!” she said, pointing a hoof at me, ignoring what I was saying. “You’re great with foals! Pumpkin Cake, the Crusaders, all the foals you foalsat on Nightmare Night! Dinky was practically glowing with happiness when she described how much fun she had. And, whenever you have to deal with a foal, you are extremely careful with them!”

~You're grasping at straws here, and you know it~ I signed, shaking my head. ~You’re making me into something I’m not. I’m not as noble as you seem to think I am. Half that stuff, I did without thinking~

“That makes it even better!” Twilight said, smiling. “When in danger, your first instinct was to help others. That just goes to show you have a good heart.”

~Twilight—~

“No!” she shouted, shaking her head. “You’re wrong! You’re kind, and caring, and funny, and… and…” She choked, blinking back tears.

~Twilight~ I signed, and she whimpered softly. ~I’m sorry, but it would never work out~

“Why?” she asked, even before I was finished signing. “Why wouldn’t it work?”

~It just… won’t~ I answered lamely.

“Why? Is it because I’m not pretty enough?” she asked. “I know I’m not as good-looking as Fluttershy or Rarity. Or is it because I’m an egghead?”

~That’s not—~

“Is it because I’m a pony?” she cried, her voice becoming higher in pitch as she became more and more frantic. “I have a spell for that, if that’s the case! Princess Celestia taught it to me. It works, watch!” Before I could respond, her horn lit up, and a blinding light filled the room.

Wincing in pain. I raised a hand and closed my eyes. The light was strong enough that it hurt even coming through the lids. A few seconds passed before the light died down. Blinking tears from my eyes, I lowered my hand and glanced over at the couch. I froze, my mouth dropping open in shock at what I saw.

Sitting where Twilight had been seconds before, a desperate look on her face, was a female human. Her hair was a light shade of brown, hanging down to just below her shoulders. Streaks of pink and violet ran through the strands. She had no clothes on, her tan body completely bare except for Twilight’s cutie marks, which were located on her hips. Her arms covered her chest, her hands held awkwardly, like she didn’t know what to do with them.

I’m not going to lie here; she was incredibly beautiful, and I could feel my face flushing as I stared at her. However, there were some factors about her that came off as unnatural. First off, her eyes were a startling violet color. Another thing was the fact she had a long, lavender horn sticking out of her forehead, as well as a large pair of lavender wings protruding from her back. A tail of brown and lavender hair finished off the picture, wrapping around her waist. When you got right down to it, it looked like someone had taken Twilight and a female human, and tried to fuse them together.

I wasn’t sure if I should be slightly disturbed, or dumbstruck.

“See?” the human said, Twilight’s voice coming from her mouth. She gave me a crazed smile, one of her eyes twitching in a familiar display. “See, I can be a human. Issue solved! Right? Right?!”

I just gaped at her, unable to respond.

She pushed herself up off of the couch. My blush deepened as her arms fell away from her chest, exposing her breasts. She wobbled slightly, trying her best to keep herself upright. Her wings flared as she attempted to keep her balance. Taking several tentative, shaky steps forward, she had almost made it to me when her ankle suddenly twisted.

Letting out a strangled cry, she fell forward, falling towards me. There was a flash of light as she lost control of the spell. As it cleared, I was left with Twilight, in her natural form, clinging to me as she cried into my chest.

“P-please,” she sobbed. “Please, just… j-just give me a chance!”

~But, you can’t~ I signed, having some difficulty doing so with the way she was holding me. ~You’re a princess. What about your reputation?~

I had barely finished signing when she let out a feral scream, her wings flaring wide, knocking my arms to my sides.

“I don’t care!” she screamed, head still buried in my chest. “I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what the nobles think, what the other ponies think. I don’t care if you’re a human and I’m a pony! I don’t care if I’m royalty and you aren’t. I don’t care about any of that! I… there’s only one thing I care about, and that’s you.”

Silence fell over the room as I stared down her. She clung tightly to me, rubbing her damp cheek against my shirt. Quiet whimpers came from her, her body trembling ever so slightly.

Inside, my mind was conflicted. On one hand, a part of me was screaming that I couldn’t return her affection. That we were a different species and it was wrong. How could I possibly love a creature that wasn’t human? I wasn’t biologically hardwired that way. I would be better off taking Applejack up on her offer and picking a female human from her stock.

However, the longer I looked at Twilight’s crying form, the more conflicted I felt. Sure, she might not have been human, but she wasn’t just some animal either. Hell, the fact she was currently causing my shirt to become soaked with tears was proof enough.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. Something Celestia had asked early slow swam to the top of my jumbled thoughts. ‘If Twilight were a human, would you have this much trouble accepting her love?’ Opening my eyes, I took a second to look down at the pony currently huddled pitifully in my lap. I had grown close to her during the year that I had been living here, and she was one of my best friends in this pony-ruled world. However, I wasn’t completely sure if I could see her as more.

...but, I… I might be willing to try.

Swallowing thickly, I took a deep breath before signing, ~Okay~

Twilight’s head snapped up, and she gazed up at me, her face streaked with tears. She blinked owlishly, her mouth slowly parting.

“What?” she said. Actually, it was more like a croak.

I gave her a weak smile. ~One chance~

She stared up at me as her mind tried to process what I had just said. The minute it clicked, however, she inhaled sharply before her grip on me tightened.

“R-really?” she asked, the corners of her mouth twitching. I nodded, before running my hand through her mane, trying to straighten out the disheveled hair. She smiled, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Leaning forward, she nuzzled my neck enthusiastically, all while whimpering “Thank you” over and over again.

I returned her hug awkwardly, trying not to bend her wings. Tentatively, I rubbed my cheek against the top of her head, careful to avoid her horn. The smell of lavender filled my nose as her hair tickled my face. It was actually not unpleasant, and I smiled softly as I enjoyed the scent.

The moment was ruined, however, when I yawned suddenly, my jaw cracking twice. Twilight giggled as she pulled away from me, wiping her cheeks dry with a hoof.

“Somepony sounds tired,” she said, hiccupping slightly. “I guess I can see that, given what we’ve… ah, put you through today.” She got down off of my lap, almost reluctantly, allowing me to stand and stretch. My back cracked loudly, earning me another giggle from Twilight. Her smile fell, though, and she lowered her gaze.

“I, um…” she muttered, scuffing at the ground with her hoof. “I… would you like to… um, I mean, if you want to we could… sleep… together...” She squeaked, trailing off as a large blush spread across her face. Her ear twitched, and she hid behind her bangs.

“On second thought, I’ll just go have to castle staff set up another room for me,” she said quickly, the words tumbling out as she hurried towards the door.

As she passed me, I reached out, making a blind grab for her. My hand wrapped around her tail, stopping her. She gave off a loud squeak, her wings flaring as her hooves slid beneath her. Glancing over her shoulders, she gave me a confused look.

“What are you…” she began, but was cut off when I wrapped my arms around her barrel. Picking her up, I took several steps before throwing her onto the bed, where she laid in a daze. Dusting my hands off, I nodded once before turning and heading towards the bathroom.

A few minutes later I emerged from the bathroom, having taken care of business, and had my fill of changing the color of the candle flames. Seriously, that never gets old. Running my hand through my hair, I looked towards the bed.

While I had been in the bathroom, Twilight had snuggled down beneath the sheets, making herself comfortable. She glanced up as I exited the bathroom, a smile touching her lips as she when she saw me. The smile faded quickly, though, and her eyes darted over to the couch. Ears splaying backwards, she bit her bottom lip.

“Are… are you going to…” She trailed off, fidgeting with her hooves.

I glanced over at the couch, before looking back at her. A smirk slowly worked its way onto my face. Taking a bounding leap, I flopped on the bed beside Twilight, startling her. I snuggled into the sheets, sighing happily at the feeling of the soft cloth.

She just stared at me, mouth agape. As I finished getting comfortable, a smile slowly spread across her face. With a loud giggle, she quickly nestled to my side. Grabbing my arm in her hooves, she draped a wing across my stomach, like a warm, feathery blanket. She placed her head on my chest, being mindful of her horn. All-in-all, it was actually very pleasant. Her fur was soft, and her body radiated a comfortable amount of warmth.

I yawned again, settling my head back onto the pillow. Slowly, my eyes began to close as the excitement of the day caught up with me, my tired limbs grateful for some much needed rest. Beside me, Twilight hummed happily as she gently stroked my arm with her hoof.

“Good night, Max,” she murmured, nosing at my chest, her eyes closed. I grunted, unable to sign as she was currently using one of my arms as a teddy bear. With the sound of the dying fire, as well as Twilight rhythmic breathing, filling the room, I gradually drifted off to peaceful sleep.

The last thing I heard before slumber took me was Twilight inhaling deeply, her chest vibrating as she hummed.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was still dark out when I awoke. Unsure of what had roused me from my slumber, I just laid there, my eyes closed. There was something warm and slightly heavy resting on me. The mass would shift occasionally, small snuffling noises coming from it. Every so often, a burst of hot air washed across my neck and face.

I furrowed my brow, my half-asleep mind trying to process what was going on. It took a brief moment for me to remember I was in Canterlot instead of Ponyville, the events of the day raising through the tired haze, up to the point where I fell asleep with Twilight beside me.

The weight on me shifted suddenly, and a low whimper reached my ears. With that, my eyes fluttered open, and I lifted my head.

Twilight was lying on top of me, her wings spread wide in a protective manner. Her head was propped with her chin against my chest, her breathing coming in short, rapid bursts. She was awake, her eyes open and glazed over, staring into the distance. Every few seconds, the right one would twitch, along with her ear. Her tail swished back and forth, dragging across the blankets. As I become more awake, I realized that I could feel her heart beating away wildly in her chest. She was burning up too; I could feel the heat radiating off of her.

Concerned, I shifted to sit up, but froze when her eyes suddenly snapped to my face. She stared at me blankly for a few seconds before recognition flashed in her eyes, and she shivered.

“Oh good…. you’re awake,” she said, her voice weak and strained. Part of her mane was hanging in her eyes, and I lifted my hand to brush it away, but she flinched back. “D-don’t… don’t move,” she whispered, trembling. “Please, don’t move.”

Lowering my hand, I gave her a confused look.

“I… I’m…” she whimpered. “It’s h-happening again.” My eyes widened and I inhaled sharply. Instantly, a musky scent flooded my nostrils.

Moving slowly, I raised my hands and signed. ~Why?~

“It’s… it’s your scent,” she whispered, her wings twitching. “We… we shouldn’t have s-slept together. I’ve been smelling it for hours and it’s… it’s g-getting to me.” She shifted her body, putting more pressure on my stomach as her back legs flexed. “I’m trying to k-keep myself under control, but… but I… I just want to…” She swallowed thickly, her nostrils flaring wide as she snorted.

~Pills?~ I signed, making sure to keep my movements slow. ~Celestia said you had medicine that could help~

“They’re back h-home… at the library,” she murmured.

~What?!~

“I w-wasn’t in the best mindset when I left, okay?” she hissed. “I had a lot on my mind and I forgot!”

~Well, what do we do?~

“I d-don’t know,” she whimpered. “I don’t t-trust myself to m-move. Do… do you think you can…”

Slowly wrapping an arm around her, being care to mind her wings, I used my other arm to push myself up. I managed to get about halfway into a seated position before Twilight shifted suddenly, sinking into my lap. I froze, cursing silently. The movement caused her groin to rub against my leg, hard, and she inhaled sharply, her pupils dilating.

I had a split second warning before her horn lit up and I was slammed back down onto my back, my arms and legs pinned to the bed. Twilight loomed over me, breathing heavily. She stared down at me, her eyes hazy. Her mane hung down around her head, tickling my face as she leaned over me. She slowly lowered herself until her muzzle brushed up against my nose. I could smell her breath every time she exhaled.

It was about at this moment that my heart was hammering in my chest. Swallowing thickly, I tried to move my head, but Twilight’s horn lit up, and I was forced to hold it in place.

“Ah, ah, ah, no looking away,” she murmured, nuzzling my nose. Giggling, she licked me, her rough tongue dragging across my cheek. She repeated the process on the other side of my face, before giggling again. However, her laughter died in a choking gasp and she pulled her head back quickly. The pressure around my head and limbs disappeared, and I found myself able to move again.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered softly, her body trembling. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Tears slowly began to roll down her cheeks, her eyes wide.

~Teleport?~ I asked quickly, Twilight’s eye twitching as I moved.

She weakly shook her head. “N-no, I can’t concentrate enough to pull it off. I could end up appearing in a wall… or taking half of you with me.” Her pupils dilated, and her wings spread wider. “Not risking you,” she growled.

~What do we do then?~ I asked. ~Wait till morning and hope someone comes along?~

“It’s two in the morning,” she muttered. “It’s going to be a w-while.”

I grunted, swearing under my breath. I probably should have seen this coming. If I could affect her just by walking in her room, than sleeping beside me for a couple hours was more than enough to set her off.

~Is there anything I can do to help?~

“Don’t ask that,” she mewled. “Don’t ask that right now, please. I don’t…” Her pupils dilated again, and she groaned loudly. “Please,” she whimpered, kneading her forehooves into my chest. “Please… don’t hate me…” With that, she leaned forward suddenly, and slammed her lips into mine. My eyes shot open, and I grunted in surprise. The kiss was forceful, but with heated passion. I felt her tongue flick across my lips, but I was too shocked to open my mouth.

After several seconds, she broke the kiss. Breathing heavily, she kept her lips a hair’s breadth away from mine.

“I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly before locking lips with me again. It was a lot gentler this time, but with no less passion. Hesitantly, I returned the kiss, our lips moving in sync for a brief moment in time. Her tongue prodded my mouth again, asking permission, and this time I allowed her in. Twilight moaned as she sunk into the kiss, her eyes closed. Her tongue ran over my teeth, and she shivered as she played with my canines. I noticed that she seemed to drool more than a human, but it was tasteless.

As she continued to kiss me, I tried to shift from underneath her. However, the minute I moved, her horn lit up and I found myself restrained again. She growled, her tongue still in my mouth, and her kiss grew more aggressive. There was no way I was getting out of this. It was going to happen, one way or another.

Truthfully, even though I was terrified, I was slightly aroused as well. I wasn’t sure if it was her forceful nature, or just the situation in general, but I could feel my member slowly rising to attention. Apparently Twilight could feel it too, because she purred suddenly and began to rub her groin against mine.

Breaking the kiss, she smirked down at me, tears still streaming down her face.

“Are you ready for your… reward?” she asked with a whisper. Her horn grew brighter, and a second later, I was shirtless. Unable to move, unable to sign, I could only lie there as she eyed me appraisingly. Her tail lashed back and forth, and I could feel a damp spot slowly growing where she was sitting on my leg.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” she breathed. Leaning down, she pressed her muzzle against my neck, inhaling deeply. Suddenly, she nipped my chin, causing my breath to catch in my throat. My body locked up, and I groaned softly as she slowly licked my neck.

“Somepony has a sensitive neck,” she cooed. I grunted, turning my head away from her attentive nuzzles. She just giggled, and continued to kiss and lick at my skin, slowly working her way lower and lower until she was positioned over my chest.

She paused, frowning as she eyed the large scar spanning across my upper body. Leaning down, she snuffled the pale mark before, with a whimper, she began to lick at it, her rough tongue sending shivers down my sides. She trailed across my chest, slowly exploring as she worked her way down to my stomach, leaving a thin trail of saliva in her wake. She teased at my navel, circling it tenderly with her tongue before giving it a soft kiss.

By now, it was clearly visible that I was aroused, my member straining to break free. I was pretty sure Twilight could feel it through the fabric. Giving my stomach one last lick, she leaned back and eyed the bulge in my pants. Pressing her nose to it, she inhaled deeply before letting out a feral growl. Her ears splayed backwards, and her pupils became mere pinpricks. Her horn flashed once, and I was suddenly as naked as the day I was born.

My member twitched as it suddenly found itself out in the open. As Twilight stared at it with lustful fascination, I could only blush and looking away. I gasped suddenly, my leg twitching, as Twilight pushed the tip of her muzzle against its underside. She breathed deeply, her heated breath causing it to twitch in response.

“A nice size,” she cooed, her eyes flashing with desire. “Slightly below average compared to a stallion, but that’s to be expected. Definitely bigger than most humans, though.” The tone she used was similar to someone describing a scientific observation. I wasn’t sure if it was her heat doing this to her, or if she was subconsciously trying to comfort herself, but it was surprisingly arousing, and my member twitched.

A drop of precum appeared at the tip, and she gave it a curious look. Leaning forward, she dragged her tongue slowly over the head, causing me to hiss and my back to arch; the rough texture of her tongue felt amazing.

She pulled away, rolling her tongue around the inside of her mouth.

“Salty,” she commented before smiling. Leaning in, she kissed the tip of my member before giving it a nice, long lick. My leg kicked weakly, and I groaned in response. She swirled her tongue around the head several times before stopping. Moving lower, she placed the tip of her tongue at the base of the shaft before dragging it upwards slowly.

I groaned, my head falling backwards as she worked her way back up to the head. She repeated the process, making sure to cover the entire underside of my penis with her saliva. It twitched each time she reached the head, precum starting to flow more regularly. She lapped it up like nectar, humming happily at the taste.

After one particularly long lick, she gave the tip a quick kiss before lowering her head and pushing my shaft into her mouth.

I grunted, gritting my teeth as my member was suddenly enveloped in a warm wetness. I could feel her tongue running along the length of my penis. My hips bucked instinctively, causing her to giggle around my length. Placing her hooves on either side of my groin, she began to slowly bob her head, suckling happily. She worked her way down my shaft slowly, pushing more and more of its length into her mouth with each thrust.

I squirmed beneath her, biting my lip as I tried my hardest to keep my composure. It was hard, tough. Having not relieved myself of pent up stress since coming to Equestria, I was already about to blow. Gritting my teeth, I fought back the growing pressure in my groin.

I breathed a sigh of relief when she pulled off of me, a strand of drool trailing from her lips to the tip of my member.

“Getting all worked up already?” she giggled, her face flushed. “We’ve barely gotten started.” She smirked, her horn lighting up. “I’ve done some research, and I think I know something that you might find… pleasurable.”

I flinched in surprise as my member was suddenly enveloped in her rosy aura. It felt weird, almost tingly, like when your arms or legs fall asleep. There was a warmth to it too, and I squirmed at the sensation. This just caused Twilight to giggle again.

“Just wait,” she cooed, rubbing my thighs absentmindedly with her hooves. “It’s about to get better.” Her horn started to grow brighter, and I gasped in shock as the magic around my penis began to squeeze and pulse along the entire length. Gradually, the magical sleeve began to heat up, getting warmer and warmer as it continued to massage my length from all angles.

Gritting my teeth, I groaned as my hips began to thrust on their own. That didn’t help to alleviate the growing pressure in my balls, however, and I grunted in frustration.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight smirked. “Want more?”

I yelped as the sensation suddenly increased, the pressure of the waves growing in frequency. It felt like a couple dozen hands were stroking my shaft all at once, and it was all I could do to not blow my load right then and there. Biting my lip, I almost drew blood as I tried to focus on anything other than the mind-blowing sensation currently running through my cock. My toes curled, and I whimpered as the pleasure slowly became too much.

“One last thing,” Twilight said. Her horn flashed once, and my mind exploded.

My eyes rolled back as indescribable pleasure rushed through my body. The world around my faded to black as my brain was overloaded with sensations. I was pretty sure I was screaming in euphoria.

I wasn’t sure how long I stayed in that state before I slowly drifted back down the earth and the world around me faded back into view. I was breathing heavily, my breaths coming in short, ragged bursts. My body was quivering horribly, tremors running up and down my arms and legs.

As I slowly calmed down, I realized that I could feel a soft pressure around the base of my cock. Glancing down, I stared in confusion at the band of rosy symbols that was wrapped around my member.

“That spell will prevent you from cumming too early. We don’t want you finishing just yet,” Twilight explained upon seeing my confused look. She gently ran the edge of her hoof up my length. I shuddered, whimpering at the feeling, my member still too sensitive. “It’s a good thing I used it too, or else we’d have quite the mess on our hooves.

“Anyways, how did that feel?” she asked. I groaned, thrusting my hips softly as she continued to stroke me with her hoof. The pleasure was slowly beginning to grow again, and despite the release I had earlier, I was still raring to go.

“Yes,” she cooed, giving me a smoldering look, “that tends to be the case when one stimulates all the nerves in the penis at once. All those pleasure centers working at once, indescribable, right?” She paused, a small frown touching her lips.

“It was pleasurable, right?” she asked, her ears splaying back. Her eyes were less lust-filled, and she was beginning to sound like herself again. “It… it wasn’t too much, was it? I didn’t really have any chance to test it out. I mean, I read about it in a book and practiced casting it, but since I didn’t have anypony to test it on, I didn’t really know…” She trailed off as she glanced at me, biting her lip. “It was good… right?”

I nodded my head dazedly, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, good.” Leaning down, she nuzzled my cheek happily. “That was a gift. An apology for making you run around Ponyville.” I just grunted, too dazed to do anything else. Not that I could; the magical restraints were still in place.

Pulling back, Twilight stared down at my member as she continued to stroke it. This went on for a few seconds before she suddenly stopped. Without saying a word, she stood up and moved to stand over me. I could smell her arousal in the air, the musky smell making my head spin. She positioned herself, holding my penis in her magic as she lined herself up. I tensed, swallowing thickly. This was the part I had been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“...and this is your reward,” she cooed. Squatting down, she teased herself with the tip of my member, and I hissed as I felt her heated lips slid across my sensitive head. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she worked the tip back and forth across her folds. I could feel the heat radiating from her lips, and her muscles flexed as she played with me.

Then suddenly, without warning, she sat down hard, shoving my entire length inside her in one thrust. She threw her head back, moaning loudly as her muscles convulsed around the sudden intruder. My back arched and my mouth fell open in a soundless scream as my member was suddenly enveloped in her burning depths. I was already on the edge, and if it wasn’t for her spell, I would have finished right then and there. However, unable to climax, I found myself groaning in need as pleasure and pressure continued to build up, to the point of almost being painful. The feeling was torturous, but glorious at the same time.

The walls of her marehood squeezed at my length as her hips pressed firmly against mine. I could feel her wink, her clitoris pressing against my groin as she whimpered happily. Placing her forehooves on my chest to stabilize herself, she began to roll her hips gently. I winced, moaning softly as I felt myself shifting inside of her, my head rubbing against the walls of her vagina. I could feel her arousal slowly pooling around my groin as she worked.

She took a deep breath before opening her eyes and glancing down at me. I could see the unadulterated lust in her gaze, as well as a small amount of concern. Leaning down, she nuzzled my cheek.

“I love you, you know that right?” she whispered, her tone almost pleading. “I love you.” Slowly, she began to move her hips, rising and falling gently, working my member into her depths. I grunted, feeling my head dragging against her flesh. My member twitched and jerked, straining for release. Every time she lifted her hips, the spell around the base of my penis was revealed, bathing us both in a rosy light, only to disappear again as I plunged into her depths again.

Slowly, her speed began to increase as she fell into a rhythm. As she pulled herself off of me, the walls of her marehood gripped at my member, trying to prevent me from leaving. When she thrust downwards, she would wink, her muscles twitching in response.

Soon enough, I was meeting her thrusts with my own, trying to work myself deeper into her burning core. Each time she pulled back to the point where I’d almost slipped out of her, only to jerk her hips forward, pushing me back into her depths. The thick odor of sweat and musk soon filled the room to the point where you could almost taste it.

“Just… a little… longer…” Twilight panted, her tongue lolling from her mouth. On the next down thrust, she let out a loud yelp. My crotch was suddenly bathed in warm liquid, yet Twilight continued to slam her hips down onto mine. Leaning down, she pressed her nose into my chest and inhaled deeply, a low hum reverberating throughout her body. I hissed, feeling the sensation through my member. The pressure in my groin was becoming uncomfortable, my member throbbing and twitching in her depths. I groaned in frustration, my hips moving on their own at this point.

Lifting her head again, she started to increase her pace to almost a frenzied tempo. Her wings—flared wide—began to flap with each thrust, sending a current of air rushing around the room.

“Mine,” Twilight whimpered.

Her horn began to glow, starting soft and slowly growing in intensity. I could feel her clench at my member, a clear, viscous liquid seeping from her lips.

“My scent,” she muttered, her thrusts taking on an almost desperate feel.

I grunted, gritting my teeth. Pleasure and pain mixed as I teetered on the edge of bliss.

“My human,” she growled, her voice growing stronger as the light around her horn increased. “My mate. My lover.” She gave one last, frantic thrust before burrowing my length into her depths. Her confines clenched around me, beginning to milk my length. She let out a loud scream of pleasure as her horn flashed bright white. “MINE!”

I threw my head back and snarled as her spell suddenly ended. Wave after wave of pleasure assaulted my mind and body as I erupted inside of her. I could feel my member pulsing, pushing burst after burst of hot seed deep into her core. Twilight cried out wordlessly as her body was wracked with pleasure. Her forelegs buckled, unable to support her weight, and she collapsed on top of me.

We both laid there, panting heavily, as we slowly came back down to earth. I was dimly aware that I could move my arms and legs again. Moving slowly, I shifted my limbs, wincing as the muscles twinged.

Twilight was breathing heavily in my ear, her head resting upon my shoulder. Her body was trembling, her wings hanging limply across the bed. She murmured gently as she nuzzled my cheek. Sighing, she licked my ear gently. The feeling sent a shiver down my spine, and I shifted beneath her. I groaned as my softening member shifted inside of her.

She froze suddenly, her whole body going stiff.

“Oh no,” she breathed. “Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no!” Her chanting grew louder and louder before she suddenly pushed off of me and sat up. She stared down at me, the horror clear on her face as her eyes began to water.

“I… I…” she stammered out, glancing between my face and my bare body. Her ears splaying back and she began to hyperventilate. “I’m sorry, I didn’t… I couldn’t… I….” She trailed off, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Confused, I reached up to brush away the tears, but she swatted my hand away.

“Don’t touch me!” she shrieked. “I don’t… I don’t deserve…” She shifted around on my lap, causing my limp member to slide around inside of her. That just seemed to make things worse. Her eyes widened, and she glanced down at where our bodies were connected.

I glanced down myself, and grimaced. It was a mess, different fluids mixed together with other fluids. I also saw I had several hoofmarks on my chest where Twilight’s hard hooves had dug into me.

Her leg twitched, her hips slid backwards, and my member slid out of her with an undignified ‘plop’. This caused her to let out a choked sob, and she flailed around, trying to get off of me and off the bed.

Ducking under her thrashing wing, I quickly wrapped my arms around her barrel and pulled her to my chest.

“No, let me go!” she cried, struggling to escape my hold. “I j-just raped you!” She tried to use her forehooves to pry my arms apart, but I just wrapped my arms around those as well, trapping them by her sides along with her wings. She continued to wiggle around, kicking her hind legs futility against the bed.

Eventually, she stopped struggling and just hung limply in my arms. I pulled her closed to me, nuzzling the top of her head.

“Why?” she asked, sniffing. “Why are you… I raped you. You should hate me.”

~I prefer the term ‘struggle snuggle’~ I signed, moving my hands just far enough to make the motions, but keeping them close enough to grab her if she tried to run.

“I’m serious,” she muttered, rubbing her nose with a hoof.

~You weren’t in control of your actions~

“That just makes it worse,” she whimpered, her ears folding against her head. “I shouldn’t have slept in the same bed as you. I’m in heat, I had no medication. I should have just gotten a separate room.”

~I knew what I was getting into~

That caused her to scoff. “No, you didn’t.”

~Well, you got me there~ I signed, rubbing my cheek against the top of her head. ~I could have stopped you if I tried, though~

“Then why didn’t you?” she asked, finally glancing over her shoulder, looking me in the eye.

I frowned, my brow furrowing. ~I’m not entirely sure~

She turned her head back around, lowering it as she sighed heavily.

“Not even together one night, and I screw everything up,” she whimpered.

~You didn’t screw anything up~ I signed. ~You didn’t~ I added when she snorted, shaking her head. ~Sure, you were kind of aggressive, and scary, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it~

Her head whipped around and she gave me an incredulous look. “W-what?”

I just smiled at her before leaning down and nuzzling her cheek again. A blush spread across her face as she stared up at me, shock clear on her face. The shock slowly faded, and a tentative smile touched her lips. Loosening my grip on her, I ran a hand gently over her stomach, causing her to coo softly.

Sitting up straight, I rested my chin on the top of her head.

~However, before we go any further, I’m laying down some quick ground rules~ I signed.

“What are the rules?” she asked, leaning back against my chest, her eyes half closed, and a sleepy smile on her face.

~First thing in the morning, you’re going to go find some of that heat medication, okay?~ I signed. ~While I didn’t mind it this time, you still need to get your urges under control~

Twilight nodded her head, an ear twitching.

~The second thing, no more restraining me with magic. I don’t like not being able to communicate like that. Or not able to move in general~

“Okay,” Twilight squeaked, lowering her head, an ashamed look on her face.

~And thirdly, next time, no using that restraining spell on my junk unless you ask, okay? It was fine at first, but it began to hurt near the end~

“Sorry, I wasn’t—” she began, but froze, her eyes widening. “‘Next time’?” she said, slowly glancing back at me.

I gave her a look of faux hurt. ~Already throwing me away for the next human?~

“N-no!” she said quickly, shaking her head. “It’s just… after what happened… I thought you wouldn’t want...”

~You’re stuck with me, Sparklebutt~ I signed with a smirk. ~One way or another, we’ll make this work~

She stared up at me for a few more seconds before a large smile split her face. Craning her head back, she kissed my cheek before whispering “thank you” in my ear. Her hooves grabbed ahold of my hand and pulled it to her chest, holding it over her heart.

I smiled, before a yawn suddenly escaped me. Blinking back tears, I realized that it was only about three in the morning, and, despite what had just happened, I was still exhausted.

Twilight laughed softly, stroking my arm absentmindedly. “You can go back to sleep. I’ll go see if I can bunk with one of the girls until morning.” My grip around her, which had become slack, tightened quickly, keeping her pinned to my chest.

“Wha—” she began, only to yelp as I fell backwards, pulling her with me. Snuggling into the mattress, I slid my foot under the blankets and kicked them over us.

~No fuck and run for you~ I signed as I settled back on the pillow. She opened her mouth to protest, but apparently thought better of it, because she just sighed and adjusted herself into a more comfortable position.

“Goodnight, Max,” she murmured, holding my hand in her hooves. I gave one a gentle squeeze, my eyes closed. Her coat felt good against my bare skin, the soft hairs brushing against my flesh. I could feel her heart beating softly in her chest, the rhythmic beats helping to lull me back to sleep.

As the darkness slowly claimed me, I heard Twilight humming softly to herself.

Chapter 50: Troubled Waters

I slowly drifted back into the world of the living with a groan. My body was stiff, I was naked in bed, and it took my brain a few seconds to remember the reason why. As the memories of what had happened last night came trickling back, I groaned again before rolling over onto my stomach. It was too early to count me among the living. I’d deal with all of that in a few hours.

Snuggling into the sheets, I tried to go back to sleep. I was only lying there a few minutes when my body made it clear that it had to pee. Now.

With an annoyed grunt, I pushed myself into a seated position, causing the sheets to fall off of me. Cracking my eye open, I glanced around the room. The curtains to the balcony were open a crack, the morning sun streaming through, giving off enough light to see by. My shirt and pants were tossed haphazardly onto the couch, probably by Twilight’s magic last night. Speaking of which…

Twilight wasn’t in the room. Her spot in the bed was empty, a few feathers the only indication that she had been there. The bathroom door was open and there was no light coming from it, so she wasn’t in there. Looking at the door to the hall, I noticed that it appeared to be unlocked. Twilight had apparently already gotten up and left before I had woken up.

A frown touched my face and I huffed softly. I had been hoping that she would still be here so that we could have a talk about what had happened last night. I’d have to catch her later. Maybe after I found Celestia and got her to explain this ‘heat’ thing a little better. I might not understand it that well, but there was a huge difference between when Applejack was in heat, and when Twilight was. Mainly, Twilight appeared more rapey. And seemed to have a split personality.

Hopefully Celestia would be able to clear up any and all confusion. I had been serious when I told Twilight that I was willing to give this relationship a try, but if that’s how she was going to act, I was bailing now. While I hadn’t minded what happened last night, I wasn’t going to put up with that for an extended period of time.

My bladder twinged again, reminding me of why I wasn’t going back to sleep at the moment. Crawling to the edge of the mattress, I forced myself off of the comfortable bed. I started to shuffle towards the bathroom, but paused when I felt a weird sensation in my crotch. Confused, I glanced down and…

...oh, that’s just nasty. Grimacing, I looked away from the horrific aftermath. I can’t believe I slept like this. I’m definitely gonna need to take a shower. And the maids are probably going to have to burn the sheets… and the blankets… and the mattress.

Entering the bathroom, I proceeded to do my business, all while trying not to touch too much of the mess below. Once I was finished, I immediately turned on the shower and hopped in. As soon as the warm water washed over my body, I let out a shaky sigh and closed my eyes. I just stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the sensation, before actually beginning to wash. I left the mess below for last, focusing instead on the rest of my body. As I washed my hair, I pulled on it, studying its length. It was once again getting on the long side, and I made a mental note to talk to Rarity about a haircut.

It took me about twenty minutes to finish showering. Drying myself off, I stepped out of the bathroom and glanced around. Twilight hadn’t returned while I was in the shower, which meant she was still out and about, doing whatever. As I walked by the bed, I paused, before reaching down and picking up most of Twilight’s feathers. Straightening them up, I placed them down on the bedside table for later.

Now that I was up, showered, and awake, I figured I should probably go find something to eat before looking for Twilight. My stomach growled softly, agreeing with my decision. Picking up my clothes, I got dressed and exited the room.

Making sure the door was closed, I turned, only to blink in surprise when I saw a guard standing on the opposite side of the hall. She was watching me intently, her red eyes unblinking. Decked out in Night Guard armor, her horn was poking out of a hole in her helmet. She had a red eye as a cutie mark, bat-like wings protruding from the sides of it. I also saw two fangs peaking out from behind her lips. Her nostrils flared, and her pupils seemed to shrink before returning to normal.

We stared at one another for several seconds before I slowly raised an eyebrow.

“Are you heading to breakfast?” she asked, her voice surprisingly light. It had a kind of ring to it, almost like silver bells. “I am to escort you to the dining hall. Princess Celestia’s orders.”

My brow furrowed, and I tsked softly. I knew my way to the dining room; I didn’t need an escort.

Seeming to pick up on my annoyance, the guard shook her head. “I’m just to escort you to the dining hall, nothing more. A griffon dignitary arrived late last night to talk with Princess Luna, and we want to avoid unneeded complications. She’ll be gone after breakfast though, so I’ll be out of your mane by then.”

Hanging my head, I sighed heavily before motioning for her to lead.

As we walked, she kept a little ways ahead of me at all times, breathing through her mouth. I watched her curiously, unsure of what to think about this behavior. Every so often, she would glance back at me, double checking that I was still following.

It took us longer than usual to reach the dining room, as the guard kept taking me down side passages. At first, I was a little wary of this, but when we started to pass more and more guards, all of whom just nodded at my escort while giving me strange looks, I figured she was legit. Either that, or she was a damn good infiltrator.

She was silent until we reached the dining room. Turning, she inclined her head, motioning towards the door. Her face was flushed slightly, and she was still breathing through her mouth.

“This is where I leave you,” she said.

When I nodded my thanks, she turned and walked off down the hall without another word. I watched her go until she turned the corner, before pushing open the dining room doors and entering.

As the door swung shut behind me, I noticed there were already ponies sitting around the table. Celestia sat at the head of the table, her back to the door I had just entered. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting on one side of the table, while Fluttershy and Rarity were sitting on the other. I assumed that they had come up with Twilight, and if that was indeed the case, then where was Pinkie?

Probably hiding, waiting to surprise the next person who sits down for breakfast, I mused to myself as I approached the table.

Applejack looked up as I neared, a smile crossing her face.

“Well, good mornin’, sugarcube,” she said as I sat down beside Fluttershy and picked up a piece of toast. “How are ya—” She froze, her eyes widening as her nostrils flared. Her cheeks instantly turned red, and she slapped her hooves over her muzzle, covering her nose.

The others reactions were similar in nature. A large blush exploded across Rainbow’s face, her wings flaring wide, nearly knocking Applejack over. Rarity spit out her drink, her face just as red. Fluttershy stiffened beside me, her wings flaring as well, and she looked like she was about to pass out. Even Celestia looked like someone had just slapped her, her eyes wide and a shocked look on her face.

I cocked an eyebrow as I munched on my toast.

“Geez, dude,” Rainbow gagged, holding her hooves over her nose. “So not cool. I realize you might still be mad about yesterday, but as far as payback goes, this is a low blow!”

“Well, at least we know why Twilight was so happy this morning,” Rarity muttered, fanning her face with a napkin. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled she’s happy, but this was uncalled for.”

I gave them all a confused look.

“Sugarcube,” Applejack said, her voice sounding nasally as she kept a hoof over her nostrils. “I’m happy for ya that ya had a good time last night, but next time, clean up afterwards, okay? Unless, ya one of them stallions that likes to show off.”

At my blank look, Rarity huffed. “Darling, when a mare and a stallion… uh, do the deed, as it were, the stallion usually smells of the mare afterwards. We can smell Twilight on you, and that’s putting it lightly. While some mares might find it flattering that a stallion is willing to walk around smelling like her, it tends to get other mares worked up. Especially during estrus.”

My eyes widened in sudden understanding, and my cheeks reddened as I realized what they were implying. They could smell that Twilight and I had had sex. Suddenly, the guard breathing out of her mouth made so much more sense. As well as the strange looks the other guards had been giving me.

Face burning, I sunk low into my chair, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“You really should shower afterwards, instead of parading around with her scent all over you,” Rarity said, giving me a strained smile, her cheeks flushed slightly. My head jerked up, and I stared at her over the edge of the table, a look of uneasiness slowly crossing my face.

This caused her smile to fade.

“You… you didn’t shower already, did you?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying. When I nodded, her ears splayed back, her eyes widening in shock. A look that was mirrored by the others.

“By the Maker,” Rarity breathed, her pupils the size of pinpricks. “If this is how strong it is after you took a shower…” She trailed off, a shiver running down her spine.

A strained look crossed Rainbow’s face, and it took me a few seconds to realize that she was trying not to laugh. Leaning sideways, she whispered into Applejack’s ear, “I told you she was pent up. Like, really pent up.” This caused the corners of Applejack’s lips to twitch upwards.

I watched them for several seconds before a shadow fell over me. I glanced up, only to blink in surprise when I saw Celestia looming above me, an ominous look on her face. However, she wasn’t looking at my face, but at my wrists. I chanced a glance down as well, but didn’t notice anything amiss.

“What happened last night?” she asked, her voice devoid of emotion.

In that moment, I was more scared than when Twilight had held me down last night. Celestia’s eyes held an inner fire that seemed to blaze like a thousand suns. I could feel my heart beginning to pound in my ears, my breath catching in my throat. With four simple words and a look, she was more intimidating than even the pack of manticores had been. I could now finally see why Twilight held this mare in such high regards.

Swallowing thickly, I signed, ~She was waiting in my room when I got back. We talked, discussing her feelings about me, then we went to bed and… well, yeah~ I motioned towards my body, indicating my scent. I didn’t want to get into details; she already knew what had happened just by the smell.

Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Did anything strange happen?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer before the dining room doors suddenly swung open, causing everyone to glance over at them. After a few seconds, Twilight entered, practically skipped through the door with a smile on her face. Her eyes locked onto me and the smile grew larger, her ears perking up like a dog’s.

“Good morning, Max,” she chirped as she pranced over. “Good morning, everypony,” she added as an after thought upon noticing the other inhabitants of the room. Her friends returned her greetings, their faces flushed. Celestia just leaned back, eyeing Twilight closely as she walked around the side of the table, heading for me.

I pulled out the chair next to me for her to sit down, but she surprised us all by ignoring it. Instead, she hopped into my lap, giving my cheek a quick kiss before snuggling down and making herself comfortable. Lighting up her horn, she grabbed a piece of toast, slathered some jam on it, then proceeded to eat it happily.

The others just watched with bemused looks, although Fluttershy had the hint of a smile on her face. Celestia observed her closely with a small frown.

Not paying them any attention, Twilight finished off her toast before reaching for a second piece.

~Comfortable?~ I asked, having to wrap my arms around like a hug in order to sign. This caused her to hum happily and snuggling into my embrace.

“Oh, yes. Very comfortable,” she said with a nod, munching contently on her breakfast. Rainbow Dash placed a hoof over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter again. Twilight gave her a confused look.

“What?” she asked, swallowing the food in her mouth. “What’s so funny?”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like a chair instead, darling?” Rarity asked, a small smirk on her face. Twilight immediately blushed and sunk lower into my lap, but she didn’t move. She muttered something under her breath, her ears splaying backwards.

“I’m sorry, dear, what was that?” Rarity asked, leaning in, her smirk growing.

“A chair isn’t as warm,” she said a little bit louder. I ‘snerked’ at that, and beside me Fluttershy giggled softly. Twilight pouted, glaring over her shoulder at me. I just gave her a smile before tightening my grip around her. I still want to talk with her about last night, but it could wait. Besides, she was surprisingly comfy.

“Well,” Celestia said suddenly, standing up from the table. “The day has come, and several royal duties require my attention, so I best be off. Twilight, would you mind accompanying me for a minute? I have something I must talk to you about.”

“Um… no thanks, I-I’m good,” she said nervously.

Celestia paused halfway to the door, and glanced over her shoulder at her.

“That wasn’t a request,” she said, pursing her lips. “Please, accompany me. It will only take a few minutes.”

Twilight looked back at me, a small frown crossing her face before she looked back at Celestia. “But… I already have plans that I need to get to. I don’t want to—” She yelped in surprise as she was suddenly lifted off of my lap by a golden aura. Celestia’s horn was glowing as she levitated Twilight over to her side.

“Come along, Twilight,” she said as she made her way to the door. “This won’t be a long talk.”

Twilight struggled for a second before falling limp in Celestia’s magic. Just before the doors closed behind them, she glanced back at me and shouted, “I’ll catch up with you later!”

Rarity stared at the closed doors, a bemused look on her face.

“That was unexpected,” she said slowly. “I’m not sure what just happened.”

“You’re telling me,” Rainbow huffed, crossing her forelegs. “I’m so confused… and Pinkie’s not even here at the moment!” She sulked for a few seconds before a sly grin crossed her face. Leaning across the table, she looked at me.

“Hey, can you help me settle a bet?” she asked. I blinked before shrugging my shoulders. Motioning towards the door with her head, Rainbow asked, “Is she a screamer?” Rarity, who had just taken a sip of her drink, did another spit-take. Fluttershy squeaked before hiding her face in her mane. Applejack’s ears perked up, and she watched me closely out of the corner of her eyes, waiting for the answer.

I shrugged again before making a writing motion with my hand. I had no means of communication with them at the moment, short of a game of charade.

There was a rustle beside me and I blinked in surprise as a piece of paper and a stick of charcoal was pushed in front of me. I glanced over at Fluttershy, who just gave me a shy smile.

“You, uh… you left your bags at the library,” she muttered, drawing a small circle on the table with her hoof. “I know you keep your writing supplies there… so, I, um... brought some along.”

Smiling, I picked up the charcoal stick and began to write. It took me a few seconds, but when I was down, I held up the paper from Rainbow to read.

+I will neither confirm nor deny that, and I hardly think it’s of any concern of yours+ Rainbow’s ears dropped.

“I-I’m sorry—” she began, but stopped when I quickly scratched out something else.

+However, I will say that it wasn’t my ears that were hurting when I woke up this morning+

A blush quickly crossed Rainbow’s face. Shaking her head, she sat back in her chair and huffed. “That means I owe Pinkie twenty-five bits,” she grumbled. Applejack coughed loudly and nudged her with a hoof. Rainbow sighed before pulling a small bag out of somewhere. She muttered under her breath before counting out the money and handing it to Applejack, who just smiled as she accepted the bits.

Chuckling at their antics, I tapped the charcoal stick absentmindedly against the table. I paused, glancing over at Rarity, before scratching out a new message. I slid it over to her, and she picked the paper up in her magic.

+I know that estrus is a time of increased hormones for females, but is it normal for them to become overly aggressive in capturing searching for a mate?+

“Not necessarily,” she replied, her brow furrowed. “Some mares tend to get more irritable sometimes. Cheerilee has to hire a substitute occasionally during estrus because she becomes too snippish with the foals, but I’ve never heard of a mare becoming too aggressive during their heat.

“Why?” she asked, giving me the paper back. “Does this have something to do with Twilight?”

I paused before answer. +Not really+

Rarity noticed my hesitation though, and her eyes narrowed. “Darling…”

I winced before adding a little more. +She may have gone a little crazy and held me down with her magic—+

“SHE DID WHAT?!” Rarity yanked the paper away with her magic, her eyes wide. I jumped, startled by her response. She reread the note again, her mouth opening and closing. The others gathered around, reading the note over her shoulder. Fluttershy gasped softly, covering her mouth with her hooves. Rainbow scowled, crossing her forelegs.

“And she got mad at me for being assertive,” she growled softly. Applejack nodded, but remained quiet.

Rarity glared down at the paper, her eyes narrowed. “After what we discussed on the train, how dare she…” She trailed off, scrunching up her face, before glancing back at me. “Are you telling me she held you down with her magic, and marked you? Darling, no matter how bad a mare’s heat is, no mare would ever rape a stallion!”

Reaching over, I grabbed the piece of paper out of her magic.

+She didn’t rape me!~ I scribbled down before showing it to them.

“Did ya agree to it?” Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Otherwise, that’s rape.”

I snorted, glaring at her. +You’re one to talk. Need I remind you of what happened in your breeding barns? I don’t remember agreeing to that, but you seemed rather adamant to get in my pants+

Applejack reeled back, her eyes widening, before lowering her gaze. She pulled her hat down over her eyes, a large blush on her face.

“Point taken,” she muttered.

+And let’s not forget Ms. “Want-To-Play” here+ I added, before pointing at Rainbow. She flinched, her ears pressing against the back of her head. +Mares might be able to control themselves around stallions, but it appears humans are fair game?+

“Well, that… I…” Rarity stammered, blinking. Her cheeks puffed out, and her face turned red. After a few seconds, she exhaled explosively, hanging her head. “Alright, I suppose you have a point. Yes, humans are used by the majority of mares to cool themselves down during heat, because not only can they not get the mare pregnant, but you don’t have to form an emotional bond with them. That shouldn’t apply to you, however, as you are not a typical Equestrian human. You have the ability to choose for yourself what happens, be it saying ‘no’ to overeager mares—” she gave Applejack and Rainbow a pointed look “—or say ‘yes’ to Twilight.

“However, you should still have a long talk with Twilight about holding you down with her magic,” she continued. “Not only could you not give consent verbally, you couldn’t tell her to stop if you were uncomfortable with anything.”

+I could have stopped her if I wanted to+

“I highly doubt that, darling,” Rarity snorted. “It’s almost impossible for non-unicorns to break free of a unicorn’s magical grasp.” When I just continued to smirk at her, her eyes narrowed. “Fine, you think you can get out of a magical hold? Here.” Her horn began to glow light blue, and a familiar tingle started to cover my body.

However, before she could pick me up, I reached out and grabbed her horn. Instantly, my hand went numb and the magic flowing around her horn ceased. She blinked in surprise, glancing up at her horn in confusion. Her brow furrowed, and she strained as she tried to force her horn to work. All she managed to do was create a couple of bright sparks.

After a few seconds, she stopped trying and pouted, her cheeks slightly flushed. “Fine, you were right. Now, please let go of my horn.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“So, I see that you have finally talked to Max about your feelings for him,” Celestia said as she walked down the hall, her hoofguards ‘clicking’ softly against the marble floors. Beside her, Twilight trotted, her ears splayed back nervously. The Princess’s voice didn’t hold any negative emotions, but she still cringed inwardly as though she had done something wrong.

Swallowing thickly, Twilight replied. “Y-yes, yes I did. Although, I don’t think I had much choice after what happened in Ponyville.”

Celestia nodded, a small smile touching her lips.

“Judging by the scent on him this morning, I’d say things went well,” she said, giving Twilight a sideways glance. Her face went bright red, and her eyes widened in shock. She tucked her tail between her legs, silently wishing for the floor to open up and swallow her whole.

“I can’t believe he didn’t shower before heading down to breakfast,” she whimpered, mortified.

“Oh, he did,” Celestia replied, “but it appears you left a lasting impression on him last night.” Twilight stumbled, her entire face now red. “Oh, come now,” Celestia chided, laughing softly. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s perfectly natural, and actually very sweet. Although, you should probably get him to shower again. The smell was slightly overwhelming.”

Twilight nodded, flustered, and kept her gaze forward. This isn’t happening. I am not having this conversation with the Princess!

“Of course,” Celestia spoke up, snapping her out of her daze. “That’s not the reason I asked you to accompany me. I actually wanted to ask you a question.” She stopped walking, and turned to face Twilight. “ I notice something interesting about Max this morning, other than his scent that is, and I have to ask—” her gaze hardened, her smile disappearing “—why are there magical burns upon his wrists and neck?”

Twilight took a step back, her ears splaying back. “W-what?”

“There are very faint magical burns around his wrists and neck,” Celestia repeated. “They are caused by high concentrations of magic rubbing against the skin. Such as when magic is used to restrain an individual. Normally, they are hidden by fur and disappear within a few hours. However, in creatures with very low magic, such as humans, it’s more visible and tends to last longer.

“So, I’ll ask again. Why are there magical burns upon his skin?”

Lowering her head, Twilight swallowed, her mouth suddenly very dry. She could feel bile slowly beginning to rise in her throat, and she fought to keep it down. There was no way to get out of this; one way or another, Celestia would find out. Best to bite the bit now, and get it over with. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too mad.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before proceeding to tell Celestia all of what had happened last night. How she had waited in his room for him to return, their discussion and her tearful confession of her love, his acceptance and allowing her to sleep in the bed with him. She had to pause to work up enough courage to continue after that point, but she managed. Cheeks red with embarrassment and shame, she told the Princess how she had awoken in the middle of the night, and, becoming completely consumed by Max’s scent and her own feelings for him, had held him down and had her way with him.

Celestia was silent through Twilight’s whole tale, her face expressionless. That made it worse for Twilight. She wanted her to look angry or something. This neutral look was making her extremely nervous.

When Twilight had finally finished speaking, Celestia sighed and shook her head. “I am disappointed in you, Twilight.”

Twilight froze, her eyes widening. “W-what?”

“I would expect you to have better self-control,” Celestia said, her tone cool. “We are not mindless animals, rutting any stallion within reach. We evolved past that long ago. Even after her one-thousand year banishment, Luna was able to control herself around the guards during her delayed heat. Just because you were in heat, doesn’t give you the right to treat Max the way you did. Not only did you not stop to consider his own feelings on the matter, but you took all control he had of the situation out of his hands. He is unable to talk, Twilight. By pinning his arms, you essentially made it impossible for him to tell you what he was feeling. What if he had been in pain? What if he had wanted you to stop? How was he suppose to communicate with you?”

Tears slowly dripped down Twilight’s face as she stared up at Celestia, her mouth agape.

“But I couldn’t… he said…” She tried to formulate words, but was unable to do so.

“It doesn’t matter if he said it was okay after the fact,” Celestia sighed. “You shouldn’t have put him in that position to begin with. You’re better than that.”

“But, y-you’re the one who invited me here!” Twilight cried, pointing a hoof at her. “You told me that Max was in Canterlot, and I needed to come here to talk with him!”

“Talk with him, yes. Not rape him,” Celestia said. “I had thought that you would have been smart enough to sleep in a different room if you were having troubles controlling yourself. I had thought that he was being dramatic when he said you were acting crazed, but now I see that he might have been correct.”

“I was going to sleep in a different room, but he stopped me,” Twilight shouted, her voice cracking slightly. “He wanted me to sleep in the same bed as him! He wanted to be with me!”

Celestia cocked an eyebrow. “Are you telling me that you have enough power to hold him down while aroused, but not enough to remove yourself from his hold?”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, only to close it again. Swallowing thickly, she lowered her head, ears splaying back.

“What you did is inexcusable,” Celestia sighed, shaking her head. Turning, she began to walk off down the hall again, leaving Twilight behind. “I can see now that it was a mistake to call you here. I’ll talk to Max about this later, but for now, it’s probably best that you return to Ponyville for the remainder of estrus. There will be—”

A surge of magic behind her caused Celestia to inhale sharply. Lighting up her horn, she managed to erect a barrier around herself seconds before a wave of magic slammed into her, rosy energy washing over her golden shield. She staggered backwards at the force of the blast; her barrier flickered but held. Her eyes widened in shock. That’s Twilight’s magic!

Whipping her head around, she shouted, “Twilight! What in the name of Harmony do you think you’re—” The words died on her lips as she stared at her former pupil, stunned.

Twilight was crouched low, her wings spread wide in a show of dominance. Her head was lowered, a snarl on her face as her horn glowed bright. However, it was her eyes that startled Celestia the most. The whites of her eyes were showing, her pupils mere pinpricks. She had a feral look on her face as she glared daggers at Celestia.

Taking a step back, Celestia unconsciously flared her wings as well.

“What are you doing?!” she asked, alarm clear in her voice.

Twilight snorted loudly, her nostrils flaring as she pawed at the floor with a hoof.

“I see what you’re trying to do,” she growled. “You thought you were being so clever, didn’t you, Princess. But I figured it out. You just want me gone so you can have Max to yourself!”

Celestia reeled back as if she had been slapped. “What? Why would you think that!?”

“I can see it now,” Twilight continued, ignoring her. “With me back in Ponyville, you would be able to fill his head with lies about how I abused him! You would be there for him, comfort him, and when the time was right you would take him for yourself!” She snorted loudly, taking a step forward. “You’re trying to take him from me!”

“I assure you, I am doing nothing of the sort! I’m trying to help you fix your relationship,” Celestia said hurriedly, raising a hoof in a protective manner. What is going on?

“Lies!” snarled Twilight, sparks flying from her horn. The ends of her mane and tail were beginning to smoke, and Celestia could feel the magical energy she was giving off.

“Twilight, please! I—”

“You will not take my mate from me!” Twilight shrieked suddenly, dashing forwards. She leapt through the air, teeth bared as she launched herself at the Princess. Celestia’s eyes widened, and, reacting on instinct, she pushed a large amount of magic down her horn. A magical bubble formed around Twilight, trapping her in mid-air. Struggling to escape, she kicked the bubble, but to no avail. She fired off several bursts of magic, only to have them be absorbed into the golden barriers.

Breathing heavily, Celestia stared up at her, keeping her suspended in the air. Twilight continued to struggle, growling as she fought to escape the magical prison.

“He is mine, Celestia,” she snarled, eyes narrowing. “He is mine! You will not take him from me, no matter what. I won’t allow it. I will burn Canterlot to the ground if I have to—”

Blocking out Twilight’s words, Celestia narrowed her eyes. To anypony watching, it would have looked like the Solar Princess was glaring at her former student. However, this was not the case. She was studying Twilight closely, trying to find reason for her sudden madness. She noted that her eyes, despite holding unbridled fury, were also glazed over. Her horn was sparking randomly, the precision and control the younger alicorn usually showed now missing.

Pushing more magic down her horn, Celestia reached tentatively towards the squirming form of Twilight, searching. As the magic slowly washed over her body, Celestia’s brow furrowed in confusion. Twilight’s magic was in a state of turmoil, spiking and twisting in large bursts of power. She could feel her anger, her frustration, and her desperation. Rage rolled off of her in fiery waves, as did fear. The sheer strength of these emotions was enough to cause Celestia discomfort. She didn’t know why Twilight was feeling like this, but she would get to the bottom of it.

Fighting back against the wall of anger, Celestia probed deeper into Twilight’s core. She paused, her eyes widening slightly as she stumbled upon something. It was something that she had never encountered before; a long, thin strand of foreign magic. It was faint, barely noticeable even with her skills, but nonetheless, still present. Latching onto it, Celestia slowly worked her way deeper, heading towards the source of this unknown magic.

There was some initial resistance, as if the magic was trying to force her back, but she pushed doggedly on. As she neared the center, she found her way blocked by a mental barrier that, upon her tentative examination, provide to be relatively strong.

Steeling herself, Celestia drove her magical probe deeper into Twilight’s core, straining against the arcane barrier for a few seconds before it finally buckled, and she burst through.

Celestia reeled back in horror, nearly losing control of her spells. Chaos magic raged within Twilight’s core like a hurricane, warping and corrupting her latent magic. It lashed out at her, causing her to flinch back.

Where did this come from!? Celestia thought as the chaos magic pulsed with dark aura. Discord is imprisoned. The only other creature in Equestria that has any chaos magic at the moment is… Her eyes widened as she put two and two together.

Her gaze hardened, her eyes narrowing. Drawing upon the massive reserve of magic within her sun, she pushed a large burst of magic down the connection. It slammed into the mass of chaos magic, wrapping around it and beginning to smother it. The chaotic mass fought back, struggling to win the upper hand. However, it wasn’t very big yet, and Celestia’s magic soon proved to be the stronger. With a finally burst of magic, she purged the chaos magic from Twilight’s system.

As Twilight’s magic slowly began to return to normal, Celestia withdrew her probe. Sighing heavily as the tension left her neck, she opened her eyes.

From within the magical bubble, Twilight was still glaring at her, shouting.

“—there will not be a force on Equus that will be able to… help… you.” She trailed off, her enraged expression slowly morphing to one of confusion, then shock, before coming to rest on pure horror. Her wings fall limp at her sides, her hooves dangling in the air. The sparks around her horn die down, her magic fading.

“I… oh, no,” she whimpers, her ears splaying back. “I didn’t… why did I… I… I attacked you… oh, Celestia, what have I done!?” Pupils shrinking, she opened her mouth, a shrill scream issuing forth.

Trotting forward slowly, Celestia eyed her sympathetically.

“How are you feeling, my faithful student?” she asked, putting emphasis on ‘faithful’.

Twilight just flinched at the word, lowering her head and whimpering fearfully.

“I’m so sorry,” she mewled. “I… I don’t know what came over me. I… I just… oh, Maker, there is no excuse for this. I’m a horrible pony.”

“It’s alright, Twilight,” Celestia murmured, lowering the bubble to the floor and releasing the trapped alicorn.

“Alright?” Twilight said, her voice becoming shrill as her breathing increased. “Alright!? How can this be alright? I attacked you! Oh, sweet Celestia. I attacked Celestia!”

“You were not thinking clearly, Twilight,” Celestia said, keeping her voice soft and warm. She could see that Twilight was close to having a panic attack, and she needed to keep her calm. “There was foreign magic within you, affecting your decisions.”

“F-foreign magic?” Twilight stuttered, glancing up at her through her bangs. She was still tense, looking ready to bolt at a moments notice.

Celestia nodded. “Yes, chaos magic.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she inhaled sharply.

“But… but that’s impossible,” she yelped. “There was chaos magic in me? But, chaos magic comes from Discord, doesn’t it? And he’s currently imprisoned in stone in the castle’s garden. The only individual now how has any chaos magic in them is—” She froze, her pupils shrinking “—is Max.”

“Indeed,” Celestia said, nodding sagely. “It appears that your… mate, as you so aptly put it, has been leaking his latent chaos magic without realizing it. Once it was outside of his body, it probably looked for the nearest magical source and was promptly absorbed into you, which seems to be the reason for your aggressive behavior.”

“Wait,” Twilight said nervously, “are you saying that Max is corrupting everypony he comes in contact with?”

“I don’t believe so, no,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “The amount of chaos magic I found within you was not that much. I highly doubt that your friends have been affected as well. Their latent magic should be able to correct itself over time.”

“But then why am I affected?” Twilight asked, swallowing nervously.

“Seeing as Max spends the majority of his time around you, I have to assume that you have absorbed more than anypony else. It probably also got a huge burst last night due to your… questionable amorous activity last night. I’m fairly sure that no other ponies are currently in danger from the chaos magic.

“However, that being said, the fact that this is happening is still cause for concern.”

Twilight lowered her head, scuffing a hoof. “So, um… d-does that mean that last night...?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed, her lips pursed. “While the chaos magic may have been partially responsible for what happened, it still does not make it right. While I shall not force you to return to Ponyville, I still strongly recommend that you get your own room.” She emphasized each word with a stomp of her hoof. “If there is any chance of this happening again, you must prevent it. You are not off the hook either. I will still be having a word with Max about this, as I wish to get his side of the story as well,” she continued, her gaze becoming cold. “Should this sort of thing happen again, or should I find out from Max that you did not have his full consent, there will be consequences. Dire consequences.”

Twilight gulped and lowered her gaze, but nodded her head in understanding. Swallowing thickly, she peeked up at Celestia through the bangs of her mane. “W-what are we going to do about Max’s chaos magic? Even if it isn’t really that dangerous now, that may change later.”

Celestia’s cold gaze softened, and she gave her a small smile.

“You leave that to me.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I walked down the hallway, munching happily on an apple I had pilfered from Applejack’s plate when she wasn’t looking. Breakfast had ended, and since Twilight hadn’t come back to the dining hall, I had decided to see if I could track her down.

Rounding a corner, I had to sidestep a pair of guards walking in the other direction. One of them, a mare, inhaled, her nostrils flaring. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, but she kept her face emotionless. I gave her an apologetic look as she passed. Maybe I should go shower again before looking for Twilight.

Diverting my original path, I start heading back to my room. A quick shower, then I would track down Twilight. Maybe she was back in the room already. That would make it so much easier, but I highly doubted it.

Climbing up the main staircase, I finished my apple before chucking it out a nearby window into the gardens. I figured if some animal didn’t find it, it could decompose naturally. Maybe even grow an apple tree. Whistling a happy little tune, I put my hands in my pockets and continued walking, a spring in my step.

It took me a while to reach the correct floor, what with the amount of stairs in this place. Seriously, I might have to talk to Celestia about putting in elevators. Of course, when you can fly, elevators seemed pretty useless, don’t they?

As I headed down the hall towards my room, I spied a pony walking in the opposite direction. She was a white pegasus, her blue mane cropped. Her tail was done up in a braid, the base of which was bound by a red ribbon. She had a no-nonsense look on her face, her yellow eyes glaring out at the world before her. Even though she was smaller than average in size, she had an air about her that reeked of authority.

Giving her a wide berth, I moved to the side of the hall to pass, only to have her block my path. She glared up at me, her eyes narrowing.

“You are Princess Twilight’s human, Max, correct?” she asked, her voice surprisingly gruff for a mare. I nodded my head, eyeing her curiously. “I can understand hoof-language, human,” she grunted.

Blinking at her sharpness, I raised my hands. ~Yes, I guess I am technically Twilight’s human, but only in name. Who are you?~

“I am Tempest Barrage, Captain of the Guard,” she said curtly, her tail flicking. Her nostrils flared suddenly, and she grimaced, her nose wrinkling in disgust. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like an insult, but I couldn’t make out the words.

Snorting, she shook her head before continuing, “I’ve been looking for you. There is a matter we must discuss that concerns several ponies that are currently under your command. First Lieutenant Avera Noctus of the Coming Dawn, Major Ebony Rose of the Battlemages, and Primrose, Captain of the Lunar Guard.”

~What about them?~ I asked, cocking an eyebrow. Did she want to ask how I liked them? Didn’t Luna do that during the Gala? Either way, my answered hadn’t changed. They may be goofballs, but they were my goofballs. Plus, I enjoyed drinking with Primrose and Avera.

Tempest’s expression remained hardened, her gaze cold.

“I am hereby relieving them of active duty until such time as they have been deemed fit to actually do their duty.” She didn’t raise her voice, but her words hit me like a brick wall. My eyes widened and I inhaled sharply.

~What?~ I signed, fumbling with the word.

Tempest’s face remained impassive, but her eyes narrowed dangerously. “They have proven that they are unable to complete the task originally assigned to them, so I am pulling them from Ponyville, removing them from your command, and relieving them of active duty until further notice.”

~You can’t do that!~ I signed, gaping at her.

“Are you telling me how to do my job?” she growled at me, ruffling her wings. “I think you’ll find I can. You see, when the Princesses aren’t present, I am in charge. I decide what happens with my guards, and those three are being pulled immediately.”

~For what reasons?~ I ask, glaring at her. ~They have done nothing wrong~

Tempest’s eyes widened at this, and her emotionless facade broke as she gave me an incredulous look.

“‘Done nothing wrong?’” she repeated, chuckling in disbelief. Reaching underneath her wing, she pulled out folded piece of paper. “Okay, you want to play this game, we’ll play this game, human.” She unfolded the paper, giving it a quick shake before glancing down at it. “Firstly,” she said, reading the words upon the paper, “they were unable to do their job properly the first day of their deployment. Within a few minutes of arriving in Ponyville, they failed to protect you from a civilian by the name of Lyra Heartstrings.” Her eyes flicked up to my face, and she tsked loudly. “I overlooked that little mess up because, and only because, it was the first day, and they were hopefully still adjusting to their new station.

“However,” she said, her yellow eyes returning to the paper, “the list doesn’t end there. There’s also the Gala, in which they left you unattended, unguarded, which resulted in an abduction attempt by Prince Blueblood that was stopped by another noble, Duchess Scratch. Mark that, a noble had to do their job for them. Disgraceful.

“Then, there was the incident with the infected human in Ponyville. Once again, they left you unattended, resulting in you getting bit by an human infected with the Black-Vine Virus. The only reason you are still alive is because of your heightened temperature. Had that not been the case, their carelessness would have cost you your life.

“There are also multiple counts of them putting you in dangerous or unnecessary situations. Allowing you to illegally enter a human show, and allowing you to enter the Everfree forest days after being attacked by an infected human, just to list a few.

“Plus, there is their general attitude towards their assignment,” she snorted. “Gambling, drinking, general laziness. This is not the type of behavior we drill into our guards.” She paused, glancing back down at the paper. She studied it for a few seconds before her eyes light up in mock surprise.

“Oh!” She glanced back up, her gaze becoming cold. “There is also the issue about them taking a bribe from a civilian,” she growled, venom dripping from her words. My heart sunk in my chest as I realized what she was talking about.

“Didn’t think I’d find out about that one, did you?” she huffed as my eyes widened. “Oh yes, I know all about that little fuck up. Accepting money from a civilian to do a task that put their charge, you, in direct danger? That was the final straw. They’re lucky they’re just getting relieved of duty and are not being court martialed for that little stunt. I could have them behind bars so fast that their heads would spin. There is going to be a disciplinary hearing, and I would be surprised if they get out of this without being discharged, let alone dropping a few ranks.” Folding the paper, she tucked it back under her wing.

I swallowed thickly, staring down at her in horror. Licking my lips, I signed. ~Is that all necessary? They were just following me around. Maybe we could—~

“This is non-negotiable,” Tempest growled, cutting me off. “I didn’t search all morning for you to tell you this just so you could try and weasel them out of their punishment. There is no apology, no second chance coming their way. They will be punished for this, and there is nothing you can do about it, Anomaly. They are my guards under my command. I will not allow them to disgrace their station any longer. They are being pulled from Ponyville, and new guards, one’s that I have approved, will be taking their place upon your return.”

~You can’t take my friends from me~

“They aren’t meant to be your friends,” Tempest barked. “They are meant to be your guards!”

~But—~

“That is final,” she snarled. “This conversation is over. You have seen the end of my patience!” With that, she turned around and, flicking her tail at me, stalked off down the hall.

I watched her go, my mouth hanging open and a stunned look on my face. My mind was trying to process what had just happened. I had just lost my guards, and from the sounds of it, they were in deep trouble as well.

I half considered going after her, but thought better of it. From the look on her face, there was going to be no arguing with her. And, as much as I hated to admit it, she was right. They were supposed to be my guards, not my friends. However, I still viewed them as friends, and it was my own stupidity that had just gotten my friends into trouble.

I blundered blindly into things without thinking them through, and, more often than naught, ended up injured. I went along with Rainbow and Rarity, I didn’t listen when Avera told me to run from the infected human, and I was the one who decided to go into the Everfree for Fluttershy, and now others were paying for my rash decisions.

I swallowed thickly, staring down the empty corridor. There had to be a way to get them out of this without getting in trouble. Maybe I could talk to Celestia about it and see if I couldn’t convince her to override Tempest’s decision.

But first, I had to find Twilight. I really needed a hug right now.

Continuing down the hall, I headed towards my room. I’d start there, and search through the castle. If that didn’t work, I’d just go interrupt Celestia’s Day Court. She wouldn’t mind, right? It would give her a break from all those stuck-up nobles.

As I opened the door to my room, the sound of shuffling reached my ears. Glancing up, I saw Twilight was inside the room. She had a pillow in her magic, and I dimly noted that it was the pillow I slept on last night.

Well, that was easy, I thought as I closed the door behind me.

As the door clicked shut, Twilight froze. She turned her head, her eyes widening in shock when she saw me. The pillow fell to the floor as her magic flickered and died.

“Um…” she began, not looking me in the eye. Her wings ruffled nervously at her side, her ear twitching. “Don’t mind me. I… I was just grabbing some… things before, uh… moving rooms.”

~Moving rooms?~ I asked.

“Princess Celestia thought it was best if we stayed in separate rooms for the remainder of my heat,” she muttered, scuffing a hoof against the floor.

~So, why are you taking my pillow?~ I asked, motioning towards it. A large blush spread across her face, and her ears folded against her head.

“Because it smells like you,” she squeaked.

I couldn’t help but snort at that, a weak smile appearing on my face. This just caused Twilight’s blush to deepen. Picking up the pillow, she hurried towards the door, talking quickly as she did so. “Well, I’m just going to go now… Hey!” She yelped in surprise as I scooped her up in my arms.

Struggling as I carried her over to the bed, she cried, “But, Princess Celestia said—”

I cut her off as I collapsed back on the bed, taking her with me. We ended up with her lying on my chest, my legs dangling off of the side of the mattress. It didn’t look like the maids had changed the sheets yet. I didn’t really care though. According to the others, I had to take another shower anyways.

As I just laid there, staring up at the canopy of the bed, Twilight shifted on my stomach. I glanced down and saw that she had rolled so that we were stomach to stomach. She looked up at me, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Um, I… about last night,” she murmured, her ears splaying back. “I… I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I...um, I’m sorry about… about everything.” She was having trouble talking, almost like she was choking on the words. Her eyes were beginning to water, and she looked miserable. “What I did was inexcusable, even for being in heat. Princess Celestia found that I had some chaos magic in me that she believes came from you, and it may have been affecting my actions, but I… I still have to know. Are you truly okay with what happened? Y-you can be honest, I won’t be mad. I… I just don’t want you to be scared of me.”

~Chaos magic?~ I asked, keeping my arms around her ~Really?~

“Yes,” Twilight murmured, nodding gently. “It appears to have been building up for a while, and she believes it’s there because we were hanging out so much. She managed to get rid of it, though, so I shouldn't… act like that anymore.”

~Are the others affected as well?~ I asked, worried. I didn’t want other ponies suffering because I was leaking bad magic.

Twilight shook her head. “No, the amount that is being absorbed is so low that their natural magic is removing it. It’s just because you and I are so close to each other most of the time.”

~That’s good~ I signed, breathing a sigh of relief. ~Though, we’ll have to see if we can do something about it~

“Celestia’s looking into it,” Twilight said softly, rubbing absentmindedly at my chest with a hoof. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”

I gave her a warm smile before leaning forward and giving her a small peak on the lips. It was quick, but she still flinched back, her eyes widening in shock.

“B-but, how can you be so forgiving?” she asked. “I basically held you down and raped you!”

~Because it’s you~ I signed, still smiling. This just caused her ears to fold backwards.

“You keep saying that,” she muttered. “But what does it mean? If I was somepony else, it wouldn’t be okay? Why am I so special?”

With a sigh, I grabbed her chin gently in my hands, lifting it until we were eye to eye. I rubbed her cheek tenderly before answering.

~Because you’ve given me so much and asked for so little in return. You gave me a place to live, food to eat, a warm place to sleep. You fret when I’m hurt or sick. You go out of your way to help me~ She opened her mouth to speak, but I just continued signing. ~And it’s true that if it was someone else that did that to me, I wouldn’t forgive them as easily, if at all. What makes you special is that I know you, Twilight. You would never do anything to harm me intentionally~

“That still doesn’t excuse what I did,” she said, frowning. “Max, you don’t seem to understand. I raped you.”

~And I already told you, I don’t view it like that~ I signed, returning the frown. ~Yes, it was sudden. Yes, it was unexpected, but I don’t regret it. I don’t hate you for it~

“But—”

~In the end, it’s for me to decide~ I interrupted. ~You can keep beating yourself up over this, Twilight, but it won’t change a thing. I told you I was willing to give you a chance, and I’m still am. Sure, we’ve hit a slight snag, but as long as you don’t hold me down again without permission before hand, it’ll be fine

~As I told you before, Sparklebutt. You’re stuck with me~

Tears were now rolling down Twilight’s cheeks as she looked down at me as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Slowly, almost tentatively, like she was afraid I might disappear, she leaned down. She hesitated, her eyes flicking to mine, before she gently pressed her lips against mine. It was a chaste kiss, almost as if she was afraid to do anything else.

I returned the kiss, and she hummed softly. It was a weird sensation, honestly. Her lips had a thin layer of fur upon them, but it was extremely soft. I could feel it tickling my lips and face as we kissed. Also, with her muzzle, she had to angle her head slightly to avoid mashing our noses together.

After a few seconds, she pulled back, giving me a weak smile.

“I’m still going to make this up to you,” she said, rubbing her eyes with a back of a hoof.

My stomach took that moment to growl softly, causing both of us to glance at it.

“You’re already hungry again?” Twilight asked incredulously.

~Hey, don’t blame me~ I signed. ~After last night, I need more energy~ Twilight blushed again, but kept her smile.

“Well, how about I go find a different room while you take another shower,” she said. “Get my scent off of you—” her blush darkened until I thought she was going to pass out “—and then we’ll go find you some lunch, okay?” I nodded, and she jumped down off of me onto the floor. Snatching up the my pillow, she trotted towards the door.

I pushed myself off of the bed, and followed after her. She opened the door, but paused, glancing back at me in confusion.

“Um… there is a bathroom over there,” she said, pointing towards the bathroom. I nodded, but didn’t move. “Where are you going?”

~I’m following you~ I signed. ~You said that you were going to find a different room, right?~

“Yeah, for me,” she said. “This is your room. I’m finding a different one. Princess Celestia wants us to sleep in different rooms.”

I snorted, shaking my head. ~My room is your room~

“But, Princess Celestia—”

~Doesn’t have the right to decide what we do in this relationship~ I signed. I told you, Sparky, you’re stuck with me~

Twilight stared up at me, her mouth agape, bottom lip trembling. The pillow tumbled to the ground again as her magic ceased.

“I… I… I…” she stuttered, unsure of what to say. There was a brief moment of silence as we just stared at each other.

Then I fell backwards with a yelp as Twilight wrapped her legs around my chest and proceeded to crush the air from my lungs.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was late in the evening when Celestia knocked on Luna’s bedroom door. She couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her face when the sound of muffled grumbles reached her ears. Luna might have been the Princess of the Night, but she wasn’t an evening person.

“Luna, are you up yet? You need to raise the moon in a few minutes.” She was met with another groan before the door swung open.

Luna stood in the doorway, her ethereal mane slightly disheveled. She blinked owlishly at her sister before smiling softly.

“Evening, Tia,” she hummed, stifling a yawn.

“Good evening, Lulu,” Celestia giggled, nuzzling her sister. “Did you sleep well?”

“Reasonably,” Luna said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She stepped out into the hall, closing her bedroom door behind her. The sisters walked off down the corridor, heading for the balcony to the gardens.

“Did anything happen when we were asleep?” Luna asked as they walked.

Celestia’s smile faded, but didn’t disappear entirely. “Some complications between Twilight and Max, but nothing that I can’t handle, sister.”

“Really?” Luna asked, perking up. “Pray tell, what kind of complications?”

“Nothing to trouble yourself about, Lulu,” Celestia answered. “I just need to talk with Max and get it sorted out.” She paused, frowning in thought. She hadn’t seen Max since breakfast. Of course, what with Day Court, she hadn’t had much time to look. According to the kitchen staff, he had visited the kitchen in the afternoon with Twilight, but no one had seen them since. She wasn’t that concerned though. With all the guards roaming the castle, she doubted that anything bad would happen.

Besides, she could just talk to him when she picked him up tomorrow for his appointment. Speaking of which…

“Luna,” Celestia said, glancing sideways at her sister. “Can I ask a favor of you?”

“Of course, sister,” Luna said, giving her a warm smile. “What is it you need?”

“If you could, make sure Max sleeps soundly tonight. He needs to be well rested.”

“But of course,” Luna said, blinking, “but, if we may, why must he be rested for tomorrow?”

“Because,” Celestia replied, her smile turning into a smirk, “he’s got an appointment with the Doctor.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Stalactites rattled above in the cavern as the Archmage slammed the iron door in a rage, the resulting ‘boom’ echoing around the caves, magnifying the sound. Unicorns glanced up in confusion, only to return to what they were doing when they saw who it was.

Stalking forward, the Archmage snorted loudly, steam practically billowing from his nostrils. The vein in his head pulsed, and he could feel a massive headache coming on.

Upon seeing his expressions, several of the unicorns quickly got out of his way, skirting around to the edges of the cavern and watching from a safe distance. The Archmage was pissed, and even though they were hardened criminals, nopony wanted to get in the elder unicorn’s way.

Heading towards the far end of the cavern, and the massive steel doors embedded there, the Archmage growled loudly. “Of all the damnable things, of all the goddamn fucking things that could have happened, he had to show up here!” Snorting again, his horn flashed, and a nearby stalagmite exploded in a shower of rock. “He’s not supposed to be here. He’s suppose to be back in Ponyville! Why the fuck—” another flash and three more rock structures exploded “—is he here?!”

He ground to a halt, digging his forehoof into the rock beneath him. “The stupid bungler is going to screw everything up, and it’s going to be an accident, I swear! Not only that, he brought the fucking Elements of Harmony with him!” He growled, his tail lashing at the air. “They aren’t the real issue, though. If things go according to plan, the Elements of Harmony won’t matter, but that god damn human!”

The Archmage’s eyes flashed bright yellow, and the ceiling above exploded in shower of rock and dust. Unicorns scrambled to get out of the way as the cavern shook with the Archmage’s rage.

He ignored them all, continuing to seethe.

“Centuries of planning, years of preparations, months of careful planning, weeks of precise movements and this bastard is going to ruin everything,” he muttered under his breath. “I swear, this floater is the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”

Staring at the ground in front of him, the Archmage massaged his temples with a hoof. Slowly, his lifted his head, his gaze hardening.

“Dark Spice,” he growled, gritting his teeth. There was second pause before a unicorn materialized beside him, a black cowl hiding his face from view.

“Yes?” the unicorn hissed.

“Do you know Princess Sparkle’s human?” he asked, glaring at Dark Spice. When the stallion nodded,he continued, “I have a job for you, and I need two of your best members to do it.”

“What’s the job?” Dark Spice asked, tilting his head to the side.

“He has overstayed his welcome,” the Archmage huffed. “Kill him.”

Dark Spice nodded once before disappearing silently back into the gloom.

The Archmage stood there, massaging his temples. Slowly regaining his composure, he ran a hoof through his mane, straightening it. Taking a deep breath, he trotted forward, heading towards the large steel door at the end of the cavern.

As he approached, his horn lit up, and the sound of grinding gears reverberated through the cavern as the door began to swing open. When it had opened far enough, he slipped through the gape, the door closing behind him with a resounding ‘clang’. He was instantly plunged into darkness, and he was forced to light up his horn to be able to see.

The sickly yellow light from this horn illuminated his surroundings, and he found himself in a long, thin, metal corridor. Wires ran along the ceiling, twisting and turning around themselves as they jumped from glass fixtures that dotted the ceiling.

Taking a deep breath, the Archmage moved forward, trotting slowly down the hallway. His hooves clicked loudly against the metal floors, echoing around the small corridor. He passed by several steel doors, all of them buckled and unable to be opened.

Eventually, the corridor gave way to a large room. Metal desks were scattered everywhere, and a thick layer of dust covered everything. Bookshelves ran along the far wall, their contents aged to the point of crumbling. Several strange devices were smashed upon the ground, their wires and gears scattered everywhere. Broken glass littered the floor, most of it pulverized to dust. Above, several catwalks spanned the length of the room, leading to doors that led into darkness. A large, tattered piece of cloth dangled from the ceiling, the blue and red nearly completely faded to match the white.

From his spot at one of the desks, Darkflare glanced up as the Archmage entered. Rose and Pearl sat beside him, the trio watching as he crossed the room, not paying them any attention.

He headed towards one of the side entrances, the door of which was lying collapsed on the floor. Stepping over the discarded door, he moved into the adjacent room. Holding cells lined the walls, each one blocked off by security bars that looked rusted and old.

The sound of his hoofsteps echoed around the room as he moved towards the last cell. As he reached it, he pushed more magic down his horn, illuminating the inhabitant of the cell.

Melodic Wind was strewn out upon the ground, her body limp. Her coat was patchy and covered in a layer of grime and dust, her ribs clearly visible. Scabbed over cuts marred her flesh, some of them still oozing blood. One of her eyes was swollen shut, the skin around it bruised. Chains bound her ankles, shackling her to the far wall. Her large wings were now bare, stripped of her once gorgeous feathers. Dried blood caked the naked appendage, coating her fur and flesh.

As the Archmage stopped in front of her cell, she cracked open an eye, glancing blearily up at him. It took her a few seconds to register what she was seeing, but when she did, she sneered.

Staring at her with a blank expression, the Archmage slowly cocked his head to the side. His horn flashed once, and a ball of sickly green flames burst into life in front of him.

Melodic’s eye were instantly drawn to the flame, and she stared at it as though in a trance, her eye following it as it drifted back and forth through the air.

Crouching down, the Archmage glared at her, his eyes narrowing.

“Let’s go over this, one more time.”

Chapter 51: Leaking Chaos

I was awoken by the sound of someone knocking on the door. It was a soft knock, just barely loud enough to draw me from the embrace of sleep.

Groaning softly, I rolled over and cracked my good eye open, glancing blearily around. Warm sunlight streamed through the curtains of the open window, a gentle breeze causing them to shift slightly. I squinted to see the face of the clock above the fireplace, and groaned when I saw that it was only a little after eight in the morning.

What is with these blasted ponies and not sleeping in? I groused as the soft knocking continued. Trying my best to ignore it, I rolled over again and snuggled deeper into the blankets, hoping that whoever was on the other side of the door would give up and go away.

However, it was not to be. The knocking continued, growing steadily louder.

Grumbling quietly to myself, I gave up and forced myself into a seated position. As the mattress shifted beneath me, a low murmur came from my right, originating from within my blind spot. Turning my head, I glanced down at my bed companion.

Twilight was resting beside me on her back, her wings limp by her side and her forelegs folded across her chest in a cute manner. Her mane was splayed out around her head in a disheveled halo of hair, the lavender and pink highlights mixing together. She had a small smile on her face, her ear twitching every few seconds.

Reaching over, I pushed some strands of her mane out of her face, causing her to hum happily. She murmured softly, her hind legs shifting beneath the sheets. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I watched her sleep, her chest rising and falling gently.

The moment was ruined as the pony on the other side of the door knocked again. Twilight’s ear twitched with the knocks, and her smile faded slightly.

Guess I should figure out who it is before they wake her, I thought as I roll myself out of bed. Glancing around, I located my shirt lying a few feet away on the floor. Quickly scooping it up, I struggled sleepily to put it on as I shuffled to the door. Another round of knocking sounded, and I groaned softly. Whoever is was was very persistent.

I leaned against the wall and cracked the door open, glancing out into the hall as I did so. Upon seeing two magenta eyes staring back at me, I jumped in surprise.

“Good morning!” Celestia chirped, giving me a warm smile. Her eyes flicked up to my hair, and she tilted her head to the side. “Don’t tell me you were still asleep,” she said, tsking softly, eyes twinkling with mirth. “It’s such a beautiful morning!”

I gave her a bemused look, blinking owlishly in the bright light of the hallway.

“I was actually looking for you yesterday,” she said, her smile fading slightly. “There is something important I must talk to you about. Also,” she continued, her smile turning into a smirk, “there is someone I would like you to meet.”

Running my hand through my hair, I gave her a confused look before shrugging my shoulders.

~Sure, what the heck~ I signed, pushing the door open wider. ~I’ve got nothing better to do today~

“Excellent!” Celestia chirped. “Now, if you’ll just follow me,” she began, but trailed off. Glancing over my shoulder, her eyes widened in shock before narrowing. Her smile vanished and her lips pursed.

Confused at her sudden change in demeanor, I glanced over my shoulder as well. All I saw was Twilight lying in bed, her back to the door. I stared at her for a few seconds before my eyes widened as I realized what the problem was. The conversation I had yesterday with Twilight came to mind, and I sighed heavily. Celestia had wanted her to find her own room.

Stepping out into the hall, I closed the door behind me before glancing up at Celestia, who was staring at the closed door with a cold look, her nostrils flaring.

“I told her…” she muttered under her breath with a snort. Her ears flicked back and forth, and she looked like she was silently debating whether or not to burst through the door and wake Twilight.

Reaching up, I placed a hand on the side of her face and pushed. There was some resistance before she turned her head and began to slowly wake off down the hall, her back stiff.

“I told her…” she repeated, steam practically coming out of her nose.

~I know~ I signed, keeping step beside her. ~She told me~

“But, why—”

~You don’t control who sleeps with me~ I signed, glancing sideways at her. ~I do~

This earned a sigh from Celestia, who closed her eyes, her brow furrowing.

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said softly, her shoulders relaxing slightly. “I was looking for you yesterday, but couldn’t seem to find you. Now I know why.” She grimaced before opening her eyes. She glanced at me, concern clear on her face. “Are you sure you understand the severity of what she’s done?”

~Are you sure my sex life is any of your business?~ I shot back, cocking an eyebrow.

Celestia’s eyes widened and she almost stumbled, barely catching herself in time. She sputtered weakly, cheeks aflame as her ears splayed back.

“B-but, she…” she began, fumbling for the right words.

I just shook my head before cutting her off. ~What happened between me and Twilight concerns only me and Twilight. I am fine with it~

“But, she raped you,” Celestia said lamely.

~It was not rape~ I signed, glaring at her. ~I am fine with what happened~

“Do you give her consent before the act began?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

~No~ I signed, ~but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t okay with what was happening. Consent does need to be expressed, and may be implied. I didn’t move to stop her, so I gave consent~

Celestia snorted, shaking her head. “The absence of an objection is not the same things as consent,” she argued. “She held you down, prevent you from communicating properly. what if you hadn’t been able to stop her, but wanted to? By your logic, that would still mean that, since you didn’t move to stop her, you still consented.”

I stopped walking and crossed my arms, giving her a deadpan look. She stopped as well, her ears splaying backwards.

“Look,” she said, speaking softly. “I’m just trying to make sure that you understand the ramifications of what happened. Despite what you may believe, what Twilight did was wrong, and could count as rape in the eyes of a court.”

~In order for it to count as rape, I would need to declare it as such~ I signed, my eyes narrowing.

She stared at me, her mouth open slightly, before sighing and shaking her head.

“Well, I can see that there is no reasoning with you,” she huffed. Silence filled the hall for several seconds before she continued. “Very well, I shall drop the issue for now, but just know that I do not approve of this. Too much can go wrong if word got out. If any of the nobles found out, they could have Twilight tried.”

~For what?~ I asked, a smirk slowly spreading across my face. ~Having sex with a human? Don’t most of the nobles do that anyways? They can’t try her for that unless they want to get in trouble for it as well~

“But, you aren’t like our humans.”

~But when I decided to stay in Equestria, didn’t you say that I was basically an equestrian human in the eyes of the law?~

Celestia paused midstep, her eyes widening. She gave me an incredulous look, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly until she found her voice, “D-did you plan that out… or just make it up on the spot?”

~I’m the guy that took three fillies into a monster-infested forest, drank random potions for fun, and fought a timberwolf alpha, twice. Do you really think I plan stuff out?~ I asked, my smirk vanishing.

Celestia studied me for a second, before smiling herself. “I guess not."

Silence fell as we continued to walk, broken only by the ‘clip-clop’ of Celestia’s hooves. We passed by a pair of guards, both of whom stopped their patrolling and saluted Celestia as she passed. One gave me a quick nod before they continued on with their patrol.

~So, who’s this pony we are going to see?~ I asked after a few minutes of walking, ~and why do I need to see them?~

“You will see soon enough,” Celestia said, laughing softly. I gave her a bemused look, but didn’t press the issue.

Soon, our surroundings slowly transformed into a more industrial setting. Glancing at one of the passing doors, my eyes widened when I realized where we were: the Institute for Human Research.

This is where they were keeping my phone, I thought, glancing around at the metal doors. I wonder why Celestia’s brought me here.

We passed by a couple of more doors before Celestia finally stopped.

“Here we are,” she chirped, turning to look at me.

Glancing at the door, I eyed the etched numbers.

Institute for Human Research

B&A - 334

Turning my gaze back to Celestia, I gave her a confused look.

“According to Luna, you and Twilight have been here before, just after hours,” Celestia explained, her horn lighting up. The door was wrapped in a golden aura before clicking open. It was moderately dark inside, and I could hear the faint sound of movement. A curious clicking noise reached my ears.

“I think it’s about time you met the good Doctor face-to-face,” Celestia continued, motioning towards the open door.

Looking back and forth between the open door and Celestia, I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a brief moment. Then, with a shrug, I approached the door.

I had only taken a couple of steps when a large, taloned claw suddenly darted from the darkness and grabbed ahold of the front of my shirt. Before I had time to react, it yanked hard, pulling me into the darkened room. I yelped in shock as I was tossed bodily into a chair, nearly toppling it over. A bright light sudden burst to life, blinding me and causing me to hiss in pain.

Blinking tears from my eyes, I tried to push myself out of the chair, only to jerk back in surprise when a large, feather-covered face suddenly filled my vision. A sharp beak flashed, clicking loudly as intense, amber eyes studied me closely from behind a pair of magnifying spectacles.

“Who are you?” the creature squawked in a thick accent, head bobbing. It sounded male. “What are you? Who sent you? Speak up!”

I stared up at it, wide-eyed, mouth agape. A low gurgle came from my throat as I tried to figure out what was going on. I could hear Celestia giggling in the background.

“Bah, it does not matter. I will know soon enough!” it crowed, jerking its head forward. Quick as a flash, it reached out and grabbed my face in its talons, tilting my head back and prying my mouth open.

I struggled, trying to get it off of me, but it was far stronger than I was, using brute force to keep me pinned down.

“Don’t be such a crybaby,” it said, clicking its beak. “Hold still!” Suddenly, more magnifying glasses fell in front of its goggles, causing its eyes to grow even bigger. Peering into my mouth, it made a bunch of weird clicking noises, its tongue poking out of its beak.

“Teeth are abnormal. Incisors, cuspid, bicuspid, first molars, second molars with a crown, and evidence of scarring where third molars would be. Teeth appear in relatively good condition, a few minor cavities, but nothing worth capping, filling, or drilling. Teeth are straight, and appear to be growing in nicely, although the top second molars appear to be a little shorter than the rest. Some plaque build up on both teeth and tongue.”

All of this was rattled off quickly and under its breath as the thing studied my mouth closely, tilting its head first one way, then the other. Releasing its hold on my mouth, it allowed my jaw to close, but kept my head in its talons.

“Large scar across the nasal bridge, damage to cartilage, running from cheek to right eye. Eye is cloudy, blind due to said damage. Looks like a large blade of some kind. Surprised that he can actually breath out of nose afterwards. Also scarring on bottom lip on the right side.”

It finally released my face, and I rubbed my cheek, my jaw cracking loudly. Bobbing its head, the creature circled me quickly, a low whirring noise filling the air as it did so. The whole time it moved, it was chattering to itself.

“Skull is slightly larger than average, possibly for large brain. Ears are slightly smaller, brow less defined. Looks older than he is, but is older than he should be. Strange scent, can not place origin. Unique coloration of hair, facial hair trimmed slightly, higher quality clothing, sandaled feet.” It was suddenly in front of me, its beak nearly pressed up against my nose.

“All the indications of the Anomaly!” it squawked loudly, its crest rising as heated air escaped its nostrils.

I leaned back as far as I could, gawking at the creature with wide eyes. Silence filled the darkened room as we continued to stare at each other.

The sound of soft laughter filled the air, and suddenly the room was bathed in light. Celestia stepped through the door, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

“Right, as always, my dear friend,” she said. “Now then, proper introductions are in order, I think. Doctor, this is Max, otherwise known by the guards as ‘the Anomaly’. Max, this is—”

“Doctor Mac Griffon!” the creature chirped happily, head tilting to the side.

Now that the room was illuminated and I could get a proper look at it, I realized that the creature was a large male griffon. Brown feathers covered his head and face, splashes of gray mixed in. A pair of magnifying goggles rested upon a black beak, enlarging his already huge eyes. He was sitting in what looked like a modified wheelchair, his right hand resting on a joystick. Wires and gears covered the chair, looking like something straight out of a steampunk fantasy.

A quick glance down showed why he was in said chair: his right hind leg had been completely torn off at the knee. Nothing was left but a small bald spot and a couple of large scars. Even so, due to his immense size, he was still at eye level with me, even when seated.

Seeing where I was looking, the griffon waggled the stump at me.

“Like it?” he asked, cackling loudly. “Got it in fight with human back in the Griffon Empire. He got my leg, I got a meal! Kept me feed for a good ten and three days, he did.”

At this, I eyed him with some trepidation, scooting my chair backwards.

“You’ll have to forgive the good Doctor. He can be rather eccentric at times,” Celestia said, moving to stand beside him. “Even so, he is currently our leading expert on humans here in Canterlot. He’s been studying them for most of his life, and has even written a few books on the subject. I know for a fact that you’ve read one.” At my confused look, she smirked. “‘Your Human and You’.”

“Aye, and the featherheads at the publishing company couldn’t even spell my name right!” Mac Griffon clucked, his chest feathers puffing out. “Mac Guffin, I mean really. What kind of name is that?”

My eyes widened and I glanced over at the griffon who was still studying me closely. This is the nutjob who wrote the book that Twilight was obsessed with for weeks? Continuing to massaging my jaw, I settled back in the seat and looked at Celestia.

~So, why did you bring me here?~

“Because, the good Doctor here is going to help us see if we can’t get rid of your chaos magic,” Celestia explained. “He may primarily study humans, but he’s also one of our leading experts in magic as well. Namely, detection and removal.”

“Aye,” Mac Griffon chirped, clicking his beak, “and I got just the machine to do it!”

~This isn’t going to be too invasive, is it?~ I asked, licking my lips nervously. ~I don’t like needles~

“Ack, I can’t understand anything you’re clappin’,” Mac Griffon squawked, shaking his head. “It’s just a bunch of noise!”

“No,” Celestia replied, giving me a warm smile. “Nothing invasive, and nothing painful. I promise. And we can stop whenever, if you wish.”

“Well, of course it’s not invasive!” Mac Griffon screeched, his crest rising. “What kind of doctor would I be if all my patients died? The mad kind, that’s what! Now then… let’s get started! The sooner we start, the sooner science can begin!” Jerking on the joystick with his talon, his chair did a quick one-eighty before he rolled off towards a large machine sitting in the corner of the room. Several cranes extended from the machine’s body, wires running up the arms. Large, strange-looking light bulbs were attached to the ends of the cranes. The top of machine was covered in an array of antennae of various lengths.

“This wonderful device will allow us to see what is going on with your body in a magical sense!” he called back over his shoulder as he flipped a couple of switches on the machine dashboard. “I invented it back after the changeling invasion. We were able to use it to figure out if anypony had traces of changeling magic on them, or if said pony was a changeling in disguise. It was retired, however, when it was discovered that humans made better bugfinders.”

As the device whirled to life, he spun back around.

“Right then, laddie! Your clothes, lose them,” he chirped, snapping his talons.

I gave him a blank look, slowly raising an eyebrow. What?

“Did I stutter?” he asked, not unkindly, blinking twice. Snapping his claws again, he chirped, “Your clothes, you have to lose them. Machine don’t work well with clothing!”

When I just continued to stand there, staring at him, he huffed loudly before letting out a loud, shrill whistle. I stiffened in alarm as a low buzzing filled the air in response. Two dark shapes detached themselves from the ceiling and dropped to the floor.

I eyed these new creatures cautiously. They looked equine in appearance, although instead of fur, they had blackened skin that almost looked like a bug’s shell. As they landed, insect-like wings folded beneath their carapace.

As I studied them, I realized that I had seen them before; Twilight had disguised herself as one for Nightmare Night. If I remembered correctly, she had called them changelings, although these ones looked slightly different than Twilight had looked. Instead of blue, their eyes were blood red, as was the frill on their necks and the bands around their barrels.

~So, these are changelings?~ I asked.

“Indeed they are,” Celestia said, watching the pair of bug ponies with a small smile on her face. “The Doctor’s drones, as the palace’s residents have taken to calling them.”

~But, I thought you said they attacked Canterlot~ I signed. ~Why are they here?~ As I signed, one of the changelings was suddenly consumed in red fire. It surged, flaring high into the air before dissipating. As the fire died, I blinked in surprise, my eyes widening. There, standing where the changeling once had been, was me.

My doppelganger blinked at me before glancing down and looking at its new body.

Beside me, I heard Celestia giggle.

“Yes, changelings did attack Canterlot,” she replied as the changeling returned to its original form in a burst of flame, “but these two are from a different hive. The hive that attacked Canterlot belonged to Queen Chrysalis. These two came from a hive within the Everfree Forest that was once ruled by a changeling Lord by the name of King Metamorphosis. However, we believe that the hive was wiped out by a rival hive. Only two eggs survived.” Trailing off, she motioned towards the two changelings with a hoof.

“Got them when they were just hatched!” Mac Griffon squawked, wheeling his chair around. “Train them young, raise them right, and they’re furiously loyal. Get plenty of love too! Most of the castle staff enjoy their presence for whatever reason. Especially the mares. Something about them being ‘playful’. A couple of trouble makers is what they are,” he chirped, glaring at the pair as he snapped his beak.

“Oye,” he said as he pointed at me. “Clothes. Off. Now!”

The changelings both chirped before skittering across the floor towards me. I took a step back, raising my arms in a defensive manner. Their horns crackled with reddish flames, and, with a roar of fire, I was suddenly naked.

Clasping my hands over my groin, I snarled at the changelings, my eyes narrowing. They just blinked up at me, wide eyes studying me closely.

As I continued to glare at them, Celestia moved to stand beside me, draping a wing over my bare shoulders. Leaning down, she whispered in my ear, “Remember, this is completely voluntary on your part. Should at any time you feel threatened or uncomfortable, just let me know and we’ll leave immediately, no questions asked.”

~I’m already uncomfortable~ I signed, trying my hardest to keep my junk covered while I did so. The only ones look at me right now were the changelings—Mac Griffon playing around with the machine—but I still felt a little unnerved. Their large eyes had no indication of where they were looking, but they appeared to be staring right at me with intense gazes. What the fuck do they want?

“If you want, we can leave right now,” Celestia said, her voice low.

I frowned, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Slowly, my eyes drifted to the machine the griffon was calibrating.

~This will help us think of a way to get rid of the chaos magic in me?~ I asked, thinking back to Twilight and her strange behavior. I didn’t want her to be in danger of that happening again.

“No guarantees,” Celestia said, “but it might help point us in the right direction.”

I continued to stare at the machine for a few seconds before sighing.

~Let’s get this over with~ I signed, tentatively stepping towards the machine. ~I miss my pants~ The changelings followed me, sticking close to my heels like dogs. I tried to keep an eye on them, but they kept disappearing into my blind spot.

“Are you done clap-clap-clapping, Anomaly?” Mac Griffon asked as I approached, glancing over his shoulder at me. When I nodded, he motioned to a raised platform in the middle of the array of lights. “Don’t worry,” he chirped as I stepped up onto the platform, “this won’t hurt one bit! At least… it shouldn’t.”

I stood in the center of the lights and glanced around nervously, my hands still covering my groin.

As Celestia moved to stand behind him, Mac Griffon began flicking several switches on the control panel. Turning a knob, he gave the array of switches and buttons one last look before pulling on a large lever. There was a brief pause before the machine began to vibrate, a loud whirring noise filling the air. The platform I was standing on began to shake, and I stumbled as I tried to keep my balance. My teeth rattled around in my skull, and I nearly bit my tongue. Sparks began to arch across several of the antennae.

“Don’t worry,” Mac Griffon chirped over the noise, “is all part of the procedure! We are professionals. Hey! Hey! Get that out of your mouth!” One of the changelings glanced up, pausing its chewing of one of the cables attached to the machine. As Mac Griffon reached for it, it dropped the cable and skittered off with a loud chirp.

Picking up the thoroughly-chewed cable, Mac Griffon hooked it back up to the machine as he grumbled to himself, “Damnable, fur-feathered travesties. Sometimes they are more trouble than worth.” With the cable reconnected, the machine instantly calmed down, the loud whirring turning into a gentle hum.

“That’s better,” the griffon chirped, his crest puffing up again. “Now then, let us see what your magic has to say, shall we?” With that, he flipped a switch, and the lights turned on with a crackle, bathing me in a strange, phosphorescent glow.

“Hmmm, interesting,” Mac Griffon chirped, turning his head to the side and staring at me with only one eye. Beside him, Celestia stared at me with wide eyes. Once I glanced down at my naked body, I had to agree with him.

Under the lights, my entire body was now bathed in a sickly yellow aura which wafted off of my limbs like smoke. It was highly concentrated in certain spots, like my hands, my feet, and—after some tough maneuvering of my head to get a look—my neck. Weirdly enough, it also appeared to be concentrated around the bite mark the infected human had given me, the teeth marks glowing bright yellow.

That wasn’t all. Around my wrists and ankles, rosy bands were burning brightly, with more energy than the yellow aura. They crackled and snapped, more like electricity than smoke. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Celestia eyeing the bands with a sour look on her face.

“Very interesting,” Mac Griffon repeated, wheeling himself closer to me. “The pinkish residue is…”

“Twilight’s,” Celestia replied, her tone neutral.

Ah, yes,” Mac Griffon chirped, still eyeing my body. “That would make sense. The pinkish is Sparkle’s, and the yellow is clearly the chaos magic. I have never seen such ill looking magic before, even from changelings. It’s definitely latent, though, you can tell by the lethargic way it moves.” He motioned towards the aura wafting off of me. “Non-latent magic, as you can see—” he said, pointing towards the rosy bands around my wrist “—is much more active. Is fresh too, probably not more than a few days old.

“It also appears that the chaos magic is leaking into the outside world, just as you claimed. Although, it appears to be doing so at a faster rate than you originally indicated.”

“It’s bleeding faster?” Celestia asked in alarm, her ears perking up.

“Indeed,” Mac Griffon chirped. “You claimed that it only affected Sparkle because her constant close proximity to him did not allow her harmonious magic to purge it over time. However, as you can see—” he held his talons under the light, the tips already starting to glow with the same, sickly light “—it’s already beginning to consolidate on me, and it hasn’t even been an hour yet.”

“That is very alarming news,” Celestia murmured, her brow furrowing. “Is anypony in danger?”

“At the moment? I’d say no,” Mac Griffon clucked, wheeling himself back as he stroked his lower beak. “At the rate of the spreading, I’d estimate that a pony would have to be within five meters of him for well over twenty four hours for it to begin to affect their mental state. Besides, simply walking away would be enough for their harmonious magic to begin to cleanse their system. Take Sparkle for example. They probably slept in the same bed, so she’ll have more exposure than anyone else. However, with how long they’ve been apart, she’s probably already back down to a manageable level. No trouble, not harm… at least, not yet. I wouldn’t let this get any worse, though, especially if it’s increasing.”

“Why is it gathering around his hands and feet?” Celestia asked, cocking her head to the side as she eyed me.

“My guess would be those rosy bands,” Mac Griffon replied. “Your student’s magic allowed the chaos magic to flow into the outer extremities, but not back in, so it began to pool. Much like blood when you tied a tourniquet around the limb. It should return to normal levels soon… me thinks.”

“You think?” Celestia asked, an eyebrow raising.

“This is all speculation,” he replied. “Never have I had to deal with something like this before. Chaos magic is all theoretical, as the only creature who seems able to control it is Discord. For all I know, the chaos magic has already corrupted us all, and we just don’t know it. I don’t even know if the yellow is chaos magic. I’m just assuming based off what I see. It could very well be his own latent magic from his old world.”

“I see,” Celestia hummed, rubbing her chin with a wing. “I’ll have to talk to Luna, and see if we can come up with a way to remove the magic without hurting or killing him.”

“Well, if you do end up killing him, I’d be more than happy to take the body off of your hooves,” Mac Griffon chirped happily. When Celestia gave him an appalled look, he fluffed out his plumage. “What? He is the first human of his kind! A rare species of human only found on other planets! His biology is different from our humans. As the tales go, he survived a bite from an infected human. Just think of what an autopsy could teach us!

“Plus, I’d be interested to see if he tasted different as well,” he added, eyeing me with a hungry look in his eyes.

Shifting uncomfortably on my feet, I lifted my hands and signed, ~Okay, getting really uncomfortable with the direction the conversation went~

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but froze, her eyes darting down to my now exposed nether region. Her mouth clicked shut, and her eyes widened in shock. Mac Griffon looked as well, clicking his beak loudly as his crest rose.

Confused, I glanced down as well, only to inhale sharply. There, glowing around the base of my member, was a rosy circle of arcane symbols. They burned brightly against the dull yellow magic.

“My, aren’t you an adventurous one,” Mac Griffon chuckled, his laugh sounding like a hen clucking.

“Oh, I’m definitely going to be talking to her about this,” Celestia muttered out through clenched teeth.

I just covered myself again, my cheeks burning red.

“Right,” Mac Griffon chirped, turning off the machine as if nothing had happened. The lights flickered before dying with a low hiss, and the fluorescent cloud of visible magic around me faded from view. “I’ve seen enough,” he continued, spinning his chair in place to face me. Stroking his beak, he gave me a thoughtful look.

“You truly are an amazing find, Mr. Max,” he said softly, his eagle-like eyes boring into me. ”Chaos magic, intelligent human, advanced technology from a different world. I am curious at what else you will have to offer to us in the future.”

I gave him a confused look, but he had already looked away and was now busy fiddling around with the machine. Celestia moved to stand beside him, leaning her head in to speak to him in a whisper.

I stared at the both of them for a few seconds, a small frown on my face, before shrugging. Turning, I stepped down off of the raised platform, wincing as my bare feet touched cold floor.

I need my clothes, I thought, repressing a shiver. I took a couple of steps, only to pause, my brow furrowing, as I remembered that the changelings had basically stolen my clothing. Huffing softly, I glanced around, trying to find the buggers. However, they appeared to have disappeared.

I was just about to turn around and ask Celestia for some help when something in my peripheral vision caught my attention. Turning, I inhaled sharply in surprise when I saw Twilight standing by one of the desks, watching me intently. I didn’t even hear her come in.

She stared up at me with a small smirk, an eyebrow raised.

~When did you get here?~ I asked. ~And how did you know where we were to begin with?~ Realizing that I was standing naked in front of her, I felt my cheeks heat up, and I quickly covered myself. Despite what had happened between us recently, it still felt kind of awkward to be completely naked in front of her.

One of her ears twitched as I signed, and she giggled softly at my sudden embarrassment. She didn’t answer, but instead trotted forward slowly, her tail swishing back and forth. When she got close enough, she reared up on her hind legs, throwing her forelegs over my shoulder.

Stumbling backwards a step, I instinctively placed my hands on her sides to keep her stable. I felt her shiver at my touch, and her smirk grew, her eyes becoming hooded.

“Hey there, stud,” she breathed before leaning forward and quickly pulling me into a kiss. Her tongue brushed gently against my lips, causing my body stiffen and my eyes to widen. She tilted her head to the side to deepen the kiss, humming happily as she did so.

After a few seconds that felt more like minutes, she broke the kiss with an audible ‘pop’, a strand of drool connecting our lips. She smacked her lips a couple of times before releasing her grip around my neck and dropping back down onto all fours.

I just stood there, mouth agape and cheeks burning. Wha… what was that? Not that I’m complaining… but, what...

With the sultry look still on her face, Twilight turned and trotted off, her hips swaying back and forth. Giving me a lustful grin over her shoulder, she flicked her tail and immediately burst into flames.

I yelped as she was consumed in red fire, the flames writhing around her body like serpents. Then, as suddenly as it started, the fire died down, leaving behind one of the changelings. It chirped once before its horn lit up. In a flash of fire, I suddenly found myself clothed again.

It chirped again before spreading its wings and taking flight, buzzing up towards the ceiling where it disappeared into the darkness.

I stared up at the shadows, confused and a little flustered. The sound of hoofsteps behind me snapped me out of my daze, and I glanced over my shoulder.

Celestia approached me, an amused smile on her face.

“I think it’s time for you to go,” she said, “before they get too… attached to you. Wouldn’t want Twilight to get jealous, would you?”

Absentmindedly shaking my head, I glanced up at the darkness around the ceiling before slowly making towards the door. Pausing in the doorway, I glanced back over my shoulder. Celestia had resumed her hushed conversation with Mac Griffon, the pair of them whispering back and forth to each other. From above, a low buzzing noise could be heard, an occasional flash of red appearing within the darkness.

Watching them for a few more seconds, I sighed heavily and turned, exiting the room. I began to whistle tunelessly, my hands in my pockets, as I walked off down the hall, no particular destination in mind.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the human walked away, two dark shapes slipped from a nearby shadow, silently following after him.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Glancing over her shoulder as Max left the room, Celestia waited until she was sure that he was gone before turning her attention back to Mac Griffon. “So, what do you think?”

“Strange lad,” the griffon clucked, staring blankly ahead, a thoughtful look on his face. “With how much trouble has been caused since he’s arrived, I was expecting something… well, more. Despite the fact he is an intelligent human, he is disappointingly normal. With all the rumors going around the Guard at the moment, you’d think he’s some gallant knight in shining armor. Protecting fillies from manticores, surviving a fighting ring, taking on a pack of timberwolves for a mare in distress… twice, being bitten by an infected human and surviving. But, to see him in person, he looks clueless to what’s happening around him. Like he blunders through life with no real destination in mind.”

“Not a knight in shining armor, but one of tin,” Celestia commented with a small smile, which slowly faded. “Do you think you can help him?” she asked, her ears pressing back against her head.

Sighing heavily, Mac Griffon closed his eyes, his plumage puffing up as he drummed his talons against the armrests of his chair. For several long seconds, silence filled the room, broken only by the occasional movement of a changeling far above in the darkness.

Sighing again, the Doctor opened his eyes, and looked at Celestia. “At this moment, I have no way of removing the chaos magic within the human known to us as ‘The Anomaly’ without causing great damage to his psyche and possible permanent mental damage.”

A crestfallen look crossed Celestia face, and her entire body seemed to droop.

“Nothing?” she asked, a wing twitching weakly at her side.

Mac Griffon shook his head. “No, I have no machinery nor device that will allow me to safely remove the magic from him. Especially considering how much is inside of him. I’m sorry to say this, Princess, but you will find no help from me with this endeavor. You’ll have to find another way.”

“I’ll talk to Luna, then, and see if we can’t come up with another way,” Celestia said with a sigh. Giving the griffon a weak smile, she added, “Thank you for at least taking a look.” With that said, she turned and began to make her way to the door, but stopped when Mac Griffon spoke again.

“There’s one more thing I need to mention before you go, my dear.”

Pausing in the doorway, Celestia glanced back and gave him a curious look. “Yes?”

“I didn’t want to bring it up with the boy here,” Mac Griffon said softly, slowly wheeling his chair around in a half-circle to face her, “but there was a third type of magic present within his body. One that I could not identify.”

“Are you sure?” Celestia asked, her ears perking up. “I didn’t see any.”

“It was there,” Mac Griffon said with a nod. “Deep beneath the layer of chaos. It was very faint, barely visible, but I was still able to see it.”

“Perhaps it was from his guard,” Celestia offered, a small bit of uncertainty in her voice. It was almost more of a question than a statement. “He and Major Ebony did spend a fair amount of time together.”

“It isn’t unicorn magic,” Mac Griffon said, shaking his head.

“Then what kind…”

“I’m not sure,” the griffon clucked, his tongue playing with the tip of his beak, “but it isn’t the type of magic that concerns me. For the most part, it looks as benign as the chaos magic. It’s the location.”

“Where’s it located?” Celestia asked, licking her lips.

Reaching up with one of his claws, Mac Griffon tapped the side of his head, all while staring the Solar Princess straight in the eye.

“It’s around his mind.”

Interlude: 'Tis the Season

There's no real plot here. Just a couple of scenes of holiday cheer in the YHaY-verse.
Please, enjoy...
...and Merry Christmas.

It was the eve of Hearth’s Warming Day, and high spirits were abound in Ponyville as the sun slowly began to inch its way closer to the horizon, causing long shadows to be cast along the snow-covered ground. The town was alive with activity as ponies bustled to-and-fro, doing their last minute shopping before the marketplace closed down. Overhead, the weather team was hard at work, getting ready for the snowstorm we were supposed to have tonight.

Despite the organized chaos and mass of milling equine, everyone appeared to be in a good mood. With the streets and buildings decked to the limit with all manner of holiday decoration, it was probably nigh impossible for anyone to be grouchy.

Pinkie Pie really outdid herself this year.

I watched the whirl of activity that was the marketplace from in front of the library, having just finished shoveling off the front walk. Leaning heavily on my shovel, I couldn’t help but laugh softly to myself—my breathing fogging up in front of me—at the fevered display. Ponies were practically scrambling over each other to find that last minute gift for their loved ones, looking very much like an overturned ant hill.

The Crusaders raced by, heading off on some adventure or another. As she passed by, Sweetie Belle waved to me, a large smile on her face. When I returned the gesture, she began to giggle, her cheeks taking on a red hue, before she darted off behind her friends.

As I continued to observe, Rainbow flew by overhead, hauling along a couple of large clouds. One of them, already fit to bursting, was beginning to sprinkle snow, and I watched as large flakes floated down, only to alit upon my clean path. Shaking my head, I made a mental note to hit Rainbow with a snowball the next time I saw her.

I was just about to turn and head back into the library for the evening when I caught sight of a pony rounding the corner of the street. They were carrying several large packages upon their back, and appeared to be struggling under their weight. However, the pony pushed doggedly on, clearly determined to reach their destination.

They trudged along and appeared to be doing well enough until they reached the library. I had salted the walk leading up to the front door, but hadn’t touched the main street. A thin layer of black ice had formed, and as the pony struggled along, their hoof hit the slippery spot. Their hoof slipped out from underneath them and they yelped loudly, struggling to regain their balance. After several tense seconds they managed to recover, but, unfortunately, the sudden jarring movement caused the packages to sway back and forth, and the top few suddenly tilted, falling off of the pony’s back.

Dropping my shovel, I darted forward, catching the packages before they hit the ground. Sensing that something had happened to their burden, the pony poked their head out from beneath the pile of boxes and glanced around. I immediately recognized her, and I couldn’t help but huff softly, a small smile touching my lips.

As she glanced up at me and saw the boxes in my arms, the mare breathed a sigh of relief before giving me a grateful smile. “Oh, thank you so much for the save.”

“It was no problem, Ditzy,” I said, returning the smile. Shifting the boxes around in my arms to better hold them, I asked, “Is this a bit much for you to be carrying? It looks heavy.”

“Oh, it is,” Ditzy said with a nod, her blonde mane falling in front of her eyes. Wrinkling up her nose, she snorted loudly, blowing the hair back out of her field of vision. “Much too heavy for me to fly with, so I have to walk home. I’ve had a couple of close calls, though, but luckily you were here to stop this one.”

She leaned towards me, presenting me with the top of the tower of packages.

“If you would be so kind, can you put those back up there? I want to get back home and wrap these before Dinky returns,” she said. The tower wobbled slightly, and Ditzy squawked as it threatened to tip over again. Flaring her wings, she managed to stabilize it just in time.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she then present me with the tower again, an expectant look on her face.

I frowned, eyeing the packages with some skepticism.

“Ditzy, I can’t let you carry all of these home by yourself,” I said, shaking my head. “You’ll end up dropping half of these before you get there.” At my words, her smile faded and her ears splayed against her head.

Moving forward, I grabbed a couple of more boxes off of her back and transferred them to my own stack.

“Here,” I said with a smile. “Let me help you.”

Chewing on her bottom lip, Ditzy glanced back and forth between me and the library, an uncertain look on her face.

“I don’t know,” she said softly. “I don’t want to intrude on your evening…”

“Nonsense,” I scoffed, adjusting the packages into a more comfortable position. “Twilight won’t mind if I step out for a couple of minutes to help you out.”

Ditzy gave the library one last look before sighing and giving me a weak smile. “If you say so.” Using her wings to adjust the pile of boxes on her back, she started off down the road again, heading for home.

I fell in step beside her, and we made our way down the street, heading away from the marketplace and towards the residential part of town.

As we walked, I glanced at the bubbly pegasus, cocking an eyebrow. “Doing some last minute shopping I see. Anything special?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Ditzy said, stepping carefully around another patch of ice. “Dinky has been a very good filly, and I happened to actually have some spare bits lying around this year, so I figured I would treat my little muffin to something special.” She motioned to the boxes in my hands with her head. “One of those is a special Daring Do playset. I know she’s a little old for it, but she absolutely loves the books, and the playset came with a free Daring Do doll. I hope she likes it…” she said, trailing off as her ears splayed to the side.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, chuckling. “I’m sure she’ll love it. This is the filly that each time a new book comes out, she races to beat Rainbow to the library to read it. It’s nearly impossible to get her to leave at closing time because she’s so engrossed in the novel. Remember when I had to come knocking on your door at two in the morning to let you know that she was safe and sound?”

“She nearly gave me a heart attack,” Ditzy said, nodding her head, careful to not disturb the boxes. “Although, I can’t really stay mad at her for that. I am very happy that she enjoys reading.”

We continued to walk along, and soon Ditzy lead me down another road. Small houses, covered in festive lights and decorations, lined the street.

“I’m the very last house on the right,” she said, sounding a little winded. I paused to allow her to catch her breath, but she pushed along, determined to reach her destination.

When we finally reached her home, I noticed that the roof appeared to be sagging slightly. The chimney was missing several bricks, and the fence around the lawn needed a new coat of paint. Several of the shutters were run down, and one of the windows was cracked. It looked like the house had seen some years, but it also looked homely and well-loved.

Ditzy struggled slightly to get the gate to the fence open. Shifting the packages into one hand, I used the other to help her unlatch the gate.

“Thanks,” she grunted, her legs trembling slightly. She quickly moved up the steps of her porch, watching for ice, and pushed the front door open with her muzzle. As she crossed the threshold, she called back over her shoulder, “Just place them on the couch, please!”

I did as she asked, placing the packages onto the nearby couch, which looked worn and aged. Straightening up, I dusted off my hands before throwing her a quick salute.

“Anything else you require, ma’am?”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t ask you to do anything else,” she said, shaking her head as she unwrapped the scarf from around her neck. Throwing it over the back of a chair that was leaking stuffing, she moved towards the kitchen. “You’ve helped me enough already. If… if you’d like, I think I still have some holiday cookies around here somewhere…”

“That’s quite alright,” I said, holding up a hand. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I insist!” she chirped from the kitchen. She emerged with a plate of frosted cookies on her back, balanced between her wings. Offering the plate to me, she gave me a warm smile. “Go on, take one! A thank you for helping me with my packages.”

“Oh, if you insist,” I said with a smile, reaching out and picking up a cookie in the shape of a candy cane. Taking a quick bite, my eyes lit up as I chewed. “This is delicious!” I hummed with a mouthful of cookie.

“Thank you,” Ditzy said, her ears perking up. “I made them myself!”

“Well, you certainly know what you are doing,” I said, taking another bite. “You could give Pinkie a run for her bits.”

Ditzy’s cheeks darkened, and her wings fluttered by her sides. “I… uh, thank you,” she squeaked.

“Well,” I said, taking another bite of the homemade cookie, “I best be off. I’ll let you get to wrapping your presents.” Pushing open the door, I waved to Ditzy before heading off back towards the library.

“Happy holidays!” I called back over my shoulder.

“Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Ditzy called from the doorway, waving a wing.

As I walked away, I made a mental note to dip into my large pile of bits. After all, it was the holidays, and I didn’t think Ditzy would mind getting a surprise gift from an anonymous party.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As I walked back towards the library, the clouds opened up and snow slowly began to drift towards the ground. Ponies were beginning to head home, their backs covered with packages, boxes, and bags. Several waved to me as I passed, and I returned the gesture, a smile on my face.

With the snow slowly starting to fall faster and faster, I decided to take a shortcut and slipped down a side alleyway, heading to the marketplace. It wasn’t as crowded as it had been, what with ponies having finished with their shopping. There was still a smattering of ponies here and there, closing up their stores and stalls. Sugarcube Corner was still open, and I could see the Cakes through the frosty windows. Mrs. Cake worked the register, taking the orders, while her husband passed out the food, making sure that customers got what they had paid for. Pinkie was no doubt in the back, hard at work cooking up a storm.

Pausing for a brief second, Mrs. Cake raised her head and glanced out of the front window. Just by accident, our gazes met. Her eyes widened before she tentatively gave me a weak smile. I just inclined my head slightly, keeping my face expressionless. With that, she returned her attention to the register, and I continued on my way.

Snow crunching underfoot, I made my way across the marketplace, heading towards the library on the other side. As I neared the frozen fountain, a smile slowly spread across my face as I spotted a couple of familiar faces.

“And what are you four hoodlums up to?” I asked as I walked up to the group of ponies.

“Hoodlums?” Avera asked with faux shock. “How could you say such things? We are good, respectable members of society!” Beside her, Ebony and Primrose nodded in agreement, both sitting on the edge of the fountain’s pool. They were decked out in their winter gear; Ebony with a pair of earmuffs, and Primrose with her scarf wrapped firmly around her muzzle. Avera was bare as usually, the cold weather not bothering her. Vinyl was sitting with them, a blue scarf wrapped loosely around her head.

“Mmmhmmm, right,” I said, giving her a bemused look. Pointing at a wooden barrel sitting next to Ebony on the fountain’s edge, I asked, “What’s in the barrel?”

“Special homemade eggnog,” Ebony chirped with a smile. “We’ve been selling it by the mugload. We’ve been through a dozen barrels today alone. Made a good sum of bits. This is our last one,” she said, patting the barrel beside her. Her smile grew as she looked up at me. “Want some?”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Vinyl said, adjusting her signature shades as Ebony poured a mug of eggnog. “When she said it was special homemade eggnog, she meant special homemade eggnog. I would advise against drinking it.”

“What does it do?” I asked, accepting the mug. Glancing into the cup, I eyed the creamy liquid carefully. It looked like and smelled like regular eggnog.

“It’s enchanted to make you hug the stuffings out of the next pony you see,” Ebony said with a large smile. “You know, to increase holiday spirit!”

Looking down into the mug, I stared at the eggnog for a few seconds before shrugging. “Meh, I’ve had worse.” Putting the mug to my lips, I threw back my head and chugged.

“Wait a minute, did I say hug?” Ebony hummed as I drank. “I’m sorry, that’s wrong. What I meant to say was kiss. Until your lips are raw.”

I froze, my body stiffening, as I finished the last of the eggnog within the mug. Lowering the mug, I continued to stare up at the clouds far above, blinking as snow continued to fall. I could hear Avera and Ebony snickering in front of me, as well as Primrose’s soft chuckles.

Vinyl just sighed loudly. “I told you not to drink it.”

“So,” I began slowly, keeping my gaze upwards, “the next pony I look at I’m going to kiss violently?”

“Yup,” Ebony said, and I could hear the smugness in her voice. “Don’t worry, though. It’s just one pony, and just this once. It isn’t like the love poison.

“I see,” I grunted, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “Well, in that case…” Lowering my head, I stared straight at Vinyl.

“...you bastard,” she huffed—her voice monotone—as I felt my cheeks slowly beginning to grow warm.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Pushing the front door open, I slipped into the library, closing it quickly behind me. The snow was really coming down now, and my shoulders and head was now covered in the frozen stuff. Giving myself a good shake, I tried to clear myself off.

“Twilight, I’m back!” I called out as I took off my coat and hung it up on the coat rack. “I helped Ditzy carry a couple of heavy packages back to her place.” Behind me, I heard the sound of wings fluttering softly and a muffled giggle.

“The gang was up to mischief again as well,” I continued, removing my soaked boots. “You are going to hear some stories later, and most of them miiight be true.” Finally managing to kick off my boots, I straightened up and cracked my back, groaning happily.

Turning around, I rubbed my right shoulder, wincing as the muscle twinged. “Also, I’m going to need… to…”

I trailed off, my eyes widening in shock, my cheeks heated up suddenly at what I saw.

Twilight was behind me, standing there with her back to me. She had her chest lowered to the floor, her flank raised high into the air. A red ribbon was tied around the base of her tail, as was a piece of mistletoe. She was giving me a sultry look over her shoulder, swishing her tail back and forth in an alluring manner. Every few seconds, something very private was exposed.

“Mistletoe~!” she said in a sing-songy voice, wiggling her hips, causing them to jiggle in a very, very arousing manner.

I just stood there, blinking owlishly in disbelief. My head was cocked to the side, my lips pursed slightly as I took in the sight before me. I could feel myself slowly getting flustered. I didn’t move, I didn’t speak. I just stood there and stared.

After a few moments of silence, when nothing happened, Twilight’s smile faded slightly and her ears folded against her head. Her tail stopped swishing, hanging limply to the side.

“I, uh… I thought it would be funny,” she said lamely, her head drooping slightly as she stood back up. “You see, because it’s mistletoe… and you have to kiss… never mind.” She lowered her gaze, staring at the floor. “I’m.. I’m sorry. I’ll just go take it off—YEEEEEEEEK!”

Twilight shrieked loudly as she darted away, her tail tucked firmly between her legs.

“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO KISS IT!” she squawked indignantly, her wings flared wide and a large blush on her face.

“Mmmm,” I said, licking my lips with a smile. “Pepperminty.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The fire roared merrily in the fireplace, filling the room with a pleasant warmth and the sound of crackling flames. All the lights around the library had been turned off, the only illumination coming from the fire. Outside, the weather had long since evolved into a small blizzard, large snowflakes practically blowing sideways.

Sitting cozily beneath a large, wool blanket, Twilight and I snuggled up against one another on the couch, enjoying each others company. We each had a mug of eggnog, one of many that we had been working on over the course of the evening. The sound of muffled laughter came from the closed basement door, just barely audible over the sounds of the fire.

Resting her head against my shoulder, Twilight stared into the fire, humming happily to herself as she watched the dancing flames. From beneath the blanket, I stroked one of her wings gently, playing with her large, primary feathers.

“This is nice,” she said suddenly, her voice soft. “I like this. I could easily get addicted to this.” Lifting her mug to her lips, she sipped her eggnog.

“It certainly beats last year,” I said, giving one of her feathers a gentle tug. A shiver ran through her body, and she moaned softly.

“I’ll give you all night to stop that,” she said, rubbing her cheek absentmindedly against my shoulder.

“You’re right, though,” I said as I tugged on her feathers again. “This is nice. Just you, me, the fire, and a couple of knuckleheads below.” At my words, a loud ‘thunk’ came from the basement, followed by the sound of explosive laughter. “Too bad your parents couldn’t join us this year. I like listening to your mother’s stories.”

“They decided to visit the Crystal Empire this year,” Twilight said, taking another sip of her eggnog. “They wanted to see Cadance and Shining again, as well as spend some time with their grandfoals. Last I heard, they were spending an extra week there, just to give Shining and Cadance a brief break from the foals. A special gift.”

“I bet they’d appreciate that,” I said with a chuckle. “Infants can be tiresome, especially twins.”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed, staring deep into the flames. Suddenly, she perked up and turned her head, her muzzle practically touching my nose.

“You know,” she said slowly, her cheeks flushing and her eyes becoming hooded. “Foals don’t sound so bad, now that I think about it.”

Pausing with my mug halfway to my lips, I gave her an incredulous look. “What?”

“And they are certainly fun to make,” she continued, giving my nose a slow lick.

“How much eggnog have you had?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“We could do it right now, if you’d like,” she said, ignoring me. “Right here, in front of the fire. It might get a little hot, but that’s okay. We can always cool off in the shower later.”

“You do realize that I put eight ounces of alcohol in that liter of eggnog, right?” I asked, staring at my own mug. “You didn’t chug it, did you?”

“Come on, it’ll be fun~!” Twilight sang happily, laying her head on my shoulder, and staring up at me. “Just picture me like a book. Set me on the ground and spread my pages wiiiiiiide open.”

“I think you’ve had enough of that,” I said, pulling her mug from her magical grasp and placing it on the table beside the couch, alongside my own.

“Come ‘ere!” Twilight growled suddenly. She pounced, quickly wrapping her legs around my neck and pulling me into a deep, passionate, somewhat slobbery, kiss. Keeping our lips locked together, she giggled drunkenly before pulling me off of the couch and onto the floor, her wings stiff by her sides.

Author's Note

Merry Christmas!!! From all of us here at MadMax Industries©

Chapter 52: The Heart Knows...

I was almost back to the bedroom when my brain finally woke up enough to remind me that I had completely forgotten to talk to Celestia about my guards. Cursing my absent-mindedness, I briefly considered turning around and heading back to the Doctor's lab, but eventually decided against it. I had no idea if Celestia would even still be there or not, and I didn't want to deal with the mad griffon and changelings by myself.

Mentally reminding myself─again─to speak to Celestia about the situation, I continued down the hallway. The palace staff was up and running now, and I could hear the sounds of work echoing softly through the halls. Ahead of me, a maid crossed the hall from one open room to another, a feather duster held in her magic. She gave me a quick glance, but continued with her duties.

The windows of the hall were opened wide, allowing a pleasant spring breeze to roll in and fill the air with the fresh aroma of springtime. I took a deep breath, a small smile touching my lips.

As I rounded the corner, I nearly collided with a guard walking in the other direction. She skirted around me quickly, making a loud clicking noise with her teeth as she swatted the back of my leg with her wing, causing me to flinch. Ouch! That stung!

I huffed in annoyance before reaching back with my other leg and using my foot to nudge her flank, causing her to stumble. Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw her give me a confused look, her ears perked. Her gaze darted to the back of my shirt, which had Twilight's cutie mark embroidered on it, and her eyes widened.

“S-sorry, sir,” she said, a red blush touching her cheeks, highly visible against her white fur. “I mistook you for one of the servant humans. I meant no disrespect.” The embarrassment clear on her face, she gave me a quick bow before turning and continuing down the hallway at a hurried pace, her ears pressed firmly against the back of her head and tail tucked between her legs.

I watched her go, a brow raised in confusion. What was the wing slap suppose to correct? Continuing to stare after the guard for a few more seconds, I then shrugged my shoulders. Whatever.

Pushing the matter from my mind, I walked past several more guest room doors before reaching the correct one.

Twilight wasn't present when I entered. Her side of the bed was empty, and the bathroom was unoccupied. A rolled-up scroll rested upon my pillow, tied together with a thin bit of string. The balcony doors were opened wide, a warm breeze stirring the curtains.

Picking up the scroll, I approached the opened doors. As I unraveled the string, I peered outside. There were a few lavender feathers scattered across the balcony, the breeze teasing them along the floor. Every so often, a particularly large gust of wind would pick them up and throw a couple off of the edge.

I leaned against the doorframe as I unrolled the scroll. A quick glance over it revealed Twilight's familiar hornwriting.

Max,

Gone to take care of something special for later. Depending on when you get done with Dr. Mac Griffon, meet me in the gardens around 3:00pm, okay?

Love,

Twilight Sparkle

I blinked a couple of times, a small frown touching my face. How did she know where I was? Celestia never told me where we were going until we got there, so she couldn’t have overheard, could she? Reading the note a couple more times, I flipped the paper around and glanced at the back of it, which was blank.

What special thing does she have planned? I thought as I rerolled the scroll and slipped the string back around it. She hadn't told me she had anything planned for today, although no one really told me anything anymore. Which was fine by me; I liked to go with the flow anyways. That way, if something came up, it didn't derail your original plans.

A glance at the clock informed me that it was a little after eleven-thirty. I still had just over three hours before I was supposed to meet Twilight in the gardens for whatever she had planned. Scratching at my beard, I tried to figure out what I was going to do with myself until then. Luckily, my stomach decided at that moment to provide me with an answer as it growled loudly. I smiled to myself as I tossed the note back onto my pillow. To the kitchen!

Pushing the door to the bedroom open, I strolled out into the hall. It took me a second to orient myself and remember where the kitchens were located, but when I had, I quickly headed off in their general direction. If I got lost, I could either wander around until I found them, or find a guard that could actually understand me and point me in the right direction.

Upstairs and downstairs I went, humming tunelessly to myself as I traversed the many halls of the castle. I would occasionally come across a maid or two, doing their jobs diligently. They ignored me for the most part, only shooting me a glance or two as I passed. Occasionally one would have a human with them—dressed in a plain, white smock—who was helping them with their cleaning.

I had just reached the ground floor and was beginning my search for the food when I heard the sound of something running up behind me. I turned to see what was approaching, only to be about bowled over as a human raced by me.

Quickly moving to the side, I let him run past, not wanting to get in his way.

He had only taken a couple dozen steps before he suddenly slid to a stop in the middle of the hall. Breathing heavily, he glanced back towards me, cocking his head to the side and giving a soft chirp. He shuffled in place, glancing back and forth between me and the direction that he had originally been running, clearly anxious about something.

After a few seconds of indecision, he huffed loudly before turning and stalking back down the hall towards me.

I tensed up as he approached, unsure of his intention. He didn’t appear hostile, but I wanted to be on the safe side, just in case.

He stopped just in front of me, and I was able to get a good look at him. Standing a head shorter than me, he had to tilt his head back just to look up at my face. He was donned in a white smock, a golden sun embroidered on the center, with a rope wrapped around his waist acting as a belt. A white collar around his neck bore the numbers ‘626’.

All-in-all, he looked like a normal equestrian human, although slightly rough around the edges.

Huffing again, he made several soft cooing noises followed by a sharp chirp. He repeated this several times—each one sounding more and more impatient—until he finally reached out and grabbed ahold of the front of my shirt.

Reaching up quickly, I yanked his hand off of me with a low growl. When he reached up to grab at me again, I swatted his hand away and took a step back.

What the fuck do you want? I thought as I bared my teeth, trying to intimidate him.

The human whimpered softly, bobbing his head a couple of times before making a low clicking noise with his teeth. I tried to brush past him, but he would just grab onto my shirt again and I would be forced to pry myself free.

I was just about to turn around and head in the other direction when a guard rounded the corner, looking flustered. Upon seeing the pair of us, his expression changed to relieve and he laughed.

“There you are, ya bastard,” he chuckled as he approached. His horn lit up and the human was lifted into the air, where he immediately went limp.

“I’m sorry if he was bothering you, sir,” the guard said to me as he levitated the human behind him. “He got out of his kennel and pulled a runner on me when I wasn’t looking. Managed to get the lock open and everything. I swear, we’ve never had this issue before,” he continued, glancing over his shoulder at the human. “Those locks were designed to be human-proof, but somehow they’ve recently managed to figure out how to open them from the inside.”

He trailed off as I stared down at him, and blank expression on my face, and eyebrow cocked. Licking his lips, he swallowed loudly before saying weakly, “I’ll just let you get back to your day, sir.” With that, he turned and quickly trotted off in the direction he had come from. The human chirped loudly as he was levitated along behind the unicorn.

I watched the pair go, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

What the hell was that? I thought as they disappeared around the corner. I stared after them for a few more seconds before my stomach growled again, reminding me of what I was originally doing.

Taking one last glance over my shoulder, I turned and headed in the opposite direction that the guard had went, whistling softly to myself.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oye, you can’t be in here!” the overweight earth pony chef cried, waving a wooden spoon at me as he chased me around the busy kitchen. The other kitchen staff paused in their duties in order to watch, several of them stifling their laughter with flour-covered hooves.

I scampered quickly around the kitchen, dodging his wild swings.

“Hey, put that down!” he cried as I grabbed two pieces of flatbread. “Down! Down, I say! Heel!”

Batting the spoon away with my hands, I quickly jump over a mare that was kneading a large pile of dough. She giggled, ducking slightly to allow me over before returning to her task.

Throwing the two pieces of flatbread onto a nearby kitchen island, I glanced around the kitchen─dodging the chef’s spoon in the process─as I searched for the ingredients I needed to complete my meal. My eyes lit up upon seeing a mare messing around with a large wheel of cheese. Ducking under another swipe from the spoon, I quickly made my way over to her.

She flinched upon seeing me heading towards her, only to sigh in relief as I grabbed a chunk of cheese she had just recently sliced off. Snatching up a nearby grater as well, I quickly rushed back to my flatbread and began to liberally grate the cheese over one of the pieces.

“No, what are you doing?!” the chef cried, grabbing his head in his hooves, the whites of his eyes showing. “Stop this at once!”

I ignored him and continued to gather more ingredients. Diced tomatoes, chunks of spicy peppers, onions, a little more cheese, and some black beans; all of them went on top of one of the pieces of flatbread. I assembled everything I needed while running a circle around the island, the chef hot on my heels, ranting and raving as he went.

Once I had gathered all the ingredients, I threw a bit of butter onto one of the many hot flat grills currently running. It began to melt almost immediately, coating the grill in a thin layer of melted butter.

The chef nearly had a heart attack.

“Butter! On my grill!” he screeched, his pupils shrinking to mere pinpricks. “What horror! This isn’t a two-bit restaurant! This is the royal kitchen! Nooooo!” He swung the spoon frantically, the wooden utensil a blur as it whistled through the air.

I winced as he landed several stinging blows across my back. Baring my teeth, I thrashed about with my arms, trying to grab the spoon out of his hooves. It took me a few attempts, but I finally managed to snatch it out of his grip. Tossing it aside, I quickly flipped him the bird before returning my attention to my concoction.

Carefully picking up the laden flatbread, I placed the second piece on top of it, smushing the ingredients together between the two. By that point, the butter had completely melted over the grill, evenly covering the heated steel. I tossed the makeshift sandwich onto the grill. A loud hiss filled the air, followed by the sweet smell of cooking food.

A nearby mare crept forward, a curious look on her face.

“What… what is he doing?” she asked, ears perked.

“Ruining my grill, that’s what he’s doing!” the chef shouted, scampering to find his spoon. “Possessed human, demented human, ruining my kitchen! Guards, help!”

The mare rolled her eyes, before returning to watching what I was doing.

Hissing over my shoulder at the overweight pony, I picked up a nearby heated skillet─which was full of diced potatoes─and placed it on top of the two pieces of flatbread. Melted cheese immediately began to ooze out the sides with a hiss as I pressed down with the pan, holding it in place.

The chef came at me again, having found his spoon.

“Do you know how long it will take to clean that cheese off, you filthy human?!” he squawked.

Keeping the pan pressed down upon my cooking quesadilla, I balanced myself on one leg while using the other one to hold the angry chef at bay. Unable to reach me properly, he opted instead to attack my leg with a vengeance. Spoon met shin several times, and I winced with each strike.

That’s gonna leave a bruise, I grimaced. Trying to ignore the growing pain in my leg, I peek under the skillet, eyeing the cooking quesadilla. The cheese was fully melted now, gluing the two pieces of flatbread together.

I poked it with a finger, only to hiss and stick said finger in my mouth as I burned myself. I think it’s done, I thought as I ran my tongue over the stinging flesh. Removing the finger from my mouth, I wiped it off on my pants before returning my attention to the quesadilla. Before I could do anything else, a metal spatula floated in front of my face, suspended in a reddish aura.

Glancing to my left, I spotted a unicorn mare cutting carrots at another counter. Her horn was alight with the same colored aura, and she glanced over her shoulder at me, smirking. Her eyes seemed to flash red for a moment, but that could have just been the trick of the light.

“This might help,” she said in a condescending tone.

Grabbing the spatula out of her magic, I gave her the bird as well before carefully scooping the quesadilla off of the grill and onto a nearby, cleanish looking plate. I then proceeded to scrape as much of the excess cheese off of the grill surface as possible, placing it on top of the quesadilla. Waste not, want not. Then, using the edge of the spatula, I cut the quesadilla up into eight slices, thick strands of cheese connecting the individual pieces.

While all of this was going on, Chef Boyardee was still whaling on me. Having finished with the spatula, I used it to swat his muzzle. He immediately stopped hitting me, instead reaching up to grab his stinging muzzle. As he did so, I removed my foot from his chest, causing him to topple forward onto his face. This earned a couple of more laughs from the surrounding workers, including an effeminate-looking stallion.

I had just moved to pick up my food when the side door flew open, and two guards burst in.

“What’s going on in here!?” one of them asked, glancing around at the ensuing chaos. Oops, time to go!

Quickly picking up my quesadilla, I ducked down beneath the counter before the guards could get a good look at me. Hurrying along, I made a beeline for a pair of doors at the opposite end of the room.

As I pushed my way through the doors, I heard one of the guards shout, “Hey, stop!”

When hell freezes over, pal, I thought. Ignoring the guards, I quickly ran off down the corridor and ducked through the first door on my left, only to find myself in the guards’ mess hall.

There was barely anybody there at the moment, just a dozen or so Royal guards and a couple of Lunar guards near the door. The Lunar guards glanced up at me as I entered, giving me some curious looks before returning to their card game.

I glanced quickly around the room, looking for a place to lay low, only to smile when I spotted three familiar faces sitting in the far corner of the room. Without missing a beat, I hurried over and collapsed upon the bench, my quesadilla nearly sliding off the plate in the process.

“What the─” Avera squawked as I sat down, nearly falling out of her seat in surprise. Upon seeing who it was, she calmed down and gave me a confused look. “Well, this is a surprise. Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here? I would have thought you’d be hanging out with Twilight.” Beside her, Ebony was eyeing my plate curiously, her nostrils flaring. Primrose just scooted over in order to give me room.

~What?~ I signed as I placed the plate on the table. ~I can’t have lunch with a few of my friends?~

Avera opened her mouth to reply, only to stop and glance over my shoulder with a look of confusion. Chancing a look as well, I saw a pair of Royal guards trotting over, their expressions stern. Shit!

Quickly turning back, I ducked my head down and started to eat my quesadilla, trying to look as innocent as possible. The first bite nearly burned my tongue, but I muscled through, enjoying the taste despite the heat.

“Excuse me, you four,” one of them spoke up, and I could feel their eyes boring into the back of my head. My body tensed and sweat started to drip down my brow.

“Can we help you, sergeant?” Ebony asked, cocking her head to the side. Avera was looking back and forth between me and the guards, her eyes dancing with mirth as a small smirk slowly grew on her face. Beside me, I felt Primrose shift slightly, lightly pressing her elbow against my side.

“We just came from the kitchen where apparently there was an issue involving this human and several of the cooks,” I heard the other one say. “We’re going to need him to come with us.”

Several cooks? There was only one! I paused in my eating when the soft ‘clink’ of chains came from behind me. The hell…?

“What─” Ebony began to say, her eyes widening, before Avera suddenly slammed her hooves on the table.

“Impossible!” she sneered, glaring over my shoulder. “It couldn’t have been him. He’s been with us the whole time!” I heard the clop of a hoof and assumed that one of the guards had taken a step back at the sudden anger.

“But…” the first one said, his voice sounding unsure.

“You did say that you just came from the kitchen,” Primrose spoke up, glancing over her shoulder at the pair, her red eyes narrowing, “and he’s been with us for nearly an hour. You do the math, sergeant, or do we need to get his owner involved?” I felt her tail slap my back, right over where Twilight’s cutie mark was.

A smirk crossed my face as I heard both guards swallow audibly. Hurray for abusing the power of friends in high places!

“I… I guess we may have been mistaken,” the first one muttered, sounding unsure of himself. “We’ll, uh… we’ll go look else where then.”

“You do that,” Primrose grunted as she turned back around. The guards hurried off, their hoofsteps fading as they exited the room.

There was a brief moment of silence before Ebony groaned loudly, her head thumping onto the table top.

“I can’t believe you two just did that,” she grumbled into the polished wood. “We’re in enough hot water as it is already!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Avera said nonchalantly, reaching forward and stealing a quesadilla slice off of my plate. “He’s been with us the whole time.” I glared at her with faux anger as she shoved the slice into her mouth. “Not bad,” she mumbled as she chewed. “A little too much cheese, in my opinion, but not bad.”

I finished chewing what was in my mouth before glancing around at them. ~Speaking of hot water, how are you guys doing?~

“Splendid,” Avera grunted through a mouthful of food as she glared at the table in front of her. “We’ve been relieved of duty until further notice pending an investigation into our actions while under your command. Until the investigation is over, we can’t leave the castle. Oh, and we also have these fun little things,” she said, motioning towards her sides.

Leaning forward, I saw that she was pointing towards a pair of bands that were wrapped around her wings, pinning them to her side. A quick glance at Primrose revealed that she had them too. Ebony, on the other hand, had a silver band around the base of her horn, which glowed a soft blue.

“Restraints,” Primrose growled, her wings twitching against the binds. “Avera and I can’t fly, and Ebony isn’t allowed to do magic until the investigation is over. For lack of a better term, we’re under house arrest.”

I swallowed thickly and stared down at the remainder of my quesadilla, my hunger temporarily forgotten. There was a tightness in my chest that made it difficult to breathe, and I nervously rubbed my hands together.

~I’m sorry~ I finally signed, not looking up.

“Beg pardon?” Primrose said, her ears perking as she glanced over at me in confusion.

~This is all my fault~ I signed. ~You’re all in trouble due to my stupid decisions~

“No,” Ebony said softly, raising her head from the table. “No, that’s not true. It’s not your fault.” I stared at her, and she cringed. “Okay, so it might be partially your fault, but it’s not like we blame you. We made several bad decisions as well. We’re in this together.”

~But you’re the ones being punished. Not me~

“Nothing to punish you for,” Primrose yawned, closing her eyes and leaning her head on a hoof. “You were our charge. We were responsible for you, not the other way around.”

Silence fell over the table as I fidgeted with my hands under the table.

~Do you regret it?~ I asked, glancing up at them through my bangs.

“Regret what?” Avera asked. “What we did?” At my nod, she paused, head cocked to the side as she considered it. After a few seconds, a small smile spread across her lips and she glanced back at me.

“Honestly,” she said, “if I was given the chance to go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.”

“It was about time for me to consider other careers anyways,” Primrose huffed, an ear twitching. “There’s only so long you can be a guard before it gets to be too much. Two hundred years seems like a decent service record, no?” I blinked in surprise at her words, but before I could ask, Ebony spoke up.

“While there are some things I would change,” she said, glancing over at Avera, who was helping herself to another slice of my quesadilla, “I wouldn’t change the majority of what we’ve did. Sure, there were some stupid times, but there were some fun ones as well.”

“You’re only saying that because you got a couple of barrels of Cinnamon Apple Cider out of it,” Avera snickered, strings of cheese dangling from her muzzle. A dopey smile appeared on Ebony’s face, and she sighed happily.

“Yeah, that stuff is unbelievably delicious,” she cooed, a faraway look in her eyes. “I’d sell out the nation for a lifetime supply of that stuff.”

“Don’t let Tempest hear you say that,” Primrose warned. “She’ll use it as more evidence against us.”

“Don’t worry, tall stuff,” Avera said as she licked her muzzle clean before giving me a big smile. “Everything will work out fine. You’ll see. And if it doesn’t… well, we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

~You don’t have a plan for if the worst happens?~ I ask, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Avera scoffed, waving a hoof at me. “Plans are overrated. I’d much rather do it the Max way.”

~”The Max way”?~

“Blunder blindly through everything without a care in the world,” Primrose replied with a smirk. I glared at her, but she just shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, don’t be mad. She’s right, you know. Improv is kinda fun, making everything up as you go along. How did you describe it earlier, Ebony?”

“Like laying the tracks down as fast as possible while the train is hurtling towards you,” came the reply, Ebony smiling softly.

“That’s it,” Primrose said, grinning good-humoredly.

I tried to hold back my smile, but couldn’t. Snorting softly, I laughed as I shook my head, mentally reminding myself again to talk to Celestia about them and their punishment. I wouldn’t let them go down without a fight.

“That’s enough talk of that, anyways,” Primrose said. Reaching down, she pulled a deck of cards out of the pouch strapped to her thigh.

“How about a nice game of cards?” she asked as she began to shuffle the deck. “Anypony up for Old Maid?”

“Yeah! Gotta win some of my bits back!” Avera grinned, finishing off the rest of the quesadilla before pushing the plate aside.

“Sure, I’m in,” Ebony said, rubbing at the band around her horn absentmindedly.

The four of us got comfortable as Primrose started to deal out the cards. I picked up my first card and looked at it.

It was the Joker.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite losing track of the time due in part to a couple of fierce games of Old Maid, I still managed to make it to the gardens before three o’clock.

The soft sound of birds chirping filled the air, accompanied by the gentle hum of insects. Trees were in bloom, cherry blossoms floating lazily on the wind. The stream was babbling away, and I could see fish swimming just beneath the surface, heading towards the nearby pond. Flowers covered the ground and hedges, blues and reds and yellows mixing with the earthy green. Vines crept out from beneath several rose bushes and onto the dirt path.

I didn’t see Twilight anywhere, so I assumed that I had arrived before her. Deciding to explore a little bit while I waited, I made my way slowly down the dirt path and enjoyed my surroundings.

Hummingbirds flitted from flower to flower, dipping their long noses into the center before flying to the next one. A curious one buzzed my head, nearly sticking its beak into my ear, but I dissuaded it with a gentle wave of my hand. It flew off without further fuss.

A trio of sparrows drifted by overhead. Glancing up at the avians, I watched them spin and twirl through the air before alighting on a branch of a nearby tree, chirping happily to one another.

I wandered aimlessly, slowly moving deeper into the gardens as I went where my feet took me. I had no real destination in mind; I was just killing time until Twilight showed up.

As I rounded a bend in the hedge, I blinked upon spotting the lone statue of Discord. He was still in the position I saw him in last: his tail beneath him like a chair, hind legs crossed in an relaxed manner. He smirked out at the world blindly through steepled fingers. Vines were starting to crawl up his pedestal and tail, and his head appeared to be covered in a thin layer of grime and bird droppings.

A smirk touching my lips, I strolled over to the petrified draconequus with a swagger in my step. Reaching up, I flicked the tip of his nose with my finger. A soft ‘tink’ echoed around the clearing as my fingernail met rock.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Deep beneath Canterlot, within a large cavern dug into the surrounding stone, magic pulsed, humming softly. It flared once, illuminating the surrounding area in a sickly-yellow glow before slowly dying again. Several dozen meters away, through solid rock, a human digger paused before continuing her digging, albeit at a quicker pace. Her unicorn handler’s ear twitched, a frown of confusion crossing the guard’s face. He scratched his horn, which had suddenly become itchy, before he shook his head and returned to his duty.

After all, the digging crew was nearing their destination. Only a couple more days and they would be at the source of the strange magic.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I sneered up into Discord’s frozen eyes.

How’s the view? I snickered, tapping his nose again. Hope you’re comfortable in there.

He didn’t answer, just stared forward into nothing, oblivious to the world around him.

Taking a step back, I gave Discord’s petrified body one last look over before turning and making my way back down the path, leaving the draconequus behind. A hawk fluttered down and rested upon one of his horn’s, tilting its head and watching me through a golden eye.

I headed back towards the pond, intent on finding a nice spot to rest beneath the blooming willow trees while I waited. Sticking my hands in my pockets, I hummed a soft tone as I walked.

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Lying flat beneath a large rosebush, Silent Blade eyed the human through the foliage, her yellow eyes unblinking. Beside her, her partner, Arsenic, was watching as well, his eyes narrowed, a small frown on his face. He shifted, wincing as a root dug into his stomach, before glancing sideways at her.

“Are you sure this is the human?” he asked, his voice a raspy whisper. He was a medium-sized earth pony, his fur a dark gray color that allowed him to blend into the shadows. His mane, trimmed short, was dyed black, as were his fetlocks. A black horseshoe was painted on his forehead, the signature mark of their order: the Blackhoofs.

Silent nodded her head.

“Yes,” she hissed, not taking her eyes off of the human as he walked through the garden. “He matches the description and has the princess’s mark on his back. It’s him.” Silent didn’t know what the human had done to warrant a killing, but that didn’t matter. Dark Spice had told the pair that the Archmage wanted him taken out, and that was enough for her. A loyal Blackhoof never questioned orders if they knew what was good for them.

The pair of assassins had been tracking the human for most of the day, ever since he had parted ways with Princess Celestia. However, much to Silent’s annoyance, they couldn’t seem to get an opportune moment to strike. There had been a maid outside of his room that would have heard the commotion, and while he was walking the hall, there always seemed to be at least one guard around the human at all times.

However, now that he had finally left the inside of the castle and was alone in the garden, this was their moment to strike.

Noiselessly reaching her hoof back, Silent grasped the handle of the knife she kept strapped to her lower back. It was a long, straight bladed dagger with a darkwood handle. A small ruby was embedded in the bottom of the handle, acting like a pommel.

The blade slid out of the sheath with a whisper, the steel glinting in the broken sunlight peaking through the wall of leaves. Beside her, Arsenic did the same, his blade tainted with his specially made cocktail mix of poison.

The pair slithered out of the bush, their hoofsteps silent in the grass. Sticking to the shadows, they crept along, following several dozen meters behind the human as he headed towards the nearby pond.

Silent grimaced in annoyance as they were suddenly faced with a flaw in their plan. The area between the pond and the garden was nothing but open space; no cover to allow them to hide. The human would notice them before they even got close enough to strike. She and Arsenic were forced to duck behind the last hedge in the row to avoid detection. Peering around the corner, the pair watched as the human settled down with his back against one of the many willow trees surrounding the pond, his feet dangling just above the water.

Silent’s ear twitched as she picked up the faint sound of humming coming from the human. He leaned against the tree, putting his hands behind his head.

A soft smile touched Silent’s lips. He suspected nothing. This was going to be an easy kill. The human would be dead and they would be long gone before anypony knew what had happened.

The human closed his eyes, clearly enjoying the spring day. Silent’s eyes widened. This is it.

Glancing over her shoulder, she nodded to Arsenic before making a soft clicking noise and pointing at the human. Her partner grinned wickedly around the knife handle in his mouth before nodding as well. Moving quickly, he stepped out from behind the hedge and faced the oblivious human.

One hundred feet separated him from his prey. He could easily run it before the human was even aware of his presence. The poor bastard wouldn’t know what hit him. The poison blade between his ribs would see to that.

Arsenic took a step forward, muscles tensing as he prepared to spring forward, only to have a blue blur suddenly slam into him, knocking him backwards through the air. His head whipped to the side due to the force of the collision, the knife knocked free. He crashed into the ground with a grunt as the air was forced from his lungs. Pain immediately flared through his shoulder.

Trying to ignore the pain, Arsenic quickly rolled over onto his stomach and stood up. He heard his attacker groan nearby, and hurriedly started to look for his knife. The throbbing pain in his shoulder was beginning to fade, replaced instead by a wet sensation, which slowly dripped down his foreleg. Confused, Arsenic turned his head and inspected his injured shoulder. His eyes widened in alarm as he saw his own knife sticking out of his shoulder blade, the blade sunk halfway into his flesh as blood flowed down his leg.

He had accidentally stabbed himself with his own poisoned blade!

As the cold, numbing sensation slowly began to spread through his body, Arsenic opened his mouth to cry out, but a hoof was shoved hard against his muzzle, silencing him and cracking several of his teeth in the process. His attacker pressed against his back, forcing him to the ground beneath their weight and keeping him pinned there. Arsenic tried to struggle, but he could already feel the poison going to work, his special blend of herbs and toxins causing his vision to begin to blur. His limbs weren’t listening to his brain anymore, and he could feel himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness. The pony on his back was hissing something in his ear, but the words were muffled and distorted; he couldn’t make out what was being said.

His eyelids, suddenly so heavy, slowly began to close against his will. He fought back briefly, but to no avail. The last thing to enter Arsenic mind before he slipped into the darkness forever was, What hit me?

…

Silent yelped as Arsenic suddenly went flying backwards, tackled by a blue blur of fur and feathers that fell out of the sky like a thunderbolt. What in Tartarus was that!?

Swearing explosively, she whirled around quickly, knife bared, in order to help her partner, only to freeze when a sharp whistle sounded behind her. That’s impossible! she screamed in her head. How the buck did somepony sneak up on her!? There had been nopony around, and she hadn’t heard anypony approaching.

Wheeling around quickly to deal with the new threat, she thrust her knife through the air, only to have it batted aside by a wing. The knife fell from her grasp, and before she had time to recover, the new pony spoke up.

“Ma’am.”

Stars exploded in front of Silent’s eyes as something hard slammed into the side of her head. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was a grinning gray muzzle, and a brilliant pair of blue eyes behind it.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I wasn’t sure how long I was sitting there waiting for Twilight, but I didn’t mind the delay. With the warm weather, cool shade, and pleasant breeze, as well as the birdsong in the background, I found myself in a very relaxed state. In fact, I was having difficulty in staying awake as I sat there, staring out across the calm waters of the pond.

I had just started to doze off when I heard my name shouted from a distance. Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I looked around. The shout came again and I glanced up, a smile crossing my face as I saw Twilight fluttering down towards the pond.

“There you are!” she chirped as she alit on the grass in front of me, a large smile on her face. She was practically brimming with excitement, her tail swishing back and forth energetically. She nuzzled my cheek happily, one of her ears flicking as she inhaled deeply.

“So, how did your meeting with the Doctor go?” she asked after pulling back.

~He’s kinda grabby~ I signed as I stood up, dusting my pants off. ~Talk about no concern for personal space~

“Oh, that’s nothing,” Twilight giggled, bouncing on the tips of her hooves. “You should have seen him in the weeks after the Changelings Invasion. There was a lot of guards complaining that he was sticking probes in places where probes should never go.”

I grimaced, suddenly glad that all he did was try and pry my jaw off.

~So, anyways, what’s up?~ I asked the bouncing mare. ~Why’d you want me to meet you here? You note was kinda vague~

Twilight began to fidget, her ears splaying sideways as a small blush touched her face.

“W-well, you see… it wasn’t that I wanted to meet you in this exact spot. It’s just the first place that came to mind that we could meet up for─” she paused, scuffing at the ground with a hoof “─you know what? I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Hang on a second.”

I gave her a confused look, only to yelp as her horn suddenly lit up and the world dissolved into white. A feeling of weightlessness came over me, followed by the feeling of nausea as my stomach threatened to regurgitate my lunch. Just as suddenly as it had come, the feeling left and the whiteness faded away as the world returned.

I blinked in surprise, looking around at our new location. Twilight had teleported us into a small, carpeted room. A round table sat in the middle of the room, a large couch wrapping around it in a semicircle along the back wall. The walls were plain, and a small glass chandelier hung from the ceiling above the table. There were no windows, but there was a door.

~Where are we?~ I asked, glancing around the room.

“We’re in one of the private rooms just off of the main ballroom,” Twilight answered, her wings fluttering nervously by her side. She chewed on her bottom lip, unable to look me in the eye. “Um, c-could… could you stay here for a second while I make sure everything is set?”

Pulling my gaze from the chandelier, I turned to look at her, tilting my head slightly to the right to get a better look.

~Make sure what’s set?~ I asked. ~What are you planning?~

“It’s a surprise,” Twilight repeated as she backed up towards the door, giving me a weak smile. “Just… just stay in here until I call you, okay?”

I eyed her for a few more seconds─my brow furrowed─before sighing and nodding my head.

Twilight’s smile grew, her ears perking up.

“Excellent,” she said, opening the door. “I’ll just be a moment!” With that, she slipped out, closing the door behind her with a soft ‘click’.

I waited for a few seconds before walking over and pressing my ear against the door. I could just barely make out the muffled sound of voices on the other side, although I couldn’t hear what was being said or by whom. It sounded like two ponies, though.

Pulling myself away from the door, I scratched at my beard in contemplation. What are you up to, Twilight? I eyed the closed door for a few more seconds before deciding that whatever it was, it couldn’t be all that bad.

Moving over to the couch, I flopped down on it and waited.

I wasn’t kept waiting long. After about five minutes of silence, the door was suddenly surrounded by a rosey aura, and it cracked open. From the other side, I heard Twilight call nervously, “O-okay, you can come out now.”

Upon exiting the room, I found myself in a massive ballroom; the same one that the gala had been held in. Thin, purple curtains had been pulled over the windows, and the light bleeding through cast the entire room in a lavender haze. The lights far above had been dimmed, keeping the room in a nice state of semi-darkness. Between the lights and the covered windows there was just enough light to see by, but not enough to take away from the atmosphere.

The ballroom was almost completely bare; no tables or chairs present anywhere within. Instead, a large, velvet carpet had been spread out across the marble floor, with handfuls of rose petals scattered about. The sweet scent of lilacs reached my nose, as well as a hint of raspberry.

And there, standing in the center of all of this, with a light blush on her face, was Twilight.

I had to do a double take when I finally saw her: she was breathtaking. She had on a lavender saddle—a few shades lighter than her coat—that had decorative frills extending out, over her croup. There was a matching choker around her neck. A bow rested behind her left ear, a white rose accenting the piece. White beads hung from the bow, traveling up to wrap delicately around her horn. Her cheeks had a subtle touch of rouge on them, and her eyes were accented by a some mascara.

She fidgeted under my gaze, her blush growing stronger.

“D-do you like it?” she asked, lowering her head slightly. “I’ve never really done something like this, at least, not without Rarity’s help. I hope it’s not too much.”

Closing my mouth—which had fallen open—with an audible ‘click’, I waved my arms at her before managing to sign, ~You… you look gorgeous!~

This caused her face to go bright red, and her ears splayed off to the sides.

“R-really?” she asked, looking at me through her bangs.

~Yeah, I just… I…~

Wow, I have no words for this, I thought as I continued to stare wide-eyed at her.

~You look amazing~ I finally managed to sign. Glancing down at my clothing, I laughed softly. ~I feel a little underdressed now~

“Oh, you didn’t need to dress up,” Twilight said, rubbing a hoof against the carpet. “This is more of a surprise for you, and also something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.” Upon seeing my confused look, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steadying her nerves.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and gave me a warm—if somewhat nervous—smile. Bowing her head, she flared her wings slightly before asking, “May I have this dance?”

The minute the words left her lips, soft music began to play to my right. Glancing around, I blinked in surprise when I saw Octavia standing on the stage, a large cello in her hooves and a soft smile on her face.

“She asked for my help putting this together,” she said as she continued to play softly. “Can’t dance without music. I was more than happy to help. Besides, now you owe me a favor. We’ll discuss that at a different time, though. For now, I’m not the pony you’re suppose to be paying attention to.” She nodded her head towards Twilight, who was still waiting for my answer.

Glancing down at Twilight, I signed, ~I can’t dance~

“That’s okay,” she replied, her smile not fading. “I can’t really either. We’ll figure it out together.”

~In that case~ I said, returning her smile, ~I’d be more than happy to dance with you~

Twilight’s face lit up, and she ‘squee’d softly before composing herself. Walking over to me, she flared her wings before standing up on her hind legs, and wrapping her forelegs around my neck. I placed my hands on her barrel in order to stabilize her. In the position, she was almost the same height as me, her muzzle just a few inches shy of reaching my cheek.

We started off shaky at first, and there was several times that Twilight nearly stumbled, not used to being just on her hind hooves. However, we soon managed to develop a rhyme to our dancing, the position allowing her to rest most of her upper-body weight upon my chest and shoulders. With that, it became a simple matter of making sure she didn’t step on my feet with her hooves.

Octavia was very patient as we struggled to become familiar with the movements, playing the music slower in order to accommodate us, as well as pausing whenever Twilight stumbled or I misstepped. As we became more in tune with one another, she gradually began to increase the tempo to a more reasonable pace. Soon enough, she was playing normally as we danced along.

The sweet sound of the cello filled the air as Twilight and I swayed back and forth. No fancy stepping, no intricate dance moves. Just a simple to-and-fro motion as we held each other, slowly turning in a circle.

As we danced, I stared into her eyes. They seemed to sparkle in the low light, and I found myself slowly become lost in her lavender irises. She was staring back at me, both of her eyes focused on my one good one.

The world slowly faded away as the music continued to play, until it was just us; just me and Twilight. Nothing else mattered in the moment. The entire world could have been crumbling down around us, and we probably wouldn’t have noticed, lost as we were in each others gazes.

Twilight’s wings slowly wrapped around me, holding me close to her as she placed her head upon my shoulder, the faint scent of lavender filling my senses. I could feel her heart beat against my chest, and her breath tickled my ear every time she exhaled. I ran a hand softly down her back, and she shivered.

Seconds, minutes, hours; I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but Octavia played dutifully on, never missing a beat. One song flowed into another as Twilight and I lost ourselves in the moment.

I’m not sure which of us stopped moving first, but eventually we stopped dancing and just stood there, enjoying the others embrace. The music slowly trailed off as Octavia finished up the last song, and a peaceful silence descended upon the room.

I felt Twilight's grip around my neck tighten slightly, and she nuzzled my cheek. The feeling of damp fur upon my face concerned me for a moment, until she whispered in my ear, “Thank you.” As she pulled away, I saw that she had a big smile on her face, as well as tears in her eyes.

“Thank you,” she repeated a little louder as she rubbed at her eyes with a hoof.

“I must say,” Octavia spoke up , her voice soft, “you two make a fine couple. It always warms my heart to see young love.” As she placed her cello back in the case, she shot us a warm smile.

“‘Young love’,” Twilight chuckled as she finished wiping her eyes. “Come on, Ms. Octavia. You aren’t that much older than me.”

“I’m older than you think, Princess Sparkle,” she replied, her smile turning into a smirk. “Anyways, don’t you have something else you want to do with your mate?” She nodded towards me as she spoke, closing her case and locking it.

Twilight looked confused for a second, but then her eyes lit up.

“Oh yeah!” she chirped. Turning to look up at me, she smiled. “I asked the kitchen staff to prepare us a nice, relaxing dinner for this evening. I was thinking we could take it up to the observatory and watch the sunset, as well as stargaze a little. What do you think?”

~That sounds wonderful~ I signed with a smile.

Dancing on her hooves excitedly, Twilight giggled before darting towards the door. Halfway to it, she stopped and glanced back over her shoulder, giving me an expectant look.

I just chuckled and made to follow her, but paused when Octavia spoke up behind me, “I’m sorry to intrude on your date, but if I may have a word with your mate.” I glanced over my shoulder to see her giving Twilight a questioning look.

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Oh, um… I guess?” She gave me a confused look before shrugging. “I’ll just wait outside then. Please don’t take too long, though.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t keep him long,” Octavia called after her as she exited the ballroom. “I just have a quick thing to discuss.” As the door closed, she turned her attention to me.

“She is rather smitten by you. You do realize that, don’t you?” she said. “She was nearly out of breath when she showed up on our doorstep this morning, begging for help in making this date possible. You’re very lucky.”

I nodded in agreement, having nothing to write on.

“That’s not the reason I wanted to speak to you, however,” she continued, her smile fading. She suddenly became serious, staring up at me with a cool, neutral expression on her face.

She was silent for several seconds before saying, “Vinyl wishes to speak with you, in person. She requests that you meet her tomorrow, four o’clock, at the Mystic Melody Club on High Stable road, in Canterlot. She asks that you don’t be late.”

With that, she turned and, picking up her cello case, trotted off, leaving me standing there, confused and bewildered. I watched as she exited out a side door to the ballroom. It wasn’t until the door closed behind her that I moved to follow Twilight, all while wondering what Vinyl wanted.

But, that was a concern for later. Right now, I had a date to attend to.

Chapter 53: ...What the Mind Doesn't

The trip up to the observatory was shorter than I expected it to be.

Originally, I was a little put off by how many stairs there were. It looked like a long climb, and, while I was looking forward to enjoying a nice meal with Twilight, I was not looking forward to climbing up that behemoth of a staircase. Especially considering that the stairs were on the outside of the building, with only a metal handrail between me and a good several hundred meter drop.

To Twilight, who had wings, it didn’t look that bad. But to me, well…

Luckily, I was saved the long and perilous journey by Twilight, who revealed a service elevator that ran all the way to the main observatory. It was a small thing, hidden beneath the stairs, and had Twilight not pointed it out, I would have missed it completely.

~How did you even know this was here?~ I asked as the lift ‘clunk-clunk-clunk’ed its way loudly up the elevator shaft.

“I discovered it about a year after I became Princess Celestia’s student and moved to the palace,” Twilight said, examining her face in the steel of the lift’s control. “I didn’t have many friends, and I spent most nights up here, observing the stars. I got tired of climbing up all the stairs, so I started looking for an easier way. I caught one of the servants exiting it one night, and have been using it ever since.”

~Well, it’s certainly beats the stairs~ I signed, glancing up through the bars of the lift’s ceiling. Through them, I could see an indication of light, which grew larger as we drew nearer the top.

The gates ground open with a loud, rusty ‘creak’ as we reached our destination. Stepping out, I couldn’t stop my jaw from falling open as I took in the sight before me. The room was huge, the curved ceiling high, high above us. Several bookshelves lined the outer walls, stuffed full of books and scrolls. Several stained glass globes of various sizes were scattered around the room; some resting on stands, others hanging from fixtures on the walls and ceilings. Soft lights within them caused them to glow. A large telescope rested in the center of the room, pointed towards a moveable gap in the iron ceiling through which the last dying rays of sun streamed through.

Twilight giggled at my awed expression, my head craned back as I tried to take it all in.

“Amazing, isn’t it,” she said as she moved further into the observatory. Despite speaking in little more than a whisper, her voice seemed to echo around the room.

Reaching a set of controls, she fiddled with them for a brief moment before a loud grinding sound filled the air, causing the floor beneath me to vibrate. As I watched, the gap in the iron ceiling began to grow as the metal sheets retracted, revealing the sky above.

It was a breath-taking sight: the orange of the setting sun mixing with the purples of the twilight sky. Stars were already beginning to appear, twinkling brightly against the inky backdrop. As the sun continued to sink further beneath the horizon, more stars began to appear until a veritable sea of sparkling dots filled the sky, which had taken on a rich, dark royal blue color.

It was several moments before I could look away from the sight above me. Tearing my eyes from the night sky, I looked to where Twilight was headed. It appeared that someone had already been up here before us and had unrolled a small blanket beside the telescope’s stand. A small trolley sat beside the blanket, and Twilight was already moving the food from the trolley to the blanket.

When she caught me watching her, she blushed but smiled and motioned me over.

“Come on,” she said softly. “This food isn’t going to eat itself.”

As I moved to sit beside her, she started to take the tops off of the trays, revealing the food. There was a large bowl of salad with slices of tomatoes, carrots, nuts, raisins, and cucumbers mixed in, and a thin layer of shredded parmesan cheese covering the top. Another bowl contained pasta carbonara, which was steaming, bits of chopped celery and tomatoes mixed in with the seasoned noodles. There was a smaller tray that contained both a small bowl of strawberries, as well as a bowl of what looked like melted chocolate. A bucket containing a chilled bottle of wine rested beneath the trolley, as well as a pair of glasses.

~This all looks amazing~ I signed, my mouth already starting to water.

“Sorry for the lack of meat,” Twilight apologized as she started to serve herself some of the salad. “I wanted to get you something special, but the Griffon ambassador visited recently and she finished off what little supply the kitchen staff had, and they haven’t been able to restock yet.”

~That’s alright, I don’t mind~ I signed before accepting a bowl of my own. Placing it in my lap, I continued, ~I have to ask, how did you convince the kitchen staff to make all of this?~

“I just walked in and asked them to make a nice, private dinner for two, and they got right on it,” she said, taking a dainty bit of salad. “It helps that I’m a princess, although I think I might have started a couple of rumors in the process.”

Pausing with a fork of noodles in my mouth, I signed, ~Rumors?~

Twilight giggled, a small blush appearing on her face.

“Well, it is estrus week after all,” she said before motioning at the spread before us. “A Princess of Equestria walks into the kitchens and asks the staff to prepare a meal like this? That can only mean she’s meeting with somepony special. I had several of the mares asking me who the lucky stallion was. I naturally didn’t tell them anything, so I’m sure that, come morning, there will be several rumors in the works about who I’m dating.”

I laughed softly as I chewed the food in my mouth, only to pause when a thought entered my head. Swallowing the food, I gave Twilight an uneasy look.

“What?” she asked, her fork halfway to her mouth. “What’s wrong?”

~Remember how strong your scent was on me the other day?~ I asked. When I got a nod from her, I continued, ~Well, I’m pretty sure half the staff could smell it. Doesn’t that mean that they’ll put two and two together?~

“I suppose so,” Twilight hummed as she poured herself a glass of wine.

~But that means they’ll find out that you’re courting a human, no?~ I asked. ~What if word gets out?~

Twilight snorted, bring the glass of wine up to her lips and taking a small sip.

“If they find out, they find out. It doesn’t matter to me,” she said. One of her wings unfurled and she placed it against my back before scooting closer to me. “I’m not ashamed of it,” she added before taking another bite from her salad.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye for a few more seconds before a small smile crossed my face. Sighing contently, I returned my attention back to my meal as well.

The food was delicious: the salad fresh and crispy, and the pasta expertly made. Much to my disappointment, both seemed to disappear faster than I would have liked. We didn’t say much as we ate; both of us were content simply enjoying each other’s company and staring up at the star-filled sky above us. Twilight giggled when I somehow got noodles stuck to the bridge of my nose, only to go cross-eyed when I balanced a carrot on her muzzle. I half-heartedly defended my food from her attempts to steal it once she was finished with her own. The triumphant look on her face as she finished off my bowl of carbonara was too cute.

By time the salad and pasta were gone, we had both managed to finish off half of the bottle of wine between us. I was feeling a little buzzed, and by the look of Twilight’s flushed face, she was in the same boat as me. We leaned against one another, Twilight’s tail wrapped loosely around my waist.

Placing my glass of wine on the ground, I reached instead for the bowl of strawberries. Twilight watched me curiously as I picked through the fruit, looking for a good one. While some did have a few spots or bruises, most of them were high quality.

Upon finding a tasty-looking one, I dipped it in the melted chocolate. I allowed the excess to drip back into the bowl before holding it out for Twilight. When she reached out to grab it with a hoof, I pulled it away. Upon seeing her confused look, I smiled softly and opened my mouth. She stared at me for a few seconds before her ears suddenly perked up and a bright blush spread across her face.

Keeping her gaze locked with mine, she leaned forward tentatively and opened her mouth. I placed the strawberry on her tongue, holding the stem as she bit into it. She chewed the treat slowly, savoring the taste.

I reached for another, but paused when a rosy aura surrounded one. It lifted into the air before being dipped into the chocolate. Twilight offered the chocolate-covered strawberry to me, a small smile on her face as her horn glowed softly in the light of the moon.

I returned the smile before opening my mouth for her.

Eyes lighting up happily, she levitated the strawberry into my mouth. The wine appeared to be affecting her aim though, as she smeared some chocolate against my face in the process.

“Oops, sorry,” she said with a wince, putting a hoof to her lips.

~It’s fine~ I signed, picking up a nearby napkin. However, before I could use it, Twilight darted forward and quickly lapped the chocolate off with her tongue. I just sat there, gaping at her as she licked her lips.

“Mmmm, chocolatey,” she hummed. Upon seeing me staring at her, she blushed, her wings fluffy by her sides. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”

Still staring at her, I reached down and dragged my finger through the chocolate. With one deft movement, I quickly bopped her on the nose, leaving behind a dollop of chocolate. She stared at it for several seconds, slightly cross-eyed, before trying to lick it off.

We slowly worked our way through the bowl of strawberries, applying liberal amounts of chocolate to each one. Whenever I got any of the sweet substance on my fingers, Twilight was quick to lick it off, using her hooves instead of her magic to bring my hand to her mouth. I returned the favor, usually cleaning up any chocolate that ended up on her lips or cheeks. This continued on for several minutes until both bowls were empty.

Stacking the dishes together, Twilight used her magic to put all the empty dishes onto the nearby trolley before proceeding to push the loaded trolley into a nearby corner, out of the way. With dinner over, we both leaned against the base of the telescope, gazing up at the night sky above us. The few clouds in the sky seemed to glow softly in the moonlight as they drifted lazily on the wind.

Twilight leaned against me as she refilled her recently emptied glass, her head resting on my shoulder.

“Did you know that Celestia can drink an entire bottle of wine without batting an eye?” she asked. “She’s so large and her metabolism is so high that it takes several bottles to even get her tipsy.” She giggled, handing me the bottle. “I’ll be able to do the same when I’m the same size as her.”

I don’t know why, but this caused me to snicker as I allowed her to refill my glass as well. She moved to put the bottle back beside her, but I quickly grabbed it out of her magic. Putting the cork back in, I placed it off to the side.

~I think we’ve had enough~ I signed, careful to not spill my wine. ~Don’t want to get too tipsy~

“You know, it’s kinda hard to understand you when you sign with something in your hands,” Twilight complained, blinking owlishly at me. “You’re probably right,” she continued after I put my glass down and signed again. “When it comes to holding alcohol, I’m not Applejack.”

The conversation came to a sudden stop as a flash of light lit up the darkness, followed by another, and then another. Glancing up, we both watched with open mouths as multiple shooting stars began to streak across the sky. We could only watch in awe as more and more began to zip by, dozens of falling stars cascading down to earth.

As the breath-taking display continued, Twilight’s smile slowly faded. Tearing her gaze from the stars, she glanced up at me.

“I know I’ve said it before,” she said, her voice soft, “but thanks. For all of this. I realize that this relationship might have had a rough start─” she blushed, her ears splaying back “─but you don’t know how much it means to me that you’re willing to give me a chance.”

Looking down at her, I smiled before reaching an arm over her shoulder and pulling her close. I gave her shoulder a soft squeeze before returning my attention to the meteor shower. Taking another sip of wine, I gave a content sigh as Twilight leaned against me, humming happily.

Above us, the stars kept tumbling down.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was some time later when we finally got back to our room. We had decided to stay in the observatory until the meteor shower had ended, neither of us wanting to leave during such a beautiful display. However, it appeared that—according to Twilight—Luna was outdoing herself, as the shower lasted for nearly half-an-hour. Even after the main event died down, several stray shooting stars continued to wink into existence. By the time everything had calmed down, it was nearly midnight.

It was dark in the room, the only light coming from the full moon outside. The moonlight streamed through the open balcony doors, a gentle breeze wafting in and causing the curtains to sway. A faint scent of roses was in the air, and it took me a second to realize that a maid had come through at some point and cleaned the room. However, they had left Twilight’s note on the bedside table, as well as her feathers.

Closing the door behind me, I watched as Twilight danced lightly around the room, humming happily to herself. Her cheeks were flushed red, and she swayed back-and-forth a little tipsily.

~You definitely had too much to drink~ I signed as I moved into the room.

“I’m not drunk,” Twilight scoffed, rolling her eyes. Her horn glowed softly in the darkness as she began to remove the decorative beads and bow, placing them the nearby dresser. “I’m just happy with how the date went,” she continued as she began to unbuckle the saddle. She paused mid-way through, turning to look at it over her shoulders.

“Was the saddle a bit much?” she asked, turning her head to the other side as she studied the saddle. “I don’t usually wear them, but it’s surprisingly comfortable. I wouldn’t mind wearing it more often.”

~I liked it~ I signed, cocking my head to the side. ~It’s pretty, and it goes well with your coat. I wouldn’t know if it’s a bit much, though. Where I come from, the only saddles we really have were meant for beasts of burden~

“Yeah, Rarity mentioned something about that during Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Twilight said, the flush on her cheeks darkening. Her tail flicked back and forth, and her ear twitched. She gave the saddle one last look over before removing it and placing it on top of the dresser as well.

~I don’t remember that conversation~

“It was when you were off getting ponified,” Twilight explained as she stretched her wings. She yawned, her tongue poking out in a cute manner before she smacked her lips, blinking owlishly. “Excuse me.”

~Ah, that would explain it then~ I signed before reaching down and pulling my shirt over my head and tossing it onto the couch. Rubbing the scar on my chest absentmindedly, I suppressed a yawn of my own before pulling back the covers and flopping down upon the bed. There were fresh sheets upon it and I allowed myself to slowly sink into their embrace with a happy hum.

Twilight watched me from her position by the dresser, giggling at my antics.

“That comfortable, huh?” she asked.

Not wanting to move my limbs to sign, I settled for nodding my head instead. It felt like I was floating on a cloud. Actually, now that I think about it… what does a cloud feel like? Maybe I can get Rainbow to fly me up to one sometime—

“In that case,” Twilight said, snapping me out of my thoughts. Her horn flared and she disappeared, only to reappear above me in a flash of light.

“I’m coming in!” she squealed happily as she dropped through the air towards the bed below. However, before she could land, I reached up and grabbed her out of mid-air. She squealed again—this time in surprise—as I wrapped my arms around her barrel and held her against my chest. Her fur was warm and soft against my bare skin, and the feeling caused me to shiver.

“Hey!” she cried, trying to be indignant but smiling nonetheless.

I smiled as well before leaning down and kissing her upon her nose, causing her to go cross-eyed as she scrunched up her muzzle. I laughed softly before moving to kiss her again, only this time she intercepted the kiss with one of her own. Her chest vibrated as she hummed into the kiss.

“That never gets old,” she sighed when we broke apart.

Without breaking my hold on her, I maneuvered my feet beneath the blankets and kicked them up, trying to cover myself and Twilight. It may have been late spring, but it could still get kinda chilly at night, especially at the altitude that Canterlot was at. Unfortunately, due to Twilight lying on me, I was only able to get the blankets up to about my waist.

Twilight giggled at my failed attempts to cover us. She wiggled around, maneuvering herself until her back was pressed against my chest instead, her forelegs draped over my arms. Her wings twitched against my stomach, her feathers tickling my skin. Reaching down, she pulled the covers up the rest of the way.

“That’s better,” she cooed before snuggling down against my chest. I felt her tail brush against my legs, flicking back-and-forth beneath the sheets. “Mmmm, you’re warm,” she sighed, laying her head back against my shoulder.

Smiling, I began to run my hand through the fur on Twilight’s chest, rubbing in slow circles. I could feel the gentle beat of her heart, thumping away in her chest.

She murmured softly as I continued to drag my fingers through her fur, lazily petting my arm with a hoof. Her eyes slowly closed and she practically melted into my arms.

The look on her face was too cute, and I continued petting her, rubbing my hands through her fur and massaging her belly. Her tail continued to flick beneath the sheets, and her hind legs would twitch whenever I hit a particularly sensitive spot. I could feel her wings flexing against my chest as well, the flight muscles twitching and spasming.

This continued until I moved my hand lower and dug my fingers into her stomach, scratching with a little more force. This caused her to moan softly, and her hips flexed. I felt her tail move, and her hips flexed again. Twilight moaned again, louder this time, before freezing, her eyes shooting open and ears perking up.

~Enjoying this?~ I signed with a smirk, keeping my arms around her.

She flushed, lowering her head as she squeaked in embarrassment. Her tail flicked again and I suddenly became aware of a damp sensation against my leg.

I paused, blinking in confusion before signing, ~Are you…?~ I trailed off, unsure of how best to word it.

Twilight nodded, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red.

“Yes,” she muttered weakly, and I could feel her hips shift beneath the blankets again. “I… I’m still in heat, and the dancing, the star-watching, and now this… I can’t help it,” she whined, covering her face with her hooves. Her tail flicked once more and the damp sensation grew.

Twilight winced. “S-sorry, I… I’ll go take care of it and then we can go to sleep. Just give me a second.”

She moved to get up, but I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her back.

“W-what are you—” she began, but the words quickly dissolved into a moan as I ran my hand along her stomach again.

Tracing a finger around her navel, I couldn’t help but smirk at the noise she was making; the cooing and whimpers coming from her were not only cute, but slightly arousing as well. She squirmed in my arms as I continued to trace around her stomach, slowly working my way lower.

“W-wait,” she stammered, trying and failing to grab a hold of my hand. “You d-don’t have to do this. I c-can go take care of it myself.” She whined weakly when I paused my ministrations, her ears drooping.

I smiled softly.

~I know~ I signed, before I returned my hand back to her navel. I lightly traced around it one last time before slowly sliding my hand downwards.

Twilight gasped, her eyes widening as I pinched one of her teats gingerly in between my fingers. I tugged on it gently before massaging the small mound of flesh. This earned me a low groan from Twilight as she bucked her hips in need, her tail flicking back and forth feverishly beneath the blankets. Her horn lit up, and a rosy band of magic surrounded my wrist, forcibly tugging my hand downwards.

I flinched as her magic pulled on my wrist. This caused Twilight’s body to tense, and she gasped. Her magic died instantly.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered. She swallowed, her ears flattening against her head. “I didn’t mean… I just…the teasing...” Her words trailed off as my hand suddenly—teasingly—continued its journey south.

I continued until my hand came in contact with something wet. Twilight hissed, her back arching as her wings pushed into my chest. Running my fingertips over her moist folds, I marveled at the heat emanating from her marehood. I felt the base of her tail raise slightly, and she squirmed in my arms.

As I continued to tease her lips, she continued to squirm more and more until suddenly I felt her wink against me, her clit pressing against the palm of my hand. This caused her to cry out, squeezing my arm with her forelegs. I could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She winked again, a deep, throaty moan escaping her lips as her sensitive nub rubbed against the rough skin of my hand.

I paused, allowing her to catch her breath, before continuing to rub her outer folds.

She bucked her hips and huffed loudly, clearly getting annoyed. Tilting her head, she glared up at me, the effect of her look lost due to the deep-red blush on her cheeks.

I think I’ve teased her long enough, I thought just as she opened her mouth.

“S-stop teas—aaaAAAAH!” She cried out as I slowly sunk first one, then two fingers into her inflamed marehood. Her body tensed again, and she closed her eyes, biting her bottom lip. As my fingers sunk deeper into her heated depths, her head fell back onto my shoulders and she moaned through her teeth. “Yesssss…”

I could feel her inner muscles clenching, squeezing my fingers as I explored her confines. She moaned, wiggling her hips to try and get me to go a little deeper. I smirked, keeping a steady pace as I softly pulled and pushed my fingers in and out. The cute moans and squeaks that she was making caused my member to twitch against her.

“Is… is t-that for me?” Twilight asked, trying to sound seductive, but coming off timid.

I growled softly before leaning forward and bite down gently on one of her ears. As I did so, I increased my speed, curling my fingers up into her and digging at the sensitive flesh. This caused Twilight to gasp, and her free ear flicked.

“What did I do to deserve you?” she breathed.

Unable to answer, I just nibbled on her ear, prompting her to writhe about. Digging my fingers a little deeper into her folds, I reached down with my free hand and began to tease one of her teats. Her breath caught in her throat, and I felt her marehood tighten. She winked, and I rubbed my thumb against her clit, causing her to clench around my fingers again.

This continued for almost a minute until she managed to find her voice.

“Please,” she whimpered, grabbing my arm weakly with her forehooves, “please, no more teasing. I need you inside me.”

Reluctantly, I pulled my fingers from her marehood with a soft ‘schlink’, the digits wet with her arousal. Before I could do anything else, Twilight quick grabbed my hand in her hooves and brought it up to her muzzle. She suckled on them, her tongue dancing across my skin as she lapped up her own juices. The sight and feeling of her licking my fingers caused my member to throb and I couldn’t help but groan.

Twilight ground her rump against my length as she finished cleaning off my fingers. Her horn lit up and there was a flash of light from beneath the blanket. The sudden feeling of sheets against my bare legs caused me to realize that Twilight had removed my pants with her magic.

Her tail brushed against my bare skin, and I shivered as the soft hairs dragged along my length. She ground her hips into my lap again, and I hissed as I felt her wet marehood rub against me. She winked, her clit grinding against my member as both of us grunted in pleasure.

Gingerly, I pulled my fingers from her mouth, her tongue following doggedly after the retreating digits. She pressed her dripping sex harder against mine, and I groaned in response. I could feel her heated arousal covering my length, making it slick.

“Please,” Twilight moaned again as she continued to rub against me.

Holding her in my arms, I turned us so that we were both lying sideways. Twilight slid forwards slightly until my tip brushed against her opening. She paused but for a moment before—with a hiss of triumph—she slid back, my member slipping into her depths.

We both groaned as I sank into her folds, my grip on her tightening slightly at the sudden heat that surrounded my member. Inch by inch, I pushed myself deeper into her core until, after what felt like ages, I bottomed out inside of her. For a brief moment we just lay there, breathing heavily as we both enjoyed the sensation. I could feel her inner muscles gripping and milking my length, causing me to twitch in response. I couldn’t help but squeeze her tighter against me, her warm fur brushing against my bare skin. The smell of lavender filled my senses.

Running a hand down her stomach, I nibbled her ear again. Twilight gasped, her marehood squeezing on my intruding girth before she leaned her head back and breathed in my ear. “Thrust for me.”

I complied.

Pulling back until just my tip was inside of her, I then pushed myself forward, slowly plunging back into her depths. I gave off a little growl of happiness, which—surprisingly—Twilight returned.

Unlike last time, in which Twilight had set a frenzied pace, I took my time, each one of my thrusts slow and gentle. Every time I pulled out, Twilight’s confines clenched my member, trying to prevent me from leaving her. As I pushed in, she gasped, her folds parting to allow me to sink into her heated flesh.

Before long, I had a steady pace going. As I worked, I rubbed my hands up and down her stomach, occasionally slipping them down to play with her breasts. Whenever I did so, her marehood would tighten, and she would make the cutest squeaking noise.

Despite my steady, even pace, I could feel myself gradually getting closer to finishing. I slowly began to increase my speed as I grew nearer and nearer to peaking.

“Ah… ah... ah...” Twilight gasped in time with my thrusts, her tongue lolling from her mouth. Her hips pushed back to meet my thrusts, a wet ‘schlink’ing sound filling the air over the sounds of our panting and grunting. I could feel her fluids dripping down my leg, accumulating on the sheets beneath us, but I didn’t care. All that mattered at the moment was the mare in my arms, and the closeness we were sharing.

“...’m close,” Twilight muttered, her tail wrapping around my leg.

Releasing her breast, I wrapped my arms around her before increasing my pace again. I grunted as the head of my member dragged against her moist flesh, the feeling causing it to twitch and jerk as it strained for release. The odor of sweat and musk filled the room, only to be dissipated by the breeze coming from the open balcony doors.

“A little more,” Twilight grunted, her body tensing. “I’m… I’m gonna…”

The pressure in my groin was growing closer to the point of release, and I gritted my teeth as I tried to hold out for as long as possible. My next thrust reward me with a burst of fluid bathing my legs and crotch. Twilight gasped before craning her head back and shoving her muzzle into the crook of my neck. She inhaled deeply, a deep, resonating hum coming from her chest.

“...mine,” she exhaled, her warm breath washing across my throat. She then tilted her head slightly and pushed her lips against mine, pulling me into a deep kiss.

That was the breaking point.

Giving one last thrust, I buried myself deep within her depths. Waves of pleasure raced through my body as I erupted inside of her. My member twitched and pulsed as it pushed burst after burst of hot seed deep into her core.

Twilight’s body tensed as I came, and she broke the kiss with a gasp. Throwing her head back, she cried out wordlessly as her confines started to clench and squeeze at my length, milking it for all they were worth. Back arched as she climaxed, her cheek rubbed against mine as we were both lost within the throes of passion. Her horn glowed brightly for a brief moment, bathing the entire room in a warm, lavender light before slowly fading.

For several minutes we just laid there, breathing heavily as we basked in the afterglow of our lovemaking. I held Twilight close, my arms wrapped gently around her barrel as we spooned. I could feel her chest rise and fall with each breath, as well as her heart beating away. Her heart rate slowly calmed down as her breathing returned to normal.

A soft breeze blew in from the open balcony doors, flowing gently over my skin. I shivered, suddenly aware of the fact that I was sweaty, and judging by the dampness of Twilight’s fur, she was as well. It didn’t matter, though. I just pulled Twilight closer, and she snuggled up against me, humming weakly. Her tail was still wrapped around my leg.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know?” she asked, sounding tired. “I could have just gone and taken care of myself.”

~I know~ I signed, keeping my arms around her.

She blinked owlishly at me before a small smile spread across her muzzle. Tilting her head back, she gave my cheek a gentle nuzzle. “Thank you. It was nice.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but yawned instead.

“I didn’t realize I was that tired,” she said, fighting to keep her eyes open. As her eyes continued to droop, she snuggled into my arms and sighed contently.

“Thank you so much for today,” she mumbled, resting her head on my shoulder, her breath tickling my ear. “You don’t know how much I appreciate it.”

I smiled before leaning down and kissing her gently on the forehead, just below the horn. She hummed happily, her eyes fluttering before they closed. A few seconds later, Twilight was asleep, cuddled up on top of my chest.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several hours later found me still awake, staring up at the ceiling above. Sleep was eluding me, and, even though I was tired, I just couldn’t fall asleep. My mind was a mess of thoughts, some good, some useless. I tried to calm myself down, but whenever I managed to finally clear my mind, new thoughts emerged and the cycle started all over again.

Exhaling softly, I moved my head and glanced at the clock on the mantel. In the light of the moon I could just make out the hands, informing me that it was nearing three in the morning. I sighed again, and beside me, Twilight twitched. Having rolled off of my chest at some point, she was now snuggled up against my side, my arm held gently against her chest. Every so often, she would coo in her sleep, a small smile touching her lips.

I watched her sleep for several minutes, a small smile on my face. The smile slowly faded, and I bit the inside of my cheek, glancing at the bedroom door. If I wasn’t going to be getting any sleep, I needed to get up and walk around for a bit.

Gingerly, I extracted my arm from Twilight’s grasp, careful to not wake her. She squirmed a bit, and I quickly slide my pillow in between her grasping hooves. This seemed to work, as she calmed down and buried her nose into the pillow, snuffling softly.

I slipped silently out of bed, my back cracking as I stood up and stretched. Collecting my clothes from their various spots around the room, I put them on, nearly falling over as I struggled to get my leg into my pants. Once I was fully clothed, I shuffled across the room and cracked the door open, slipping into the hall.

The guard standing just outside the door jumped as I emerged. I gave her a curious look, blinking in surprise when I recognized her. She was the same guard that had escorted me to breakfast the other day.

At my look, she cleared her throat. “My apologies. You startled me.” Her nostrils flared suddenly, and she grunted before covering her nose with a hoof. She glared at me, her red eyes flashing in irritation.

“Really?” she huffed, her voice sounding nasally. “Again? Are you trying to tease?”

I winced, giving her an apologetic look before turning and walking off down the hall. When she didn’t follow me, I paused and glanced over my shoulder.

“I’m not following you,” she said, hoof still covering her nose. “This is my post. You aren’t my charge at the moment.”

I gave her a confused look before shrugging and continuing down the hall.

I padded along, no real destination in mind. Frosted lanterns, bolted to the wall, provided enough light to see by, but not enough to be uncomfortable in the gloom of night. Moonlight streamed through the large windows, illuminating the hallway. The halls were silent, most of the castle residents asleep.

Eventually my wanderings had me come across a small, open balcony that overlooked the castle’s gardens. Leaning against the railing, I looked out across the moonlit garden. Thousands of fireflies flitted through the trees and bushes, their small flashes casting the illusion of twinkling stars along the ground. Strange, moth-like butterflies fluttered through the air, their blue and green wings twinkling in the moonlight. Somewhere nearby, an owl hooted once.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there watching the nocturnal life before a voice spoke up behind me, causing me to jump in surprise. “What have we here? A human out wandering at night? How suspicious!”

My eyes widened and I whipped around, only to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw Luna smirking at me from the shadows.

I gave her the finger as she moved to stand beside me.

She just gave me an amused look and shook her head. “The same to you, my dear friend. If we may ask, why are you still awake at this hour?” Her nostrils flared and she paused before snorting softly. “I see,” she said, her nose scrunching up. Her horn glowed a soft blue, and I was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of magic. Instead of being lifted up like I had expected, a tingling sensation ran over my skin before it and the blue aura faded.

“There, that’s better,” Luna said, sniffing again before smiling. “The scent was rather strong. If one of the nobles had found you, they might have took Twilight's scent as a challenge and attempted to, ah… change it.”

I gave her a grateful smile. ~Thanks~

“Think nothing of it,” she replied. “I know how you feel about the nobles trying to get you into bed. I had to listen to one such noble complaints about how you dumped her into a broom closet, and how the mop water ruined her mane and dress. She wanted to have you put down, ‘like the menace to society you are’.”

My eyes widened in alarm at that, but Luna just shook her head.

“Nay, be at peace,” she said softly, placing a wing on my back. “I told her the princess she had to talk to about that was Twilight, and she dropped the issue almost immediately. You have nothing to fear.”

~Thank god~

“Indeed,” Luna hummed, looking up at the stars above. She was silent for several seconds before turning back to face me.

“So,” she said slowly, tilting her head to the side, “I’m assuming that since Twilight’s scent is on you so strongly that you two are together?”

I felt my cheeks flush slightly, but I kept my face straight.

~Yes, we’re together~ I signed with a nod.

Luna’s smile grew. “Splendid! I wish you two the best of luck with your relationship!”

I tried to smile as well, but it came off weak, almost like a grimace.

“Pray tell, what’s the matter?” Luna asked upon seeing my pained look.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I took a deep breath before exhaling loudly. I ran a hand through my long hair before answering. ~I’m new to this whole thing, Luna~

“I thought you had a mate back home before coming here?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

~I meant estrus, not a relationship~ I clarified. ~Humans back home didn’t go into heat, and I know very little about it here. Only what your sister has told me, actually~

“So, what’s the problem?” Luna asked, her voice soft.

~I…~ I began, but paused as I tried to get the words in order. ~How much of Twilight’s affection is because of her heat, and how much is because she actually loves me?~

Luna’s eyes widened before her expression softened. Draping her wing back around me, she pulled me close in a feathery hug.

“A reasonable concern for one who doesn’t understand,” she said, “but an unsound concern, nonetheless. While it is true that a mare in heat will act more affectionate towards others she cares for, there has to be affection there to begin with. A mare in heat will not just walk up to a random stallion and start flirting. There has to be a strong connection already formed. Heat isn’t an excuse for a mare to mate. It’s a reason to express her love to the one she holds closest.”

~So you’re saying that Twilight did love me before she went into heat?~ I asked, hope welling up in my chest.

Luna nodded. “Yes, she did. Over the past several months she has often dreamt of you and her together, though I sensed she lacked the strength to tell you in the waking world. They were sweet dreams, more often than not consisting of the two of you resting beneath a tree beside a lake, or wrapped in a blanket in front of a fire. These feelings were present even before winter arrived, so I can safely say that she did in fact love you before estrus started. Her heat has just finally allowed her to show it.

“Does that make you feel better?” she asked, giving me a concerned look.

I nodded. ~Yes, it does. Thank you, Luna~

“Don’t be afraid to ask if something worries you,” she said, removing her wing and folding it by her side again. “I would normally advise you to talk to Twilight about what is bothering you, but seeing as her state of mind was what was in question, I can understand your need to get somepony else’s opinion.”

~That, and Twilight is kinda asleep at the moment~ I added.

“As you should be as well,” Luna says, cocking an eyebrow. “It’s nearly four in the morning. If you are not careful, you’ll end up nocturnal.”

~I doubt it~ I signed with a smirk. ~Back home I was usually up late at night anyways. I’m more of a night owl than a morning bird anyways~

Luna tsked, giving me an amused look. “Still, to bed with you, lest your mate wakes and finds you missing.”

I stuck my tongue out at her, but smiled all the same.

~Fine, I’ll see you later, Luna. Thanks for the talk~ I signed before turning around. I made to exit the balcony only to jump back with a yelp as a pair of magenta eyes suddenly filled my vision. Heart pounding in my chest, I gasped for air as I stared up at Celestia, who was standing in the entrance way to the balcony, giving me a confused look.

“Sister,” Luna said, a look of surprise crossing her face, “I didn’t hear you coming. What are you doing up this early? The sun isn’t meant to rise for another two hours.”

“I was actually looking for your wayward friend here,” Celestia said, giving me a small smile.

~You were?~ I signed, surprised.

Luna blinked, her brow furrowing. “Really? What for, may I ask?”

“We have some unfinished business from earlier that needs to be taken care of,” Celestia said, stepping forward onto the balcony.

I gave her a mystified look, trying to rack my brain to figure out what she was talking about. ~Unfinished business? What do—~

Celestia darted forward, cutting me off as she pressed her lips to mine.

I froze, my eyes widening in shock as her lips moved against mine. All my mental processes ceased and I could only stand there, staring dumbly ahead as Celestia kissed me. She took advantage of my stunned stupor and slipped her tongue into my mouth, running it over my tongue and teeth with a happy hum. I dimly noted a faint taste of vanilla.

My mind finally started working again, and I tried to push her away, but her grip was too strong. My brain was screaming at me that this was wrong, but every time I tried to break the kiss, Celestia would just follow my movements with her head.

Wrapping her forelegs tighter around me, she pulled me close to her chest, craning her neck down to continue the kiss. I felt her tail wrap around my leg as her wings slowly enveloped the both of us, turning the world into a wall of white feathers.

Beside us, Luna yelped loudly, her wings flaring. She stared, wide-eyed, at her sister, her mouth hanging open in shock.

As I continued to try and wiggle free, there came the sound of hoofsteps coming down the hall. When they reached the balcony, they paused, and I heard a familiar voice gasp, “Wha…?”

Glancing over Celestia's shoulder, my eyes widened in shock when I saw another Celestia standing there, a bemused look on her face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna glancing between the two Celestias, a look of dawning realization on her face.

“What’s going on here?” the new Celestia asked, an eyebrow raising but her expression remaining blank.

I felt the Celestia kissing me smirk. She sucked on my bottom lip before breaking the kiss with a loud ‘pop’.

“Hmmm, not as much love as before,” she hummed, smacking her lips.

The second Celestia’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward, waving her wing at the first one. “Away with you, you little trickster!”

The first Celestia just stuck out her tongue before suddenly bursting into red flames. When the fire cleared, one of the Doctor’s changelings stood in her doppelganger's place, legs wrapped around my neck. Its red eyes glowed in the dim light, and it stared up at me, blinking owlishly. Leaning its head forward tentatively, it licked my cheek before spreading its wings and shooting off down the hall, chittering all the way.

“Odd,” Luna said as she watched it go. “They’ve never done something like this before. They must really like you.”

I grunted, wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my shirt to try and get the feeling off my lips. Running my tongue over my teeth, I turned and spat over the edge of the balcony.

As I turned back around, Celestia—the real Celestia—approached, eyeing me curiously.

“It’s not every day that you come across yourself kissing somepony,” she said. “If I may ask, what are you doing up this late… or early as the case may be?”

~Couldn’t sleep and decided to take a walk~ I signed. ~I’m actually headed back to bed right now. The other you just caught me off guard~

“Indeed,” Celestia hummed. She sniffed the air, nostrils flaring, before giving me a strange look. She was silent for several seconds before stepping aside, motioning towards the balcony entrance with a wing.

“Please, don’t let me keep you up,” she said with a small smile.

I nodded before stepping around her and heading back inside. Casting one last look back at both princesses, I turned and walked off down the hall.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Celestia watched the human disappear down the corridor before turning back to her sister. She had just opened her mouth to speak when Luna suddenly poked her in the side, a suspicious look on her face. Her eyes narrowed and she jabbed Celestia with her hoof again.

Celestia rolled her eyes. “It’s really me, Luna.”

“Forgive me if I’m skeptical, sister,” Luna said, poking her again. “Those two like to work together, after all.”

“You were once trapped under a filly’s bed for six hours because you were in your shadow form and the filly’s human crawled under the bed and fell asleep on top of you,” Celestia deadpanned. “I had to lower the moon for you.”

“You swore you’d never speak of that again!” Luna hissed, wings flaring.

Celestia just smirked.

“Fine, you are you,” Luna huffed, fluffy her wings before folding them. She tried to keep her annoyed expression, but relented when Celestia moved beside her and nuzzled her head. Sighing, she returned the gesture before giving her sister a soft smile. “Good morning, Tia. You’re up early.”

“I never went to bed, Lulu,” Celestia sighed, closing her eyes. “My mind is too troubled for sleep.”

“Well, I helped Max with his troubles, perhaps I can help you with yours,” Luna suggested. The sisters moved until they were standing side-by-side, staring out across the castle grounds.

Celestia was silent for several seconds before speaking. She sounded tired, and out of the corner of her eye, Luna saw her shoulders begin to sag.

“I took Max to see the Doctor today in the hopes of finding a way to remove the chaos magic from within him,” she said.

“Ah, I remember you saying that you were going to get the two of them together,” Luna said, nodding. “Tell us, how’d it go? Was he able to help?”

Celestia swallowed thickly before answering. “He couldn’t help Max at all. As of right now, the Doctor has no way of removing the chaos magic within Max without causing lasting damage to both his body and mind.”

“Well, that was to be expected,” Luna shrugged, an ear twitching. “It would have been nice if he could have helped, but I didn’t have high hopes. Too little is known about chaos magic, after all. Besides, it appears that Max is happy with his current state of affairs.”

“It gets worse,” Celestia murmured, her ears splaying back. “It appears that the chaos magic is leaking off of him at an increased rate. The Doctor believes that if we don’t find a way to remove it soon, it could reach a point where Max is corrupting ponies just by being in the same room as them.”

Luna’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, a look of alarm flashing across her face.

“Truly?” she asks, and Celestia nodded her head solemnly. Luna opened and closed her mouth wordlessly, blinking several times before sighing heavily. Hanging her head, she trotted slowly over to her sister and rested her head upon her chest.

“What are we going to do then?” she asked softly. “If what you say is true, he will be a danger for our ponies. If we can’t remove the chaos magic, we’ll have to remove him instead, and that means banishment. But, we cannot banish him, Tia. That would break poor Twilight’s heart, and I could not do that to an innocent being. He did not ask for this. This is not his fault. ‘Tis Discord who has wrought this evil.”

“I don’t know what we can do, Luna,” Celestia whimpered, resting her head on top of her sister’s. “I don’t want to banish him either, but we may not have a choice. Twilight might hate me for it, but if it is between Max and my ponies, I will have to let one suffer so many may be safe.”

“As you say, this is most disturbing,” Luna agreed, continuing to rub her head against Celestia's chest, seeking comfort. “Despite his oddity, I consider him a friend. His antics and the way he treats us. It’s a nice reprieve from the stuffy nobles. If only there was something we could do to help. A way to purge him of foreign magic, just like you purged me of the Nightmare—”

Luna’s words were cut off as Celestia inhaled sharply. Drawing away, she stared down at Luna with a look of shock and wonder.

“Of course!” she cried, a large smile quickly spreading across her muzzle. “Oh, what a ninny I am! Luna, you’re a genius! Why haven’t we thought of this before? I have to go get things ready, but this should work!” Giggling in a un-princess-like fashion, the Solar Princess turned and darted down the hallway, practically flying in her excitement.

Left standing in the dust, Luna stared after the retreating form of her sister, blinking in confusion. “What did we do?”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Pushing the bedroom door open as quietly as I could, I slipped inside before closing it behind me. Everything was as I had left it. Moonlight still streamed in through the window, although the moon was lower in the sky. Twilight was asleep, the gentle sound of her breathing barely audible.

With a yawn, I removed my shirt and tossed it on the couch before approaching the bed. Pulling the sheets up slowly as to not to disturb Twilight, I slipped back into bed.

I had just laid my head back onto a pillow when Twilight suddenly moved. Pushing the pillow I had given her away, she scooted over and snuggled up against me, resting her head on my chest and draping a wing over my stomach. One of her eyes cracked open a sliver.

“...where were you?” she murmured sleepily.

I tried to answer, but my arm was in Twilight’s hooves and when I moved it, she groaned softly.

“No moving,” she muttered.

Smiling, I reached up with my free hand and ran my fingers through her mane. This caused her to coo happily. A content feeling slowly welling up in my chest, and I gently tugged my arm out of her grasp—much to Twilight’s distress—only to wrap it around her and pull her close. She nuzzled my cheek before resting her head beside mine.

With that, I closed my eyes and let the soft sound of Twilight’s breathing slowly lull me to sleep, our hearts beating as one.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Coming Dawn < < ~ ~ ~ ~

With a loud ‘bang’, the door to the observation room burst open and Ivory Pyre stomped in. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her mane was disheveled. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed.

As the door closed loudly behind her, her eyes flicked to the one-way mirror, through which a brown earth pony mare could be seen seated at a steel table. Ivory snorted once before turning her gaze to one of the two other inhabitants of the observation room.

Stacker was standing by the mirror, a bored expression on his face as he watched the prisoner. He turned and gave her a bemused look, a smirk fighting to make its way across his muzzle. His blue eyes were tired, but they danced with mirth as he eyed his disheveled superior.

Sunny was asleep in the corner of the room, a thin blanket draped across her. She jerked awake when the door slammed loudly, glancing around blearily before noticing Ivory. Pulling the blanket tighter around herself, she leaned back against the wall again and, with a yawn, closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.

“Details.” Ivory growled, her red eyes narrow. Her horn glowed red and she ran her magic through her mane and tail, straightening them out.

“It took us a while to find her file.” Stacker said, pulling a folder out of his wing and flipping it open. “Her name's Silent Blade, originally Earthen Bloom at birth. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Detrot. Her's was bit of a troubled youth, placed in juve three times before the age of fifteen and ended up in prison at eighteen for a mugging. She has no real family connections, as her father wasn’t around during her foalhood and her mother is currently in prison with drug charges.” He sighed before closing the file and handing it to Ivory.

She took it in her magic, cracking it open and running an eye over the information.

“She’s been on and off the Royal Guard’s radar for several years now,” Stacker continued. “Pretty big charges too. She’s wanted for dozens of thefts, seven separate assaults, and multiple counts of murder. Though there is no proof at the moment, it is believed that she is one of those responsible for the fire that claimed two lives at the farm just outside of Ponyville fifteen years ago.”

“Is she working alone?” Ivory asked, flipping through the folder’s pages.

Stacker shook his head. “The black horseshoe on her forehead indicates she’s a member of the Blackhoofs. Her partner had one as well. They’re probably one of those that were freed along with Darkflare.”

“And you caught her and her companion, who died of wounds inflicted by his own blade, stalking the Anomaly in the gardens?” Ivory asked, closing the folder and throwing it on a nearby table.

“That is correct,” Stacker said with a nod.

“Any idea why?”

“Judging by what I saw, possibly to kill him,” Stacker said with a shrug. “The stallion had a poisoned blade, and they had been stalking him for most of the day. I don’t know why, though. What could they possibly gain by killing him?”

“Revenge, maybe,” Ivory grunted. “It was because of him that Princess Sparkle found out about their ring and captured them.”

“Maybe,” Stacker mused, chewing on the inside of his cheek, “but why now? Why not when they first escaped?”

“I don’t know,” Ivory muttered, moving to stand beside the pegasus. Both of them stared through the one-way mirror at the mare in the interrogation room. She had her shackled hooves resting on the table in front of her, her yellow eyes staring at the tabletop. There was dried blood around her nostrils, and her muzzle was bent slightly. Every few seconds her ear would twitch, and her gaze would flick up to the mirror.

“Has she said anything?” Ivory asked softly.

“Aside from telling us that she wasn’t going to say anything and spitting in my face, no, she hasn’t,” Stacker sighed, rubbing the bridge of his muzzle with a hoof. “She’s refusing to cooperate with us.”

Silence fell over the room, causing Stacker to glance sideways at Ivory, a brow raised. She was glaring at the mare, an almost feral-like gleam in her eye. She inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring wide as she worked her jaw.

“I’ve seen that look before,” he grunted, shifting uncomfortably on his hooves. His wings fluttered by his side and he took a step away. “Whatcha thinkin’, Pyre?”

“I’m thinking that I’m sick and tired of guessing,” Ivory snarled. “I want answers, now!” Turning, she stormed over to the door, practically ripping it off of its hinges as she forced it open with her magic.

Silent Blade’s head whipped up as the white unicorn entered the interrogation room, slamming the door behind her. A flash of magic later and the door was locked tight. The pair stared at each other for several seconds, neither moving, before a sneer worked its way onto Silent Blade’s face.

“I already told the other idiot that I’m not talking to anypony,” she huffed, sounding slightly nasally.

Ivory said nothing, just trotted slowly into the room, staring at Silent Blade with unblinking eyes. As she approached the chained mare, the temperature of the room seemed to drop several degrees.

“Hey, did ya hear me?” Silent Blade growled, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not going to talk, okay? So you can just buck off!”

Remaining silent, Ivory stopped right in front of her. She eyed Silent with an unreadable expression, her tail flicking back and forth in agitation. Her back was tense, her hackles raised.

Silent snarled, her muzzle scrunching up. “Hey, you deaf or something? I said I’m not—”

“You will talk to me,” Ivory said, cutting Silent off. Her tone was icy, and seemed to steal even more warmth from the room.

Silent shivered once before regaining her composure.

“Really?” she scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “What makes you think that?” Her smirk vanished at what happened next.

Slowly, black veins began to spread across Ivory’s sclerae. Silent watched in growing horror as the whites of Ivory’s eyes turned pitch black, the red irises beginning to glow with a hellish light. The once round pupils thinned, becoming slitted and dragon-like. A pair of long, white fangs descended from between Ivory’s lips, glinting in the light.

Leaning forward, Ivory tilted her head to the side, staring into Silent’s terrified eyes. She bared her teeth before hissing.

“You will talk to me.”

Chapter 55: The Calm Before...

It’s funny, really. I haven’t had a full blown panic attack since I was seven. It was just before they anesthetized me in order to operate on my right eye. I had never done anything like it before and was freaking out. I was told later by my parents that it had taken eight nurses to hold me down so that the doctor could knock me out.

Funny… this time it only took one alicorn.

I sat there on the floor of the throne room, rocking back and forth, clutching myself in the fetal position. My breaths were coming in short gasps, like I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. That, coupled with the fact my heart was beating like it was going to explode out of my chest, was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach.

As I sat there, trying to keep hold of my slipping sanity, I was barely aware of the world around me. There was a flurry of movement—swirls of colors passing by in a frenzy of activity. Blues, yellows, oranges, whites, and pinks. The only constant was the large pair of lavender wings that were wrapped around me, holding me close to a warm body nestled against my back.

I could feel her chest vibrate as she spoke, the soft neighing noise muffled, as though we were underwater. A great white blob in front of me responded with a low snort, which just caused the lavender wings to tighten around me. A loud nicker sounded off right next to my ear, causing me to flinch in pain. The lavender blur gasped and a second later I felt something soft and warm rub against my cheek. The scent of lavender filled my nose.

I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I had been blasted with the Elements. A few minutes, a half-an-hour, or several hours; I had no real way of knowing at the moment. Not that I cared, either. I was quite content to remain safe inside of my lavender feathered fort of comfort.

Rubbing my trembling hands together, I snuggled back into the warm body behind me and tried to calm my nerves.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Are you happy now?” Twilight asked, glaring at Celestia. Adjusting her wings, she pulled Max closer to her, trying to cover as much of him as she possibly could with her feathers. She could feel his heart frantically pounding in his chest through her wings, and she gave him a worried look. He just continued to stare off into the distance, his mouth open slightly as he gasped for breath.

He had been this way since the Elements had blasted him halfway across the throne room. Watching in horror, Twilight had thought something had gone wrong with the Elements at first, causing them to attack Max. She had breathed a sigh of relief when he had gotten to his feet and turned to give her a smile. However, the relief had disappeared almost as soon as he had opened his mouth. She had hoped, prayed, that the Elements would work, but it wasn’t words that had escaped Max’s mouth. It had been a low series of chirps and whistles.

The same noise Equestrian humans made.

Max’s smile had disappeared as he continued to chirp, his happy expression morphing into one of confusion and panic. He had then proceed to, as Rainbow so aptly put it, “freak the buck out”, dashing back and forth while letting out a high-pitched keening noise. This had gone on for several minutes until Twilight had finally managed to tackle him and wrap her wings around him. After that, he had curled up in her embrace and went still, except for the occasional tremble.

“I don’t understand,” Celestia said, her face scrunched up in confusion. “This doesn’t make any sense at all. The Elements were supposed to help him, not revert him to an Equestrian human. Why—”

“Well, that’s exactly what they did!” Twilight growled loudly. Beneath her wings, Max flinched. Alarm quickly spread across Twilight’s face and she leaned down to nuzzle his cheek, murmuring softly to try and calm him. The last thing she wanted was for him to start freaking out again.

“We don’t know that he’s become like our humans,” Rarity said, only to flinch back when Twilight’s glare was suddenly directed at her.

“He doesn’t respond to any of our attempts to talk to him,” Twilight snorted, her eyes narrowing. “He clearly can’t understand us.”

“That doesn’t mean that he’s been reduced to the same state of mind as an Equestrian human,” Rarity huffed. “Just because the ponies in places like Prance don't understand us, doesn’t mean that they’re unintelligent.”

Well, it should be easy to test if that’s the case,” Celestia said with a hum. “We’d just have to cast a translation spell and see what happens.” Taking a step forward, her horn began to glow softly as she prepared to cast the spell. Before she could, a rosey barrier surrounded Twilight and Max, blocking her access.

“No, you don’t!” Twilight snarled, her pupils mere pinpricks. “We have no idea what the Elements did to him. There is no way I’m letting you cast any spells on him until we've figured that part out. For all we know, you could make things worse than they already are! I am not risking it!”

Celestia reared back as though she had been slapped, the magic gathering around the tip of her horn spluttering and dying out. She took several steps back, and her ears folded against her head as a hurt look crossed her face.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as Twilight continued to glare at Celestia, the others shuffling around nervously. After a few seconds, her expression softened and she exhaled shakily.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, her tail unconsciously wrapping around her and Max. “It’s just… I finally confessed to him and now we’re together. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him and change that.” Her wings tightened around Max, pulling him closer to her.

“I don’t want to lose him,” she whimpered.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, taking a tentative step forward. When the tip of Twilight’s horn glowed brighter, she paused before snorting in frustration. “We don’t know what’s changed within him. How do you expect us to figure it out without casting a spell? It needs to happen.”

“Just like the Elements needed to be used on him?” Twilight snarked, her nostrils flaring.

Celestia snorted again, her ears pinned against her head. “I didn’t know they were going to do that.”

“Yeah, well, they did,” Twilight huffed, repeating herself from a few minutes ago, “and now we don’t know if he’s still in there or not.” She frowned, her ears splaying backwards as she subconsciously rubbed her cheek against Max’s head.

There was a brief moment of silence before Fluttershy cleared her throat quietly. As everyone glanced at her, she squeaked and hid behind her mane, blushing softly. “Um, I… I may have an idea.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I blinked in surprise as a piece of paper and a charcoal stick floated down and hovered in front of my face, suspended in a golden aura. Swallowing thickly, I glanced up, only to blink again when I saw Celestia staring down at me, a concerned look on her face.

She smiled weakly before motioning towards the paper with a tilt of her head.

With trembling hands, I reached out and took the paper and charcoal from her magic. Unsure of what they wanted me to do, however, I just sat there with a blank look on my face. This seemed to caused Twilight to tense, and I glanced over my shoulder at her.

She had a nervous look on her face, and she was watching me closely.

Celestia sighed, drawing my attention back to her. She blinked once before her eyes lit up and she smiled. Lifting a hoof, she pointed at the paper before she mimed writing something with it. Upon seeing my confused look, she repeated the processes, all while giving me a hopefully look.

I glanced around at everyone else, noticing that all of them were giving me similar looks of hope. My brow furrowed and I returned my gaze back to the paper in my hands. Licking my dry lips, I hesitantly placed the tip of the charcoal against the parchment. Hands still shaking slightly, I scratched out the first thing I could think of. +I have no idea what the hell is going on+

Placing the charcoal in the band of my ponytail, I turned the paper around and presented what I had written to Celestia.

As she glanced at the paper, her smile disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion and worry. She snorted, before backing up a step. Nickering softly, she looked over my shoulder at Twilight.

Rainbow squealed softly as she hovered over and glanced over Celestia’s shoulder. Her eyes narrowed, and she neighed.

Whatever she said, it caused Twilight to whimper and I glanced back at her. She was trembling, tears slowly gathering in the corners of her eyes. As I watched, one began to slide down her cheek, matting the fur.

Frowning in concern, I reached up and wiped the tear away. Twilight flinched, a startled look crossing her face before she blinked and glanced down at me. I gave her a small smile, which caused her eyes to widen.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“I can’t read what he wrote,” Celestia said, frowning. She glanced over at Twilight and shook her head. “It looks like nothing I’ve seen before.”

“It looks like a bunch of scribbles to me,” Rainbow said, hovering over and glancing at the marks on the paper. “Kinda reminds me of a foal’s writing, actually.”

Twilight swallowed thickly, her throat feeling like it was constricting, making it harder to breath. She whimpered softly, tears starting to form in her eyes. She stared forward, trying her hardest not to cry.

It just wasn’t fair. After months of fretting, she was finally able to confess to Max and have him return her feelings, only for this to happen. Why did the Elements have to do this? Why did they have to take her human from her?

She was startled out of her thoughts by something gently touching her cheek. Glancing down, she saw Max looking up at her, having just brushed a tear from her cheek. She hadn’t even known she was crying.

Upon seeing her looking at him, Max smiled.

Twilight stiffened, her eyes widening as her heart skipped a beat. H-he smiled. Slowly, hope began to well up in her chest as she stared down at the smiling human in her wings. He smiled. More tears began to streak down her cheeks as her bottom lip trembled. An alarmed look crossed Max’s face, but before he could act, Twilight threw her forelegs around him and pulled him into a hug. He smiled!

Max froze for a second before awkwardly returning the hug. He had to twist around in order to get his arms around her, but he somehow managed.

“It appears that his mind is still in there,” Celestia said softly, smiling at the display of affection, “even if we can’t understand one another.”

“Meh,” Rainbow meh’d, leaning back and placing her hooves behind her head, “I really couldn’t understand him to begin with. All that clapping and snapping and flicking. That was more Twilight’s shtick.”

Both Twilight and Celestia froze, their eyes widening as they stared at each other. Twilight was the first to speak.

“Why didn’t we think of that first?” she cried, startling Max.

“It should hopefully work,” Celestia said thoughtfully, nodding her head. “After all, it’s practically a language all it’s own.”

“Rainbow, if this works, you’re a genius!” Twilight said, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Yeah, I know,” Rainbow said with a snicker, “I’m pretty awesome.” She closed her eyes, only to crack one open a few seconds later. “Wait, if what works?”

Twilight said nothing. She just closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then pushed Max back slightly in order to give herself room. As he gave her a confused look, she began to sign.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

~Max, can you understand me?~

I stared at Twilight for a few seconds, blinking dumbly. She had used hoof-language, that much I was sure. However, I wasn’t exactly sure what she had said. Not only was her version the actual version and not my frankensteinian one, but I wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of it.

Frowning, I bite the inside of my cheek as my brain processed what I had seen, working through the motions. After a second, it clicked and my eyes lit up. Smiling, I replied.

~It took me a moment, but yes. I can understand you~

I had barely finished signing when the breath was suddenly squeezed from my lungs as Twilight crushed me in a massive hug. As I gasped for breath, she sobbed into my shoulder, her tears dampening my shirt. She nickered softly, repeating the same sound over and over again as she cried. Around us, various neighs and snorts could be heard as the others broke out in relieved smiles.

Celestia approached, a weak smile on her face.

~I am happy to see you are okay mentally~ she signed, and I had to resist the urge to snicker. It looked weird to see someone as gracefully as her signing in hoof-language; she looked almost drunk.

~I’m assuming you can’t understand what we are saying, correct?~ Celestia signed again.

I shook my head before replying. ~Nope. It’s nothing but animal noises to me~

~Same with us, too~ she signed before taking on a troubled look. Rainbow floated over to her and squawked something while waving her legs about. Celestia shook her head before nickering softly. Rainbow groaned loudly, pulling her hoof down her face before motioning towards me with a snort.

The whole thing brought a smile to my face, and I felt myself calming down. It wasn’t as bad as I first thought. Despite what had happened, we could still communicate, albeit through a very limited medium. Whatever was wrong with me, though, I’m sure that Celestia and Twilight could figure something out.

Celestia snorted once before she whinnied, looking at Twilight. Twilight’s ears splayed back, and she glanced down at me before quickly returning her gaze to Celestia. Her nostrils flared before she nodded her head.

I eyed Celestia curiously as she approached me, her horn glowing softly. Twilight tensed as she stopped in front of me, only to relax a second later. Celestia exhaled loudly through her nostrils, before clicking her tongue. The magic around her horn flashed, and there was a sudden pressure in the back of my head. It last for just a brief moment before fading, as did the magic around Celestia’s horn.

She gave me an expectant look, her magenta eyes searching mine for something. After a few seconds, she snorted before letting loose a low neighing nicker before giving me a questioning look.

I gave her a blank look. “I have no idea what you just said.”

Her ears splayed back, and she snorted again. Twilight replied with a whinny, and the two began to converse back and forth with one another. This went on for about a minute before I cleared my throat to catch their attention.

~What happened?~ I asked when Celestia finally looked at me.

~I tried casting an understanding spell on you so we could speak together~ Celestia signed. ~For some reason, it did not work~

Understanding spell? I thought, scratching at my beard. Does she mean a translation spell of some kind. I wonder why it didn’t work.

Twilight snorted in my ear, glaring up at Celestia. Her tail flicked once before wrapping around my body in a possessive manner. Celestia just sighed, nodding her head in agreement before turning to look at me again. She had an ashamed look on her face, mixed with guilt.

~It appears that my meddling has just made the situation worse for you, and for that, I apologize~ she signed, as well as nickered. Probably so that the others could understand her as well. ~I could claim that I was just trying to help you, but in truth I panicked and tried to rid you of chaos magic in order to keep my ponies safe. This is all my fault~

~It’s not your fault~ I signed with a scoff. ~Yes, I’m kind of annoyed that this has happened, but you had no way of predicting it. I’m more upset with the Elements than anything else. You were just trying to protect your subjects~

Celestia snorted, her ears splaying back. ~But I didn’t extend the same courtesy to you. I told you when you first arrived in Canterlot a few days ago that I viewed you as a citizen of Equestria, but then I go and do this without even thinking of your safety~

~I agreed to this, they agreed to this~ I signed, motioning towards the others, ~I can talk now, so it technically worked. We just have to figure out why we can’t understand one another~

Frowning, Celestia nodded her head absentmindedly before glancing at Twilight. She nickered, to which Twilight replied. With that, Celestia stood back up straight again and gave a shrill whistle. A few seconds later, two unicorns dressed in glowing cobalt armor entered through the throne room doors. Celestia turned to them and said something, to which they saluted and took up position on either side of the doorway.

As they stood at attention, Celestia snorted once before turning and trotting off.

I watched her disappear around the throne dais before turning to glance at Twilight. ~Where’s she going?~

Twilight’s wings tightened around me before she answered.

~To find the Doctor~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I rested with my back against the wall, rubbing my sore arm. It had taken about twenty minutes for Celestia to return with Mac Griffon in tow. Testing had started almost immediately, the three-legged griffon limping across the throne room, with his two changelings close behind pushing a large gurney with dozens of various devices. I had been feeling uneasy about all of this, but the minute I saw that some of the objects on the gurney had sharp, pointy components, I had tried to make a run for it. If Twilight hadn’t had a firm hold on me with her wings, I would have been gone before any of them could have blinked.

While Mac Griffon didn’t end up using any of the spiky tools, the experience still wasn’t pleasant. I was poked and prodded, had a bright light shone in my eye, was stripped naked in front of everyone and scanned, and had a long metal tube practically shoved down my throat.

During the examination, I had quickly discovered that I couldn’t understand a thing the large griffon was saying either. Instead of words, he squawked and chittered like a bird as he studied me closely. Everyone else seemed able to understand him, as Celestia was nodding every few seconds, and nickering softly whenever Mac Griffon paused his chatter.

Luna had walked in shortly after the examination had started. Judging by the level of noise, as well as the expression on everyone’s faces, she had torn Celestia a new one after learning what had transpired. After the loud nickering and screaming match, Luna had taken a seat on the throne, where she had remained, watching Celestia with narrowed eyes. Celestia had retreated to stand beside Mac Griffon, her ears folded against her head.

After the altercation, the others had gathered around the dais, talking quietly to one another while occasionally glancing over at me. Even from the distances, I wouldn’t have been able to hear what they were saying even if I could understand them. Twilight paced back and forth, her eyes almost never leaving me. Whenever I glanced over at her, she was staring right at me.

I wasn’t sure whether to be nervous about that, or thankful she cared so much.

The examination lasted for a couple of hours before Mac Griffon appeared to have gathered enough information. The last thing he did was—to my horror—draw a enormous needle out of somewhere and stick it in my arm in order to get a blood sample. The needle was huge, and I about had a second panic attack at the sight of it. Twilight had to come over and wrap her wings around me in order for Mac Griffon to get his sample.

I hate needles. I mean, what if they break off inside of you, or push through to the other side of the vein and you begin to bleed internally? Or they push the needle in too far and it hits bone!

N-no… no needles.

I rubbed my arm, glaring at Mac Griffon as he packed up his things. He ignored me, chittering away with Celestia, who had a frown on her face. Still rubbing at my arm, I glanced out the high windows at the night sky. The moon was hanging high in the sky, and I estimated that it was around midnight. The Royal guards and their golden armor had been replaced by Lunar guards outfitted in dark purple. The only ones that hadn’t changed were the Battlemages positioned nearby who were still watching me intently. I didn’t recognize either of them, and with their helmets on, I couldn’t pick out any real discernible details other than coat and mane color. All I really knew was that one of them was a mare, and the other one was a stallion.

I eyed the pair out of the corner of my eye, curious as to their purpose. The stallion—a dark blue unicorn with white hair—was surveying the room, his eyes slowly roaming from pony to pony as he stood at attention. The mare’s attention was focused directly on me. She had a pink coat, and what little of her mane I could see protruding from the crest of her helmet was purple with lightish blue highlights.

Her eyes narrowed slightly when she saw me eyeing her, only to suddenly glance away and begin to scan the room. The stallion’s eyes locked on me, as it was apparently his turn to watch me.

Feeling the hairs on the back of my neck beginning to stand up, I turned my gaze away, only to blink in surprise when I saw Twilight drawing near. As she passed Mac Griffon, he turned his head and squawked something that Twilight replied to with a nicker. He chirped before returning to putting away his instruments.

As Twilight approached, I could see that she looked tired. Her head and wings drooped slightly, and she seemed to be dragging her hooves. Stopping in front of me, she pushed her head into my chest—being mindful of her horn—and proceeded to crawl into my lap. I waited for her to get situated before wrapping my arms around her and settling back against the wall.

Twilight cooed softly before suddenly yawning, her tongue poking out as she squeaked. I laughed softly as she blinked blearily up at me before leaning down and kissing her on the forehead, just below her horn.

Leaning back, I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes. A sudden wave of weariness washed over me and I yawned as well, my jaw cracking loudly.

Twilight giggled sleepily. Spreading her wings out, she draped them over my body like a warm, feathery blanket. I could feel myself slowly drifting off as the scent of lavender filled my nostrils. The scent was comforting, and I could feel my muscles slowly relaxing.

The gentle sound of animal noises played in the background as the others conversed with one another. The ‘click’ of approaching hooves caused my furry blanket to twitch, and I was dimly aware of someone standing in front of me. I was too tired to open my eye and see who it was. It didn’t matter, though. I doubted whoever it was was malevolent. Even if they were, there were enough ponies around me that they wouldn’t have any chance to try something. There were three alicorn princesses in the room with me—one of which was currently lying on top of me—two Battlemages, as well as a handful of Lunar Guards. That, and Applejack and Rainbow were currently several dozen meters away. I felt relatively safe in my current state.

I heard the unknown presence shift on their hooves, before a low whinny sounded by my head. I didn’t know what was said, but the warmth and comfort in the voice was clearly audible. Twilight said something in a low nicker before a light tinkling noise filled the air. With that, I gently slipped off to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Celestia < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As Luna quietly made her way away from the slumbering forms of Max and Twilight, Celestia turned her attention back to Mac Griffon. He was currently running Max’s blood through a small machine, eyeing the read-out carefully. The corners of his beak were turned down, and he stroked his neck feathers with a claw.

The changelings sat nearby, one watching Mac Griffon closely, waiting for the next order, while the other one was staring in Max’s direction, it’s head cocked slightly to the side. Ever so often, it would chirp lightly and blink, before tilting its head to the other side.

Celestia allowed the griffon to muse silently for a few more seconds before asking, “Is there any indication of what has happened?” She kept her voice at a near whisper, not wanting to disturb the couple sleeping nearby. After the stressful last few hours they had had, they deserved the respite.

Mac Griffon continued to stare at that the device for a few more seconds before shaking his head. He sighed, clicking his beak softly before answering.

“No, there is not,” he chirped. “I have no clue as to why yonder human can not understand us.”

“Did the Elements purge the chaos magic from within him?” Celestia asked. “We were at least successful in that endeavor, were we not?”

“That’s the thing, my dear,” Mac Griffon replied as the device he was holding chirped. “He still has chaos magic within him.”

“What!?” Celestia exclaimed loudly, causing all eyes to shift to her. Twilight twitched before snuggling deeper into Max’s lap. Blushing softly, Celestia lowered her voice as she gave Mac Griffon a look of disbelief. “B-but that’s impossible. The Elements of Harmony were used on him. That’s what led to our current predicament. He shouldn’t have any foreign magic within his system. Why does he still have chaos magic?”

“Because, it’s not foreign,” Mac Griffon squawked, showing Celestia the blinking green light on the device. “It’s natural.”

Celestia froze, her eyes widening.

“W-what?” she muttered weakly, her ears splaying back, “but… I thought… Discord.”

“You misunderstand,” Mac Griffon said, placing the device back on the gurney and maneuvering his body around to face Celestia. He wobbled slightly on his one hind leg before leaning against the gurney. The locked wheels protested weakly against the sudden weight, but held.

“There is chaos magic still residing within him, yes,” Mac Griffon continued, “but the purge was a success.”

“But you just said—”

“The chaos magic within him right now is natural,” Mac Griffon said, clicking his beak as his head swiveled to the side. “It’s his natural magic, although it is very, very miniscule. It barely showed up on the scanner. Barely worth mentioning, really. I’d wager that there are birds out there with more magic in them than the Anomaly has right now.”

“Is it safe?” Celestia asked, glancing at Max. His mouth was open slightly, and her ears could just barely make out the sound of snoring. “His chaos magic, is it safe?

“I don’t think you understand how miniscule the magic is, Celestia,” Mac Griffon huffed, giving her a bemused look. “It’s almost non-existent. It’s stable, so it won’t grow or spread to others. Actually, I’m not entirely sure it is chaos magic,” he said with a frown, stroking his neck feathers again. “It looks similar to chaos magic, but there are some differences.”

“Could it be what’s causing the language barrier?” Celestia asked hopefully, her ears perking.

Mac Griffon shook his head. “No, it’s not. Something else is causing the gap in understanding, and, honestly, I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m sorry, Celestia,” he sighed, shaking his head in defeat, “but at the moment, there is nothing I can do.”

“I see,” Celestia said, her whole body seeming to droop in defeat. Her flowing mane and tail slowed to a crawl. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “Thank you, my friend, for coming at such short notice. I am sorry for waking you.” She opened her eyes again as Mac Griffon placed a claw on her shoulder.

“Worry not, Celestia,” he said, the corners of his beak perking up. “I may have been defeated this time, but first thing in the morning, I’ll take another look at it. After I’ve gotten some sleep, that is.”

A weak smile touched Celestia’s lips, and she nodded.

Unlocking the wheels, Mac Griffon began to push the gurney along, heading for the door behind the throne’s dais.

“Might I suggest trying to teach him the language the old fashioned way in the meantime?” he called back over his shoulder as he went. Both changelings stood up and followed after the griffon, the trio quickly disappearing through the door.

Celestia sighed again as the door close. Head lowered, she slowly made her way over to the throne. During her conversation with the Doctor, the other Element Bearers had fallen asleep as well. Pinkie was passed out belly up, a dopey grin on her face, tongue poking out from between her lips. Rainbow was using her stomach as a pillow, a trail of drool rolling down her cheek and disappearing into the pink fur. Applejack was leaned up against the dais, in a similar position as Max was. Her hat was pulled low over her face, and her chest was rising and falling gently. Both Rarity and Fluttershy had fallen asleep curled up next to one another on the bottom step of the dais.

A small smile spread across Celestia’s muzzle as the Bearers slept. She watched them for a moment or two before the sound of someone softly clearing their throat snapped her out of her observations. Turning her head, she saw Luna standing behind her, a blank look on her face.

The two sisters stared at one another in silence for several long seconds before Celestia fidgeted and looked away.

“So, how is he?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

“Much better than he was earlier, I believe,” Luna replied, her tone neutral. “Twilight’s presence seems to calm him. Their bond is truly remarkable. Nonetheless, I still cast a slumber spell over them both. They shall not dream tonight, but will wake up feeling refreshed.”

“That’s good,” Celestia said, not meeting Luna’s eye.

Silence fell over the pair again before, in a blur of motion, Luna’s wing suddenly snapped out and cracked Celestia over the muzzle.

Celestia stumbled backwards, clutching at her nose with a hoof as her eyes widened in shock. It took all of her control not to whinny aloud and wake the room’s sleeping inhabitants.

“What were you thinking?” Luna hissed, her blank expression dissolving into a snarl. “Using the Elements on Max, have you gone mad? What could you have possibly been thinking, sister?”

“The Elements have worked in the past,” Celestia muttered, still rubbing at her muzzle.

“On villains, yes,” Luna grunted, her eyes narrowing. “They have managed to save Equestria several times against creatures who were inherently evil, Celestia. Unless he is some devious, superintelligent criminal mastermind who’s managed to fool us all these past months, Max is not evil.”

“But, the chaos magic within Max was a threat to those around him,” Celestia defended, her nostrils flaring.

“To the point of using a weapon on him?” Luna asked, an eyebrow raising. At Celestia’s indignant look, she nodded her head. “Yes, Celestia, a weapon. We have only ever used the Elements as a means to defeat the villainous few who dare to try and bring harm on our ponies, or disharmony upon our kingdom. Max is neither of those. He is a victim of circumstances out of his control. He neither asked to come to Equestria, nor for his body to be consumed by chaos magic. Yet he has made the best of the hand he has been dealt. We’re just lucky that the Elements have only done this much damage. They could have easily turned him to stone, imprisoned him in some celestial body, or some other outcome unforeseen.”

Celestia’s ears drooped as Luna talked, and her head lowered. She looked similar to a foal who had just been caught with a hoof in the cookie jar.

“I was only trying to help,” she muttered weakly.

“I know, sister,” Luna said, her expression softening, “but sometimes in your haste to help, you get so caught up in worrying if you can help, that you don’t stop to think if you should.” Leaning forward, she nuzzled Celestia's neck, humming softly.

Celestia returned the gesture before asking softly, “What should we do then, Luna? I don’t want to make things worse.”

“Let them all sleep for now,” Luna said, not breaking the embrace. “It’ll do them good, especially Twilight and Max.”

“Alright,” Celestia said with a nod. “We’ll let them sleep, and figure things out tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry, sister,” Luna said, pulling away reluctantly from her sister’s embrace. “I am sure that we’ll figure out what went wrong before you know it. In the mean time, try and relax. It’s not like something bad is going to happen.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Sunny Breeze < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“You’re sure that the information is correct this time?” Stacker asked, tightening the straps of his armor. Fastening the buckle, he glanced over at Ivory, who was putting on her own armor. “The last time it was a setup. We don’t need another buck up like that.”

“Unless the mare has more mental prowess than Princess Celestia or Luna, the information is correct,” Ivory growled, her red eyes flashing.

Around the room, the two dozen or so Coming Dawn guards were donning their armor, sharpening their weapons, or double-checking their supplies. A large circular table in the center of the room was covered in various maps, diagrams, and other information relevant to their upcoming mission.

The guards prepared in semi-silence, hushed conversations percolating through the room as they worked. A pair, having finished preparing, sat on a bench together, playing cards. Another guard was asleep in the corner of the room, fully armored with her helmet pulled over her face and her hind hooves up on a bucket. Soft snoring could be heard coming from the helmet. The medic was sorting through her medical supplies, making sure that she had everything. Lifting a scalpel up to her eyes, she studied it closely before sliding it into a special-made sheath.

Every guard prepared themselves with near perfect professionalism.

And then there was Sunny.

“I still want to know what you did to the mare,” she grumbled, struggling with her own armor. Several parts were upside down, and she had a strap wrapped around her hind hoof several times. She tettered on three hooves, the fourth tangled within her armor. Tugging on a strap with her teeth, she whipped her head back and forth, trying to get the clunky armor to fit. However, despite her best attempts, she just couldn’t get her wings through the wing holes, and she was beginning to grow frustrated. After trying in vain to adjust the armor, she threw her hooves into the air and gave up.

Turning to Ivory, she continued, “We were trying to get her to talk for several hours before you showed up and made her squeal in under a minute. And she’s a member of the Blackhoof clan, too. How’d you do it?”

“I have my ways,” Ivory said, putting the final touches on her armor. She gave Sunny an amused smirk before moving towards the table.

With a huff, Sunny returned her attention back to her armor. Growling softly, she tugged and pulled on the stuck strap only to give a startled yelp as she tipped backwards. However, before she could fall over, a hoof grabbed her and steadied her.

“Here, ma’am,” Stacker chuckled, “allow me.” Taking the strap from Sunny, he began to work it through her armor, untangling it and fastening it properly in only a few seconds.

A light blush slowly spread across Sunny’s muzzle as she watched Stacker work. He was close enough that she could feel his breath on her muzzle. The feeling caused a small shiver to run down her spine, and her blush grew darker. Slowly, her gaze drifted up and she stared into Stacker’s eyes, the sea blue color drawing her in. She dimly noted that her armor suddenly felt a little tight.

Finishing with the strap, Stacker suddenly reached out and grabbed Sunny by the shoulders. With a grunt, he lifted her into the air a few inches, before yanking her armor down with a quick jerk of his hooves. The sudden movement caused Sunny’s armor to slide into place, and her wings successfully slipped through the wing holes. With a soft ‘thump’, they unfurled fully and stood at attention.

Tightening the final strap, Stacker gave Sunny’s armor another, smaller tug, double-checking to make sure it was positioned properly.

“There ya are,” he said with a grin, patting her chest plate. “All nice and snug.”

Sunny squeaked once, her cheeks a deep crimson, before clearing her throat.

“T-thanks,” she stuttered, before attempting to close her stiff wings. Her blush spread to her neck as Stacker chuckled softly. Whimpering, Sunny struggled with her wings, finally managing to fold them.

“If you two are finished, we have some things we need to discuss,” Ivory called out from her place at the table.

Sunny glanced up, only to have her ears splay back when she saw most of the guards were watching her and Stacker. Mortified, Sunny quickly ducked her head and slunk forward, her tail tucked firmly between her legs. She kept herself as low as possible as she approached the table, only her eyes peeking up over the edge. Her face felt like it was on fire, and the sound of snickering didn’t help.

“Sorry, lieutenant, just trying to help out,” Stacker said, unaffected by the laughter.

“I’m sure,” Ivory said with a roll of her eyes. Her gaze then hardened, and her smik vanished. Clearing her throat, she called out, “Windbreaker!”

In a flurry of paper, a pink head popped out of a hole in the middle of the table. Windbreaker blew her orange mane out of her eyes before glancing around until she spotted Ivory. Sticking a hoof through the opening as well, she saluted awkwardly. “Yes, ma’am?”

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Ivory growled, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Shaking her head, she sighed before straightening up. “Corporal, I need you to collect some special supplies for the operation.”

“Whatcha need, ma’am?” Windbreaker asked. Suddenly a pad of paper appeared in front of her. She took a pencil from behind her ear, and gave Ivory an expectant look.

“We’re going to need several coils of rope, some hoof claws, blasting stones, breaching gear, tracking scrolls, and a couple dozen magic-dampening rings,” Ivory listed off. She paused, scrunching up her face before adding, “Plus anything else you think we might need.”

Tongue sticking out of her mouth, Windbreaker finished scratching down the things Ivory had requested. Running her eyes over the list one last time, Windbreaker stuck the pencil back in her mane before nodding. “All right. I think I’ve got everything. It should take me about half-an-hour to gather all of this, although I might have to break into the Battlemages’ supply in order to get the blasting stones and tracking spells.”

“That’s fine,” Ivory said with a nod. “Just don’t get caught again.”

“No, ma’am,” Windbreaker said, shaking her head. She grimaced, a shiver running through her body. “I don’t want to be stuck on the ceiling for a week again.” She shivered again before she ducked back down the hole and was lost to view.

Confused, Sunny leaned over to Stacker and muttered, “Stuck on the ceiling?”

“Each Guard has their own stockroom assigned to them. Lunar, Royal, Battlemage, and Coming Dawn. The Battlemages don’t like us taking their stuff for our missions,” Stacker whispered. “The last time we ‘borrowed’ something, Windbreaker got caught and one of the Battlemages casted a reverse-gravity spell on her. She was forced to walk around on the ceiling for a week before we were able to figure out how to dispel it. She couldn’t go outside during that time, because if she did, she would have shot straight up into the sky.”

“But she’s a pegasus,” Sunny whispered.

“You ever try flying upside down?” Stacker asked, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “There’s only one pegasus I’ve ever seen fly upside down successfully for any extended period of time, and that was my cousin in Ponyville.”

“Point taken,” Sunny muttered. She frowned, her ears splaying back. “Isn’t that dangerous, though?”

“It’s fine,” Stacker said, patting her shoulder. “This type of thing happens all the time. We got them back a few weeks later. Snuck into their barracks and glued all their furniture to the ceiling.”

Sunny had to jam a hoof into her mouth in order to stop herself from laughing.

“Right, here’s what we know so far,” Ivory said loudly, shooting Sunny and Stacker a bemused look. “From what we could gather from our… informant, Darkflare and his gang are staging themselves in the cave systems beneath Canterlot.”

“I thought we already scanned those after the jailbreak,” a guard interrupted, raising her hoof as she spoke.

“There are hundreds of cave systems within the mountain,” Stacker answered. “It would take too long to scan them all, so we just searched the one that was connected to the dungeons.”

“Correct,” Ivory grunted, nodding her head. “However, our informant has revealed that they are located in one of the lower cave systems, near the middle of the mountain. She was even kind enough to give us the location of an entrance on the mountain side. There’s an opening about halfway down the mountain, hidden beneath the waterfall.”

“Ma’am, do we know how many tangos are going to be present?” another guard asked.

Ivory shook her head. “No, we don’t, because the informant didn’t know herself. She also couldn’t tell us what Darkflare is planning, because that information hasn’t been shared.” For whatever reason, this statement caused hushed conversations to break out throughout the room, the guards muttering to one another. Ivory allowed them to talk, her eyes slowly drifting over the table.

“Whatever he’s offering them, it must be worth it if they’re following him so blindly,” Stacker whispered to Sunny, leaning close so that he could be heard.

“All Darkflare cares about is money,” Sunny muttered back. “Whatever he’s planning, money will be involved.”

“With all the humans he’s stolen, do you think he’s trying to start up another human fight ring?” Stacker asked, glancing down at her.

Sunny shook her head. “No, he’s not that stupid. He’ll try something else, something new. What that will be, I don’t know.”

“Our informant did confirm one thing, though,” Ivory continued, her voice cutting above the noise. Silence fell over the room again as the guards returned their attention to her. “It appears that Darkflare is taking orders from somepony. There is somepony else that’s pulling the strings.”

“Do we have a name?” Stacker asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Unfortunately, no,” Ivory answered, her ears splaying back. “Our informant was going to tell us that information, but before she could, her mind was wiped. It appears that she had an enchantment placed on her that activated the minute she tried to say the name. We weren’t able to get any more information out of her after that. She’s now a blank slate, her mind completely empty.”

The guards grumbled at that, some of them shaking their heads. Stacker had to raise his voice in order to be heard above the noise. “What’s the plan then, ma’am?”

“It’ll be dawn in a few hours,” Ivory said, pointing to a large map of Equestria unrolled across the table. Placing her next to a red circle drawn around a point on the mountain just below Canterlot Castle, she continued, “Come first light, we’ll be making our way down to the cave, where we will infiltrate into the caverns and attempt to detain all those we find inside. Darkflare is our primary target. Force is authorized, as is deadly force.” She glanced up, looking at all of the guards assembled around the table. “We have to be on our game, here. Sergeant Major Barricade of the Battlemages will be joining us again, but other than that, it’s just us for this mission.”

“Ma’am, the Princess didn’t see fit to give us more guards for this mission?” Stacker asked, his brow furrowing.

“No, she didn’t,” Ivory said, closing her eyes and exhaling. She was silent for a moment before adding, “because she doesn’t know about it.”

Sunny expected a general outcry from the guards at this, so she was surprised when the room remained quiet. All of the guards were staring at Ivory with grim expressions.

“Ma’am?” Stacker asked, ears perked.

“After the Human Research Facility incident, Princess Celestia felt it was in the best interests of this operation that we go dark, remain isolated as possible when it comes to outside interactions. As of right now, only the ponies in this room know what is happening when it comes to the Coming Dawn.”

“Which means…?” Sunny asked nervously.

“Which means that the only way that Darkflare could know that we are coming, is if we have a mole in our midsts,” Stacker said softly, nodding his head.

“Precisely,” Ivory grunted. “Now, that doesn’t mean that I think that a member of the Coming Dawn is working with Darkflare. This is just to prevent any possible leaks before we manage to catch Darkflare.”

“Ma’am?” one of the guards suddenly said, raising her hoof. “You said earlier that Darkflare was our primary target, but what about his unknown benefactor?”

“Since we don’t know who that is at the moment, our main focus is Darkflare,” Ivory said as the guard lowered her hoof. “We don’t know who this benefactor is, so we have no way of recognizing them. For now, we’re going after Darkflare. Once he’s in custody, we’ll focus on the benefactor.” The guard nodded in understanding, and Ivory glanced around. “Are there any other questions?” When no hooves were raised, she nodded and took a step back, away from the table. “Alright then. We have about four hours before we need to get moving. We have a big day ahead of us, so get something to eat, and rest up while you can.”

She glanced over at Sunny, her stoic expression dissolving into a smirk. “That means no flirting with my guards, Ms. Breeze.”

Sunny’s face exploded in a dark blush, and her head fell onto the table with a resounding ‘thunk’. Beside her, Stacker burst out laughing.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Monochrome < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Ears perked to detect any sounds, Monochrome quickly leafed through a pile of papers on the Archmage’s desk. She was looking for something—anything—to prove that the Archmage was up to something.

When Princess Celestia had first approached her about the issue several weeks ago, she hadn’t wanted to believe that the Archmage could have been behind the mass breakout of Canterlot’s dungeon. Monochrome was one of the administrators for the Academy, as well as a low-level Battlemage, and as such, was loyal to the Archmage. He was a father figure to her, as well as the other Battlemages, much like Celestia was to the School of Gifted Unicorns.

The fact that the Princess would dare to insinuate that the Archmage was working against Equestria’s best interests was enough to enrage Monochrome. However, the longer she thought about it, the more uncertain she became that Celestia was in the wrong.

Although she didn’t want to admit it, the Archmage had changed over the past year. When she had first joined the Academy, it was nearly impossible to see the Archmage without a smile. He was jolly in nature, always ready with a joke or pun to lift the spirits of downhearted students or teachers.

And then he had begun to change. The ever-present smile had faded, and the mirth had left his eyes. He interacted with the residents of the Academy less and less, preferring to remain locked within his office, muttering to himself. He began to take less interest with the education of those who attended the school, and took more interest in the political side of Canterlot.

At first, Monochrome had just ignored the behavior, attributing it to stress, or possibly the fact that the Archmage was getting older. However, now that the Princess had brought his change of behavior to light, she had made it her duty to find out what he was up to.

Flipping quickly through the large stack of paper, Monochrome frowned. Most of the papers were just applicants wishing to be accepted into the Academy. Honor students from the School of Gifted Unicorns, Canterlot’s Elite Schools, and some from schools as far out as Manehattan. Definitely not what she was looking for.

She had just reached for one of the drawers beneath the desk when the door handle began to jiggle, suddenly surrounded in a sickly-yellow aura. Monochrome’s eyes widened in horror as she let out a startled gasp. Moving quickly, she reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a large folder. She had just moved to place it upon the desk when the door swung open, and the Archmage slunk inside.

He froze upon seeing Monochrome standing behind his desk, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“Monochrome?” he asked slowly, his voice emotionless.

Monochrome blinked once before putting on a look of faux surprise. “O-oh, Archmage! There you are. I was looking for you.”

“What are you doing in here, Monochrome?” the Archmage asked, his voice quiet. Still, there was a coldness behind it that caused a shiver to run down Monochrome’s spine.

“I have the latest report from the dig site,” Monochrome said, waving the folder around. “I was looking for you to give it to you, but I couldn’t find you, so I figured I’d just leave it here for you to find later.” She tittered nervously, placing the folder down on the desk. Moving out from behind the desk, she trotted towards the door the Archmage had just entered, keeping up her weak smile.

“I'll leave it there for you to review. Now, if you’d excuse me, I must really be getting back to my coltfriend,” she said as she made to walk past the Archmage. She was stopped, however, by a hoof on her shoulder.

“What’s the rush?” the Archmage asked, giving her a warm smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Turning her around, he escorted her back to his desk and sat her down in one of the visitor chairs.

“It’s been too long since we’ve had a friendly talk with one another,” the Archmage continued as he moved to sit down in his own seat. His horn flashed once and the paperwork on the desk flew into the air, only to organize itself perfectly into a nearby filing cabinet.

“I would love to catch up with you, sir, but maybe tomorrow would be better? I had plans tonight, after all, and I really must get going,” Monochrome said, swallowing weakly. She could feel sweat beginning to trickle down her neck, and she had to resist the urge to wipe it off. She could feel her heart beating in her chest, the sound thumping loudly in her ears.

“Oh, you wouldn’t deprive an old stallion of some company, would you?” the Archmage asked, leaning a foreleg on the now-clean desk. He smirked as he watched Monochrome squirm slightly in her seat. “Besides, I’m sure your coltfriend will understand if you’re a few minutes late. It wouldn’t be the end of the world now, would it?”

“I g-guess not,” Monochrome stuttered, licking her suddenly dry lips.

“Splendid!” the Archmage chirped. His horn light up, and with a flash of light, a large marble board appeared on top of the desk, covered in white and black glass pieces.

“Now, my dear,” he said, a large grin spreading across his muzzle, “how about a nice, friendly game of chess?”

Interlude: Sunbutt, part 4 ☼

A/N: A continuation of Interlude: Sunbutt, part 3.

~ Sunbutt ~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Side Story: Part Four: Say Yes to the Dress?! < < ~ ~ ~ ~

My lungs were burning, my leg muscles screaming, and I had a painful stitch in my side. I couldn’t stop running, though, because if I did so, bad, bad things would happen. Scary things… inhuman things… things that were too horrible to comprehend.

I could hear her behind me, her hooves pounding away on the marble floors, like death swiftly approaching.

As I sprinted around a corner, I chanced a quick glance over my shoulder, only to squeal loudly in fear. Normally I would be horrified by the feminine sound that had just escaped my lips, but given my current situation, I didn’t care.

There, still behind me, was Rarity, a look of gleeful determination on her face. Bits of cloth and fabric floated around her head, suspended in her blue magic. There were even some ribbons and frill; where she had gotten them, I don’t know.

My pupil shrunk and I put on an extra burst of speed, trying to expand the distance between us.

“Come on, darling! This is a great opportunity!” Rarity cried.

“No!” I shouted back over my shoulder. “Leave me alone!” I had thought I was in the clear by running away, figuring that someone like Rarity wouldn’t chase after me, for fear of messing up her mane or getting too sweaty.

I didn’t take into account her determination or desire to design new clothing.

“Think of the new designs I could make!” she shouted, trying to reason with me. “Think of all the outfits I could make for female humans. It would expand my repertoire as well as my customer base!”

“Go find a female human, then!” I yelled, ducking down a side corridor, my bare feet sliding slightly on the polished marble. Reaching a flight of stairs, I began to descend two steps at a time.

“I already have!” came the shouted reply.

“I’m not interested!”

“But just look at yourself, darling!” Rarity cried. “You have the perfect body for this!”

“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” I snarled as I leapt down that last four steps.

As I raced down the hall, several maids stuck their heads out of the rooms they were cleaning to watch. The amount of shock on their faces would usually be enough to cause me to laugh, however, considering my current situation, I couldn’t find the humor in it.

Since coming to Equestria, I have done several things that have been out of my comfort zone, but modeling a dress for Rarity was not going to be one of them.

“This would only take a second, dear!” she shouted, sounding slightly out of breath. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that her face was red, and she was huffing and puffing for air. This caused me to smile inwardly. Rainbow Dash she is not!

“It took you two hours to fit me for a suit,” I shouted as I returned my attention to what was in front of me.

“That was a… three piece suit, darling,” Rarity huffed, sounding more and more winded. “This is… a dress. Much more simple. It’ll take less time, I swear!”

“The answer is still no!” Dashing around the corner, I grabbed ahold of a nearby door’s handle, nearly pulling my arm out of its socket in the process. Quickly forcing the door open, I slipped inside and closed the door not a moment before Rarity came hurtling around the corner. I could hear her hooves skidding on the marble, and she squawked indignantly as she tried to regain her balance.

Leaning carefully on the door, I pressed my ear against it, listening. I held my breath as the sound of hoofsteps stopped right outside the door.

“Oh… goodness…” Rarity wheezed, her voice muffled through the wood. “How can he… move so fast?” I heard her take a deep breath before swallowing. A brief pause followed before the sound of hoofsteps could be heard again, fading as she ran off down the hall.

I waited a few seconds before exhaling slowly. With a weak chuckle, I closed my eye and sagged against the door in relief. Laughing weakly, I took deep breaths, trying to calm my pounding heart.

Thank god it’s over, I thought as I slid slowly to the floor. However, before I could get comfortable, a low chirping noise made me freeze. I opened my eye only to blanch when I saw a room full of humans staring at me.

A room full of male humans, all of whom were eyeing me with predatory glares.

Swallowing thickly, I slowly got to my feet again, careful to not make any sudden movements. They were all giving me hungry looks, some of them even borderline excited. And… was that one drooling? Eeeeeewwww…

...wait.

My stomach dropped as I suddenly remembered what time of year it was. It was Spring. The time were the weather gets warmer, the animals awaken from hibernation, and when Equestrian humans went into heat.

And I so happened to currently be female.

As one of the nearby humans took a cautionary—yet eager—step forward, I growled. “Luna, I’m going to fucking murder you…”

::part one ~ part two ~ part three ~ part four::

Chapter 56: The Truth of the Matter

Upon waking up, it took me a few seconds to remember why I was sleeping against a wall. As the memories of last night came back to me, I groaned softly and reluctantly cracked my eye open. Sunlight was streaming through the throne room windows. Thankfully, due to my position against the wall, it couldn’t reach me. For some reason, that fact caused me to snicker softly. A few of the windows were open, allowing a gentle breeze to waft in along with the soft chirp of birdsong and the scent of flowers.

With a yawn, I sat up and glanced blearily around the room. Sometime during the night, Twilight had shifted in her sleep and had rolled off of me. She was now lying beside me, nestled up against my leg with her chin resting on my thigh. As I watched, she shifted slightly and murmured something inaudible before a small smile graced her lips.

A warm feeling welled up in my chest as I watched her. It was hard to believe how fast our relationship had grown within the last few days. Actually, it was hard to believe that our relationship had evolved into this, considering that it felt like it was only a month or so ago that she had pulled me out of a crate and proceeded to poke me until I bruised.

Now, almost a year later, here we were.

Reaching down, I gently scratched behind her ear, causing it to flick. After a few seconds, she hummed softly, her tail twitching back and forth. She nickered something before pushing up against my side. I placed my hand on her head before glancing up and surveying the room.

I could see the others were piled around the bottom of the throne’s dais. They were all still asleep, although how any of them were sleeping through Rainbow’s snoring was beyond me. Celestia and Luna were both standing atop the dais, talking softly with one another. Celestia was staring out one of the windows, a soft smile on her face.

I watched them for a few more seconds before the nearby clank of metal drew my attention away. Glancing to my right, I blinked in surprise when I saw the Battlemages were still standing at attention a few meters away. At least, I thought they were the same Battlemages, if their coat and mane colors were anything to go by.

As I turned my head to look at them, the mare shifted, causing her armor to ‘clink’ again. She snorted something, to which her partner replied with a nicker.

I frowned and returned my attention to Twilight, rubbing her head gently, while trying my best to not wake her up in the process.

“I hope they figure out what’s stopping us from understanding each other,” I muttered softly to her. “This is just like when I went to Chile. Couldn’t understand anybody. Really annoying.” I flinched, rubbing my neck gingerly. I still sounded hoarse, like I was getting over a bad cold. It was weird hearing myself talk again; my own voice had become foreign to me after nearly a year of disuse.

“Can finally talk again, and there’s no one to talk to,” I grumbled before sighing softly.

Twilight’s ear twitched and she shifted slightly against me, but remained asleep.

It was about this time that my body decided to inform me that I had a very full bladder, and it was getting ready to release said payload. Reaching down, I lifted Twilight’s head as gently as possible before slowly moving my leg out from under her. She stirred when I placed her chin on her foreleg, but only proceeded to curl up into a ball. Scooching away from her, I stood up and stretched, only to wince as my back cracked several times.

Really missing my couch about now, I thought as I worked the kinks out of my limbs.

Both battlemages looked at me as I stood. They eyed me curiously, but did nothing else. They did, however, follow me when I started towards the throne room doors with the intent to find a bathroom. The pair fell in step behind me as I walked, the clink of their armor echoing through the room.

Glancing over my shoulder, I gave them a bemused look. I stopped walking and they paused as well, only to resume walking when I did.

Great, I hope they don’t follow me into the bathroom as well, I huffed in annoyance. I had no clue why Celestia had thought that I needed protection. I could still protect myself from most of the nobles, the Elements hadn’t affected that. I just couldn’t hear what they were saying now, which was fine because it’s not like they had anything useful to say anyways.

I had just reached the doors, when a low nicker sounded behind me. Turning, I blinked in surprise when I saw Celestia walking towards me with Luna trailing behind.

Upon reaching me, Celestia smiled softly before signing. ~How are you feeling this morning?~

Running the motions through my head, it took a few seconds for my tired mind to process what she had just said. When I finally understood, I smiled. ~Slightly better than I was last night, thanks~

~I would just like to apologize again for what has happened~ Celestia signed, her ears splaying back.

I shook my head, still smiling.

~It’s fine~ I signed. ~You were just trying to help. And technically you did get me talking again. We just can’t understand each other now~

~We’ll figure out what’s going on. I promise~ Celestia signed. ~In the meantime, we can have Twilight try and teach you the language~

I frowned at that, my brow furrowing. While that would probably be for the best, could I even make the noises required for their language? It sounded like regular horse nickering, but that didn’t necessarily mean that I could replicate it.

Glancing back up at Celestia, I pointed at myself and said, “Max.”

Celestia gave me a confused look until I repeated the gesture. Her eyes then lit up and she smiled. Lifting a hoof, she pressed it against her chestplate and said what I assumed was her name. It was a shrill nicker that ended in a click of the teeth.

I tried to copy the noise, only for both of us to flinch when I failed completely. Even when Celestia repeated the noise several more times, I couldn’t seem to get it right.

A troubled look crossed the princesses’ faces. Luna stepped forward and placed a hoof on her own chest before saying (once again assuming) her name: a low whinny followed by a snort.

The snort I was able to do fairly well, but I failed at the whinny, as Luna’s wince clearly showed. Both princesses exchanged worried looks.

Learning their language might be harder than I thought, I mused, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Maybe if I—

I winced as my bladder suddenly reminded me that it wasn’t in the mood for delays. Deciding that I could worry about the language barrier once my bladder was empty, I started to sign something to Celestia, only to wince again as the pressure grew. With that, I turned and started to push the throne room doors open, only to pause when Celestia nickered.

~May I inquire as to where you are going?~ she asked. Behind her, Luna shot the back of Celestia’s head an annoyed look before rolling her eyes at me.

~To the bathroom~ I replied quickly, resisting the urge to cross my legs and dance in place. ~I really have to pee. I am allowed to leave, aren’t I?~

~Of course~ Celestia signed. ~Would you mind if I accompanied you—~

Luna nickered loudly, interrupting Celestia. She gave her sister an incredulous look before turning to look at me.

~Go take care of whatever you need to take care of~ she signed.

Celestia gave her sister a hurt look, to which Luna sighed and nuzzled her neck, whinnying softly. Celestia sighed as well before returning the gesture.

I watched the two of them for a few seconds before my bladder twinged. Turning quickly, I pushed the throne room doors open and stepped out into the hall. The Battlemages slipped out as well before the doors could fully closed again. The three of us hurried off down the hall, my ever-constant shadows following faithfully behind me.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Thankfully, the Battlemages didn’t end up following me into the bathroom. They waited outside, positioned on either side of the door, while I did my business. There were no candles in this one, so, without anything to distract myself with, I was in and out fairly quickly.

As I exited the bathroom, I wiped my wet hands on my pants before glancing down at the pair.

“Is this going to be a common thing, you following me around everywhere?” I asked, motioning between the two of them. “Cause I don’t think Twilight’s gonna like you two standing in the corner, watching us sleep.”

The mare Battlemage cocked her head to the side before nickering.

“Alright, but if things get steamy, you ain’t joining in, got it?” I huffed, pointing a finger at her.

The Battlemage flinched back as I pointed at her before a glare crossed her face and she snorted. Taking a step forward, she nickered loudly, her eyes narrowing.

“Well, I don’t care how much you need it, it ain’t happenin’!” I shouted. Throwing my hands up in the air, I turned and headed off down the hall. There was a moment of silence before I heard the Battlemages whinney in alarm. The sounds of hooves on marble filled the air as they scrambled to catch up with me. I couldn’t help but smirk. They might not have known what I was saying, but it was still fun to mess with them.

Besides, it wasn’t like I could do much else with them, given the language barrier.

I could hear the mare Battlemage grumbling beside me as we made our way back towards the throne room, while the stallion remained quiet.

Birdsong filled the air as I stepped through the archway, where dozens of birds of various colors flitted from tree to tree. Dew still covered the ground, glinting in the morning sunlight. Flowers dotted the ground, several patches of them waiting for the sun to rise higher in order to bloom. There was a family of rabbits beside the brook, washing themselves and enjoying life.

Taking a deep breath, I smiled as the smell of morning filled my nostrils. I stepped off of the stepping stones and into the grass, wincing slightly as the cold dew got onto my toes; my sandals did little to protect my feet. I moved quickly until I got into a patch of sunlight where the dew had already evaporated.

I moved further into the garden, enjoying the peace and quiet. In fact, it was too quiet. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked around for my guards. It took me a few seconds to find them. They were standing back by the archway, watching me from a distance. That seemed strange to me, but seeing as that was the only real entrance into the gardens, I figured that they were just picking a good spot to set up watch. Pushing the guards from my mind, I turned and wandered aimlessly through the gardens.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Ready to leave?”

Gem Weaver’s eyes narrowed as she watched the human disappear into the gardens. “Yes. No need to stick around any longer. They will deal with him soon enough.”

Her partner glanced over at her, his face impassive.

“And what do we tell the Princesses?” he asked. “You do realize that Princess Sparkle will have our heads for this, right?”

Gem Weaver snorted before turning and heading back into the castle’s interior. “You leave that to me.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I had been wandering for a few minutes before I entered a small clearing surrounded by rose bushes. Stopping off at one of the bigger ones, I eyed a couple of the flowers curiously. They were white, yet had a deep crimson lining the rims of the petals.

Examining several of them, I picked a few of the larger ones and placed them gingerly in my pocket for later. Twilight might enjoy these. With that, I stepped through the bushes and into a small clearing.

As I stepped out into the empty clearing, I felt a light impact on my left shoulder, causing me to jump. Quickly glancing over, I blinked in surprise upon seeing a large bird perched upon my shoulder, eyeing me curiously. It was fire red, with bright-orange feathers mixed in. Its tail feathers were long, dangling down by my waist. It shifted on my shoulders, being mindful of its talons.

I stared at the bird with wide-eyes, not believing what I was seeing. I knew that animals were generally more friendly here in Equestria, but I had never actually had a bird come up and perch upon me before. At least, not without Fluttershy being present.

“And what do you want?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.

The bird chirped and cocked its head to the side, staring at me with a large red eye. It chirped again, making a long, low whistling noise before taking off. I winced, closing my eyes on reflex as its wings cuffed the back of my head. Orange feathers fluttered around me as I gazed skyward, watching the strange bird fly off towards the castle. My shoulder suddenly felt cold for some reason.

Watching the bird until it disappeared into the sky, I moved to head back towards the palace, only to freeze when I realized that the clearing wasn’t as empty as I had first thought. There, standing in the shadows of the trees on the far side of the clearing, were four humans: three males and a lanky female. They eyed me cautiously, the female hiding behind one of the males, a large fellow who had really broad shoulders. They were all clad in plain brown clothing, some of the pieces tattered slightly.

As I watched, the big guy took a tentative step forward, causing the female to chirp and hid behind one of the other males. He took another step and I began to slowly back up, hold my arms up in an attempt to keep him calm.

“Whoa, there, fella’,” I said softly, “It’s all good. I don’t want your girl. I’ll just be going, okay?” I made to turn around, but stopped when the male suddenly raised a hand and motioned towards me.

“Come,” he grunted.

I froze, my brain grinding to a halt as it tried to process what had happened. The human had just talked. The human had just talked!

B-but… that doesn’t make any sense! Humans can’t speak! Humans aren’t smart enough to speak. They are just mindless animals here. Ponies would have noticed if humans were intelligent, right? Ponies would have… noticed… No, it can’t be that stupidly simple, can it? No pony has ever heard a human speak. No pony has ever heard a human speak! My eyes widened as my brain started to work again.

“They blasted me with the Elements,” I muttered, covering my mouth with my hand as I began to pace. The humans watched me, their heads moving back and forth. “Ponies stop understanding me, I stop understanding them, I understand humans. It can’t be… can it? Really? It’s… it’s not...” I glance over at the large male, whose brow is now furrowed, a look of confusion on his face.

“Come?” he said again, the word sounding more like a question. He motioned with his hand, trying to get me to approach.

I just stared at him.

“Come, now!” he said, putting more force into the words.

“They’re intelligent,” I muttered to myself. “No, not really intelligent, but sapient. They can think? Why has nobody noticed this before? Have they always been this intelligent, or are they getting—”

“I’m sorry if he was bothering you, sir,” the guard said, levitating the struggling human behind him. “He got out of his kennel and pulled a runner on me when I wasn’t looking. Managed to get the lock open and everything. I swear, we’ve never had this issue before. Those locks were designed to be human-proof, but somehow they’ve recently managed to figure out how to open them from the inside.”

“—smarter,” I breathed, staring at the humans with wide eyes. “Oooh, this is either really good, or really bad.”

“Come,” the large male huffed, taking a step closer to me. “Come, come see, now!”

“Come, come! Come and see!” the female chirped, poking her head out from behind her human shield.

“See now, yes. Follow!” one of the other males said, nodding his head. “Come, now.”

“Oh man, I know a couple of ponies that are gonna want to hear about this,” I said to myself. Twilight was going to have a fit when she found out. Celestia too. I just had to get back and tell them. This was big. Really big.

I turned to head back to the castle, but the large human moved to block my path.

“No, no go. Come,” he said before pushing me back into the clearing.

I staggered slightly, almost falling before I managed to get my feet beneath me again. Holy hell, this guy is strong. Glaring at him, I pointed up towards the castle, barely visible above the surrounding foliage. “No, I’m not going with you. I have to go there. It’s important.”

“No, not there. Come,” he grunted, baring his teeth.

“No, I have to go there,” I repeated, pointing at the castle again. “I need to talk to—GAH!” Apparently having grown tired of my unwillingness to follow, the large human decided to take matters into his own hands. Grabbing me by the scruff of my shirt, he then picked me up and flung me over his shoulder.

“Come,” he said before stalking off into the trees, in the opposite direction of the castle.

“How about no,” I growled, starting to struggle. I tried to push myself off of him, but he smacked the back of my head. I immediately went limp, stars exploding in front of my eyes as a loud ringing filled my ears. Dazed, I could only hang there as the humans headed off into the gardens, moving further and further away from the palace.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“P-Princess Celestia?”

Celestia blinked, her ears perking up as a timid voice spoke up behind her. Turning, she gave a nervous-looking Twilight Sparkle a soft smile. “Yes, Twilight?”

The smaller alicorn shuffled back and forth awkwardly, unable to look Celestia in the eye. Her wings twitched by her side, furling and unfurling slightly. She opened and closed her mouth several times before sighing heavily and hanging her head.

“I wanted to apologize for how I acted towards you yesterday, Princess,” she murmured, keeping her head lowered. “It wasn’t your fault the Elements did whatever it was they did, and I had no right to take my fear out on you like that. I’m sorry.”

Celestia stared blankly down at her for a few seconds before a smile slowly spread across her lips. Leaning down, she gently nuzzled the top of Twilight’s head.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Twilight,” she said. “While it is true that your actions hurt slightly, it’s perfectly normal to be distressed when somepony you care about is in trouble, especially with the hormones from estrus affecting your judgement.”

“That doesn’t forgive what I did though,” Twilight muttered, her ears pressed against her head. “You were just trying to help, and I snapped at you.”

“Yes, but you’ve already apologized for that,” Celestia said softly. “Just remember to try and not take your frustrations out on those who are trying to help you in the future. Could you imagine what it would be like if I took my anger out on those who came to petition to me? Soon, nopony would come to me for help.” As she finished speaking, Celestia continued to rest her cheek on Twilight’s head, enjoying the sensation. Twilight tentatively returned the nuzzle, causing Celestia to hum softly. It had been awhile since they had had a moment together. Ever since she had sent Twilight to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, it seemed like they barely had time for each other anymore. Four years might seem like a short period of time to one whose life was measured in millennia, but Twilight had grown so much in those few brief years that Celestia felt like she had missed much of her growth.

Gently running her nose through Twilight’s mane, she inhaled softly, taking in her student’s scent. The familiar aroma of lavender that always seemed to follow Twilight around filled Celestia’s nostrils, along with the faint spicy hint of a mare in heat. However, a new fragrance accompanied the old ones, buried beneath Twilight’s natural scent. The faint smell of metal and oaken smoke tickled Celestia’s nose, causing her nostrils to twitch.

It took her a few seconds to place the scent, but when she did, her smile faded. It belonged to Max. She hadn’t realized how artificial his scent was, so similar to the well oiled machines the griffons occasionally liked to brag about. Nothing at all like the nature-like aromas that ponies gave off.

Her mind wandering to the strange human, she pulled back from Twilight slowly, a small frown flitting across her face. A frown that Twilight noticed almost immediately.

“Princess…?” she began before trailing off, the uncertainty clear in her voice.

Celestia blinked, giving her head a small shake before looking down at Twilight. She smiled softly, a melancholy look in her eyes.

“I realize that you might not be too eager to have my assistance again, especially after what has happened,” she said, “but I promise you, we’re going to fix this one way or another. Even if I have to spend months teaching Max our language myself, I will help fix the damage I have caused.” As Celestia finished speaking, Twilight remained silent, staring up at her with an unreadable look on her face. After a few seconds, Celestia’s ears splayed back, and her smile faded.

“There is no damage to fix,” Twilight said suddenly, surprising Celestia. “After calming down and sleeping on it, I realize that the Elements did what you intended them to do. They removed the chaos magic from within Max, and he is now able to talk again.”

“But, he can’t understand us, nor we him,” Celestia said quietly.

“When we first met, we couldn’t understand one another easily,” Twilight countered, a small smile slowly spreading across her muzzle. “It took him forever to write out what he wanted to say, and he couldn’t ‘talk’ for long before his hand would cramp up. Because of this, I taught him hoof-language. It took him a few weeks to get the basics, but within two months, we were able to communicate almost flawlessly.

“Now, we once again find that we can’t understand one another easily,” she continued, her smile growing. “So that means that I just have to teach him all over again.”

“YEAH!” Both alicorns jumped at the loud shout that echoed around the room. They both watched, wide-eyed, as Rainbow fluttered down between them, a confident smirk on her face.

“We’ve got this in the bag!” she crowed, jabbing at the air with her hooves. “the big guy was able to figure out that weird clapping language of his in two months? We’ll have him speaking normally in under one!”

Celestia and Twilight glanced at one another before returning their attention to Rainbow.

“It’s not that simple, Rainbow,” Twilight said, biting her lip. “Hoof-language is a lot easier to learn than Equestrian. For hoof-language, you only have to learn a select few key phrases in order to start making sentences. For Equestrian, you have to learn sentence structure, words, grammar, and syntax.”

Rainbow scoffed, waving her hoof dismissively. “There you go, making it all eggheady again—”

“Not to mention,” Luna interrupted, walking up to stand next to her sister, a grim look on her face “that he might not be able to replicate the noise necessary to speak our language.”

“W-what do you mean?” Twilight asked, her ears splaying backwards.

“Earlier, before you were awake, we tried a simple experiment,” Luna explained. “Or, I should say, Max tried it. He said what we assumed to be his name, and Celestia did so as well. However, when Max tried to copy her, he was unable to make the noises necessary to pronounce her name. The closest he got was something that sounded like ‘caelum’.”

“This… this might make things difficult,” Twilight hummed. She rubbed her chin, a troubled look crossing her face. “If his vocal chords aren’t able to…” She trailed off, her eyes darting back and forth as her brow furrowed.

Silence fell over the group for a moment before Rarity cleared her throat.

“Not to, um… interrupt the conversation,” she said softly, “but where is Max exactly?”

“Hey, yeah!” Rainbow said, perking up. She glanced around the room, as if just noticing the lack of the human. “He’s not here, and Twilight’s not freaking out!”

“Hey!” Twilight cried at the same time Celestia began to speak.

“He went to the bathroom some time ago,” she said. “I dare say he might be freshening up after the events of last night. Not to worry, though. His guards went with him.”

Just as she finished speaking, the throne room doors swung open and a single Battlemage entered. Glancing around, she looked around before spotting Celestia and hurrying over.

As the Battlemage drew nearer, Celestia perked up, and her eyes widened. “Sergeant Gem Weaver? What are you doing here instead of guarding—”

“We’ve got a problem,” The Battlemage, Gem Weaver, said as she came to a stop in front of the group.

“And what, pray tell, is that?” Luna asked cooly. “Besides the fact you abandoned your charge.”

“That’s just it,” Gem Weaver said, her ears splaying back. “We followed the Anomaly to the bathroom, but didn’t follow him in. When he didn’t emerge again after a few minutes, I sent Iron Shore in to check on him. There was no sign of the Anomaly inside the bathroom, and the window was wide open. I currently have Iron Shore searching the castle for the human, and I came right here to inform you of the situation.” Silence fell as the Battlemage stopped speaking. Everyone was staring at her, wide-eyed.

“Max ran off?” Twilight whispered in confusion.

“Seems strange,” Luna muttered, her brow furrowing. “Why would he wander off like that?”

“Sergeant,” Celestia said loudly, turning to look at Gem Weaver.

The Battlemage stood at attention, awaiting orders.

“I want you to gather several squads of Battlemages and search the castle for him. Look in the gardens as well. He has shown a preference for them in the past. Remember, no force. He isn’t in trouble, we just want to make sure he is safe.”

Gem Weaver nodded, and moved to run off, but stopped when Twilight gasped loudly.

“Wait! I almost forgot about the tracking spell!” she squealed, smiling widely.

Gem Weaver froze, her entire body stiffening suddenly.

Luna gave Twilight a curious look. “Tracking spell?”

“Yes!” Twilight chirped, happily nodding her head. “I placed it on him months ago, back when he was going through his ‘need-to-find-trouble’ phase so I could locate him quickly. The spell should still be in effect though, so finding him should be easy enough. One second!”

As Twilight’s horn lit up, Luna blinked before scrunching up her muzzle.

“Is it common practice nowadays to place tracking spells on one’s mates?” she muttered, glancing at the others. No one met her gaze, however, and Rarity coughed into her hoof.

“Not typically,” she said weakly.

“Ah, I see,” Luna hummed before returning her attention to Twilight. She had a look of concentration on her face, her horn glowing steadily brighter. Just as the spell was about to reach its apex, the light around the tip of Twilight’s horn sputtered and died suddenly in a shower of sparks.

Twilight blinked once, staring up at her horn in confusion. She tried casting the spell again, only to flinch as sparks rained down upon her head for a second time. Eyes widening in horror, she cast the spell for a third time, only to be met with the same results.

“It’s not working,” she said shrilly.

“Are you sure the spell didn’t wear off?” Luna asked, her tone soft as she tried to calm the panicking Twilight.

“Yes, I’m sure!” Twilight snapped as another shower of sparks cascaded from her horn. “It worked last night. I casted it right before Max arrived and we used the Elements… of Harmony…” She trailed off, a look of dawning comprehension bleeding in through her horror.

“The Elements,” she breathed, staring off into space. “They removed all forms of foreign magic from his body. So that means when we blasted him…”

“Your spell was removed along with the chaos magic,” Celestia finished, her eyes widening as well. A small gasp rippled around the gathered ponies as they suddenly realized what was happening.

Slowly, Twilight’s ears began to lower as her pupils shrunk.

“I… I have no clue where Max is.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

When my head had stopped ringing enough for me to become aware of my surroundings, I realized that the humans had somehow managed to climb the walls of the gardens. We were now moving through the outskirts of Canterlot, keeping to the trees and bushes that crept up along a wrought iron fence. On the other side of the fence, I could see one of the streets of lower Canterlot, broken down buildings and shops lining the far side. Glancing to the left, I saw a cliff edge a few meters away, dropping down to the mountain side far below.

Wincing slightly, I tried to push myself up, only to groan as my head throbbed. The human holding me shifted slightly.

“Stay,” he grunted.

I obeyed, if only to not be hit in the head again; the guy packed a punch. I think I’ll call him ‘Brute’ for now.

The humans continued to follow the fence, silently making their way through the foliage. The two smaller males walked in front of the large one, with the female bringing up the rear. She eyed me curiously as she walked, her head cocked to the side.

“Pain, yes?” she asked as the large male jostled me slightly, causing me to wince.

“Yes, I’m in pain,” I growled, “because someone—” I glared at the back of Brute’s head “—hit me harder than he needed to.”

“Need to come,” Brute said. “Was going, need to come.”

“I needed to go to the castle,” I replied, glaring at the ground beneath me. “I have someone I need to talk to. Several someones I needed to talk to. Now turn around and take me back.”

“Can’t,” Brute grunted. “Need to come. Need to see.”

“I’m thinking about changing your name to Tarzan,” I huffed. Blood was pooling in my head, making the pounding even worse.

At my words, Brute paused, causing the female to nearly crash into him, her head missing mine by inches.

“Name?” he asked, turning his head to look back at me.

“Yeah, a name,” I grunted. “It’s what people call you, it’s who you are. Like, my name is Max. Everyone calls me that. That’s who I am.”

“Name?” Brute repeated again. “Name is Tarzan?”

I blinked before struggling to turn and look him in the eye. “What? No, your name isn’t really Tarzan, I was just thinking about calling you it. Like a nickname.”

“Name is Tarzan,” Brute said firmly before beginning to walk again.

“I don’t believe this,” I groaned as I fell back across his back. After a few seconds, I glanced up at the female. “That means that you must be Jane,” I snarked, rolling my eyes.

She blinked up at me before tilting her head to the other side. “Jane? Name is Jane?”

“No, I meant…” I trailed off with a groan, my head dropping again. “Nevermind.”

“Name is Jane!” she chirped happily.

“Fuck my life.”

They continued walking for a few more minutes before I felt Brute—or the newly christened ‘Tarzan’—come to a halt. Pushing myself up, I glanced around to see why we had stopped. A large wall loomed in front of us, standing nearly twelve feet high. It was made out of uneven bricks, some of which jutted out at random intervals. The humans were staring up at it with blank looks on their faces.

Glancing at Tarzan, I tapped him on the top of the head. “Well, it appears we can’t go any further so... can you let me down now?”

He remained silent, cocking his head to the side as he continued to stare at the wall.

I tapped on his head again. “Hey, you in there? Can you let me doooOOOOOWN!” I yelped in surprise, clinging to Tarzan as he suddenly jumped into the air. Latching onto the uneven bricks, he began to climb up the wall one-handed, the other one holding me in place. From my position on his back, I could watch as the others did the same, clawing their way up the rough, uneven surface of the wall as easily as one would scale a rock-climbing wall.

“Okay, I don’t like this,” I said as they continued to climb. “The grounds getting kinda far away. I really don’t like this. Is this really necessary? Put me down!”

Reaching the top of the wall, Tarzan lifted himself up and swung his legs around until he was sitting on top of it. With a grunt, he pulled me from his shoulder and, holding me by the back of my shirt, dangled me down the side of the wall.

I struggled, flailing about as I hung in midair. “Put me down! Put me down! Put me the fuck—GAH!” My stomach rose to my throat as Tarzan suddenly released his hold on me, dropping me over a half dozen feet to the ground below. I crumpled immediately upon hitting the ground, rolling several times before I collapsed in a heap on the wet grass.

With a groan, I rolled onto my back just as a soft ‘thump’ came from my right. A few seconds later, a face filled my vision as Tarzan stared down at me with a blank look on his face.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” I asked, glaring up at him. “What possibly possessed you to drop me on my ass like that?”

He blinked several times before tilting his head to the side. “Told to.”

I glared at him for a few more seconds before closing my eyes and sighing explosively. Pushing myself up into a seated position, I glanced around the area I suddenly found myself in. The enclosure was quiet, the faint sound of birdsong off in the distance the only sound. The grass was long, nearly coming up to my chest as I sat there. Cherry trees, all of which were in bloom, lined a dirt pathway which ran through the grass a few meters away. A white bench rested beside the path, the paint beginning to chip. In the corner where two walls met, a large pond glinted in the sunlight, dozens of lily pads covering its surface.

As I got to my feet, the other three humans dropped from the top of the wall, landing catlike in the grass.

“Where are we?” I asked nobody in particular as I adjusted my ponytail.

“No know,” the female said, moving to stand beside me. “Pony place. Can’t stay. Need to go.”

Where are we going?” I asked, glancing back at her.

“Den. You see. Come now,” she said, before beginning to push me along.

I resisted for a few seconds before groaning and allowing her to guide me forward. Tarzan moved to pick me up again, but froze as I pointed a finger at him.

“No,” I said, glaring at him. “Don’t touch me.” He bared his teeth, but backed off.

We had been walking for a few minutes when I suddenly caught sight of an estate through the trees. It was a tall, white building, nearly five stories high. It didn’t appear to be our destination, as it was still off in the distance, and we weren’t heading towards it. I was being lead around the building, towards the far wall of the fence.

As we walked, I kept casting glances at the other humans. They still had the same blank look all Equestrian humans wore, that much hadn’t changed. However, their eyes seemed to gleam more, darting back and forth as they took in as much detail as possible. One of the smaller males kept glancing over his shoulder, as if checking to make sure we weren’t being followed.

Or it could have been to make sure no ‘predators’ were sneaking up from behind, I thought, reminding myself that these creatures were more akin to animals than I was at the moment. But then that raised the question of when they started to get smarter. I paused for a second, my brow furrowing, before I continued walking. They were getting smarter, right? It wasn’t like they had been intelligent all along, right?

I suddenly froze, my eyes widening in alarm as the thought entered my head. They hadn’t been intelligent the whole time, could they have? I mean, if no one could understand them, could they have been somewhat smart this whole time and nobody knew? And if that’s the case, and these humans were really intelligent, then that meant…

A struggling body on top of me, blood pouring down my arm and body as I sunk the makeshift blade deeper into his neck.

The blade sunk into the human’s eye with a sickening sound, and he reared back, squealing loudly as crimson liquid poured from the ruined organ.

My fists pounded into the body beneath me, the crunch of breaking bones filling the air as I continued to smash away.

The girl squirmed beneath me, mouth opening and closing as she gasped pitifully for air. Her eyes glazed over slowly as I continued to choke the life from her.

Gagging, I barely managed to get to a nearby bush in time before I voided my stomach’s contents. Having had nothing to eat since the morning before, I dry heaved a couple of times before spewing a thick, disgusting bile into the green foliage. I tried to calm myself, but another flashback of my time in the fighting pit caused me to retch again, more bile flying into the bush.

Breathing heavily, I raised a shaky hand and wiped my lips clean. I closed my eyes, trying desperately to forget the feeling of skin tearing and bone breaking. It had been bad enough dealing with those memories believing that the humans I had killed had the mindset of an animal, but if they had actually been intelligent at the time…

I retched again, more bile dribbling from my lips.

A chirp came from my left and I felt a hand placed on my shoulder. Glancing around, I saw the female human, Jane, giving me what appeared to be a concerned look.

“Pain, yes?” she asked.

“Yes,” I groaned, resting in a crouch with my hands on my knees. After a few seconds, and I sighed and shook my head. “Well, no… I mean… It’s complicated.”

“Pain, no?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “Hurt, yes?”

Staring at the ground, I shook my head before tapping it.

“Pain here,” I said before shaking my head again, “but I’m not hurt. I have some… bad memories that I would like to forget. Just give me a sec.”

“Bad ghosts,” she said sadly, nodding her head. She placed a hand on my cheek, stroking it gently.

“More like wraiths,” I grunted. Taking a deep breath, I spat into the bush before straightening up. My arms were shaky, my legs were jittery, and I really, really needed Twilight at the moment.

Glancing over at the female, I swallowed thickly—wincing at the horrible acid taste in my mouth—before asking, “Is there anyway I could convince you to take me back to the palace?” At her confused look, I pointed back the way we came.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. She pointed in the direction we were headed. “Den.”

“I figured as much,” I groaned. “And if I refuse to go?”

Tarzan suddenly shifted behind me, pulling his lips back in a silent snarl.

“Alright, alright, I get it,” I sighed. “Let’s get moving then.”

The humans immediately started moving again, herding me along the dirt path. The two nameless males led the way, while Tarzan brought up the rear. Jane seemed to stick close to my side, double-checking on me ever couple of feet. As we walked, I clenched and unclenched my hands, trying to stop them from trembling.

We were rounding a bend in the path when the two humans in front suddenly froze, their bodies going stiff. One of them started backing up, shaking his head.

“Not there,” he muttered, fidgeting. “Not there, not safe.” This caused both Tarzan and Jane to become agitated as well.

With a large hedge in the way, I couldn’t see what it was that had startled them. I tried to move forward to see, but was stopped by Jane.

“No, no, no,” she whimpered, placing a hand on my chest and pushing me back. “Don’t go. Not safe!”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just gonna look,” I said. Knocking her hand aside, I ignored her whimpers and stepped around the hedge, glancing curiously down the path. Hedges bordered the path, with blooming cherry trees growing behind them. Several dozen meters away, a small garden fountain trickled away. There was another path on the other side of the fountain, disappearing into the distance.

At first, I was unsure about what had spooked them, as the path appeared to be deserted. However, upon closer examination, I saw a pony in a wheelchair parked beside a bench in a small hollow within the hedge, right beneath a cherry tree.

I stared at the pony for a few seconds before glancing over my shoulder at the shivering humans.

“Seriously? That’s what scared you?” I asked incredulously, pointing at the pony.

“Not safe. Must go,” one of them hissed, eyes darting between me and the half-hidden pony.

Rolling my eyes, I turned and marched down the path towards the pony, causing the humans to yelp in alarm. Ignoring them, I approached the pony, I tilted my head to the side as I tried to get a better look at them. From the body structure, it appeared that they were a mare. She was sitting with her head bowed, her mane hanging in front of her face. A baggy white shirt covered her upper body, straps hanging uselessly from the sleeves. As I drew nearer, I could see a horn sticking out of her hair.

My eyes narrowed. Those colors… it couldn’t be...

“Lyra?” I asked aloud. At the sound of my voice, the mare’s ears perked and she raised her head. A familiar—if somewhat unfriendly—pair of golden eyes stared back at me, the mismatched pupils shrinking slightly. Seeing that I had been correct, I laughed softly to myself as I straightened up.

“Well, if you’re here,” I said to myself with a chuckle, “I can only assume that the building up on the hill is an insane asylum. Where else would they put a nut like you?”

“Mental hospital,” she said, her expression blank, hooded eyes glazed over slightly as she looked up at me with a small frown.

I froze, my eyes widening as I stared down at her. “What?”

“They don’t like it when you call it an insane asylum,” she said before rolling her eyes. “They think it’ll… upset the patients, so they use mental hospital instead. It makes them feel better, like they can actually cure the individuals dumped here. The patients don’t care. They’re too busy being insane to care what you call the place. Personally, I prefer ‘insane asylum’. It’s much more accurate. A place to stow the insane.”

I continued to stare down at her, mouth opening and closing wordlessly as I tried to process what I was hearing. Lyra just watched me, a bemused look on her face.

Eventually I found my voice.

“You can understand me?!” I practically shouted. “I-I can understand you?!”

“You certainly are more talkative than the last time we met,” she grumbled, ears pressing against her head.

“But… but… you can understand me?” I stammered, my mind reeling.

“Yes, I can,” Lyra said dully. “I think we’ve been over this before, no? I can understand you and your friends over there.” She motioned with a hoof towards the other humans, who were timidly poking their heads around the hedge, fearful looks on their faces.

I stare at her blankly for a few seconds before my eyes widened and I inhaled sharply.

“‘I can hear them singing’,” I breathed. “‘Their song burns my soul and sets my resolve ablaze’.”

Lyra’s eyes widened as well, and she gave me an incredulous look before grimacing and holding her head in her hooves.

“Oh dear Celestia,” she groaned. “You’re just now getting that? We’re all doomed.”

“Well, you weren’t exactly making a whole lot of sense when you screamed it in my face,” I huffed, glaring at her. “You could understand humans the entire time?” I motioned over my shoulder towards my escort. “You could understand them this entire time?!”

“The entire time?” Lyra asked, massaging her temple. “No. I’ve only been able to understand them since they’ve started talking, idiot. It’s hard to understand somepony when there is nothing to be said.”

“‘Since they’ve started talking’?” I repeated, my brow furrowing. Does that mean that they weren’t originally intelligent creatures?

Lyra nodded. “Yes, they used to be much more quiet. However, they’re becoming a lot more talkative. When it first started, they only knew a few words. You have no idea how aggravating it is to listen to a human chirp ‘grass’ for eight hours straight.” She groaned, rubbing her temples again. “Grass, grass, grass, grass, grass.”

“So, you knew that humans were intelligent?” I asked, “or were becoming intelligent,” I added a few seconds later.

“So it would seem,” Lyra growled, covering an eye with her hoof and leaning on the arm of her wheelchair.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone then?!” I asked, throwing my hands up in frustration.

Lyra’s head snapped up and she gaped at me for a few seconds before her expression morphed into a snarl.

“You think I haven’t?” she hissed. “You think I’ve been mute about this whole thing? How the buck do you think I ended up here?!” She motioned around her, pointing up towards the building, just barely visible through the foliage of the trees. “Of course I told ponies, you twit. I told them, and I told them, and I told them until I was blue in the face, and their only response was to roll their eyes and laugh. ‘Oh, there goes human-obsessed Lyra again, ranting and raving about the impossible’. Bon-Bon broke up with me because of my ‘obsession’. And despite all of that, I continued to try and get ponies to listen… and they ended up locking me up and trying to ‘help’ me with my ‘mental issues’.

“‘Why didn’t you tell anyone then?’,” she snarked, leaning back in the wheelchair and glaring at me. “Truly, you are the Oblivious King.”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” I grumbled, rubbing the back of my head. An uncomfortable silence fell around us, Lyra glaring at me while I couldn’t meet her eye.

After a few long seconds, I coughed lightly.

“Um, h-how… How did this happen exactly?” I asked.

“How did what happen?” Lyra huffed.

“The whole ‘understanding humans’ thing,” I said, motioning between me and her. “So far, you’re the only one who can understand me, so it can’t be natural.”

“It’s not,” Lyra sighed, her glare softening. Her eyes slowly drifted upwards, watching the cherry blossoms drifting softly on the breeze. “It’s also a long story, too.”

“I don’t think I have anywhere else to be,” I said slowly, glancing over my shoulder at the other humans. They were still hiding mostly behind the hedge, eyeing me and Lyra nervously.

“Well,” Lyra said, drawing out the word, “I guess if you really want to know, then I have nothing better to do. I’m already hiding from my personal attendant…” Her eyes flicked over to me for a brief second before she closed them and sighed. “Alright, I’ll tell you.”

As she got comfortable in the wheelchair, I took a seat on the bench beside her. She shifted left and right before snuggling down into the cushion, pulling the shirt tighter around herself. Silence hung in the air as she collected her thoughts, her eyes closed.

After nearly a minute of quiet, she opened her eyes and looked up, a faraway look crossing her face. She took a deep breath before beginning to speak. Her voice was soft, the usual bite to it absent as she began her tale.

“All this madness, my life falling apart around me, my ‘insanity’. It all started at the town of Sandpoint.”

Author's Note

I like to think that Max was speaking the Equestrian human language the entire time, he just couldn't understand it. That means that every time he growled or yelped, he was shouting out random words like "toaster" or "tax returns".

Chapter 57: Sandpoint

The town of Sandpoint is located on the atoll island of Asili, one of the northern islands of Zebrica. Located southeast of Baltimare, Asili was formed by an active volcano in the early years of the world. Having long since been inactive, the crater of the volcano collapsed in on itself, forming an inland bay. Zebrican legend states that it was from this island that Zyryja, the All-Mother, created all life on Equus, and it is where the end of the world will begin.

Sandpoint, the capital of Asili, was built along the western shore of the bay, nestled in the shadow of the Mountain of Mwisho, the highest point on the island and one of the tallest mountains on Equus. Originally a zebra settlement from the mainland, due to its relative proximity with the rest of the civilized world, Sandpoint quickly became a very successful port city. It’s practically the center of all of Equus’ trade, as almost all exports pass through Sandpoint at some point on their journey around the world.

The town has also become a veritable mixing pot of different species. Zebras, ponies, changelings, diamond dogs, griffons, minotaurs, sirens, breezies, sanguinarians, hellsteeds, seaponies, hippogriffs; all species from around the world can be found within the city.

With so many different cultures and languages all mixed up in the same location, communication can sometimes be a problem, as one Lyra Heartstrings was finding out rather quickly.

“Excuse me, can you help me?”

“Ami lisin! El eldne in amuph!”

“If you could just—”

“Sina muda kwa ajili yenu, msichana!”

“Ugh!” Glaring around at the bustling marketplace, Lyra blew a strand of mane out of her face before pushing her pith hat up higher on her head. “This is ridiculous. I just need bucking directions. Is that so much to ask for? Is it?!” A few of the nearby creatures glanced over at her curiously before returning to their tasks. A diamond dog snickered, picking at a tooth with a cracked claw.

“Unbelievable,” Lyra grunted. She rolled her eyes and adjusted her saddlebags before huffing loudly. Turning, she made her way along the street, glancing at the shop signs as she passed. Many of them were written in a different language, but had basic Equestrian written beneath in smaller letters. “General Store, Curses & Spells Bookstore, Hoofington’s Maps and Graphs, Pillbug’s Pantry?” Glancing into the grime-covered windows, Lyra winced before sticking out her tongue. “Ewww, no.”

Taking several steps away from the disgusting shop, Lyra glanced around in growing frustration.

“How hard is it to find one building in this place?” she growled. “I mean, half the shops here are stalls anyways. This is ridiculous!” Feeling a headache growing, Lyra ground a hoof into her temple. She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself.

“Easy, Lyra, easy,” she muttered. “There’s no need to get worked up. It’s not like he’s going to leave without you. You haven’t even paid him yet.” Taking one last deep breath, she opened her eyes and glanced around again. There were several more shops she had yet to look at on the other side of the street, and she immediately made her way towards them. However, as soon as she stepped onto the street, a large vardo thundered past, nearly taking off her hoof in the process.

Lyra jumped back with a yelp, her eyes wide.

Two ponies were sitting up front on the vardo, an ash colored batpony with blue and black striped mane and an elderly, tan earth pony with black mane. Golden letters on the side of the cart proudly proclaimed GYPSY THE TELLER’S MAGNIFICENT STORIES.

The earth pony glared at her as they rolled past, one of his eyes narrowing.

“Stop yer gawkin’ and get out of the way, you brewhiem!” he shouted before spitting on the ground in front of her.

“Hey! I’m walking here!” Lyra shouted back, flipping a hoof at him. She saw the old pony sneer at her while the batpony gave her an apologetic look before the both of them and the vardo disappeared in a dust cloud.

“Bucking dirt-brain,” Lyra muttered under her breath, glaring after the shrinking cloud. Snorting, she shook her head before carefully crossing the street. Upon reaching the other side, she checked the shops there, only to find that none of them were what she was looking for either.

Stomping a hoof in frustration, she groaned loudly. “This can’t be happening. Possibly the biggest breakthrough of my career, and I can’t find a Maker-damned pub! This is a load of—GAH!” With a yelp, Lyra jumped back as a small object darted in front of her face. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust and she was able to make out the small form of a breezie fluttering in front of her face.

The small creature frowned at her before darting forward and bopping her on the muzzle. With that, it zoomed off.

Lyra stood there, gawking for a few seconds before she snarled.

“I don’t need to be happier!” she shouted after the breezie. “I need to find my contact, damn it!” Aware of dozens of eyes now staring at her but not caring, Lyra turned with a huff, intent on finding the guardhouse and asking directions. As she turned, though, she ran face first into something. With a yelp, both of them tumbled to the dusty ground.

Staggering to her feet, Lyra blew dirt from her nostrils and blinked her eyes to try and clear them. Once she could see again, she glanced down to see what she had hit, a crude remark on the tip of her tongue. However, she bit back her retort upon seeing a young zebra mare lying on the ground, clearly dazed.

The zebra had on the traditional robes for an apprentice of the local temple: black and white cloth wrapped around her flank, as well as a white desert scarf wrapped around her neck and head. She had a gold piercing in one of her nostrils, the metal band wrapping snugly around the flesh. A small scar ran from the same nostril up the bridge of her nose towards her forehead. She was young, barely a year or so out of foalhood.

Wincing, Lyra bent down and helped the zebra to her feet. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t looking where I was going. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

The zebra swayed on her hooves, her eyes still rolling slightly in her head. Giving her head a good shake, she glanced up at Lyra with large, green eyes.

“N-no, ma’am,” the zebra said in accented Equestrian.

Despite her assurance, Lyra still eyed the zebra closely, looking for any injuries. The zebra seemed to shrink slightly under Lyra’s gaze. Tail tucked between her legs, she tried to slink around Lyra.

“Hey, wait!” Lyra said quickly, holding out a leg and blocking the zebra’s path. “I think you might be able to help me out here.”

The zebra froze, her eyes widening as her ears fell against her head. If it was possible, her tail pressed harder against her body. Swallowing thickly, she shivered once before turning to look at Lyra. “M-ma’am?”

“I need directions to the Rusty Dragon,” Lyra said, rubbing the back of her head. “I… I’m kinda lost.”

The zebra blinked before her body relaxed completely.

“The Rusty Dragon?” she parroted, her ears perking up. “Ma’am, you’re going the wrong way! The Rusty Dragon is back that way,” she said, pointing back the way Lyra had come. “Just keep going straight until you see the apothecary, and it should be on your right.”

Lyra stared down at the zebra, her ears drooping slightly.

“The wrong way?” she muttered, before tsking. “Figures. Thanks, stripey.” Levitating a few bits out of her saddlebag, Lyra gave them to the bewildered zebra before turning and hurrying off down the street.

Weaving her way through the crowded streets, Lyra kept her eyes peeled for the apothecary. Soon enough, the old, worn-out building loomed up on her left, and she took the next right. Rounding the corner, she breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing her destination.

The Rusty Dragon was a large, two-story building with a thatched roof. The building seemed to lean slightly to the right, the wooden beams crooked and mismatched. A large sign was dangled over the door: a dragon wrapped around a pile of gold, etched in the wooden surface. On either side of the tavern were several odd shops, as well as a few cheap brothels.

Lyra stared at the building before her, a blank look on her face. Her golden eyes slowly drifted over the ramshackle tavern. Her right eye twitched. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and sighed explosively.

“Biggest breakthrough of your career, Lyra. Biggest breakthrough of your career,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “Go in, find your contact, and get out.” Steeling herself, Lyra stalked towards the seedy tavern, her hooves heavy with every step. A group of stallions standing outside the door leered at her as she approached, only to balk as she glared back at them. Pushing the door open, she slipped inside.

The interior of the tavern was in slightly better shape than the exterior. Dimly lit by glowing gemstones set in the ceiling, the room had a comfortable feel about it. The air inside was several degrees cooler than the air outside. An earthen scent filled the air with a hint of musk that caused Lyra’s nose to crinkle. Tables were scattered around the common room, many of them occupied by various creatures. A collection of tankards from different nations hung behind the bar in the back. Also behind the counter sat a bored-looking hellsteed, her fiery mane crackling softly over the gentle murmur of voices. She was leaning against the bar, one of her heads resting on her hoof. The other head was glancing around the room, eyeing the patrons carefully.

Heads raised as Lyra entered, eyes staring at her with varying levels of interest. After a few seconds most of them returned to their drinks and food, save for a white pegasus mare with a red mane. She was decked out in dark leather armor that clashed with her light colored coat. Sitting in the far corner of the room, she stared at Lyra with a small smirk on her face. Her pink eyes flared briefly with yellow flames before she lowered her head and went back to counting out a bag of bits.

Glancing around coolly, Lyra’s eyes scanned the room before landing on a zebra sitting at the bar, his back to her. He had a dark desert scarf wrapped around his neck, as well as a olive green robe around his body and forelegs. Several gold bands were wrapped around his forelegs, as well as the base of his tail.

Walking carefully through the sea of tables, Lyra made her way towards the zebra.

“Excuse me,” she said as she approached, “but you wouldn’t happen to be my contact, would you? My name is Lyra Heartstrings.”

The zebra picked up his mug and downed the contents in a single gulp. Placing it back on the counter, he spun around on the stool to face her. He had red tribal markings upon his muzzle that ran up to just below his green eyes.

“Yes, indeed, I am the same,” he said, his voice surprisingly soft. “Desert Vagabond is my name. Welcome, Ms. Heartstrings, to our desert land. We have much to offer, such as sand, sand, and sand.”

“Great,” Lyra muttered under her breath. “Just great. This is going to get old fast.” Clearing her throat, she put on a weak smile as she addressed the zebra. “Excellent. I’m sorry it took me so long to arrive, Mr. Vagabond, but it seems I got lost on the way here.”

“Understandable. That’s somewhat normal,” Vagabond said with a nod, “and please, Ms. Heartstrings, no need to be formal. Call me Vagabond, so many do. It’ll be much simpler, especially for you.”

“Right,” Lyra grunted, her ear twitching. “Listen, I don’t mean to sound rude, but I’ve come a long way for this, and I’d like to get going as soon as possible. Our mutual friend told me you made a recent discovery?”

“Indeed, what our friend speaks is true,” Vagabond smirked. “I’ve found a remarkable find, just for you.”

“Could you be more specific?” Lyra asked. “I don’t want to get out there only to find out that it’s just another Zebrican temple.”

“Oh, it’s no measly temple, that’s for sure,” Vagabond said as he began to root around in his bags. After a few seconds, he pulled a small pendant out of its depths and dangled it in front of Lyra’s face. “Here’s proof. A necklace of such allure.”

Taking the pendant in her magic, Lyra turned it over and studied the runes etched onto its surface, only for her eyes to widen in shock. The markings were like nothing she had seen before. They weren’t ancient Zebrican, nor any other language she was familiar with. The closest language she could figure was ancient Equestrian, but there had never been any signs of any ancient Equestrian civilizations being found anywhere outside of Equestria.

So, why is this here? Lyra asked herself, slowly spinning the pendant in her magic. After a few seconds, she glanced up at Vagabond, who was giving her a smug look.

“Where did you find this?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

Vagabond’s grin grew larger. “I’ll show you.” Getting down off the stool, Vagabond flipped a couple of bits towards the hellsteed. She caught them deftly in her hoof, one head counting out the bits while the other one gave the zebra a sultry wink.

As the pair left the tavern, the stallions grouped outside began to leer at Lyra again. Ears pressed firmly against her head, Lyra stalked past, trying to ignore their jeers and wolf-whistles. Emboldened by the others’ taunts, one of the smaller stallions darted forward and nipped at her flank. Almost immediately, Lyra’s hind leg snapped out, her hoof catching the stallion on the chin. With a ‘crack’, he collapsed into the dust, blood flowing from his nose and mouth.

Wheeling around, Lyra snarled at the rest of the stallions, who stood there with shocked faces. “Yeah! How did you like that? Was that worth it, you bunch of rut-brained imbeciles? Anypony else want some?!” The stallions shied back, and Lyra took a threatening step forward, her horn glowing.

Moving quickly, Vagabond stepped in front of her.

“Do not pick a fight in the street,” he hissed, pushing her back, “unless you want to face defeat.”

“I can take them,” Lyra snarled, but allowed herself to be led away. “They’re nothing but stupid stallions with only one thing on their mind. They need a mare to take ‘em down a few pegs.”

“It’s not them that you must fear, but the ones in golden gear,” Vagabond muttered, still pushing Lyra along. “The noise will surely attract the Guard, and then you’ll be doing time most hard.”

Lyra grumbled to herself, but heeded his words. Turning, she followed Vagabond as he led her down the street.

After a few minutes of walking, they reached the edge of town. Coming to a stop, Vagabond stared out at the vast expanse of desert before them, asmirk on his face.

Lyra moved to stand beside him, a blank look on her face.

“Do we need to buy supplies?” she asked.

Vagabond shook his head. “Nay, I have all the supplies we need. They are all with my faithful steed.”

“‘Steed’?” Lyra asked as Vagabond put a hoof to his lips and whistled shrilly. Almost instantly, the ground beside Lyra exploded in a shower of grit, causing her to leap back with a yelp.

A large, black creature lumbered forth, the sand cascading from its body as it rose from the earth. The air around it seemed to shimmer slightly, the skin on its underbelly glowing orange. It had six legs, each limb ending in a webbed foot with pads on the ends of the toes. Its head was spade-like, with ridges running over its yellow eyes. A pair of reins were held in the creature’s mouth ran along its neck and connected to a large, cushioned howdah strapped to its back. A wooden frame held a light canvas over the howdah, protecting any riders from the harsh sun above. Half a dozen fully-packed saddlebags dangled from the howdah.

Blinking owlishly, the creature smacked its lips before looking at the pair.

“What in the name of Tartarus is that?” Lyra asked stiffly. She crouched down, her horn glowing as she readied a spell.

“She is a salamander, native to this land,” Vagabond said, ignoring Lyra’s aggressive posture, “and when it comes to steeds, she is one most grand.”

“This is our transport?” Lyra asked. The magic around her horn faded, and she gave Vagabond an incredulous look.

“Sasha is the name of this beast, and worry not, she won’t harm you in the least.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Lyra grunted, eyeing the salamander with some trepidation.

Laughing softly, Vagabond walked up to the salamander, who bent her neck down to nuzzle the zebra. Grabbing the reins, Vagabond then pulled himself up onto the padded seat.

“Up you come, my dear mare,” he said, offering Lyra a hoof, “unless you’ve decided that you will walk there.”

Lyra glared up at him for a few seconds before, with a sigh, she accepted the hoof. It took some maneuvering, but soon enough, Lyra was seated beside Vagabond atop the salamander.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Lyra huffed, pulling her hat lower over her face to shield it from the sun. “We’ve wasted enough time already.”

Vagabond shook his head. “Before we venture out into the land of sand and sweat, there is one more thing that we must get.”

Lyra closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, trying to keep her frustration in check.

“Fine,” she growled, “just make it quick.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Heat waves wafted up from the hot sand below, causing the very air to seem to ripple like water. With no clouds in the sky to shelter the land, the sun beat down mercilessly. Beneath the canvas cover, Lyra fanned herself with a hoof. Sweat covered her coat, and was making sitting very uncomfortable, especially around a certain… unmentionable part of her anatomy.

“How do you stallions stand it?” she asked, glancing at Vagabond. When he gave her a confused look, she continued, “Being out in heat like this. Don’t your balls stick to your legs or something like that? I mean, it’s bad enough my marehood is practically sticking to the seat. How do you stand it?”

Vagabond gave her a deadpanned look before muttering something under his breath in his native tongue. “Of all the questions you might ask, you pick the one that is most crass.”

“I was just curious,” Lyra grunted, still fanning herself with her hoof.

“Asking a stallion how he stands his cock is like asking a mare how she stands what’s under her dock,” Vagabond huffed. “It’s hard to explain, harder to reveal, just what it is both genders feel.”

“Fine, fine,” Lyra harrumphed. “There’s no need to get snippy about it.”

Silence fell as the salamander continued to trundle along through the sand dunes. The heated sand didn’t seem to bother the creature, her padded feet sinking into the soft material with general ease. Her belly was low to the ground, so low in fact that to an outside observer, it practically looked like the salamander was swimming through the sand rather than walking across it.

Lyra stared out across the vast expanse of sand, her mind wandering through various topics. She was brought back to the real world when a soft chirp behind her caused her ear to twitch. Glancing over her shoulder, she eyed the female human with detached interest.

“Remind me again why we had to bring her along as well?” she asked.

“It’s always wise to bring a human on a journey,” Vagabond said, keeping his gaze forward. “They are good at burrowing and can sense sandstorms early.”

“They can also be very aggressive,” Lyra noted dryly as she turned back around.

“Don’t you worry, don’t you fret. This one is tame enough to be a pet,” Vagabond said as he pulled out a small treat and tossed it over his shoulder to the human. She perked up instantly, catching the treat and immediately devouring it.

“Plus, she can dig quickly through the sand,” Vagabond added as the human licked her hands. “That’ll make this venture go much quicker than planned.”

Lyra stared at the zebra silently. He tried to ignore her, but after a few minutes began to shift around uncomfortably under her gaze.

“Why do you have trouble rhyming?” she asked suddenly.

Vagabond turned and gave her an incredulous look. “I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah, I didn’t notice it at first, but you appear to be having a hard time rhyming,” Lyra said, waving her hoof about. “Back home in Ponyville, we have a zebra that lives on the outskirts of town and she doesn’t seem to have as much trouble as you’re having.”

“I speak in rhyme due to my station, as well as to show my resolve and dedication,” Vagabond said curtly. “All within our Order speak this way, rhyming whenever we have stuff to say.

“Also, the zebra you speak of is my cousin,” he continued, “and yes, I have trouble while she doesn’t. She moved to your land when she was very young, and as for me, Equestrian isn’t my native tongue. So yes, she has an easier time than me. There’s no need to point it out with glee.”

“I wasn’t making fun of you. I was just making an observation,” Lyra huffed, her ears pressing against the back of her head.

Vagabond muttered something under his breath in his native tongue again before the pair fell silent.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, the group only had to stop once or twice at an oasis in order to refill their canteens. The human napped most of the time, curled up in the back of the shelter, far away from the scorching sun.

Lyra tried to keep her mind occupied throughout the journey, even going as far as to pull her journal out and doodle in it. However, even Bon Bon’s inked-in plot could only amuse her for so long before it got old. By the time the sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon, she was trying to keep her temper in check.

“How much longer until we get there?” she growled.

Wordlessly, Vagabond pointed towards the horizon with a hoof.

Squinting her eyes, Lyra could just barely make out a structure in the distance, almost invisible against the setting sun behind it.

“A few more hours left to wait until we reach the ruin’s gate,” Vagabond said as he pulled on the reins. The salamander snorted before slowing to a stop.

“What are you doing?” Lyra asked, giving him a bemused look.

“We’ll camp here for the night, and continue on at dawn’s first light,” Vagabond replied. Reaching down, he began to search through one of the saddlebags.

“What? Why? The ruins are right there. You said it yourself, we’ll be there in a few hours!”

“It gets very cold at night,” Vagabond said, grunting as he pulled out a bundle of wood, as well as some flint and steel. “We’ll rest until the warmth of the sun’s light. It’ll be safer this way, my dear mare. Tomorrow, your ruins will still be there.”

“Are you kidding me? Are you bucking kidding me?!” Lyra growled, her right eye twitching. She could feel a vein beginning to pulse in her forehead, and she massaged her temple with a hoof to try and fight off her growing headache. “You drag me all the way out here through the heat and the sun and the sand, dangle the very thing I came hundreds of miles to find in front of my face, only to tell me ‘no’? That’s not how it works! I am paying you. Do you understand that, stripey? I am the one paying you for this expedition. I’m in charge, and I say we’re are not stopping until we are at the ruins!” Lighting up her horn, she grabbed the reins from Vagabond’s grasp and, with a quick flick of magic, snapped them.

The salamander squawked as the reins slapped against her neck, the sudden blow causing her to lurch forward. She took a half dozen steps before Vagabond managed to grab the reins back from Lyra.

“Don’t do that again,” he growled, eyes narrowing, “or the next time will be your end.” Reaching down, he gently massaged the salamander’s neck with a hoof.

“Then get this overgrown lizard moving!” Lyra snarled. “I told you, we’re heading for the ruins, weather be damned!”

Weather isn’t the only threat,” Vagabond hissed. “There’s naga, or worse, their pets. And should you want to test your mettle, you might just meet the blasted devil.”

“You superstitious bastard! There’s nothing between us and the ruins. Just empty desert as far as the eye can see!” Lyra shouted, waving her hoof out across the horizon.

“If that is what you think, then you’re a fool,” Vagabond said coldly. “Even now there could be a desert ghoul. You hired me to show you this place, but to also try and keep you safe. If you were smart, you’d heed my warning, lest you want your friends back home to fall to mourning.”

“Buck this!” Lyra snarled. “I know where the ruins are. I don’t need you anymore!” With that, she jumped down off of the salamander’s back. Landing in the sand with a soft ‘thump’, she dashed off towards the ruins in the distance, just barely visible as the last bit of the sun sunk beneath the horizon.

“You… you… farasi kijinga!” Vagabond shouted. Swearing under his breath, he grabbed the reins and spurred the salamander forward, giving chase. The human chirped loudly, clinging to the saddle as they lurched along.

“Buck off!” Lyra shouted back over her shoulder. “You can stay here and cower like a little filly if you want to.”

“Has all sense left you head?!” Vagabond shouted after her. “You can’t make the discovery if you’re dead!”

“Nothing bad is going to happen, you paranoid bas—GAH!”

Lyra’s hoof twisted to the side as the sand beneath her suddenly shifted. She collapsed as the sand around her depressed, sinking into the earth. A deep groan reverberated throughout the dunes, causing the ground to shudder. Sand dunes shifted before, with a loud ‘crack’, the sand beneath Lyra fell away, and she plunged into the earth with a shriek.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Lyra laid there, groaning in pain as the world around her seemed to spin uncontrollably. Her head was throbbing, feeling like thousands of angry hornets were loose within her skull. She was half buried in a mountain of sand, the gritty material sticking to her sweat-coated fur. Her mane was a mess, and her hat was missing, as were her saddlebags.

Far above her, Vagabond peered down through the giant hole that had appeared. Sand still spilled down the edges of the hole, hissing as it fell away into the darkness.

“Are you still alive, brewhiem?” Vagabond called down, his voice echoing.

Lyra groaned, kicking her forelegs weakly.

“Do you still think that I’ve lost my mind?” he snarked.

“Buck… you…” Lyra gasped, glaring up blearily towards the hole.

“Stay where you are, you stupid mare,” Vagabond shouted. “I’ll get some rope and then be right there!” Turning, he disappeared from view.

Groaning again, Lyra shook her head, only to wince as the pounding grew worse. She waited a few seconds for the pain to recede before attempting to move again. Gritting her teeth, she began to slowly extract herself from the mountain of sand. It was slow going at first, but she was finally able to pull one of her hind legs free. After that, the second one was far easier.

Yanking it free, Lyra teetered slightly before she lost her balance and tumbled down the hill with a yelp. Collapsing at the foot of the sand hill, she groaned and clutched her head.

“I told you to stay still,” Vagabond chided from somewhere above her. “You might have injured yourself in the spill.”

Cracking open her eye, Lyra peered upward. The zebra was slowly descending towards her, sliding steadily down a long, sturdy rope. Another coil of rope was wrapped around his chest, and a pair of saddlebags were strapped to his back. Raising her gaze higher, she saw the rope he was using was pulled taut against the edge of the hole. It swayed back and forth as Vagabond descended from above but other than that, it held firm.

“What do you have that tied to?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly. Reaching up, she rubbed the side of her face. Her hoof came away bloodied. “Great,” she growled under her breath before wiping it on her chest.

“Sasha agreed to hold the rope,” Vagabond said as he reached the bottom of the rope. “Her neck is strong enough to cope.” Eyeing the five foot drop to the ground below, he relaxed his grip and dropped.

Lyra winced at the sound of Vagabond’s hooves striking the stone floor. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to stand, swaying as her head throbbed again.

“That gash looks quite painful,” Vagabond said, wincing as he eyed the side of her head. “Luckily, though, it won’t be fatal. I can patch you up here real quick. Hold still please, just wait a tick.”

“I’m fine,” Lyra growled, swatting his hoof away. Glancing around, she tried to peer through the darkness. “Where are we?” A loud ‘clack’ followed by a shower of sparks came from behind her, and a few seconds later a dull orange light filled the cavern. Glancing around, Lyra blinked up seeing Vagabond standing there, two lit torches in his hoof.

“I was prepared,” he said smugly.

Lyra grunted in annoyance before lighting up her horn and grabbing one of the torches. Lifting it high over her head, she glanced around at the room they now found themselves in. Spying her saddlebags a few feet away, she levitated them over and strapped them back around her barrel. With that, she returned her attention to the room.

The ceiling loomed far above them, nearly two stories high. A large hole in it—through which Lyra had plunged—opened up to the world above. Stars shone down through the hole as well as a light breeze that stirred the musty air. Large stone pillars held the ceiling up. Pictures had been etched into the stone’s surface, many of them faded to the point where they were unrecognizable. Off to one side, a wall was visible. Rectangular holes were cut into the wall, almost all of them sealed by a stone cap.

“Any clue what we’re seeing?” Lyra asked Vagabond as her eyes drifted around the scene before her. When no answer came, she glanced at the zebra.

He was standing there, a look of dawning horror on his face. The torch trembled in his grasp, the flame dancing back and forth erratically.

“What?” Lyra asked, giving him a bemused look. “What’s wrong?”

“We shouldn’t be here, not in this room,” he said in a whisper, his voice hoarse. “We must leave at once, for this is a tomb.”

“A tomb?” Lyra echoed, glancing around again. “How can you tell?” She took several steps forward, only to jump when Vagabond shouted.

“Stop! Not another step!” he cried, the panic clear in his voice. “What you are doing, it is an act of contempt!”

“Please, they’re dead,” Lyra said, rolling her eyes. “I highly doubt they care who walks through their dusty halls.”

“You have already ignored my advice,” Vagabond hissed, his ears folding back against his head, “as well as my warning. But please, do not desecrate this place of mourning.”

“Nopony has mourned here in centuries,” Lyra huffed, turning to glare at Vagabond. When the zebra didn’t relax his stance, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Tell you what. I’ll pay you double if you pull that stick out of your flank and we explore this place.”

Vagabond chewed on his bottom lip as he shifted from hoof to hoof. After a few seconds, he whimpered before taking a tentative step forward.

“There you go,” Lyra smirked before turning and heading further into the room.

“Despite your joy, this is wrong,” Vagabond muttered. “This is a place for the dead, we do not belong.”

“You need to relax,” Lyra scoffed as the pair walked along. “Nothing bad is going to happen from us exploring this place. What, you think a bunch of skeletons are going to emerge from their tombs and attack us?”

“You do not know of what you speak,” Vagabond said weakly. “This land has a way of weeding out the weak.”

“We’ll be fine,” Lyra sighed. “If worse comes to worse, I’ll teleport us back here and we’ll climb up the rope and escape. Okay?”

Vagabond whimpered again, but nodded all the same.

Pillars passed by as the pair ventured further into the temple, shadows dancing in time with the torches’ flickering flames. Vagabond kept close to Lyra, his steps timid and shaky, almost like he was afraid that a single misstep would be the end of them.

The pair had barely been walking for a minute when a wall suddenly loomed up at them from out of the gloom. Strange symbols covered the stone surface, looking like dozens of vines and roots twisting and turning together in a chaotic mass. Decorative stone flowers emerged from the writing coil of vines, with different colored gems inlaid in the center of each.

Holding the torch up higher, Lyra’s eyes narrowed only to widen when she spied a doorway in the wall. A smile grew on her muzzle, only to slowly morph into confusion as she neared the door. There, hung over the lintel of the door, dangled three pony skulls. From the shape of them, Lyra could tell that they had once belonged to an unicorn, an earth pony, and a pegasus, all of them mares. The unicorn skull was in the center, and had five stars carved into the skull just above the horn. The earth pony had five flowers etched into hers, and the pegasus skull had two lightning bolts.

Lyra eyed the skulls, her muzzle scrunching up. “What are these doing here?”

“Pony skulls in a tomb of the dead? Why are you mystified with these three heads?” Vagabond asked as he slunk up beside her.

“That’s just it. Pony skulls.” Lyra said, eyeing the skulls. “Equestria didn’t start trading with Sandpoint until around five hundred years ago. This tomb seems a lot older than that, no? Plus, there’s the style in which they are hung.” Vagabond gave her a confused look, causing her to motion towards the skull. “This was a common burial practice for ancient Equestrians, one that was usually reserved only for those of the highest honor. Nobility, paladins, knights that had done great deeds. They would be buried, and three of their closest friends, upon their deaths, would have their skulls mounted over the entrance to the tomb. Set there, to forever watch over the resting place, guarding it from evil spirits.”

“Evil spirits?” Vagabond asked, ears splaying back.

“Windigos, mostly,” Lyra said, still eyeing the skulls. “It was believed back then that a windigo could possess the deceased’s body and stalk other ponies and eat them. The three companion spirits would chase the windigo off before it could take possession of the body though. Or so the stories go.

“What gets me though, is the fact that they are here,” Lyra said with a frown.

“So they have been put to rest,” Vagabond said. “Why does this cause you such distress?”

“Because, this type of burial fell out of style over three thousand years ago, back before the Great Split. When the three tribes got back together again, the practice didn’t return as it was viewed as barbaric. So either the ponies of Sandpoint used this same method, which would be a very, very big coincidence, or…” Lyra trailed off, her eyes drifting slowly over the wall.

“Or what?” Vagabond asked after several seconds of silence.

“Or this tomb predates Sandpoint,” Lyra replied, scratching her chin.

Vagabond snorted, holding back his laughter. “That’s impossible! Ludicrous! It can not be. Before we arrived, there was no life as far as the eye could see.”

“The Everfree is said to have been paradise on Equestria at one point,” Lyra said, her gaze returning to the skulls. “Is it so hard to believe that the same could have been for Sandpoint?”

Vagabond’s smile fell, replaced instead by a look of contemplation, his brow furrowing.

Giving the skulls one last glance, Lyra then passed beneath them and through the doorway. A quick glance around informed her that she had just entered a burial chamber. The room was smaller than the main one, only twenty feet wide by fifty feet deep. The ceiling was only just visible through the gloom, the torchlight barely reaching it. At the rear of the chamber, nestled between two pillars, was a large, stone sarcophagus. Twin stone pegasi sat atop the sarcophagus, facing in opposite directions with their wings spread wide, the tips touching. Like the rest of the tomb, the walls and ceilings of the room were covered in carved pictures, most of which were worn. Several dozen clay jars—some of which were shattered—were grouped around the sarcophagus. Dust and sand covered everything.

As Lyra moved further into the room, Vagabond poked his head through the door.

“This tomb is not Zebrican design,” he said, glancing around. “It looks more like a sanctum or shrine.”

Holding her torch up higher, Lyra studied the sarcophagus closer. A large crack ran down the center of the lid, and one of the corners was missing completely. She tried to peer into the stone coffin, but was unable to see through the darkness. With a huff, Lyra’s eyes narrowed in annoyance before flicking over to her torch. She angled it, holding it over the opening, and used a spell to protect herself from the heat. With that, she glanced inside the sarcophagus.

Vagabond growled. “I don’t care how much you’ll have me paid. Don’t disturb that pony’s grave!”

“It’s not a pony,” Lyra grunted, her head tilted at an odd angle. “It’s a mother-bucking human!”

“A human? Surely you jest!” Vagabond said, looking at Lyra in astonishment. “Three thousand years ago, they did not exist!”

“Look for yourself,” Lyra said, moving her head back and motioning him forward.

Being careful of the flames, Vagabond crept forward and, with lingering trepidation, peered cautiously into the sarcophagus. Inside were indeed the skeletal remains of a human. It was positioned with its head near the missing corner, arms crossed over its chest. Jewelry adorned the skeleton: golden bracelets around the skeletal wrists, as well as a ruby necklace.

As Vagabond continued to examine the human remains, Lyra glanced up at the wall behind the sarcophagus. She blinked in surprise before grabbing Vagabond’s torch from his hooves and lifting it into the air.

A large stone tablet—spanning from floor to ceiling—rested behind the sarcophagus. Runes ran around the border of the tablet, the same writing that had been on the amulet that Vagabond had shown her. Past the runes—etched in the center of the tablet—was a mural. The edges were smoothed down with age, but the center still held some detail. It showed a human female standing with her arms outstretched and her face pointing upwards. Around her feet was a group of ponies, their faces pointed up as well. Far above the human, spread out across the tablet, was a series of curved lines, eight in total.

Lyra continued to stare blankly up at the tablet for several seconds before a large smile slowly started to spread across her muzzle.

“Jackpot,” she breathed. Not taking her eyes off of the mural, Lyra stepped up on top of the sarcophagus and approached the tablet.

Vagabond’s head jerked up and squawked in alarm.

“What are you…!?” he began to shout, only to trail off when he saw what Lyra was staring at.

Grinning like a madpony, Lyra reached into her saddlebags with her magic and pulled out some parchment and a stick of charcoal.

“Come to Heartstrings,” she giggled, hovering the parchment towards the tablet.

“Stop! Don’t touch the stone,” Vagabond hissed. “This is one action I can not condone.”

“What?” Lyra asked, glancing over her shoulder. “I’m just gonna take a rubbing of the runes!”

“Look, don’t touch. That’s my order’s way!” Vagabond growled. “Put the scroll and stick away.”

“What did you think was going to happen when I hired you?” Lyra asked with a glare. “I’m an archaeologist. I study ruins and tombs such as these for a living. This is part of my job.” Turning, she took another step towards the tablet, only to stumble as Vagabond reached out and grabbed her hoof.

“Insufferable farasi!” he shouted at her.

“Either I get a rubbing of the runes or I take the tablet with me,” Lyra snarled, yanking her hoof free. Her horn glowed brighter as she pressed the parchment against the stone. “One way or another, I’m getting—”

The moment the parchment touched the stone tablet, the world dissolved into chaos.

The hairs on Vagabond and Lyra’s coats stood up on end as the very air seemed to hum with magic. The table vibrated, shaking the walls and ceiling of the room and causing a cascade of dust and stone to begin to rain down upon the pair. The runes and etchings on the tablet began to glow bright turquoise as sparks danced up and down the stone.

Lyra tried to take a step back, but found she couldn’t move; it was almost as if her hooves were glued to the floor. Glancing down, a look of horror crossed her face when she saw turquoise lines running across the lid of the sarcophagus and anchoring to her hooves. The lines slowly began to twine their way up her legs, and the smell of burning fur quickly filling the musty air.

Glancing behind her, she saw that Vagabond was in the same situation she was in, lines of magic holding him steadfast.

“What have you done?!” he shouted, the whites of his eyes showing.

Lyra opened her mouth to inform him that she had done nothing, but before the words could leave her mouth, the humming noise suddenly increased. Her eyes widened in alarm as the strands of her mane began to drift weightlessly through the air. A sharp pressure began to well up behind her horn, causing sparks to leap from the tip. Her earrings began to buzz loudly, vibrating against the skin of her ear. A feeling of weightlessness overtook her before a bolt of magic launched from the center of the mural and right into her left eye.

Time seemed to slow down. The magic lightning entered Lyra’s head through her eye and coursed through her body before exiting via her right hind leg. It arced through the air before slamming into Vagabond’s eye as well. It ran through his body, causing the golden bands around his legs and tail to explode, before grounding itself through his hind legs.

In that brief moment of time, the entire room seemed to light up as though it was suddenly daytime. Lyra could see every detail of the room, every nook and cranny illuminated by the turquoise magic flowing through her body. Then the moment was over and time started flowing again. With a deafening ‘crack’, the world around Lyra exploded.

Lyra found herself standing in a void, nothing but darkness around her. Wind howled around her, carrying with it the sound of wordless shrieks.

Pressing her ears against her head, Lyra staggered backwards a few steps before her flank suddenly slammed into something hard. She whirled about, only to come face-to-face with a statue of a human. It was carved completely out of black marble, with white veins running through the material. The statue was faceless, blank marble replacing the usual features.

Confusion growing, Lyra stared at the statue for several seconds before glancing over its shoulder. Several more statues stood behind the first one. As she watched, the darkness began to recede, revealing more and more statues, each in a different pose. Several of them had been smashed, the rubble lying in piles on the ground.

Without warning, one of the statues began to glow, then another, then another, until all of them were glowing a sickly yellow.

Taking a step back, Lyra whinnied loudly when her flank once again bumped into something. Wheeling, she froze upon seeing what was behind her.

Standing behind her was the tallest human she had ever seen. Standing nearly seven feet tall, he towered over her. Another human, almost identical to the first but much smaller, sat upon the larger human’s shoulders. The pair of them gave Lyra an alarmed look, the big human taking several steps backwards.

“What the fuck?” he shouted, causing Lyra’s eyes to widen.

“What the buck?!” she yelped, causing the human to jump. Before either of them could speak again, more humans began to phase into view:a blond-haired human male, covered in blood and wearing a pit fighter’s harness;a large, ebony-skinned human male wearing a weird neon-yellow vest and a hardhat;a thin human female with a shaved head;a skinny male with long black hair and a gaunt face;twin human females, one with long red hair, and the other with short;a mustached male wearing a red shirt and hat. More and more humans appeared from the darkness, and with each new one, one of the statues shattered. The humans glanced around, confusion, fear, and wonder on their faces.

Lyra opened her mouth to say something—anything—when something grabbed her around the throat and lifted her into the air. A pair of burning red eyes filled her vision, and she gagged as the force tightened around her neck.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” a voice boomed. “YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE, YOU STUPID PONY!”

“I just—” Lyra managed to wheeze out before a large paw flew out of the darkness and struck her across the face. Stars exploded in front of her eyes as the force around her neck disappeared. With a gurgled cry, Lyra spun off into the darkness.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As Lyra slowly returned to her senses, she was dimly aware of the fact the whole world seemed to be shaking. Lifting up her head, she cracked open an eye and glanced around blearily.

The room was falling apart around her. Bits and pieces of the ceiling were falling down around her, some chunks as big as her head. Large cracks ran up the pillars, which were beginning to crumble under the pressure of the collapsing ceiling. The mural was now nothing more than a smoking pile of rubble, the tablet now destroyed.

Staggering to her hooves, Lyra barely had enough time to hobble out of the way before a large chunk of stone ripped free from the ceiling and smashed into the sarcophagus, destroying it. Head pounding and vision swimming, she tried to get her bearings. Vagabond was still passed out nearby, blood oozing from a gash across his forehead.

Lyra stared blearily at him for a few seconds before shaking her head and staggering forward. She tried to lift the zebra’s body with magic, but her horn just fizzled and sparked.

“Oh, buck this,” she groaned before leaning down and shakily pulling Vagabond across her back. She shifted his body around, only to grunt—her tail tucking firmly up against her belly—as she felt a rather… intimate part of his anatomy come in contact with hers.

“Sorry,” she growled as she readjusted him, “but Bon Bon said… uff, no threesomes. Especially not with a stallion!” When Vagabond was in a better position, Lyra turned towards the door but a loud, sickening ‘crack’ above her drew her attention upwards. The entire ceiling buckled suddenly, caving in upon itself as the weight of the sand above it proved to be too much.

Eyes widening, Lyra swore before making a mad dash for the door. Still feeling out of sorts, she stumbled and weaved along like a drunkard, narrowly avoiding falling bits of debris. An explosion of dust and rock followed her out the door as the burial chamber was sealed beneath the rubble.

The main chamber was in the same state as the previous one, pillars cracking and collapsing as parts of the room fell in upon themselves. Sand flowed through the cracks like water, slowly burying the room under thousands of pounds of dirt.

Lyra ran along, her hooves slipping and sliding over the sand-covered ground. She had to constantly pull her hooves free of the sand, trying to keep herself atop the growing floor of sand that was steadily rising. Still, she struggled along, trying to escape being buried with the collapsing tomb. Having lost both torches back in the burial chamber, the only light—and thus Lyra’s current destination—was the dim moonlight that was streaming through the gaping hole through which they had entered the tomb.

Arriving underneath it, Lyra quickly pulled on the rope that Vagabond had left dangling down into the room. The sand had risen high enough that several feet of the rope were now coiled, half-buried in the dirt.

Moving as quickly as her trembling hooves would allow, Lyra quickly tied the end of the rope around herself and Vagabond before beginning to haul herself upwards hoof over hoof. She strained under the added weight the zebra added, the stallion being heavier than he originally looked. Her muscles were burning after only a few feet, yet still she pressed on.

I can’t die here! she growled mentally as she continued to pull herself and the zebra upwards. If I do, I’ll never hear the end of it from Bon Bon, and while her ‘I-told-you-so’ face is adorable, it’s not worth it!

She had just about reached the top of the rope when her hooves finally began to give out and she began to slide backwards. Gritting her teeth, she tightened her grip, trying desperately to hold on. She pulled her body upwards a few inches, her legs trembling horribly before, with a forlorn cry, the rope slipped from her hooves. Before she could fall backwards into the churning sea far below, a hand shot out and wrapped around her leg.

The human female leaned over the edge of the hole, one hand grasping Lyra’s leg, the other holding tightly to the rope. As Lyra watched, the human growled before slowly yet steadily lifting both her and Vagabond upwards. In just a few short seconds, both equines were out in the open air of the desert. The human pulled them away from the growing hole, carrying them to solid ground.

Lyra groaned as the human laid her down in the cold sand and undid the rope keeping her and Vagabond together. Sasha immediately trundled over and nuzzled the unconscious form of Vagabond, nosing the zebra gingerly.

Groaning again, Lyra pushed herself into a seated position, wincing as sand got into a very uncomfortable place. However, she didn’t really care at the moment. She was just glad that she hadn’t become the next occupant of the tomb.

A low rumble in the distance drew her attention, and she glanced up only to have her ears fold backwards as she watched the original ruins they had been heading towards sink into the desert as well.

“Damn it,” she sighed as she watched her ticket to history sinking into the sand. “They must have been connected somehow.” She sighed again before shaking her head. “If Vagabond didn’t want me taking a rubbing of a worn tablet, he’s definitely not going to like losing a whole temple.” Silence fell as Lyra sat there, rubbing her head and trying to stop her pounding headache.

After a few minutes, she glanced up, only to start when she saw the human was kneeling in front of her, watching her closely.

“What?” Lyra snapped, causing the human to cock her head to the side. “What do you want? Food? I don’t have any. Go graze on some grass or something!” She motioned towards some desert grass growing nearby, but the human just glanced at the grass before returning her attention back to Lyra.

“Great,” Lyra huffed, lowering her head. “Stupid, dumb anim—”

“Grass?”

Lyra froze, her eyes snapping wide open. With growing trepidation, she slowly lifted her head and stared at the human. “W-what?”

The human cocked her head to the other side before chirping softly. “Grass?” As Lyra continued to stare at her in shock, the human rolled the word around her mouth. “Grass… grass…? grass… grass…? grass… grass…? grass… grass…? grass… grass!”

The human talking in front of her, as well as the rest of the day’s events proved too much for Lyra. She swayed slightly, her vision wavering before, with a sigh, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she promptly fainted.

Chapter 58: There But For The Grace of God Go I

“I don’t remember much after that,” Lyra finished, scratching at her horn. “It kinda gets a little fuzzy for a while. I have bits and pieces of memory. We somehow managed to get back to town. There was a big commotion going on. There was the zebra mare from before, along with a changeling and some humans. Some skeletons. Something about a mountain. I… I really don’t remember. I wish I could, but I have no real memory until a week later when I woke up in the hospital.” She paused, staring forward with a blank look on her face, before turning and glancing at me.

“Did you get all of that?” she snarked, her lips pulling back in a sneer.

“Lyra… faints… in fear… of a human… saying ‘grass’,” I muttered, writing down the last bit of information. When Lyra had started her tale, I had grabbed several of the medical forms located on the back of her wheelchair and began writing on the back of them with a provided charcoal stick. Every single inch of the paper was now covered in the recording of Lyra’s story, the words crammed so close together that it was difficult to read in places.

Leaning back, I ran my eye over the cluttered papers. “I think I’ve got everything.”

“I can’t believe you wrote all of that down,” Lyra sighed, shaking her head.

“Hey, it could be important,” I said as I folded the papers and tucked them into my shirt. “Besides, I don’t trust my memory enough to remember all of this later.”

“For what reason would you need this information for later?” Lyra asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“For the Princesses, for one,” I said, tucking the charcoal stick into the band of my short ponytail, “and for proof when the times comes.”

“Proof?” Lyra sneered. “Proof of what?”

“Proof that this is all your fault,” I answered. “It’s because of you and your meddling that the humans are now getting smarter.”

“I don’t know,” Lyra said, leaning back in her wheelchair and scratching at her lower belly. “The female human repeated a word that I said, but what about the rest of the humans? You think I went around talking to every human in Equestria? On Equus? Buck, there were a couple of humans, those with the changeling, that were using some words that I never even heard of.”

“So, what are you saying?” I asked.

“I’m saying that I don’t know if I am the one who caused this, or if I got launched into this madness at the beginning,” Lyra huffed, still scratching her stomach. “Were humans already getting intelligent and I happened to bumble in at the right time… I have to assume that’s the case, unless something is allowing humans to learn what other humans know quickly.”

“What? Like one human on the east coast learns the word ‘grass’ and suddenly a human on the west coast knows it was well?” I asked, a hint of incredulousness working its way into my voice. “Like a… a hive mind, almost? You’re crazy.”

“What’s more improbable?” Lyra asked. “That humans, a creature that nopony in Equestria has much knowledge about, have a collective intelligence that is slowly allowing them to get smarter, or that I somehow went around and taught humans everything they know at the moment?”

“Okay, fine,” I growled, leaning back and crossing my arms. “Let’s say you’re right and humans are learning through each other. Who’s teaching them the words then? Cause they sure as hell can’t understand ponies.”

“Well, you are, for one thing, King,” Lyra said, a smirk slowly spreading across her face. When I gave her a confused look, she motioned over my shoulder with a nod of her head.

Turning my head, my eyes widened when I saw that the small group of humans had moved closer while I had been distracted by Lyra’s story. They were now barely a few feet away, still partially hidden in the nearby foliage.

“They’ve been listening to every word we’ve been saying,” Lyra continued as I stared at the humans. “Especially you. Their eyes haven’t left you for more than a few seconds at any given point.”

“You can’t be serious,” I began to say, but trailed off as I leaned backwards to get a better look. As I moved, the humans’ eyes followed me, their heads turning slightly in my direction. I paused before leaning forward. Again, their eyes followed me.

“What the fuck?” I muttered, my brow furrowing.

Jane perked up before poking her head out of the foliage. “Fuck?”

My eyes widened in alarm and I shook my head quickly. “No, don’t—”

“Fuck!” she chirped. “Fuck. Fuuuck. Fuck? Fuck!”

I placed my head in my hand as she continued to repeat the word, rolling it around in her mouth and testing out different ways to say it. “God damn it.”

“Good going, King,” Lyra snickered.

“Oh, stuff it,” I growled, lifting my head and glaring at her. “Anyways, did you—”

“FUCK!”

“—did you figure out who the human in the tomb was?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Lyra grumbled. “I did some research upon returning to Equestria and even took a week and looked around the Archives in Canterlot. Nothing I could find mentioned a human being buried in such a manner. I even looked for any references of humans before their discovery in Equestria around one thousand years ago. Nothing. Not only does that human predate her species by at least two thousand years, but she was buried in a manner that was considered the greatest honor one could receive upon death at the time.”

“Couldn’t humans have existed elsewhere in the world before Equestria found them?” I asked, only to pause when something Lyra said registered in my head. “Wait… ‘she’? How did you know it was a female human?”

“Her hip bones,” Lyra grunted. “They were wide, built to squeeze a baby out. And to answer your other question, because there are no records of humans until Equestria found them in the mountain that Canterlot is now located on.”

“Strange,” I muttered, scratching at my beard. “Anything else you can tell me?”

“I also looked into the three pony skulls above the door, but Equestria’s genealogy records didn’t go back far enough. The closest match I could find belong to a mare in the house of Wind Dashers a thousand years ago. Her name was Firefly, and she served in the Lunar Army before Luna’s banishment. She was one of the few Lunar guards that defected when Luna became Nightmare Moon. If I had to hazard a guess, one of the skulls belonged to one of her ancestors, but I have no real proof to back up that claim.”

I continued to scratch at my beard as I processed what she had said. Behind me, I heard the humans shifting about in the underbrush, an occasional muted ‘fuck’ being whispered by Jane. Slowly, my eyes drifted back up to Lyra.

“Did you try and tell anyone about your findings?” I asked.

She huffed, a look of annoyance crossing her face. “As I said before, I tried to tell ponies about humans being intelligent, but nopony listened and I ended up here. As for the rest of it, nopony in Equestria really cares, and the zebras in Sandpoint want nothing more to do with me. They even kicked Vagabond out for having a part in the destruction of not just a temple, but an old, unknown tomb. I tried to send the information to them, but they returned it to me with a… clear indication of what they thought of me. It took me nearly an hour to clean off my desk, and week to get the smell out of my office.”

“Did you try going directly to the Princesses?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I know for a fact they hold open court for just such an occasion. I’m sure Princess Luna would have been more than happy...” I trailed off as Lyra suddenly let out a bark-like laugh.

“King, due to my actions over in Sandpoint as well as my claims upon returning home, I was put on a watch-list. Right at the top. I couldn’t even get within a few blocks of the palace without a platoon of guards showing up and ‘escorting’ me away. I gave up trying to get a hold of the Princesses after the third attempt.”

“What about Twilight?” I asked, only to wince when Lyra gave me a deadpan stare. “Right, sorry.” Her gaze lowered and I watched the disgruntled unicorn as she glared at the ground, grumbling under her breath.

“This really fucked with your life, didn’t it?” I softly asked after a few seconds.

Lyra’s ear twitched but she continued to stare at the ground in front of her.

“Yes,” she growled, although the usual venom in her voice was gone. She just sounded tired now, weary and worn out. “I was kicked out of the Academy, laughed out of Canterlot, and none of my old school friends will talk to me. Hay, even Moondancer, the local conspiracy nut, won’t have anything to do with me. To make matters worse, Bon Bon called the guards on me and had me arrested and then committed to the mental asylum part of Ponyville Hospital. She said it was for my own good.” Her eyes narrowed, and she spit on the ground in contempt. “‘For my own good’ my flank. She only visited twice before she stopped showing up.”

“Hold up. I think I remember that,” I said slowly before my eyes widened. “Yeah, it was my first day in Ponyville. I had to wait outside Rarity’s place because she hated humans and didn’t want me inside.”

“Rarity hated humans?” Lyra interrupted, blinking owlishly.

“Yeah,” I said, waving a hand absentmindedly at her. “Sweetie Belle was attacked by an infected human.”

“Really? Didn’t know that,” Lyra hummed. “Must have happened when I was out of town.”

“I don’t know much about it. Just that it happened,” I said. “Anyways, I was outside of Rarity’s when a bunch of guards showed up and arrested you—” One of Lyra’s eye twitched and she growled “—and pulled all those humans out of your house. If I remember correctly there were… ninety-five? No, ninety-eight? Ninety something. It was a lot of humans.” I paused before giving her a curious look. “What were you doing with all those humans anyway.”

Lyra’s whole body twitched at the question, and her annoyed look quickly dissolved into a snarl.

“I had nothing to do with them!” she shouted, causing me to jump. “I did not collect them! I did not hoard them! I was not stealing them! They were coming to me! They were tunneling into my basement, for Maker’s sake! It wasn’t my fault!” By the end of her tirade she was breathing heavily while grinding her teeth. After a few seconds she blinked and, taking a deep breath, relaxed.

“Sorry,” she said, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle. “I still have some… repressed anger about that. Bon Bon… well, not that it matters now.” A melancholy look crossed her face, and she fell silent, staring at her hooves.

Rubbing the part of the scar that ran across my nose, I chewed on the inside of my cheek, unsure of how to change the subject. “So, uh…”

“What are you going to do with this information, King?” Lyra asked suddenly, her eyes flicking up to look at me.

“Um, what?” I asked, blinking stupidly.

“You seemed rather eager to hear my story,” she said tiredly. “So, now that you have, what are you going to do with the information?”

Absentmindedly, I reached up and placed a hand over the papers inside my shirt.

“Truthfully,” I said, patting the papers, “I’m not entirely sure. I’ll probably tell Twilight or Celestia the next time I see them, but I don’t know what we’re going to do with the information. Right now I just want to inform them about the humans being slightly intelligent, but in order to do that, I need to get back to the pal—GAH!” A pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around me, hosting me into the air.

“No go, come!” Tarzan shouted, throwing me bodily over his shoulder. “Too long! Leave now!”

“Woah, woah, no no no, put me down! Put me down!” I shouted, trying to struggle out of his grasp but failing. He had his arm wrapped around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides. I could only kick my legs as I laid across his shoulder, and even those didn’t have a lot of force in them.

“No, no down, come!” Tarzan grunted, shrugging off my kicks like they were nothing.

“Fuck!” Jane chirped excitedly.

“Shit,” I groaned, falling limp.

“Shit?” Jane asked, blinking in surprise.

My eyes widened as I realized what I had just done. “Fuck!”

“Shit!” Jane exclaimed loudly, bouncing up and down on the heels of her feet. “Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck!”

“I have no words,” Lyra said with wide eyes, slowly leaning on the armrest of the wheelchair and resting her head on her hoof.

“I hate my life,” I groaned, my voice muffled as I grumbled into Tarzan’s back.

“You lead them so well, King,” Lyra snarked.

“Fuck you,” I growled, pushing myself up to glare at her.

“Fuck!” Jane chirped, jumping up and bopping me on the head. “Fuck King!”

“Yes, fuck the king,” Lyra snickered, an evil smirk spreading across her face. “I’m sure his owner would love that. Twilight needs to learn to not take life so seriously. Nopony gets out of it alive.”

“Hardy har haaaaaaGAH!” I yelped as Tarzan, clearly having had enough, started moving—fast. He took off down the path at a dead sprint, his feet pounding against the ground hard. I had to hold on for dear life just to stop myself from being flung about. Behind him, the other three humans followed along, Jane chanting her new words as she ran. “Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck, shit, shit, fuck, fuck!”

“This is a load of bullshit!” I shouted, trying to stop my stomach from going up into my throat.

“SHIT!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Lyra Heartstrings < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As the group of humans disappeared around the bend in the path, Lyra shook her head, laughing softly to herself.

“What an idiot,” she said, leaning back in the wheelchair. Keeping her eyes on the path the humans had vanished down, she slowly let her mind begin to wander. During her incarceration in Ponyville General, she had limited connections to the outside world. The last information she had been given before being cut off was Bon Bon telling her that Twilight had gotten herself a human. After that, she had to rely on newspapers for any and all information, and most of them were biased based off the editor's’ belief, and none of them ever really had stories on suspicious human activity, but they were all she had.

At least, until one day when she was out in their fenced-in yard for her daily dose of “freedom”. She had been pacing the perimeter of the fence when a female human wandered up. It was a stroke of luck—a godsend from the Maker—the human had information. True, Lyra had to dig through the rubbish and random rabbling in order to find the information, but she had managed nonetheless. It had taken weeks, but the human kept returning thanks to the bits of food Lyra had snuck out.

Through the human she had learned of things that ponies didn’t seem to notice or simply brushed off. She had learned that Twilight’s new human wasn’t a normal human, but a ‘human-not-human’, whatever that meant. She also learned that he possessed traits that normal humans didn’t: the ability to swim, didn’t attack when threatened, and processed and followed orders with surprising skill and quickness. He also managed to kill four other humans during a pit fight, but didn’t become aggressive afterwards; in fact, he seemed to become more docile. Whoever this ‘human-not-human’ was, Lyra was definitely sure that he was important. Maybe even dangerous.

After nearly four months of having the human bring her information, Lyra became more convinced that something was wrong.This human appeared to be unique. What if he was the one who had attacked her in the weird abyss of darkness where all the humans had appeared? The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. He was clearly more intelligent than the other humans, and he was staying with Twilight, so he was close to an important member of Equestrian society. It had been so clear to her fevered mind that this human was behind everything. She wasn’t sure what he was planning, but she would stop him.

With that, she decided that it was finally time to meet this ‘human-not-human’ face to face.

Her moment had come when one of the new nurses had mixed up her schedules with that of another patient’s. Left out in the yard unsupervised, she had slipped through a hole in the fence she had been working on for a week and a half. Once free, she had made a beeline straight for the library, and the human within. What had happened next was interesting to say the least. The nurse had also mixed up her medication, giving her some pills that left her delirious. This medication mixed with a bad case of sleep deprivation had left her in a demented mental state, and she had attacked the human almost immediately. There had been a chase before she had been captured and taken back to Ponyville General.

After getting the proper medication as well a good night’s sleep, she had done some thinking. Upon looking back, the look of confusion and fear on the ‘human-not-human’s’ face had been genuine. Plus, he had been one of the humans she had seen within the abyss, so it couldn’t have been him that attacked her. He was unique, that was for sure, but he wasn’t the one behind the strange happenings.

Her research continued.

She didn’t focus so much on the ‘human-not-human’ anymore, even though the female human often brought him up. Lyra tried to get information about any other unique or abnormal humans, but her source either didn’t know or didn’t care. Instead, she talked about the ‘human-not-human’, although why she kept referring to him as ‘King’ Lyra didn’t know. She had asked the human, but the only answer she had gotten was “human pony equal”.

It wasn’t until Hearth’s Warming Eve that something major happened. When the human had shown up, she was clearly excited about something. Upon being questioned, she had revealed that a new god had been born temporarily, challenging the ‘Mad God’s’ reign. A little more probing revealed that it had been ‘King’ that had been transformed somehow. From what she could understand from the human, it seemed that ‘King’—or as she had taken to calling him, the ‘Oblivious King’—had issued some kind of challenge against the ‘Mad God’, or something like that. Whatever it was, Lyra was sure that Equestria and everypony in it were now in the middle of a territorial dispute between some unknown entity and the bumbling, oblivious human that Twilight had apparently fallen in love with, if the smell coming off of him was anything to go by.

Lyra was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of approaching hoofsteps. Turning her head, she groaned upon sighting the approaching pony. It was one of the attendants of the mental institution.

“There you are,” the attendant huffed as she came to a stop in front of Lyra. “I’ve been looking for you for hours! What were you thinking wandering off like that? You know that’s not allowed.”

“I’m sorry,” Lyra said in a bored tone, “I thought this was a hospital, not a prison.”

“We’ve been over this, it’s not like that,” the attendant sighed. “What if something had happened to you out here and nopony was around to help?”

Lyra noted with a smirk that the attendant was standing right on top of the human foot prints that the strange group had left behind. “Then I would take care of it myself, like the mature unicorn mare that I am.”

The attendant puffed out her cheeks, before letting the air out in a long, slow sigh. “Whatever. It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Alright, wheel me back,” Lyra said, shifting about in the wheelchair.

The attendant gaped at her. “You can’t be serious.”

Lyra fixed her with a deadpanned look.

“Ms. Heartstrings, you do know that you don’t need the wheelchair, right?” the attendant asked.

“...”

“There is nothing wrong with your legs.”

“...”

“You can walk perfectly fine on your own. I don’t know why you insist on having the wheelchair.”

“Push me anyways,” Lyra said, a smile crossing her muzzle. She had meant it to be friendly, but the attendant shied away with a shiver.

“No, I’m not pushing you around,” she said.

“Then I guess I’m not going anywhere,” Lyra said, settling back in her wheelchair.

The attendant glared at her for a few seconds before giving in with a groan. Walking up behind Lyra’s wheelchair, her horn lit up and she began to steer the chair towards the building in the distance.

“I don’t get paid enough for this,” the attendant grumbled under her breath.

Lyra’s ear twitched, and she stared ahead as the wheelchair trundled down the cherry tree-lined path. “At least you’re getting paid. I have to deal with this shit for free.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It wasn’t long into our journey that the trees started to disappear, replaced instead by rocky, uneven ground. We also appeared to be slowly traveling down the mountain by means of pass that had been worn into the rockface. I wasn’t entirely sure though, as Tarzan was still carrying me over his shoulder and I could only really see what we passed by. However, when ground gave way to cliffs and drop-offs, I knew we were near the edge of the plateau Canterlot was built on. Then, everything disappeared and we were left with a small path barely wide enough to stand on. I eyed the empty space nervously, well aware of the fact it was a long, long way down if Tarzan slipped.

Trying to take my mind off of the fact that a single misstep stood between me and death, I turned my attention to the only real source of entertainment I had.

“There was a tree,” I sang softly, bobbing my head from side to side.

“There was a tree,” Jane repeated, matching my head bobs.

“In the middle of the woods.”

“In the middle of da woods.”

“The prettiest tree.”

“The prettiest tree.”

“That you ever did see.”

“Dat you ever did see.”

“Oh, the tree in the hole, and the hole in the ground, and the green grass grew all around, all around and the green grass grew all around,” I finished, only to watch with a small smile on my face as she attempt to repeat it only to crash and burn. I could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears as she stared up at me in a daze.

I had noted that what Lyra had said earlier was true: the humans were indeed listening to me and picking up on different words I said. Deciding that I didn’t want to just have them learn curse words, I had started to play around with Jane in an attempt to not only learn what they knew, but to see if I could teach them some more. The results were interesting.

For one, they seemed to latch onto random words and repeat them with almost zealous-like determination. After spending nearly fifteen minutes trying to get Jane to stop saying ‘shit’ or ‘fuck’, I could see why Lyra’s human had continued to say ‘grass’ for nearly eight hours.

Another thing I noticed was that on their own the humans seemed to speak in broken english. However, when trying to get them to repeat whole phrases, they did so without leaving out words. On their own, they might say “we need go now”, but if I told them to repeat “we need to go now”, they did so with very little complication. There was a few times they sounded like toddlers what with their ‘the’s becoming ‘da’s and the like.

Lastly—and I realized this completely by accident—they seemed to learn words faster when it was put in song form. It had to be simple songs though, something repeatable too like Row Row Row Your Boat. If the song had too many complicated words, or had too long a phrase, Jane would get confused or flustered and stop playing.

Just like now.

“Green grass.. grow around… h-hole,” she stuttered before holding her head in her hands. “No… no like. Head hurts.”

“Come on, you can do it,” I urged her. “It’s simple. The green grass grew all around, all around…” I waited as she repeated that back to me—albit at a slower pace—before continuing. “...and the green grass grew all around.”

Jane repeated that as well before her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands excitedly.

“Green grass grew all around!” she chirped.

“There you go!” I cheered. “See? It wasn’t that hard, was it?”

“Nope!” she chirped again before beginning to repeat the whole song softly to herself. I watched her for a few seconds before my eye slowly began to drift over her appearance. She had short brown hair that barely reach her shoulders, and was in a tangled mess. A brown long-sleeve shirt covered her upper body, but she didn’t appear to have anything else on besides that. Luckily, the shirt was long enough that it fell down to just below her hips, which had…

I blinked in surprise before cocking my head to the side. As she walked, the hem of the shirt shifted up and down, revealing the edges of what looked to be a brand. As she stepped over a particularly large gap in the rocks, the shirt lifted higher, exposing the full brand: an hourglass.

I stared at the brand for a few more seconds before Jane suddenly ducked down and looked curiously into my eyes.

“Something see?” she asked.

“That mark on your hip…” I said slowly, trailing off as I motioned towards the brand.

Jane glanced down at it as well, running finger over the scarred skin. “Pony Keeper.”

“Pardon?” I asked, pulling my gaze away from her hip and up to her face.

“Pony Keeper,” she repeated.

“What did they look like?” I asked, curious as to how humans would describe the race that was unknowingly enslaving them.

Jane placed a fist on her forehead, one finger pointing out. “She horn-pony.”

“What color was she?” I asked.

Wordlessly, Jane pointed up towards the blue sky above.

I glanced up as well before glancing back at her. “Blue?”

“Blue?” she chirped before nodding. “Yes? Yes. Blue-horn-pony.”

I nodded absentmindedly before looking back down at the brand which was now partially hidden by her shirt again. As I stared at it, a faint memory oozed its way up out of the dregs of my mind—one of the first memories I had of Equestria: the smell of burning flesh and muffled screams of pain.

Shaking my head to clear it, I blinked when I saw Jane was trying to get my attention, a concerned look on her face. “Hello? Yes? Fine?”

“Yeah… I mean, yes. Yes, I’m fine,” I said. My eye darted back down to her hip though, and I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Did it hurt?”

“Hurt?” Jane chirped, tilting her head to the side.

“The brand,” I said, pointing at the mark. “Did it hurt?”

Jane ran a hand over the brand again before replying. “No, no hurt. Blue-horn-pony took Jane to big den. Had other humans too. White rooms, white walls. Pony in white coat. Give Jane bad water. Made Jane sleep. Woke up with mark on hip.” She scratched at the raised skin absentmindedly. “When got back to blue-horn-pony den, it hurt, but she have stuff to put on hurt. It smell bad, but make pain stop.”

“She put stuff on the burn that stopped the pain?” I asked. Upon Jane nodding enthusiastically, a small smile touched my face. It’s always nice to see that some ponies do actually care about their humans. “Does she take care of you?”

“Yes!” Jane chirped, bouncing up and down. Several stones fell from the path beneath her feet and tumbled down the mountain side. I tried my best to ignore them and focus on Jane instead.

“Blue-horn-pony take care of Jane,” she said. “Give food and water. Give place to rest. Hold Jane when sky goes dark and loud noises hurt Jane’s ears. Took care of Jane when leg go ‘snap’ and pain hurt bad.”

“Does she make you happy?” I asked.

She paused before giving me a confused look. “Happy?”

“Yeah, you know, happy,” I said before pointing at my mouth and smiling. “Happy.”

She stared up at me with wide eyes before pulling her lips back in a grimace. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was trying to duplicate my smile, but for some reason couldn’t. She repeated the process several times before giving up.

“Happy?” she frowned. “Happy good, yes?”

“Yes, happiness is good,” I said with a soft laugh.

“You happy?” she asked, cocking her head to side.

I froze, my eyes widening. “W-what?”

“You happy with Pony Keeper?” she asked again.

I opened my mouth to tell answer, but paused. That was a question I hadn’t really answered for myself in a while. Was I happy? Was I truly happy with how my life was going at the moment? Scratching at my chin absently, I let my mind wander back over the past events of the month. Was I happy with the way things turned out? Would I change them if I could? Sure, I would have preferred to still be able to understand my pony friends, but I could speak again. Plus, if they had never used the Elements on me, I wouldn’t have discovered that humans were intelligent.

Then there was Twilight. Did I regret what had happened between me and her? I thought about it for a few seconds, only to have my face heat up. No, I didn’t regret that. Definitely didn’t regret that.

So, was I happy?

Pulling my hand down my face, I chewed on the inside of my cheek before glancing back down at Jane. She was watching me, an eager look on her face. She was waiting, like my answer would mean the difference between life and death.

Slowly, a smile spread across my face.

“Well, it hasn’t been perfect,” I said softly, “but, yes. I would have to say that I am happy with my Pony Keeper.”

Jane opened her mouth—most likely to ask something else—but she was interrupted by Tarzan suddenly speaking up. “Den here.”

I glanced around, but due to my position on Tarzan’s back, I could only see the rocky path beneath us, the cliff face to my right, and the wide open space to the left with the fields of Ponyville far below.

“Great. Where’s here?” I asked, glancing upwards on a whim. There, dangling off the cliff face several hundred meters above us, was part of Canterlot Castle. I stared up at it in disbelief.

“Seriously?” I said, twisting around uncomfortably to glare at the back of Tarzan’s head. “The palace is right above us? We did that whole detour thing for nothing?!”

“No?” he said, giving me a confused look over his shoulder.

“We could have just gone straight down from the palace!” I shouted, pointing upwards towards the large white buildings far above.

Tarzan’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “No down. Not safe. Took safe path. No fall.”

Grumbling, I fell back across his shoulders. “Well, I guess it did give me a chance to talk to Lyra. Where are we anyways?”

“Den!” Jane chirped as Tarzan suddenly started walking again. “Den! Come and see, King!”

“Stop calling me that,” I huffed. “I’m not… king…” I trailed off as darkness descended around us and upon glancing up, my mouth dropped open at what I saw. We had entered into a large tunnel in the cliff face; a cave system if the stalactites were anything to go by. The tunnel slowly dipped downwards, and I could only watch as the sunlight streaming through the opening gradually became a pinprick in the distance. I could hear the soft sound of the humans’ feet hitting rock as they walked, as well as the sound of their breathing. A faint dripping noise came from all around us, echoing around the cave in an eerie manner.

“So, um… what’s the den?” I asked softly after several minutes. Despite me trying to be quiet, the cave still caused my voice to echo around.

“You see soon,” Jane said through the darkness. “Almost there.”

“How can I see it in all this darkness?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “And how do you know where you’re going? I can’t see my hand in front of my face!”

“Follow scent. Lead us home,” Tarzan huffed before inhaling through his nose.

“Well, I can’t smell anything,” I sighed before going limp against Tarzan’s shoulder. I briefly wondered if I was going to be stuck in these caves forever, unable to find my way out once Tarzan finally released me. I quickly pushed that thought from my mind. There was nothing to eat down here, so the humans had to leave to find food, right? I could just follow them out when the time came.

During my musing and plotting, I failed to notice an increase of light until suddenly a red lantern floated past, causing me to stare at it in wonder. Despite the sudden relief I felt at being able to see again, the sight of it confused me. It was bolted to the wall by a metal chain and hook. Judging by what I had seen of the Equestrian humans so far, I highly doubted that they were responsible for it. So then… who put it there?

We passed by another lantern, this one on the opposite side of the tunnel, and I could faintly see in the red light that Jane was eyeing them curiously.

“What’s with the lanterns?” I asked as a third one floated past in the darkness.

“Light guide packmates that not smell way home,” Jane said softly. “Not have good nose, so put up light to help see.”

“Yeah, but… who put them up?” I asked.

“Not know,” Jane said simply. “Light here when Jane arrive. Not know who put up.”

Humming softly to myself, I returned my gaze to the lanterns. I kept my eyes on them as we continued to descend, noting that they seemed to slowly be shifting from a deep red color to a light pink the further we went down. Before too long they had become soft white, illuminating the tunnel fully now. By now, the dripping noise had evolved into a loud trickle, and although I couldn’t see the running water, I knew it was nearby.

Suddenly the tunnel gave way to a large cavern, and I gazed up in wonder. The ceiling was high above, so high that it was hidden in the gloom of darkness. The sound of rushing water came from my left and glancing over, I saw that there was a waterfall cascading downwards from a hole in the rock face. The path rounded the edge of the cavern, slowly descending as it curved around the circular room. Straining my neck until it was about to pop, I could just barely see out of the corner of my eye a large lake sitting in the middle of the cavern, spanning nearly a couple hundred meters.

As I gazed around at what I could see of the cavern, the faint sound of voices reached my ears, muffled by the sound of rushing water. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could tell that there was a good number of speakers.

Before I had time to listen too long, Tarzan was on the move again. Turning, he descended down the sloping path, heading deeper into the cavern. Jane and the two other humans followed after him, but their eyes were locked on something in the middle of the room.

As we reached the bottom of the ramp and began to make our way towards the center of the cavern, the voices slowly began to fade. I had the sudden uneasy feeling of multiple eyes looking at me, which was even more awkward considering that my ass was currently facing these unknown beings instead of my face. I struggled slightly, but Tarzan’s grip was still too strong. Is he going to let me down anything time soon—

I let out a loud yelp that echoed around the large cavern as Tarzan suddenly picked me up off of his shoulder and tossed me to the ground. Bracing myself to land on hard rock, I was pleasantly surprised when I landed on soft moss instead. Still, the sudden drop caused my head to spin, and I laid there, groaning in discomfort as the floor beneath me shifted back and forth.

As I waited for the room to stop spinning, I heard something shifting nearby. The soft sound of feet on stone reached my ears as that something drew nearer.

More humans? I thought groggily as the unknown thing came to a stop in front of me. I was about to speak up and voice my discomfort when it spoke. “There you are big guy! What did ya find this time? Another stray?”

I froze as my mind processed what I had just heard, but refused to register it. The speaker had a gruff voice with a hint of southern American accent. Not only that, but they had used complete sentences.

It… it can’t be…

Pushing my way through the spinning in my head, I pushed myself to my hands and knees. A pair of bare feet suddenly entered my vision, as well as the torn hems of a pair of camouflage pants. My heart was pounding wildly away in my chest as my gaze slowly drifted upwards until I was staring up into the face of another male human.

Dressed in faded camo pants and gray shirt, he had his arms crossed over his chest as he eyed me curiously. His face—or what little I could see of it behind his full beard—had the gaunt look of someone who used to be heavy-set but had recently lost a lot of weight. Blue eyes watched me with suppressed mirth. However, the thing that caught my eye, the thing that made my jaw drop and my heart skip a beat, was the large grin that was plastered to the human’s face.

“Well, what ‘ave we here?” the human asked, cocking his head to the side. “You look a little dinged up. Owner not take care of you?”

Unable to process what I was seeing, I just shook my head in disbelief.

“What the hell?” I blurted out.

The human’s eyes widened in surprise, his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline.

“What the…” he breathed before turning and shouting over his shoulder, “Hey! They found another one!” There came a squawk from somewhere behind him, followed by several more voices speaking up. Ignoring them, the human turned back around to me.

“Let me help ya out there, partner,” he said, holding out his hand.

When I grabbed it, he pulled me to my feet with little effort. I staggered slightly, but he caught me and helped steady me by placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Woah, easy there,” he said. “Easy. That was a nasty drop the big guy gave ya. Take your time. We don’t want ya fallin’ down again.”

“What?” I asked dumbly.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” the human asked with a chuckle—an actually chuckle.

I stared at him with wide eyes, my mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

“Can’t believe what you’re seeing?” he asked. “Don’t worry. I’m the real deal, I swear. The name’s Dustin Revees.” He held out his hand again.

“M-Max,” I stuttered as I grabbed his hand, only to wince as he gave me a crushing handshake.

“Well Max, nice tah meet ya!” Dustin said as he about yanked my arm from its socket. He released my hand and I quickly pulled my arm to my chest, massaging the sore muscle. Putting an arm around my shoulder, Dustin then turned and motioned with a hand. “And welcome to our humble abode!”

With that, I got my first good look at where I was.

Along the shore of the underground lake was a small camp. There were dozens of large tarps and blankets of various sizes scattered across the ground, all of them gathered around several campfires. A few tents were set up as well, one of which appeared to be a repaired carnival tent. A small pile of crates and baskets was stacked nearby, and I could see that one of the baskets was full of apples. Occupying the camp—lying, sitting and standing around—were humans. At first I thought that there were only about a couple dozen of them, but as my vision grew used to the level of light, I saw that the camp extended around the shoreline, more blanket gathered around several more campfires. I tried to get a rough number, but with all the humans milling about, I was unable too. If I had to estimate though, I would have to say that there was at least a couple hundred humans gathered in the large cavern.

Pulling my gaze from the veritable sea of humans, I glanced at the nearby campfire that Dustin was pointing too. A dozen or so humans were gathered around it, sitting around the crackling flames, and I could make out a few of them: a large black guy with a bald head who had multiple bandages around his body and limbs; a thin tan man with scruffy reddish-brown hair and beard minus the mustache; a young woman with a shaved head who was missing part of her left arm just below the elbow; a male with short brown hair that has several scars across his face, as well as a weird metal grate-like mask across his mouth and nose.

There were a lot of them, far more than I had time to observe. All of them looked worse for wear. Several were sporting scars and injuries, and most of them looked half-starved. However, there was something about these dozen or so humans that made me sure that they couldn’t be Equestrian humans. It could have been their faces and the way they held their bodies, so completely different than that of the Equestrian humans.

It could have been the fact that they were dressed in tattered clothing, but unlike the Equestrian’s simple brown attire, these humans were dressed in normal clothing. There was even one wearing blue jeans.

It could have also been the fact that they were all looking at me with small smiles of their weary faces.

No, these weren’t Equestrian humans. These were… these were…

“I don’t believe it,” I breathed, slowly shaking my head.

“Believe it, man,” Dustin said, patting my on the back hard. He walked around in front of me, a large smile on his face. He motioned again towards the humans around the fire, one of whom waved at me, a warm smile on her face.

“I’m not sure what you’ve been through, and judging by that scar on your face it’s one hell of a story,” Dustin continued, “but you’re among friends now.”

I continued to shake my head, staring at the humans in front of me. “You… you’re all… you…” They’re… they are… terran humans.

“Eeyup,” Dustin said, his smile threatening to split his face, “we’re just like you! I know it’s kinda hard to believe, what with all these neanderthal-like humans around, but unlike them, we’re the genuine article.

“We’re humans from Earth!”

Chapter 59: Where The Light Won't Find You

It had been a long year for Jack Mayfield.

At least, he assumed it had been a year. It was hard to tell when you lost track of the time. Days just sort of blended together into one big, blurred mess of light and darkness. The only real indication he had of the true passage of time was when the snow had come and gone. It was probably spring now. So, maybe a year… maybe less?

Anyways, it felt like it had been a year since the fire, and the day the whole world went mad.

Jack had been one of the many scientists in/on the Energy Research branch of the FDR Research Institution. He had gotten into that particular field in the hopes of helping with the world’s ever-growing energy crisis. With the FDR Research Institution being one of the leading forces behind finding a means of clean, renewable energy, it had been a natural first choice for him, and he had sent in a job application as soon as he had graduated from college. Almost immediately, the Institution had hired him.

A dream come true, really.

Easily one of the brightest minds in his field due in part to nearly a decade’s worth of schooling, Jack had been one of the privileged few who had been selected to work on an experimental form of energy generation based off of the theoretical Tesla Generator. If they somehow managed to get the generator operational, it would be the only source of clean, self-sustaining energy in the world, with nearly the same level of output as three nuclear power stations.

After years of work, the generator was finally ready to be tested. The switch was thrown, the generator was turned on, and history was made. However, there had been some… minor issues. The generator was self-sustaining, yes, but the final output had barely been enough energy to run the building, let alone any large populated areas.

Saddened, but not discouraged, Jack and his team had thrown themselves upon the problem with new zeal, several of them even staying overnight in order to work on the issue. They had been making progress fixing the errors and boosting the output, but it had all come crashing down the night of the fire.

Nobody was sure what had caused the fire. It had started in the old wing of the Institution, where old military experiments had taken place during the Cold War. That section of the Institute had been shut down due to a freak accident that had left part of the old lab missing. That part of the building was used only for storage now.

The fire had spread quickly, and even with the fire alarms alerting them to the danger, the scientists had barely enough time to escape before the flames grew to block the way.

Unfortunately for Jack, due to his polio, he was unable to flee with the rest of his colleagues. He, as well as three other individuals, were stuck in the building as the fire grew. He watched two of them burn in the fire as they attempted to find a means of escape. He took refuge in the bathroom, along with the third scientist as they waited for the end.

However, it was not to be.

He wasn’t sure if the flames had reached a gas line or one of the generators, but just when he thought that he was going to pass out from the smoke and heat, there had been a blinding flash of light, and Jack was knocked unconscious. He awoke a few hours later in this madness that he now found himself. The fire had been put out, for which he was grateful, but it appeared that the part of the building that they were in had been moved. Instead of being where it was supposed to be, the Energy Research branch of the FDR Research Institution was now smack dab in the middle of some weird-ass forest inhabited by creatures that shouldn’t exist!

Jack glared at the forearm crutches dangling from his wrists. If only he had been a little faster, a little better in shape, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.

A loud thumping noise coming from the ceiling drew Jack from his thoughts, and he glanced up in time to see the vent burst open and a human fall out— “GAAAAH!” —only to land on a strategically placed mattress.

Wincing, Jack spun his chair around.

“I don’t know why you insist on doing that,” he sighed with a shake of his head. “It’s completely pointless.”

The other human sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Because it’s the safest way to get out of the building, duh!”

“There’s the front door right there,” Jack commented, pointing with one of his crutches at a pair of double doors that had been barricaded with various furniture.

“What, and get mauled by one of those fucking lion-scorpion things?” the other human growled. “I don’t think so.” Standing up, the human stretched, allowing Jack to eye him.

Drew Rayner was a thin man, barely into his adulthood. He had been an intern at the Institution, although for the life of him, Jack could never figure out how he got in. With his shaggy black hair and Metallica t-shirt, as well as his loud and obnoxious attitude, Drew was the last person Jack would have chosen as an intern. The fact that he now sported an unkempt, scraggly beard didn’t help the image either. Though in this new world, he did have his uses.

“So, what did you manage to find this time?” Jack asked, eyeing the backpack flung across Drew’s back.

Flipping the bag around, Drew unzipped it and began to rummage around inside. After a few seconds he pulled out a strange-looking piece of fruit. It was about the size of a mango, but was violet in color and lumpy.

He tossed it to Jack, who caught it clumsily.

“What is it?” he asked, eyeing the fruit curiously.

“Not sure,” Drew said, still rummaging about in the bag, “but I saw several birds and a weird deer-like creature with four antlers eating them, so they must be safe. I grabbed a couple dozen of them.”

“That’s reassuring,” Jack grumbled, lowering the fruit. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, I managed to get to the stream and refill our water supply,” Drew said as he pulled two jugs of water from the bag and placed them on a nearby desk.

“Any troubles?”

“Not really,” Drew shrugged. “I mean, I saw the star bears again, but they left me alone this time. I didn’t really stick around, though. I filled the jugs and got out of there as soon as possible.”

“Did you see any of those wooden wolves at all?” Jack asked, returning to studying the fruit. It wasn’t as firm as he had thought it would be, but the skin wasn’t soft either. It had some give to it when he pushed a thumb down on it.

“No, didn’t see any of them,” Drew said as he emptied out the backpack. “Haven’t really had much trouble with them since that big flash of fire to the north. The ones I do see look a little charred though.”

“I wonder what happened,” Jack said as he sniffed the fruit.

Sitting down, Drew watched him curiously. “You think it’s safe?”

“You said you saw wildlife eating them, correct?” Jack asked.

“No, I saw a bunch of rocks eating them,” Drew scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, wildlife was eating them! Birds, deer, et cetera. Geez...”

Jack eyed the fruit for a few more seconds before suddenly leaning forward and taking a bite. An explosion of juices filled his mouth, and Jack was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted like a watermelon, if only a little more sour.

“Well?” Drew asked as he continued to chew.

“Not too bad,” Jack said, taking another bite of the fruit. “A little sour, but it’s pretty tasteless to be honest.”

Picking up a fruit himself, Drew eyed it skeptically before taking a tentative bite.

“I guess it’s better than stale chips from the vending machines,” he muttered. “Not that we have many of them left.”

“Hopefully this doesn’t give us the runs like those weird berries did,” Jack muttered, shivering slightly at the memory.

“Yeah, that was horrible,” Drew said, shivering as well. “It got so bad, it hurt to wipe.”

Silence fell as the pair continued to eat, only the sound of their chewing filling the room. After a few minutes, Drew paused before glancing over at Jack.

“So, um… is our… ‘friend’ still out there?” he asked softly, nodding towards a window behind Jack. There was a sheet covering the window, blocking the other side from view. It was an inner window, allowing those in the room to look out into a small hallway and vice versa. It was currently quiet on the other side, but Jack knew better.

Without glancing around or stopping his chewing, Jack reached behind and used the tip of one of his crutches to lift the edge of the sheet, revealing a zebra with his face pressed up against the glass.

“God damn it,” Drew growled, falling back in his chair and glaring at the zebra. It was smaller than normal zebras, with impossibly large green eyes. Red markings covered its muzzle, running across its face.

Smooshing its cheek up against the window, it tapped on the glass with a hoof.

“Um, excuse me,” it said, its voice muffled by the glass but clearly masculine, “but could you fine gentlecolts let me in? I promise that I mean no—I say!”

Jack moved the crutch and allowed the sheet to cover the window again.

“He’s still here,” he grunted.

“Persistent little bugger, ain’t he?” Drew growled, chomping angrily on his piece of fruit.

Jack nodded his head absently. The weird zebra had shown up nearly a month ago, and while Jack didn’t know where it went during the night, it had spent the first couple of trying to gain entry to the building. It had managed to get into the hallway only a few days ago, and the only reason it was able to do that was because of a large, gaping hole in the wall further down the hall. It had been a shock for both men when the zebra had first started talking, but now it was just getting annoying. Not that it said much.

“I still say it’s a figment of our imagination,” Drew muttered, glaring at the sheet. “I mean, it wasn’t here in the beginning, it only shows up occasionally… so it just proves that we’re slowly losing our mind, right?”

“It’s not a figment of our imagination,” Jack sighed. Closing his eyes, he fought off a growing headache. They had had this discussion many times within the past month, yet Drew always seemed to bring it back up whenever the zebra was mentioned.

“Then explain it!” Drew said loudly, motioning towards the hidden zebra. “That isn’t a normal zebra!”

“I can’t!” Jack shouted back. “I’ve already told you that! I can’t explain what it is, why it can talk, or where it came from! I don’t know! And what part of any of this is normal?!”

“Um,” came a muffled voice from the other side of the glass. “My name is the Desert Vagabond, and I’m from Sandpoint.”

“Shut up!” Drew screamed at the window, the loud noise causing Jack to wince in pain. “What do you want from us, huh? What, you want food or something?! Cause this fruit is ours, got it? Ours!”

A long pause followed Drew’s words before, to the surprise of both men, a soft chuckle came from the other side of the glass. “Do I want your food? No, I can’t say that I do. Those are, as the Hellsteed call them, Zt’rul fruit. I’m not sure what their Equestrian name is, but with my people, they are referred to as ‘Fiber Fruit’. Very good for relieving constipation… if you know what I mean.”

Both Jack and Drew froze, their mouths full of juicy fruit. Slowly, both men glanced down at the fruit still in their hands, each one almost completely eaten.

“Did I mention that they’re fast acting as well?” the zebra chuckled.

As one, their stomachs gurgled loudly.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Stupid mare,” the Archmage snarled as he stood up, almost knocking the chess pieces off of the board in the process. He glared at the pony before him, the figure of Monochrome now frozen in her new stony prison with a look of shock and horror clearly carved into the frozen face.

The game had taken far longer than the Archmage had wanted, Monochrome somehow managing to keep her king safe despite the odds. It didn’t help the fact that she was able to get her queen back not once, not twice, but three times before the Archmage was finally able to checkmate her. Even so, the sun had long since risen, almost to the point of beginning to set, and he was now behind schedule.

Glaring at Monochrome, the Archmage’s eye twitched.

“So, it appears you and I are even now, Celestia,” he growled. “I’ve turned ponies into stone too. Although, now that I have done it, it’s such an anticlimactic way to deal with annoyances. I prefer the direct approach. It’s much more… permanent.”

Still glaring at the statue of Monochrome, his horn lit up a sickly yellow and the fire poker behind him levitated into the air. It hovered there, quivering ominously, before with a shrill whistle, it zipped through the air towards the statue. With a sickening ‘crack’, the poker imbedded itself into the statue’s right shoulder, erupting out her back in a shower of dust and debris.

“Let’s see you survive that, my dear,” he sniffed. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he grimaced upon seeing the time. His horn flashed once, and he grimaced again as more information was relayed to him. “Running behind. Always late. Things to do. Chaos to wreak. Time to go. Oh, but before I do!” Grinning madly, the Archmage conjured an umbrella from somewhere and, opening it wide, placed it above Monochrome petrified body.

“I hope you brought your galoshes,” he chuckled darkly, “because there’s a flood coming.” Patting Monochrome roughly on the cheek, his horn flashed again and in an explosion of light, he disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later inside a large cavern.

Unicorns glanced up as the Archmage materialized.

He glanced around at all of them, a neutral look on his face. Silence fell around the cavern for several seconds, until the Archmage spoke. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but it still echoed around the rock walls like thunder. “It is time.”

Turning, he began to make his way towards the steel doors embedded in the far wall, all while issuing commands. “Dark Spice, take your crew, as well as the others, and get into position. You have your targets. You know what to do. Wait for the signal.”

The cowled unicorn nodded once before slipping back into the shadows, most of the surrounding ponies following him.

“Darkflare, you and your gang are following me,” the Archmage growled. “We’re gonna get this whole thing started.”

“It’s about damn time,” Darkflare said, a grin flashing across his muzzle. “I thought you’d forgotten about us.”

“Play your part right, and no one will ever forget about you,” the Archmage said curtly as he reached the doors. Lighting up his horn, he pulled them open with little difficulty, the loud grinding of gears echoing around the cavern.

The Archmage slipped into the metal passage, Darkflare, Pearl, Rose, and three other unicorns followed quickly behind him before the doors closed with a metallic ‘thud’. Lighting up their horns, they made their way through the narrow corridor, the soft click of their hooves the only sound audible in the gloom.

The Archmage couldn’t help the sneer that worked its way across his muzzle. At long last judgement day was here. And nothing, pony or human, was going to stand in his way.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Coming Dawn < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The sound of roaring water filled Sunny’s ears, and she kept them pressed against her head in an attempt to block out some of the noise. She clung to the cliff face in front of her, standing on a narrow ledge of rock barely wide enough for her hooves. Behind her, the waterfall cascaded down into the lake at the base of the mountain. Droplets of water splashed against the rocks beneath her hooves, making them slippery and dangerous.

Around her, the other members of the Coming Dawn clung, trying to keep their footing on the slippery ledge.

“Whose bright idea was this, anyways?” Sunny yelled over the sound of the waterfall. “We’re mostly pegasi here, right? Why don’t we just fly the others up to the entrance and be done with it?”

“Because it may be booby-trapped,” Ivory shouted back, her voice muffled by her skull-pattern kerchief. Her red-tinted glasses flashed as she turned to glare at Sunny. “The last thing we need is to get tangled in barbed wire or something worse.”

“Darkflare wouldn’t set a trap out here,” Sunny shouted back. “He’d do it inside, where there’s a better chance of catching a pegasus. Out here, we can come from any direction, but once inside, we are limited in our ability to fly!”

“No flying!” Ivory growled. “Besides, we’re almost there. The entrance is just ahead!” Digging a hoof into the rock wall in front of her, she motioned upwards. There, just barely visible over the edge of another ledge was a small cave. It looked like it had been blasted out of the cliff face, the edges jagged and uneven.

Grumbling to herself, Sunny hunkered down and continued climbing.

After several minutes, the small group of ponies finally reached the cave entrance. As they pulled each other up over the lip of the ledge, Stacker called out. “Hey, LT. Whatcha make of this?”

“Make of what?” Ivory asked, turning to see what Stacker was talking about.

Sunny turned as well, only to blink in confusion. The first few feet within the small cave were made up of rock. However, as the passage went further into the mountain, it slowly began to morph into a tiled floor with steel walls and ceiling. A red line was painted on the floor, faded from years of weather and wear.

Stacker was hunched over the floor, eyeing the seam between rock and tile carefully.

“They’re fused together,” he said, tapping the floor with a hoof. “There’s no point where one begins and the other ends.”

“That doesn’t happen naturally,” Sunny said as she trotted up beside him, only to wince at how stupid she had sounded.

“Unicorn magic, maybe?” Stacker hummed. Everyone turned to the unicorns of the squad.

“Don’t look at me,” Ivory said, shaking her head. “I just burn things. You’d have to talk to a Battlemage. They’d know more about this than me.” The other unicorns just shrugged their shoulders and nodded in agreement.

“Well, regardless of how it was made, I think we found what we were looking for,” Stacker said, straightening up. “So, how do you want to proceed?”

“Unicorns in front,” Ivory grunted as she moved forward. “Shields up and ready to go. The rest of you stay behind us. Pegasi have better eyesight, so keep your eyes peeled for anything. Hopefully we can catch them unawares.” Pausing, she turned and glanced over her shoulder at Windbreaker. “You have the magic-dampening rings, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she chirped, holding up a bag and giving it a quick shake. The muffled sound of clinking metal filled the air. “The Battlemages didn’t catch me this time either! They seemed to be distracted by something, so I was able to sneak in, grab the stuff, and sneak out before any of them saw me!”

Ivory nodded. “Excellent. Pass those out and keep them at the ready.”

As Windbreaker passed out the rings, Ivory and the unicorns began to slowly make their way down through the metal passageway. The light of their spells cast a multi-hued glow around them, illuminating their surroundings. The hallway was old, and the years unkind. Grime covered the metal, dulling its shine. Wires hung from the ceiling, twisting and turning like roots as they dangled from strange glass fixtures that dotted the ceiling. The red line painted on the floor continued to guide their path, faded in some places to the point of nothing, but still present all the same.

A stifling silence hung over the strange hallway, broken only by the click of the ponies’ hooves, which echoed eerily. The eeriness grew as they passed by door after door, all of them either blocked by debris or their doors wedged shut, buckled under some unseen pressure.

Sunny glanced at one of the doors as she passed. It had faded writing beside it, and upon glancing closer, she released that it was written in a language she had never seen before.

[Lounge/Break Room]

Staring at the weird, alien runes, Sunny felt a shiver run down her spine.

“I don’t like this place,” she murmured softly. “It feels… wrong.”

“I know how ya feel, ma’am,” Stacker muttered. “It’s making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.” A gentle murmur of agreement came from the others, and they soon found themselves unconsciously grouping closer together.

Eventually the corridor split into two separate hallways, one heading to the right and another heading to the left. The passageway on the left was blocked by a pile of rocks and debris.

“I guess that decides that,” Ivory grunted, casting a bemused look over the heap of rubble. Sighing, she reached up and pulled her kerchief down and lifted her tinted glass over her forehead. “To the right it is then.”

The group turned and slowly made their way down the right corridor. They had only taken a few dozen steps before a pair of large, steel double doors suddenly materialized out of the darkness.

“And what do we have here?” Stacker asked as the group came to a stop. They stared up at the doors, eyeing them cautiously. Sunny noted that the same alien runes as before were on the door in large, ominous lettering.

[Authorized Personnel Only!]

“Anypony seen writing like this before?” Windbreaker asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Nope,” one of the guards huffed, her face scrunched up. “It just looks like weird scratching. Are we sure it’s a language?”

“It’s a language alright,” Ivory said, her red eyes darting back and forth. “Just one that I’ve never seen. It’s got some repeating runes and such, but I’ve never seen these kind of markings before. It doesn’t come close anything I’ve seen before either.”

Windbreaker gave her a curious look. “But don’t you know, like, six languages or something like that?”

“Ndiyo, hun di, fréta, hí, khirrt, craw.”

“Um, what?” Windbreaker blinked in bewilderment.

“She just said ‘yes’ in zebrican, diamond dog, griffon, armored bear, changeling, and hellsteed,” Stacker replied, not taking his eyes off of the door.

Windbreaker’s ears splayed backwards and she chuckled weakly. “Oh…”

“So, nothing?” Stacker asked softly, leaning towards Ivory.

She shook her head. “Nothing. It looks almost like a diced up version of minotaurian, but it’s not even that.”

“How do we proceed?”

“We go through the door,” Ivory said with a sigh. “They’re just words. Whatever they mean is no matter to us. We have unicorns to find.” With that, she stepped forward, put a hoof on the cold metal, and shoved.

Dust covered everything. That was the first thing Sunny noticed as the group ventured through the doors and into the large room on the other side. A large machine rested along one of the walls with several screens embedded in it, most of which were cracked and busted. Mountains of scrap metal had been shoved up along the other walls of the room, nearly reaching the ceiling. Several of them appeared to have collapsed some time long ago, scattering their contents throughout the room. Various machines dotted the debris, broken and unused.

“Everypony be vigilant,” Ivory ordered. “We don’t know what’s in here. There could be traps hidden in the scrap.” The unicorn guards glanced around the room, the lights from their horns causing shadows to dance around the debris like ghouls.

“Are you guys seeing this stuff?” Windbreaker asked breathlessly.

“What about it?” one of the pegasi asked, eyeing a twisted beam of metal.

“Some of these machines would make the griffons cream their feathers!” Windbreaker said, reaching out to pick up one of the smaller devices. She was blocked though as a red barrier suddenly sprang up around the device.

“Don’t touch,” Ivory growled, her red eyes flashing in the gloom.

“We need to search the room for another entrance,” Stacker said softly, walking up behind Ivory. “This can’t be a dead end.”

Ivory was silent for a long time before closing her eyes and sighing.

“Alright,” she huffed. “Spread out and search for another path, but nopony goes off by themselves… and each group needs to have at least one unicorn in it, got it? Watch for traps.” A murmur of understanding sounded before the guards began to fan out, picking their way through the metal and debris.

Sunny crept up alongside Stacker, sticking close to him. Ivory followed as well, and the trio began to make their way along the edge of the metal piles.

“This… what is all of this doing down here?” Sunny breathed, eyeing broken machine after broken machine.

“I’m not sure,” Stacker muttered, “but with how big this facility is, whoever’s behind this has been planning this for a long, long time. This wasn’t done overnight.”

“I’m not so sure,” Ivory said softly. “There’s something else going on here. My horn’s been itching like crazy since we arrived, and I can’t place the reason why.”

“Scratchy horn?” Sunny asked, raising an eyebrow. “What…?”

“There’s weird magic in the air. A type I haven’t felt before,” Ivory explained, eyes scanning the room. “It feels familiar yet… strange at the same time. I… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Well,” Stacker huffed, flexing his wings, “the sooner we find our targets, the sooner we get answers and the sooner we can get out of—”

He was interrupted by Windbreaker, who stuck her head out of a side room. “Lieutenant, you really need to come see this!”

Turning abruptly, Ivory made a beeline for the room, followed closely by Sunny and Stacker. Windbreaker had already pulled her head back into the room when they arrived, and, lighting up her barrier, Ivory stepped cautiously through the doorway.

It took Sunny’s eyes a second to adjust to the light of the sudden barrier, but when she could finally see again, she gasped. The room was smaller than the one they had just left, more of a storage space than anything else. However, someone had gone through and rigged the entire room full of weird pod-like machines with glass panels on the front of them. Almost all of the panels had been smashed, pieces of glass littering the ground around them.

“What the…?” Sunny gasped, looking around at the metal pods.

“I’m getting flashbacks to the Changeling Invasion,” Stacker said, shaking his head. “What the buck are these things?”

“I don’t know, but my horn is really starting to itch,” Ivory growled, one of her eyes beginning to twitch as her magic barrier flickered out. The other unicorns nodded, one of them even reaching up to scratch his horn.

Stepping forward—being mindful to not cut her frog on the broken glass—Sunny cautiously approached one of the pods. As she drew near, she saw that the same strange writing as earlier was engraved along the top of the pod’s opening. Leaning forward, she squinted her eyes, trying to make the faded letters out in the gloom.

[ADAM 001 - Male]

Scrunching up her face in confusion, Sunny turned to the next pod.

[EVE 002 - Female]

Snorting in annoyance, she stepped back and shook her head.

“I’m… I’m so confused,” she whined.

“Well, that’s interesting,” Stacker muttered, peering into a pod.

Sunny perked up. “What?”

“There’s no glass inside the pods,” Stacker said, looking into another one. “Just outside of them.”

“Why is that interesting?”

“Because,” Ivory said, eyes darting from pod to pod, “that means that the glass wasn’t smashed from the outside, but from the inside. Something was inside of these things but got out. The question is, what?”

“Um, I can answer that.”

The group turned to look at Windbreaker, who had just spoken. Her usual smile was gone, replaced instead by a nervous look, her ears pressed against her head. She turned and pointed a hoof towards a pod in the far corner.

Lighting up her horn, Ivory cast a soft beam of light towards the pod in question, illuminating it in the gloom.

Sunny gasped, her eyes widening.

“Celestia’s ivory teats,” Stacker breathed as the rest of the Coming Dawn muttered around him.

Unlike the other pods in the room, this particular pod still had its panel intact, although a large crack ran through the glass. The alien script atop the pod glowed in the magic light, proudly proclaiming the words, [ABEL 004 - Male]. However, the source of the ponies surprise was what was inside the pod.

There, lying in a crumpled heap against the back of the pod, was the skeletal remains of a human.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Everyone got everything?” the Archmage asked, glaring around at the group of unicorns. “Knives, gems, loot?”

“Yes, yes,” Darkflare snapped impatiently. “Can we hurry this up? I’ve been sitting around for far too long. It’s time to have some fun.”

“Yes… ‘fun’...” the Archmage growled as he looked around the destroyed room, searching through the metal desks and bookshelves to see if anything had been forgotten. With how disheveled the room was, it was hard for an untrained eye to see what Darkflare’s gang had brought in and what had been there originally.

However, as the Archmage’s cold eyes drifted over the mess, he could pick out the changes with almost perfect accuracy. Several of the desks had been moved across the room and cleaned off. A pile of books had been knocked over, their fragile, crumbling pages now scattered across the floor. There were even a couple of full bags of bits hidden in the far corner of the room, something that Darkflare had clearly overlooked. Not that it would matter here in a few minutes.

A muted clattering noise echoed from one of the side passageway, causing all the unicorns to whip their heads around and stare at the doorway. The faint sound of voices could be heard, although what they were saying was too quiet to understand.

“It seems we have some company,” Rose muttered, her eyes narrowing.

“Guards? What do we do?” Pearl asked, glancing at Darkflare, who just shrugged.

“Burn them out?” he suggested.

“No,” the Archmage said sharply, causing all of them to look at him. “Leave them be. It won’t matter in a few minutes. Besides, I have a little… surprise in store for them.” As he spoke, his gaze slowly drifted to another one of the side rooms.

Darkflare followed his gaze, and a small sneer slid across his muzzle. “Fine, we leave the guards. But what are we going to do about her?”

Silently, the Archmage pulled a small metal ball out of thin air. He stalked through the debris and made his way towards the side door, stepping over the collapsed door as he did so. Making his way past the empty holding cells within, he stopped in front of the last cell, glaring down at the occupant.

Melodic Wind laid on the ground, staring blankly ahead with one eye, the other one swollen completely shut. She was now little more than a skeleton covered in fur, her faded blue fur coated in dried blood. Her bones were visible, and her wings stripped of their feathers.

Tossing the metal ball up and down in his magic, the Archmage stared down at the prone pony with no emotion in his gaze. His eyes drifted to the ball, and he tsked softly.

“Alea iacta est,” he muttered before pushing a small amount of magic into the metal ball. Immediately, it orange lines covered it and it began to emit a loud beeping noise. With that, he released his spell and the ball dropped.

Melodic’s eye darted to the ball as it landed with a thud in front of her face, her pupil shrinking to a pinprick. She just stared blankly at the orb for a few second before muttering weakly under her breath, “Equine, four, nine, twenty-three, six, twenty-two, twenty-six, twenty-three, twenty-three, eleven, three, twelve, eight, twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, eight, four…”

As Melodic continued to recite numbers faintly to herself beneath the beeping sound coming from the glowing ball, the Archmage turned and exited the room.

“The guards are definitely going to hear that,” Darkflare growled, his ears folding against his head.

“That’s the point,” the Archmage said as he walked up to one of the machines attached to the wall. Tapping one of the buttons, the cracked monitor lit up, glowing green in the gloom. The Archmage tapped two more buttons and yellow alien text began to scroll across the screen. One more tap and the text faded, replaced instead by strange symbols that changed periodically.

“What’s that?” Darkflare asked, eyeing the glowing screen curiously.

“That,” the Archmage said, stepping away from the console, “means that it is time to go.” The other unicorns gathered around him as his horn began to glow.

Casting one last look around, Darkflare sneered, “I’m not gonna miss this place.”

“That’s because it isn’t yours to miss,” the Archmage muttered under his breath. With that, his horn lit up and the unicorns disappeared in flash of light.

Silence fell over the disheveled room, broken only by the shrill chirp of the beeping orb in the next room. The monitor continued to glow, the green light casting an eerie glow around the room. Slowly, the symbols displayed on the cracked and dirtied screen continued to change.

[5:37]

[5:36]

[5:35]

[5:34]

[5:33]

[5:32]

[5:31]

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“What’s that noise?” Ivory asked, ears perking as she lifted her head.

Stacker scrunching up his face. “Is that… beeping?”

Straining her ears, Sunny could just barely pick up a shrill beeping noise coming from somewhere nearby.

“Where is that coming from?” she asked. She turned her head, trying to pinpoint the noise’s location.

“Hey!” Windbreaker called from across the room. “There’s another door over here. The beeping’s coming from the other side!” There came the sound of a handle being jiggled. “It's locked.” The jiggling continued for a few seconds before a loud crack echoed around the room. “Oops… never mind!”

Sunny, Ivory, and Stacker glanced around at a cluster of broken pods. Windbreaker was standing there, broken door handle held in her hoof. Beside her, an old rusted door was swung open, hanging by a single hinge. On the other side of the doorway was a long corridor. It was pitch black except for a small glimmer of light in the distance.

The beeping sound was echoing eerily down the hallway.

“It seems kinda strange the noise would start right as we arrive, right?” Stacker asked, glancing sideways at Ivory.

The stoic unicorn nodded. “Yes.”

“Kinda feels… off, no?”

“Yes.”

“Almost like a trap.”

“Yes.”

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Stacker asked, scratching his chin with a hoof.

Ivory was silent for a brief moment before stalking towards the door.

“Proceed with caution,” she said softly. Her horn lit up, and a large red barrier of magic appeared in front of her. The other unicorns lit up their horns as well, adding their magic to hers and strengthening the barrier.

Before slipping down the passageway, Ivory glanced over her shoulder. “Pegasi, stay close to our six, but be prepared to pull out at a second’s notice. We’ll cover your retreat.” With that, the Coming Dawn slowly began to creep their way down the hall, ears perked and bodies tense.

As they neared the light, the corridor suddenly gave way to a large room. It was illuminated by the green flickering light of a group of monitors against the far wall. Metal desks were scattered everywhere, several of them collapsed upon the ground. Several unidentified electronic devices were smashed upon the dust-covered floor, their pieces and gears scattered everywhere.

As the unicorns entered the room, the light from their barriers mixed with the light from the monitors, creating a weird mixture of color and light. Doing a quick scan of the room and finding nopony present, they ceased the flow of magic to their horns and allowed their magic to fade.

“It’s clear,” Ivory muttered, her ear twitching in time with the beeping, which had grown louder.

“Where are we?” breathed Sunny, glancing around as she entered. Tilting her head back, she turned her gaze upward. Several catwalks ran across the length of the room, leading to doors that were shrouded in darkness. In the faint glint of the monitor lights, she could make out the gleam of barbed wire.

Swallowing nervously, Sunny lowered her gaze and clamped her wings tightly to her side.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Stacker answer, walking up beside her. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” A shiver ran down his spine. “I don’t like it, though. It feels too… artificial in here.”

“Too much metal,” Windbreaker mumbled, her eyes darting back and forth.

“Sergeant,” Ivory said, her head tilted backwards, red eyes unblinking. “What do you make of that?”

Following her gaze, the others beheld a large, tattered piece of cloth dangling from the ceiling. The colors on it were faded considerably, the reds and blues almost matching the white.

“What is it?” Sunny asked, squinting to see the fabric in the gloom. “A blanket?”

“Looks like a flag,” Stacker grunted. “Seen better days, though.”

“What’s with all the stars?” Windbreaker asked, cocking her head to the side. “It’s weird.”

“This whole place is weird,” Sunny countered under her breath.

Tearing her gaze from the hanging cloth, Ivory glanced around the room.

“Spread out again and search around,” she ordered, keeping her voice low. “Try and find any sign of Darkflare and his gang… and somepony find what’s making that damn beeping!” As her guards slowly spread out to search the room, Ivory approached the flickering monitors. There were strange alien symbols on them, changing in a slow, methodical rhythm. The only constant was that there was always three symbols displayed.

“It sounds like the beeping is coming from over here,” Stacker said, moving towards a small doorway off to the side. The door was collapsed upon the floor. Stepping over it, Stacker cautiously entered the side room, Sunny and Windbreaker following close behind.

“What the…?” Stacker breathed, glancing around at the line of holding cells.

Windbreaker tapped on one of the iron bars experimentally with a hoof. A sour look crossed her face.

“Oh great… more metal,” she grumbled.

Sunny gave her a confused look before glancing around the darkened room. She paused as she spotted a faint glimmer of orange on the floor near the back of the room. The light flashed in times with beeping.

“Hey, look at this!” Perking up, Sunny trotted forward. “I found the source of the noise.” Picking it up, she turned to show Stacker, only to freeze halfway. Her eyes widened, and she opened and closed her mouth wordlessly. Finally, she managed to find her voice.

“S-Stacker,” she choked out. “Stacker!”

Stacker and Windbreaker raced towards the distraught mare, only to freeze upon seeing what had frightened her.

“Luna’s frozen teats,” Stacker breathed as Windbreaker gagged beside him.

Oblivious to the three new arrivals outside her cell, Melodic continued her trance-like mutterings, all while blood continued to ooze from her various injuries, many of which were heavily infected. “Alicorn, nine, eleven, thirteen, eleven, four, nineteen, eleven, twenty-three, one, eighteen, four, twenty-two, nine, twenty-three, nine, one…”

“How could anypony do this to another pony?” Windbreaker gasped, holding a hoof in front of her muzzle as if she was going to be sick. “I can understand that they view humans as beneath them, but this… this is another intelligent creature!”

Sunny shook her head weakly. “Darkflare doesn’t like pegasi.” Her eyes roamed over Melodic’s plucked wings, the bare appendages sickly and scarred. “This… As grisly as it is, this doesn’t surprise me. I was expecting worse.”

“Ma’am,” Stacker called back down the hallway to Ivory in the other room, “I think we’ve found our missing guard!”

Ivory didn’t reply, still focused on the flashing symbols.

“We’ve got to get her out of there,” Windbreaker muttered, searching around for a way to unlock the cell. One of the unicorn guards stepped forward.

“Here,” she said before her horn light up. She grabbed the bars in her magic and, with a grunt, pulled them apart far enough for a pony to slip through. Stacker shoved his way between the bars, struggling slightly to get his bulky frame through. Once in, he gently lifted Melodic’s body, being mindful of her injuries.

He lifted her through the gap in the bars, where she was immediately taken in a cloud of magic. Carefully, Melodic was levitated out of the cell and down the corridor, all the while muttering out the seemingly random string of numbers.

“Medic!” Stacker called as they moved Melodic into the main room. Immediately, the squad’s medic was by their side.

“Here, put her…” she began, only to trail off as she glanced around the dusty room in disdain. By now the rest of the Coming Dawn had gathered around. A pair of pegasi grabbed one of the knocked over tables and righted it before dusting the surface off with their wings as best they could.

“Put her down here,” the medic said, moving to stand beside the table. When Melodic was placed beside her, she began to examine her gingerly.

“How bad is it?” Stacker asked.

“Bad,” the medic said grimly. “She is severely malnourished and dehydrated. There’s swelling around her right eye. Multiple lacerations across the body, many of them infected. Her wings have been plucked several times—” the pegasi in the room all flinched at the same time “—and both her back hooves have the skin rubbed off by what appears to have been chains and shackles.” The medic ran her eye over Melodic’s body one last time before shaking her head. “There’s no way I can treat her here. She needs to get to a hospital immediately.”

“We can’t pull out now... can we, Sarge?” Windbreaker asked, glancing at Stacker.

He shook his head, a troubled look on his face. “I’m not entirely sure. There’s no way we can leave her like this… but we still have to find Darkflare.” He chewed on the inside of his cheek, staring down at the tormented pegasus on the table before him. “Hey, LT., What say you?” When no reply came, Stacker glanced around. “Lieutenant?”

Ivory stared at the symbols before her with narrowed eyes. There was a pattern to them, she was sure of it, but whatever it was eluded her. Whatever it was though, Ivory couldn’t help her growing feeling of dread.

“Lieutenant?” Stacker called out, cocking his head to the side as he stared at the back of her head. “You in there?”

As Ivory watched, the strange text went from three symbols to two. Her ears perked up.

“Lieutenant?”

“Look, we need to get her some help right now,” the medic growled, her head bobbing slightly as she checked Melodic’s pulse.

“We can’t just leave,” Windbreaker said. “We have a mission to finish.”

Sunny gaped at her. “There’ll be other days to catch Darkflare. We’re talking about somepony’s life!”

“Lieutenant.” Stacker grunted, a small frown crossing his face.

“And if Darkflare escapes, other ponies might die!” Windbreaker shot back. “Remember the researcher at the Institute? We could be looking at similar cases!”

“Darkflare isn’t a serial killer,” Sunny growled. “That’s not how he works! He doesn’t just go around killing random ponies.”

“We can’t risk it!”

“She’s going to die!”

“Lieutenant!”

Two symbols became one.

Ivory’s eyes flew open as she suddenly realized what it was the symbols meant. Time seemed to slow as her heart began to pump at a fevered pace, pushing adrenaline through her veins. Her pupils constricted as black veins crept across the whites of her eyes. Spinning around, Ivory shouted out even as magic was beginning to flow up her horn. “Everypony out!”

One symbol became none.

From somewhere beneath their hooves, something exploded with enough force to shake the very earth.

Before anyone could respond, Ivory released her spell in a burst of red light. One by one in quick succession, the guards of the Coming Dawn began to disappear in flashes of light. Sunny gasped as something invisible hooked itself to her chest, a strong force yanking her upwards. The last thing she saw was Ivory’s eyes, demonic and glowing.

Then there were flames. Endless flames.

Ivory was consumed almost instantly, her flesh searing away in a roar of fire. The heat was so intense that even as Sunny was teleported away from the inferno, she could feel the fur on her face singe. The intense light of the explosion burned her eyes, causing her to cry out in pain.

Just as soon as it began, the pressure around Sunny ceased, as she reached the spell’s intended destination. Immediately collapsing to the floor, she pressed her hooves to her eyes and rolled around on the ground, writhing in pain. Around her, she could dimly hear the shouts of the other Coming Dawn members over the sound of her own screams. Many of them appeared to be in the same shape she was. Hooves were running about, voices she didn’t recognize shouting at one another.

“Get the Healers! We have multiple Code Grays! Level three trauma patients inbound!”

“Somepony lend me a hoof with these stretchers!”

“Where the buck did they come from?!”

“He’s not breathing!”

Voices came from all around her in a whirlwind of noise. Yet all Sunny was aware of was the mind-numbing pain that was coming from her eyes and nose.

“Celestia damn it!” she heard Stacker cry out, followed by the sound of hooves slamming against tiled floors. “Ivory! You… stupid… gah!”

Sunny suddenly felt a pair of hooves grab her, the pony trying to hold her still. A soft voice spoke up nearby, the tone urgent. “Ma’am, let me see. Take your hooves off your eyes, I need to see!” Recognizing the Coming Dawn’s medic’s voice, Sunny obeyed instantly and reluctantly lowered her hooves. She attempted to open her eyes, but was meet with only darkness and horrible pain.

A sharp hiss came from above her. “By the… Healer! I need a Healer immediately!”

As numbness began to cloud around Sunny’s mind, she was dimly aware of another pair of hooves grabbing her head. A voice, louder and more authoritative than the first, was shouting at her.

“Miss, you have to stay awake! Do you hear me? Stay awake! Quick, get her on the stretcher!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Celestia stood upon the dais, staring out at the newly risen moon through the windows of the throne room. Against the moonlight she could just make out the forms of the Night Guard flitting about the sky as they went about their appointed tasks. Some were headed for their posts, others off to their training. A select few however continued the search for the missing human that had begun earlier that day.

Letting out a sigh, Celestia closed her eyes and gently shook her head. She had no idea what had caused Max to run off like he did, but she hoped he was alright. For his sake as well as Twilight’s. The poor mare was nearly hysterical when she discovered that her tracking spell wouldn’t work. She had quickly hurried off to search for Max herself, and she had spent the rest of the day looking with no rest alongside her friends. Now, even as night descended upon the land, Twilight was still out there, searching.

The sound of a door opening drew Celestia from her thoughts and she glanced around. Luna was emerging from the hidden door behind the throne, a troubled look on her face.

“Anything?” Celestia asked softly as her sister climbed the steps to the dais.

Luna shook her head. “Still nothing.”

“This is most troubling,” Celestia sighed. Draping a wing over Luna’s shoulders, she pulled her sister close to her side and gave her a quick nuzzle.

“Agreed,” Luna said, returning the gesture. “Tis most strange, we will admit. We do hope that nothing has befallen the dear human.”

“All we can do is continue the search and hope he shows up eventually.”

“We asked the sanguinarians to see if they could track him down,” Luna said, “but they don’t think they’ll be successful. His scent has faded, and the trail's gone cold. Still, they’ll continue looking until the sun comes back up.” Both sisters fell silent for a few minutes, content to just stand there and enjoy each other's company.

“How is young Twilight doing?” Luna asked eventually.

“She’s still out there looking for him,” came the reply. “She’s stopped in occasionally throughout the day to check if we’ve found him, and during one of those visits I forced her to stop and eat something. She ate quickly and left, though, desperate to return to the search.”

“We are unsure as to why she is looking so vehemently,” Luna hummed. “Tis true that we are concerned about Max as well, but he can look after himself, can he not?”

“Yes, he can. I believe Twilight’s fear comes from past experience.”

“How so?”

“The last time Max went missing like this, he was taken and forced to fight within a human fighting ring,” Celestia said. “Remember the condition he was in when you first met him? I believe that is why Twilight is fearful. Not because Max is missing, but because of what that might entail.”

Luna frowned, and her ears splayed to the side. “We suppose…”

A small smile touched Celestia’s lips and she opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted by the ground beneath her hooves beginning to shake. It started off weak, barely enough to cause either sister to stumble, but soon the whole room was shaking. The windows rattled in their frames, and bits of masonry fell from the ceiling and walls. Both sisters fell on top of each other as the dais shifted beneath them slightly.

After about half a minute, the tremors began to fade.

“What was that?” Luna asked as she got shakily to her hooves.

Beside her, Celestia stood up as well. “An earthquake? Strange… there hasn’t been seismic activity like that around here since Discord first appeared—”

The main throne room doors slammed open, the unconscious body of a guard skipping off the floor as he sailed across the room. The doors trembled once before the hinges gave out and they toppled to the ground with booming ‘thud’s. There was a bright flash followed by a ‘crack’ and another guard was tossed into the room. He tried to get up, only to collapse upon the floor again. A small pool of blood began to form around his still form.

Both sisters tensed, their eyes locked on the doorway. Smoke was wafting through from some unseen fire on the other side. As they watched, several forms began to materialize from within the haze.

Celestia’s eyes widened before narrowing as she glared at the foremost figure. “You!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is this a bad time?” the Archmage asked with a large grin. “What’s wrong, Celestia? You don’t look happy to see me.”

“Archmage,” Celestia said, eyeing him coldly. “It would be a lie to say that I am completely surprised.” Her eyes drifted over to the half a dozen ponies that had entered the throne room. “I knew you were up to something,” she said as Darkflare leered at her. “I just never imagined it would be something like this.”

The Archmage grinned. “Surprise!”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Luna snapped, eyeing the advancing unicorns.

“I believe it’s called a coup,” one of the unicorns—a gray mare with a black mane—sneered. Beside her, an identical unicorn giggled coldly.

Luna snarled at the both, her horn beginning to glow softly.

Celestia ignored her sister and focused instead on the Archmage.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

The Archmage paused, an incredulous look crossing his face as he stared up at Celestia. “Why? Why? Whhhhhyyyy? Well, because I can!” His eyes flashed red. “Because you made it so easy to get away with this. Your ‘elite guard’ is a bunch of bumbling has-beens, you put too much faith in those close to you, and, most of all, you like to sit back and see how things play out, only to have it come back and bite you in the flank. Hard.”

“Insolent swine,” Luna hissed.

“There’s a prime example right there,” the Archmage said, motioning towards Luna. “You ignore your own sister’s feelings because you figure she’ll spring back. At least, that’s what you tell yourself to make it hurt less, right?”

“I regret what happened between my sister and I,” Celestia said, her face expressionless. “However, that was a millennium ago. She is back with me now, and I have learned my lesson.”

“Apparently not,” the Archmage chuckled darkly.

Celestia paused before reluctantly nodding her head. “Apparently not.” She closed her eyes sighed. “I’m unsure of what has caused you to resort to this, but I… I am sorry for not acting sooner to prevent your fall.”

“My fall?” the Archmage scoffed before laughing. “My fall? Celestia, my dear. I haven’t fallen. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I’m finally climbing out of the deep, deep pit you dug for me so long ago.” Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but the Archmage raised a hoof to silence her. “I don’t expect you to understand, or even remember what you’ve done. In fact, I’d be rather surprised if you did.

“However, I didn’t come here to reminisce about times gone by,” the Archmage sighed.

“Then don’t waste our time,” Luna said coldly. “You came here for a reason. Get to it.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, I must admit that I am quite curious of this plan of yours, my old friend. What is your plan?” She glanced at the unicorns behind the Archmage, all of whom started to look a little nervous. “Do you plan on killing us? No… you haven’t brought enough unicorns for that.”

“No, we haven’t come to kill you,” the Archmage said, his expression unchanged even as Darkflare and the others took a step back. He rolled his eyes. “That would be too quick. No, I have something better planned. I’m going to take from you what you took from me all those years ago. Something precious. Something you hold most dear.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Well, I’ll tell you,” the Archmage hummed. “But first, before I go too in depth about my plan…” His horn suddenly flashed a bright, sickly yellow. Faster than either sister could react, a bolt of magic shot across the room and slammed into them. The magic around Luna’s horn shattered as the spell failed. Both of them collapsed, their bodies tumbling down the dais’ steps.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Within the Archmage’s office, sitting upon his disheveled desk, the ancient chess board began to glow. The pieces, once a work of priceless art, began to melt, staining the surface beneath them. The board shuddered once, twice, three time before cracks began to spider across its face. It gave one last shudder before, in a burst of sickly yellow magic, the board exploded.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“What did you do to them?” Darkflare asked as the Archmage slowly approached the crumpled forms.

The Archmage ignored the question, focusing instead on the twitching bodies before him. Their muscles were rippling beneath their fur, causing their bodies to warp. Loud ‘crack’s could be heard as the bones in the alicorns’ bodies snapped and shifted. After a few seconds, the noise ceased, and an eerie silence fell over the throne room.

Then one of the sisters moved.

It started off as a slight twitch of Luna’s shoulders, but then slowly the two sisters began to get to their hooves.

“Cerberus rut me senseless,” one of the unicorns whispered, her eyes widening in shock.

Gone was the once royal facade of the alicorns. It had been twisted, morphed into something that barely echoed what they once were. Their bodies—once quadrupedal—were now bipedal in nature. They stood up on their hind legs, towering over the ponies before them. They had hands now, each of the long, boney fingers ending in a claw. Their muzzles had become elongated, the teeth inside sharp and predatory. Eyes, once so full of intelligence and warmth, were nothing more than cold, white orbs that glared out upon the world around them.

The once proud alicorns were now reduced to nothing but mindless monsters.

“Almost didn’t work,” the Archmage muttered, eyeing his handiwork. “I didn’t take into account their natural resistance… almost drained the reserves. Fucking alicorns. Even in defeat, you continue to vex me. Need to watch magic use from now on. Don’t want to lose control just yet.”

“That’s it then…” Darkflare breathed. A large grin slowly worked its way across his muzzle as he gazed up at the transformed princesses. “You did it. You actually did it!”

At the shout, the abominations’ gazes locked onto Darkflare, and a soft growl reverberated around the room.

“And what is it I’m supposed to have done?” the Archmage asked, giving Darkflare a blank look. Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face, and his breathing was a little more strained.

“Are you blind, you old coot?” Darkflare laughed. “You just reduced the princesses—the strongest ponies in the world—into… these things.” He did a little jig, hopping from hoof to hoof. “With power like that, all of Equestria is ours! Power, money, nopony can stand up against us.” Trotting up the dais steps, Darkflare walked past the twin monstrosities, who both slowly turned, keeping their gazes locked on him.

With a happy groan, Darkflare sat down upon the cushioned throne.

“The entire nation under our hoof,” he grinned. “Not bad for a ‘useless whelp of the streets’. Who’s laughing now, huh? I am, that’s who. You know what?” He asked suddenly, leaning forward and eyeing the emotionless Archmage. “I know what we should do first. Hollow Shades deserves a visit.”

The Archmage shook his head. “As entertaining as that might be, that goes against my plan.”

“What do you mean?” Darkflare asked, his face scrunching up. “We’ve taken the throne room, the princesses are defeated. We’ve won. It’s over. What else is there?”

The Archmage chuckled softly, shaking his head. He gave Darkflare a pitying look.

“You poor, deluded stallion,” he said. “So ambitious, but unable to see past your own muzzle. If it was this easy, why would I have all those other convicts running around? You’re so lost in that little world of fire and bloodshed of yours. Of course, that’s what I liked most about you. You were so much more violent than anyone else I’ve stumbled across. That’s why I hired you. You made such a good pawn… such a loyal knight. No questions, no misgivings. I just had to point you in the desired direction, and you left nothing but chaos in your wake.

“But in the end, you were nothing more than a pawn after all,” the Archmage sighed dramatically. “And sometimes, in order to get better pieces, a pawn must be sacrificed. So it is with little to no regret that I must say sorry, Darkflare. Your services are no longer required.”

The smile had left Darkflare’s face, and he glared down at the Archmage in a cold fury. “I advise you to pick your next words carefully, old one.”

“Oh, it’s nothing personal, I assure you,” the Archmage said airily. “At least, not between you and me. Rather, it’s between me and Celestia. You just so happened to get caught up in the middle of it.”

“You think you can just toss me aside?” Darkflare growled. “After all I’ve done for you?”

“Of course not,” the Archmage scoffed. “I’m not tossing you aside. To be perfectly honest, I still have need of you, my aggressive friend.”

“Why then—”

“It’s just, in order to be useful to me, you’ll need an… upgrade, as it were.”

Unfortunately for Darkflare, he was so focused on the Archmage that he failed to notice the two princesses-turned-abominations creeping closer and closer to him before it was too late. The one closest to him—Luna—darted forward and grabbed him by the neck, causing Darkflare to gag. She lifted him bodily from the throne even as the rest of the unicorns cried out in alarm.

The Archmage slowly began to back his way towards the door, a dark smirk crossing his face.

The Luna-creature’s claws dug into Darkflare’s flesh, causing blood to trickle down his body and onto the floor. Then it happened. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body went limp. It twitched several times before, with a horrific gurgle, the snapping of bones began to echo around the throne room.

Darkflare’s body began to shift and morph. His limbs began to grow, his forehooves cracking and splitting open as long, clawed digits erupted from beneath the hard nail. His muzzle elongated, his teeth sharpened, and his skin stretched until it threatened to rip.

It only took a few seconds, but after the grisly transformation was over, there were now three abominations staring down at the horrified unicorns below.

“Welp,” came the Archmage’s voice from behind, causing the unicorns to turn around. He was standing in the doorway to the throne room, the two large doors hung in his magic. As the ponies watched, they reattached themselves to the hinges and quickly repaired themselves.

“Oh, don’t worry,” the Archmage said as he slipped through the doors and began to close them. “It’s not as painful as it looks… but you’ll find that out soon enough. Don’t be too easy for them, though—make them work for it. Much more satisfying that way.” He made to close the doors, but paused. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he grinned. “A little sporting word of advice. Try not to let them touch you.” With that, he slammed the doors shut and locked them from the outside. The anti-magic lock would prevent any of the unicorns inside from magicking it open, not that they would have time to try. The minute the doors closed, the screaming had started.

The Archmage stood with his back to the door, listening to the muffled screams and pounding upon the door. As the noise slowly died off, a small smirk worked its way across his muzzle. “That should be a lovely surprise for the next pony who opens the doors.”

With that, he turned and trotted off down the smoke-filled hall, humming softly to himself.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The dark of the tunnel gave way to the light from his horn.

The ‘click’ of his hooves echoed every time he took a step.

The lanterns slowly turned from red to white as he descended further.

As the Archmage came to the end of the tunnel, he looked out upon the large cavern before him. The sound of rushing water filled his ears, as well as the faint sound of voices.

He stood there, gazing out upon the sea of beings before him, at the camp that encompassed the small lake in the center of the cavern. He looked at the hundreds of humans that mingled together in a veritable mass of chaos.

It had taken him a long time to reach this point. Ages upon ages. But now, it was all becoming a reality. Before this night was over, he’d have his revenge.

And there was nothing that could stop him.

As he descended down the sloping path towards the camp, the Archmage allowed himself a brief moment of happiness.

Happiness… he had almost forgotten what that was like. It was something that the ponies always preached—something they took for granted—but it was something that he hadn’t truly felt in a long time.

As he made his way through the crowd of humans, they parted before him like the sea before a ship. Some gave him fearful looks, others looked away, but all moved out of his path. The strong, the aggressive, the cowardly, the weak. All knew what he was, and allowed him through.

He paid them no mind. There was only one human he was looking for at the moment. That dogface soldier—Dustin. That was his name. He just needed to find him, and things would get rolling.

After a few minutes of searching, he spied his quarry through a break in the crowd. He smiled and made to step towards him, only to freeze upon spying the human standing beside him.

The smile left his face.

His eyes narrowed.

His lips pulled back in a snarl.

And he stepped forward with murder in his heart.

Author's Note

So it begins...

Naughty Melodic, giving out major spoilers like that. She should know better than to ruin the surprise!

Chapter 60: While The Walls Come Tumbling Down

“So, how many Terran humans do you have here?” I asked, glancing around.

Currently seated by one of the fires within the underground camp, I was still trying to wrap my mind around what had happened. It didn’t help that the others were beginning to gather around. A couple of large wooden logs were positioned around the fire pits as makeshift seats. How the hell they had gotten down into the cavern and who had carried them here, I had no idea. Each one probably weighed a couple hundred pounds at least.

Dustin and a dozen or so humans from Earth sat around the fire with me, most of them eating something that I couldn’t easily identify out of crudely-made plates and bowls. Off to the side, a group of Equestrian humans had gathered and were now eyeing me curiously.

“Pardon?” Dustin asked, giving me a confused look over his bowl of gruel.

I motioned around at the sea of humans milling around us. “Not all of these humans are originally from Earth, like us, right? So how many of us are there?”

“Oh…” Dustin paused long enough to finish chewing his food. “Right. Um, last I checked, there were about fifty-one of us down here total. Or was it fifty-two? I don’t remember. Hold on a second.” He turned around and shouted back over his shoulder. “Oye, Rosey! How many of us are there again?”

From nearby fire, a youngish black girl glanced up.

“Fifty-two,” she called back, pushing a pair of broken glasses up her nose. “Honestly, would it kill you to remember?”

“I had other things on my mind when you told me,” Dustin grumbled. Turning back around, he took another bite of his food before continuing. “Anyways, as you just heard, there’s fifty-two of us down here. As for the other humans, I’m not entirely sure of their numbers. More of them seem to arrive daily. They come and go as they please, so there’s no real easy way to count them.”

“Only fifty-two?” I asked, scrunching up my face. “That’s not a lot, all things considered. Truthfully, I was expecting more than that.”

“You were expecting there to be more of us?” one of the Terran humans asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I gave him a bemused look before motioning around at the veritable sea of humans.

He winced. “Ah, I see. Never mind.”

“Fifty-two is a lot in the grand scheme of things,” Dustin said.

“What do you mean?”

“According to our one of our few sources in this strange place, there were originally one hundred of us brought to this weird place against our will,” Dustin said. “Fifty-two out of a hundred is more than you’d think.

“Your source?” I asked, and my mind immediately went back to Lyra. “Who’s your source?”

“This weird-looking pony dude,” Dustin said, making my eyes go wide. “Unicorn with wicked facial hair. He saved several of us from bad situations and brought us here to help keep us safe from other ponies. Nice guy once you get past his cynical outlook.”

“Wait, wait, wait. A pony helped you? Like an actual pony?” I asked incredulously. He said ‘he’, so that rules Lyra out. But still… what? That doesn’t make sense. No ponies know that humans are intelligent except for Lyra.

“Now, wait a second. Settle down,” Dustin said, giving me a knowing smirk, “I know what you’re thinking, and I didn’t trust him either to begin with, but he helped me out of a tight spot and claims he was a human who was turned into a pony when he got here. He’s been trying to track down the other humans and get us all together to figure out a way back home. His name’s Paul.”

“Where did this ‘Paul’ get his information?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “That seems like a very specific number, one hundred humans. How does he know that’s how many of us showed up?” It matches up with Lyra’s statues, but still… how did this new pony learn about that?

“Well, according to him, he was one of the first humans to be brought here,” Dustin said with a shrug.

“And you believed him?” I paused, blinking once before sitting up straighter. “Wait a minute, how does he know he’s one of the first humans teleported here? We all ended up in separate spots, right?”

“I showed up near an ocean,” a female on the log to my left spoke up. “The name’s Courtney, by the way.” She reached a hand out and I shook it. “I was found by a caravan of ponies heading to a large town built on the shoreline. They then sold me, and I was brought to the city just above us.” She pointed up at the ceiling of the cavern, and Canterlot far above.

“I appeared in the middle of a swamp,” another person said. “I just wandered around for a couple of days until this weird pony found me and brought me to her home that was built into a hill. I escaped later that night, took some of her food, and made a run for it. One capture and several trades later, and I arrived in the city above as well. Made a run for it, several humans found me, and they brought me here.”

“I was found in the middle of a forest by a unicorn that wore a cape and hat,” another woman said with a shrug. “I followed her to the nearest town, and a group of armored ponies grabbed me and took me to some place that looked like a pound.”

“Exactly,” I said before anyone else could speak up. “And I ended up in a desert. We all ended up in different places, so how does this supposed human-turned-pony know he was one of the first to arrive? Was someone handing out numbers and I just missed it?”

“What was the date that you were taken?” Dustin asked.

I gave him a confused look. “What?”

“The date,” he repeated. “What day was it when you were taken?”

“It was, um…” I quickly racked my brain, trying to remember. “It was sometime in May, I believe. I don’t know the exact day. They just blur together sometimes.”

“May of what year?”

“2013,” I replied. Blinking, I glanced around. “Why? Did you all arrive on different days?”

“November of 2012,” Courtney said. “Three more days and it would have been Thanksgiving. I was supposed to bring the turkey, too.”

“December 25th, 2012,” the man with the grate-like mask said with a huff. “Merry Christmas to my wife and little girl.”

“December of 2012,” someone else called out.

“October 2012 for me!” came another.

“February of 2013.”

“August 18th, 2012!”

“I was brought here on January 12th of 2013,” Dustin said with a half grin. “One minute I was drinking with my buddies, and the next thing I know I’m in the middle of a river heading towards a large waterfall. Survived the drop, lived off the land for a few months, until I was found by some ponies who brought me to the city above. After a few weeks I was able to escape.”

“But you all arrived a year or so ago?” I asked, earning several nods from the surrounding people.

“Give or take a few days,” Courtney said.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered, scratching my head. “Taken on different days but arriving around the same time?”

“Make sense or not, you are one of the last to get taken,” Dustin said, popping the last of his food into his mouth. “Given the information we’ve gathered between the fifty-two of us, the closest person to you is Drake over there—” the large black man waved at me, a warm smile on his homely face “—who was brought here in March of 2013. So unless our unicorn buddy finds someone else who arrived after you, you are one of the last to be abducted.”

“And what date was your source teleported here?” I asked.

Dustin frowned. “He couldn’t really remember. Said it had been a while, but it was before 2011, of that he was sure. Which puts him nearly two years before the next person to show up.”

Rubbing my temples, I stared into the crackling flames as I tried to process what he had said. Their source is a pony who claims that he’s a human-turned-pony... but that doesn’t make sense. Someone would’ve discovered him right off the bat because he wouldn’t have been able to understand any of the ponies and vice versa… but what if the transformation allowed him to communicate with them? But if he told Dustin all of this, then that means that he can talk with humans. Is he like Lyra, and able to understand both sides? But if that was the case, then he should have figured out that ponies believe humans are stupid. Not to mention the big time differences between us all. Ugh… my brain hurts…

“You okay?” Dustin asked as I grimaced. He gave me a worried look and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, just thinking,” I muttered. “You said that this source of yours was rounding us up?”

“That’s right.”

“And he’s only managed to find fifty-two of us?”

“Um, not exactly,” Dustin said with a wince. “He’s only found fifty-two of us alive.”

I blanched. “You don’t mean…”

“Out of the one hundred or so of us that are supposedly here, twenty-three have been confirmed dead,” Dustin said gravely. “The remaining twenty-five are missing. They’re somewhere out there, we just don’t know where. Hopefully they’re still alive.”

“Twenty-four,” grunted the woman who was missing half of her left arm.

Dustin gave her a confused look. “Pardon?”

“You said that there was twenty-five humans unaccounted for,” the woman said. She nodded at me. “There’s one right there. Twenty-four.”

Dustin’s eyes lit up.

“I suppose you right,” he said. Leaning back on the log, he scratched at his beard as he studied me closely. “Looks like he’s been put through the ringer too.”

I opened my mouth to shoot a rebuttal at him, but just then someone shouted out from somewhere in the crowd. “Max? Maximillian?! Is that you? Max!” The voice was strangely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I had heard it before.

Dustin and I glanced around in confusion as someone pushed their way through the sea of humans, heading in our direction. “Excuse me, pardon me, can I just squeeze through here—thank you, excuse me, sorry.” The voice grew louder as the speaker approached, the crowd parting for them.

My eyes widened in shock as I suddenly remembered where I recognized the voice from. No, i-it can’t be. She’s here?!

Everyone glanced up as a woman finally stepped into the firelight, her eyes locked on me. Her hair was longer than I remembered, brown strands hanging down in front of her eyes.

“Oh my god. It is you,” she breathed before suddenly hurrying forward and throwing her arms around my neck. “I can’t believe you’re here!” Her grip tightened as if she was afraid I would suddenly disappear.

I could only stare dumbly ahead as my ex-girlfriend continued to squeeze the life out of my neck. The last time I had seen her had been nearly three years ago when she had shouted me down in public and stormed off, all because I had casually stated that I didn’t consider golf a sport. To her—one of the major members of a golf team—it was apparently a huge insult. I had tried to apologize, but she had blocked, ignored, and removed me from almost every social media possible, and she wouldn’t answer my calls. I had stopped trying after a week and had moved on. We hadn’t talked since.

And now here she was, hugging the stuffing out of me on a completely different world. What were the odds?

“C-Chelsea?” I finally managed to choke out. She released her grip on my neck and leaned back, nodding happily. “What are… how long have you… what?!”

Her smile faded slightly. “Nice to see you too.” Sitting on the opposite side of me as Dustin, she nestled up against my side and wrapped her arm around mine. “I arrived here almost a year ago… I think. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was lying down in the back of my car to take a nap in between classes, then the next thing I knew, I woke up in this horrible land. I was in a strange forest where I was chased by wolves made of wood.” She laughed. “I mean, come on! Wooden wolves? What is this, a cartoon? I thought I was high until one of them scratched me. Luckily I managed to get away, but then I was chased by a group of ponies. I was on the run for several months, stealing food and drinking out of rivers and lakes. It’s been hard… really hard, but thankfully I was found by a group of these… other humans and they led me here!”

“So, you were pulled to this world too?” I asked softly. “I didn’t even know you were missing…”

She winced, hanging her head. “Well, to be fair, we never really talked much after we broke up.”

“Yeah, I wonder why,” I muttered under my breath, low enough that I was hoping she wouldn’t hear me. Unfortunately, she did.

“Um, yeah, about that,” she said with a wince. “I… I want to apologize for that. I was really, really angry about what you said, and it took me a while to cool down, but when I did, I realized that you weren’t insulting me. You were just expressing your opinion.”

“And it took you three years to figure that out?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Chelsea winced again. “Well, no… but I didn’t know the best way to broach the subject without getting upset again. You usually don’t get angry over anything, but I didn’t want you to think I called you up just to insult you again.”

I felt my right eye twitch. She didn’t care about my feelings. She just didn’t want herself to look bad. Yup, that sounds about right.

“So, what changed?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral.

“I ended up in this place,” she said, staring into the fire sadly. “All the stuff I’ve seen, it got me thinking. I… I didn’t want the last thing I ever said to you to be an insult. Especially not with how close we used to be.” She laughed, although there was no humor in it. “I just never thought I would get a chance to apologize, yet here you are.”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “Here I am.”

Silence fell for a few seconds before the sound of a throat being cleared reminded me that we weren’t alone.

“Ah, young love,” a woman in the back cooed.

“So, I take it you two know each other?” Dustin asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. I glanced up to see most of the people around the fire giving us curious looks, some of them even breaking out into amused smirks. I felt my face heat up, and I tried to scoot away from Chelsea, but she just nodded happily and moved closer to me.

“Yup,” she chirped. “Max and I go way back. We grew up in the same town, went to the same school, and even dated through most of High School until we broke up over something silly.”

“Well, goody for you,” a guy sitting on the other side of the fire muttered.

“You know, I never thought I’d see someone be happy to see their ex again,” Courtney said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, he’s not that bad,” Chelsea said with a shrug. “Although, truthfully, I’m just surprised to see a familiar face here, of all places, even if it is his.”

My brow furrowed at her words. Was… was that an insult?

“I’m surprised as well,” Dustin admitted. “You two are the first people who knew each other before arriving here.”

That caught my attention. “Wait, really?” Upon receiving a nod, I glanced around. “I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Where are all you from then?”

“At least half of us appear to come from some part of the United States,” Dustin said. “Although, there are also people from Canada, Britain, Italy, and one or two from Denmark and Belgium.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his legs. “That’s only those that we know of. The other missing or dead humans could have been from different countries as well.”

“I’m assuming that communication is a bit of an issue?” I asked.

Dustin smiled. “Actually, not really, surprisingly enough. We were lucky. One of the lads from Britain, Ian, I think his name was. Anyways, he speaks French, which takes care of the two girls from Belgium, and the guy from Denmark speaks English.” He shrugged. “The only issue we have is the people from Italy, as only one of them can speak English, but she doesn’t know that much. We’re making do, though,” he said, leaning back.

“Interesting,” I muttered, scratching my beard. It was because of Discord that I had been brought to Equestria in the first place, so it stood to reason that he had brought the other humans here as well. But why the fascination with the US? I mused. If he was just grabbing humans at random, the nationalities would be much more random, right? So why are they so concentrated? Was he looking for something specific? I glanced around at the people gathered around the fire with me. What do all of us have in common? What was he—?

A sudden slap on the back of my head brought me back to the real world. Rubbing the tender spot, I gave Chelsea a confused look. “What was that for?”

“You were thinking too hard,” she said. “I was talking to you and you weren’t responding, but what else is new?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “What did I miss?”

“I was asking what happened to you since you got here,” she said, leaning against me again. “I told you my story, now let’s hear yours! It’s got to be a good one. I mean, just look at that scar.” She pointed at my face. “It looks horrific! There has to be an awesome story behind it!”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” I muttered, subconsciously rubbing the scar running across my face.

This just caused Dustin to laugh.

“No need to be modest here,” he said, slapping me on the back. “Be proud of your scars. We all know how cruel those ponies can be, man. You aren’t alone in that regard.”

“Come again?” I asked, blinking.

Dustin ignored me and turned to a thin, gaunt-looking man who was sitting on the next log over. “Hey, Josh! Tell ‘im what happened to you! That should loosen him up.”

Josh just continued to stare blankly into the flames as he finished chewing. He only had on a pair of tattered pants, revealing his torso which was so thin that you could see his ribs. It wasn’t to the point of being too unhealthy, but he could stand to gain a few pounds.

I eyed him curiously, unable to see any visible scars anywhere on his body.

Josh was silent for a good minute or so before finally speaking. When he did, his voice was raspy and dry.

“I’m not sure the exact date of my arrival, but I arrived in the city above us,” he said, still staring into the flames. “Confused, I wandered the streets for a good few hours before I was captured by several of those unicorn ponies in golden armor. They put me in a cage and took me to a large building where they kept a bunch of other humans.

“It turned out to be a research facility. They experimented on us,” he spat hatefully. “They started almost immediately, too. I was given a collar and placed in this large cage with four other humans. There was nothing else in this cage except for a tall ladder standing in the center of the enclosure. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what it was there for… but I would soon come to hate that goddamn ladder.

“As soon as the experiment started, one of the ponies placed a piece of meat at the top of the ladder. I knew something was up, but I hadn’t had anything decent to eat for a couple of days, and even though the steak was raw, it still looked pretty fucking good. From the drooling, I could tell the other humans thought so as well. Of course you can probably guess what happened next. After the initial squabble, one of the humans climbed up the ladder to get the meat. However, as they began to climb, one of those fucking scientists blasts the rest of us with freezing water. Took your breath away the minute it hit ya.

“It wasn’t a one-time thing either. This continued for days. The same fucking thing, over and over again until the other humans finally got it through their thick skulls that they would only get sprayed when another human climbed the ladder. It got to the point that anytime a human would start up the ladder, before the ponies had a chance to blast us, the other humans would pull ‘im down and attack ‘im. I’m… ashamed to admit that I may have participated in some of the beatings… but that water… that water ain’t right, man. It hurt, it hurts inside to get hit by it. So I attacked ‘im too. Anything to get the freezing to stop.”

At this Josh trailed off, staring into the fire as he shivered at the phantom chill. The two guys sitting next to him shifted uncomfortably, and one put a hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“Anyways,” Josh continued when he finally regained his composure. “After a while, none of the humans would even approach the ladder. Not even when the ponies started to increase the amount of meat or change the type of meat. Hell, they even dangled a female human above the ladder, trying to convince one of the males to climb. However, we knew what was going to happen if someone did climb. They would either get beaten… or we’d get blasted with water. So no human climbed the ladder. No human even tried.

“Then things changed. Apparently we weren’t entertaining enough anymore, because one day the scientists replaced one of the humans. Took him out and placed a new human in. Of course, this new human didn’t know what was going on, so what’s the first thing he did when a piece of meat is placed on top of the ladder? Climbs right the fuck up. Poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.”

“The other humans beat him, didn’t they?” I asked, shaking my head.

“You’re damn right they did!” Josh shouted, causing those around him to jump. “Pulled him right the fuck down and beat the ever-living shit out of him! Didn’t learn his lesson either, the stupid sod. It took three more beatings before he learned to stay as far away from the fucking ladder as fucking possible!

“Then after that, another human was substituted, and the same fucking thing happened again. The first swapped human even joined in the beatings! Didn’t even get blasted by the water once, and here he was, wailing on the poor bastard without a care in the world. This happened again as a third human was replaced. Then a fourth one was replaced, and the same thing happened again!

“By the end of the month-long fucking experiment, I was the only original human in there. I was in the cage with four new humans. Four fucking humans who—without having been sprayed by that fucking freezing water—would beat any human senseless who dared approached the ladder. Even glancing at it earned you a snarl.

“And then they took me out,” Josh finished, throwing his hands into the air. “God help the poor bastard they replaced me with. Fucking ponies…”

“I was in that place too,” another human spoke up. She shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. “They did all kinds of stuff to us. Forced us to run through a maze where the floor shocked you. Dunked you in a pool and forced you to tread water until you pass out. Hell, they’d even inject you with chemicals to see what would happen!”

“Those pastel freaks are fucking evil!” cried out a human listening in from another fire.

“Yeah!”

“And don’t even get me started on when they try and rape you!”

“Yeah, they think they can get away with doing that kind of stuff to us?! Hell no!”

“Eh, I can kinda see where they’re coming from,” I said, closing my eyes and rubbing my forehead. When all the nearby talking stopped, leaving only the gentle murmur of the humans out of earshot, I glanced up only to find everyone staring at me, wide-eyed. Chelsea had even pulled away from me, a look of disbelief on her face.

“I beg your pardon?” the lady with half an arm growled, glaring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you just say you agreed with what those fuckers are doing?”

“What? No,” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I never said I agreed with their experiments. I said ‘I can understand where they’re coming from’.”

“What do you mean?” Dustin asked.

Oops, not good. By his tone of voice, I could tell that I needed to tread carefully.

“Are you saying that it’s okay for them to rape and torture us?” he asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

“No. Stop putting words in my mouth. I’m talking about the experiments,” I said. When everyone continued to glare at me, I huffed. “Oh, come on! We do the same thing to chimpanzees back home! Remember? We had that whole thing going on where a bunch of people wanted companies to stop those ‘cruel animal experiments’ because it was evil and inhumane’.”

“That’s different!” someone shouted out.

“How?” I asked. “How is it different?”

“Chimpanzees aren’t human! They’re animals!”

“That’s not an excuse!” I scoffed. “If they do something super intelligent, then everyone goes on and on about how they’re practically human, but when it comes to doing experiments on them, they’re just animals?”

“You’re comparing us to animals?” Chelsea asked, scrunching up her face.

“‘Cause that’s how ponies view us!” I shouted.

Dustin stood up suddenly, a blank look on his face. He reached down and grabbed a handful of my shirt, pulling me to my feet. Keeping a firm hold on me, he glanced around. “Where’s Natasha?”

There was a swell of murmuring before someone finally called out from an adjacent bonfire. “She’s over here!”

Dustin grunted in acknowledgement before dragging me over to the speaker, Chelsea following tentatively.

“Whoa, hey! What the hell?” I stumbled along, well aware that several of the humans were still glaring at me. Unsurprisingly, it was only the Terran humans; the Equestrian humans just had curious looks on their faces as they watched us closely. Just observing, nothing more.

We finally stopped in front of a woman who was sitting with her back to a log, her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked to be in her early thirties, her black hair hanging loosely in front of her eyes. Dirt covered her face and hands, and her clothes had seen better days. She stared blankly ahead of her, her blue eyes dull and almost lifeless.

Keeping a firm hold on me, Dustin motioned down at the woman.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, pulling my shirt from his grasp. When he didn’t answer, I knelt down and waved a hand in front of her face. Her eyes duly followed my hand back and forth.

“What do you want?” she asked weakly, her voice devoid of emotion.

“Are you alright?” I asked, concerned. She looked fine on the outside. There were no scars, and she had enough fat on her that it didn’t look like she had been starving.

She just shrugged before staring off into space again.

Standing back up, I gave Dustin a confused look.

“She wasn’t in the same building as us. There were no scientists. She wasn’t part of any experiments,” he said, his face neutral. “She was bought by a family of four ponies: a male, female, and two children. They fed her, clothed her, and apparently the kids loved her, if them wanting to take her everywhere was any indication.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“From what we could gather from her, she was apparently too rough with one of the kids one time when they were playing around and the parents freaked. The next thing she knew, they took her to a hospital and had her spayed.”

I stood there, staring down at the woman with a grimace on my face. My right eye twitched as memories began to flash before me.

A woman shrieked as she writhed upon the ground in pain, all while a group of ponies laughed in the background. I couldn’t see much from my position in the too small cage, but from what I could see, it made me ill. If it weren’t for the fact I hadn’t had anything real to eat in days, I would have been sick right there and then. After a few seconds a low hissing noise filled the air, followed by the smell of burnt flesh. The woman screamed until she was hoarse.

As the phantom images faded, I reached a hand upon and gently massaged my temple. While it was true that the way Darkflare and his gang neutered and spayed humans was traumatic to both the human being fixed and any sane observers, they were not a good example of Equestria’s veterinarian care. A true veterinary would never perform such an operation on a conscious creature, human or not. And if they did, that was basically animal cruelty. Or would it be human cruelty? Torture? This ‘humans-are-becoming-intelligent’ thing was making things weird.

I was pulled out of my musing by Dustin, who motioned down at the woman.

“You see this?” he asked. “There were no experiments. No scientists. The only reason this happened to her is because a pair of ponies got scared, and now she must bear the mental and physical scars because of it.”

Sighing heavily, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I wasn’t going to like this—hell, I didn’t even know why I was about to do this—but I felt like, since I was the only one here who knew relatively both sides of the story, I had to defend my pony friends. Well, only a few were actually my friends, but you get my point.

“Of course they spayed her,” I huffed, opening my eyes and turning to face Dustin, as well as the other humans that had followed us. Angry gazes stared back at me, and dark mutterings started up in the background, sounding like a growing swarm of hornets.

From behind Dustin, Chelsea gave me a disbelieving look. “M-Max, I know you’re all for speaking your mind, especially without giving it any real thought, but there is a time and a place!”

“Look, I know this upsetting, but think about it,” I said, holding up my hands. “If your dog is misbehaving and acting aggressive, what do you do? You have them fixed, right? Hell, it’s practically a requirement when adopting a pet nowadays!”

“We aren’t animals!” someone in the back yelled, their words accompanied by shouts of agreement.

“To the ponies we are!” I shouted back. “That’s how they view us. And up until recently, that was what the humans of this world were. Mindless animals. The ponies can’t understand them, they have no way of knowing that the humans are slowly gaining intelligence, so they continue to treat us as they have for the past thousand years. Do I think it’s a good thing? No. Do I agree with what they are doing? No, I do not. Hell, I was almost neutered myself several times!”

“And yet you’re still defending them?” Dustin scoffed, crossing his arms. “Even after nearly being mutilated, you’re still on their side?”

“Because it makes sense!” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “If you think something is a mindless animal, you’re going to treat it like a mindless animal. Do you blame a wolf for attacking a deer? No, you chalk it up to it being a wolf! The ponies are going to continue to treat humans as animals until such time as they are informed of what is really going on!” More murmurs came from this declaration, although this time not all of them sounded angry. Some people in the back nodded, thoughtful expressions on their faces.

Dustin just shook his head. “So you’re saying if the ponies are informed that we are actually intelligent, everything will be good times and rainbows?”

“Well, no,” I said, rubbing the back of my head, “but ponies aren’t typically violent creatures. In fact, if word gets out that humans can think and feel for themselves, most ponies are going to be horrified by how the humans are being treated!”

“And how would you know that?” a voice asked from behind me.

Turning around, I opened my mouth to answer the woman who was now crouched beside Natasha, only to freeze when I caught sight of her. She was glaring at me, her green eyes hidden partially behind strands of long red hair that fell about her face and shoulders. From what I could see of her face though…

Her face…

As the ponies all around continued to stomp and jeer loudly, the cage door opened and deposited its contents into the pit below. The human flipped through the air, landing on all fours with a soft grunt. Slowly, she began to rise. She brushed her short, fiery-red hair out of her face before giving me a cautious, curious look, her green eyes glinting in the gloom.

Gripping the shiv tighter in my hand, I advanced—

ba-dum

—the steely grip around my neck tightened, sharp fingernails digging into the flesh and drawing blood. From far above, the cheering became louder and louder—the ponies hooting and hollering in perverse glee. I struggled weakly beneath the weight of the human on top of me, trying desperately to gasp for air. As I fought, something wet dripped down upon my cheek, followed by another and then another. Focusing through the haze that was beginning to cloud my vision, I watched as tears streamed down the girl’s face and fell down to mine. Her lips trembled as she continued to squeeze, cutting off my air. I was dimly aware that she was repeating the same noise over and over again, a pleading, almost apologetic, noise—

Wincing, I massaged my temple, never taking my eyes off of the red-headed female in front of me. I fought back the urge to vomit as the memories slowly retreated back into the dark recesses of my mind.

The woman’s look of annoyance soon turned to confusion, and then to concern as I continued to stare at her.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Hey, buddy!” She snapped her fingers a couple of times. “You still there?”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered, glancing away only to look back a few seconds later. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”

“You sure?” she asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. “Cause you’re really starting to creep me out with all that staring.” She shivered. “Seriously, stop it. It’s like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

“That… that isn’t too far from the truth,” I muttered, absentmindedly rubbing my neck as I tried to ease the phantom pain that had sprung up. I continued to stare at her for a few more seconds before shaking my head.

“Sorry,” I said. “You just… you reminded me of someone else. Someone I met a long time ago.”

At my words, she just stared up at me blankly before her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped. She stood up quickly, hope springing up on her face. “W-wait! You’ve met Emily?!”

I jerked back at her sudden shout. “I-I… who?”

“My sister!” she cried, taking a step forward. She paused when I flinched, before giving me a sheepish smile. “S-sorry, it’s just… I can’t believe. Okay, let me start over. My name is Amy Shepard. Emily’s my twin sister. She looks just like me, except that Emily likes to keep her hair short. About shoulder length. You’ve seen her, haven’t you?”

My eyes widened and I felt my heart freeze in my chest. Oh shit…

Unfortunately, she misread my response.

“You have!” A large smile spread across her face. “Oh thank god! We got separated shortly after arriving in this world, and… and I’ve been trying to find her ever since!” She gave me an eager look.

The bright smile on her face killed me. That look of joy, that look of someone who had been begging—praying—for the best, and had just now found a small sliver of hope to hold on to. Like she had been stranded on an island, lost at sea, and had looked up one day to see a ship on the horizon…

...and I now had to sink that ship.

“Oh, I didn’t want to be too hopeful, but she has always been the strongest. Yes!” Amy laughed, pumping her fist in the air. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She stopped cheering and turned back to me. “When was the last time you saw her? Do you know where she is? Is she alright? Where is she?!”

“I… she’s, um… you see...” I stammered, my mouth suddenly dry. My mind raced as it tried to find a way out of this, but nothing came to mind. I could try lying, but that would probably come back to bite me in the ass eventually. Still, how do you tell someone that you killed their sister, even if it was in self-defense?

Rubbing the back of my neck, I opened and closed my mouth several times before sighing heavily. I shook my head before giving her a solemn look. “I… I think I might have encountered your sister over half a year ago, during a, um… human pit fight. She’s... well, she’s…” I swallowed, trying to fight through the feeling of a lump in my throat. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

Amy stared at me with wide eyes, her previous smile no longer present. She stared at me blankly for a few seconds before she gave me an unsure smile.

“Don’t… don’t joke about that,” she said, laughing nervously. “This is my little sister we’re talking about. I haven’t seen her in months. I… I need to see—don’t joke about that!”

I wanted to look away, to not see her pleading gaze, but I was unable to.

“I’m so sorry…”

Amy stared at me, her face expressionless. She remained completely frozen for several seconds before she began to shake her head faintly from side to side. Gradually, her hands began to tremble, as did her legs, and she slowly sunk to the floor. Around us, the other humans were muttering darkly to themselves.

“N-no,” Amy whimpered. Her voice cracked halfway through the word. “No, no you’re lying. You have to be. Not Emily…” She continued to shake her head, trying to deny what I had just said, but unable to. She glanced up at me, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. “You’re just… just saying that because… because...” She choked back a sob before a look of fury flashed across her face. “How would you know? How could you possibly know that, huh?!”

Reaching up, I rubbed my neck again. “I was there. I saw.”

“Wait… you were there?” she muttered, her brow furrowing. “You saw her in a… you were there—” She froze, her eyes widening before she stood up suddenly. The look of hate she gave me caused me to take a step back. “You!” she shouted, her fists clenched in rage. “You killed her!”

“Now, just hold on a minute,” I said quickly, holding up my hands. “Just calm down—”

“You killed my sister, you fucking bastard,” she screamed. Stepping forward, she slapped me across the face, causing stars to explode in front of my eyes.

Staggering back, I winced in pain, the area she had hit already beginning to swell slightly.

“It wasn’t like I did it on purpose!” I shouted back. She swung at me again, but I ducked under it.

“You fucker!” she shrieked. Nobody moved to stop her, most of them unsure of what to do.

“It’s not my fault!” I yelled, ducking another blow. “I didn’t have a fucking choice! They weren’t exactly letting humans walk out of that pit alive!” I pointed at the scar on my face. “I nearly fucking died myself!”

“But you didn’t!”

“Will you just calm down and listen for a sec—”

“Bastard!”

“There was nothing I could do!” I shouted.

“You could have talked to her!” Amy cried. “You could have worked with her to find a way out of there!” She stopped trying to attack me and instead just stood there, tears streaming down her face. “Y-you could have helped her!”

“H-how?” I asked, still keeping my distance. I noted a faint taste of copper in my mouth, and as I ran my tongue over the inside of my cheek, I realized that I had bitten it when she had slapped me.

“I-I don’t know,” she said, rubbing her eyes with the back of her head. “Y-you could have worked together to get out of there! One of you play dead… o-or something. Something other than killing her!”

Grimacing, I spat out a glob of blood before throwing my hands into the air. “That wouldn’t have worked anyways. I couldn’t even understand other humans until a few days ago!” The dark muttering that had been going on in the background suddenly stopped, causing me to glance around. I was met with confused gazes.

“What?” I asked.

“You couldn’t understand humans?” Dustin asked, scrunching up his face. “What the blazes does that mean?”

“That I couldn’t understand humans.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know how to explain it. Up until a couple of days ago, I couldn’t understand what any human was saying. It was just a bunch of chirps and grunts to me.”

“So what changed?” Dustin inquired, his eyes narrowing.

“The hell if I know,” I said, shaking my head. “Celestia had the Elements blast me with their rainbow beam of friendship, and the next thing I knew, I could understand humans again.”

“Elements? Rainbow beam of friendship?” Dustin muttered before shaking his head. “Wait, never mind. Who the hell is Celestia?”

Cursing under my breath for the slip up, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I tried to quickly come up with an answer. When none came to me, I sighed heavily.

“She’s a, uh… tall white pony with both a horn and wings,” I answered. “Got a sun on her butt. Hard to miss.”

I jerked back in surprise as a gasp rippled around the crowd at my words. Dustin just nodded sadly, a knowing look on his face. Chelsea had a look of pity on her face. Why would she feel the need to pity me? What was going on?

“You’re talking about the pony ruler, right?” Dustin said.

It was my turn to be stunned. “What?”

“Big tall pony? White coat and weird mane?” Dustin asked. “Her and her counterpart, the dark one, appear to be the leaders of the ponies. That’s who you’re talking about, right?”

“Y-you know them?” I asked in disbelief.

“Of course we know about them,” Dustin scoffed. “Those two whores are the reason the humans here are so stupid.”

I deadpanned. “Say what now?”

“It’s true,” Amy said as she rubbed her cheeks. She stepped forward, and as she did so I took a step back, keeping my distance. “Those two… things are doing something to the humans.”

“And what proof do you have?” I inquired.

“We’ve seen them at it,” Dustin said as he crossed his arms. “Each morning and each evening the two of them appear on a balcony of the palace, there’s a bright flash of light, and then they leave. Happens every day at the same time. According to Paul, that’s them ‘renewing their mental spell over the humans’, or whatever magicky-bullshit he was spouting. It was hard to understand, but he assured us he knew what he was talking about.”

I stared at them blankly, my mind trying to process what they were saying. Each morning and evening? What could they—oh, son of a bitch. When it finally dawned on me exactly what it was they were witnessing, I had to repress a groan. It was so stupid, so idiotic that it was almost funny. I knew what Celestia and Luna were supposedly doing, but to convince Dustin and the others? This was going to be next to impossible. They already thought I was insane; this was going to make it worse.

Pitching the bridge of my nose, I prepared myself for the backlash. “They’re not… they’re not doing anything to the humans.”

“Sorry, what?” Dustin asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“They’re not doing anything to the humans,” I said again, slightly louder than before.

Dustin gave me an incredulous look. “How do you… what else could they be doing?”

“Um, they… they think…” I paused, swallowing thickly before wincing. “Okay, look. I’m going to be blunt here, and it’s going to sound crazy. They believe that they are responsible for raising and lowering the sun and moon.” Dustin opened his mouth, but I held up a hand to silence him. “Look, I know how stupid it sounds. Trust me, I do, but Celestia believes she controls the sun, while Luna, the dark one, believes she controls the moon. That flash you see is them ‘moving their celestial object across the sky, as is their duty’,” I said, making quotation marks with my fingers.

“‘Moving their…’” Dustin muttered. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

“Look, it’s stupid, I know,” I said loudly, “but that’s what they think is happening. They aren’t trying to suppress the humans. They aren’t trying to make them dumber. Hell, they don’t even know that the humans are smart...ish, to begin with. If they did, they’d be trying to help us.”

This caused Dustin to laugh. “That’s the stupidest—”

“It’s the truth!” I shouted. “They have no clue what’s going on. Look, just give me a chance to talk to them. We have a way to communicate, I’ll let them know what’s going on, and we can work together to fix this! One day, that’s all I need. I swear!”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Amy growled suddenly, glaring at me.

“And why not?” I huffed. “I can fix this!”

“I’m going to have to agree with her on this,” Dustin said, shaking his head.

“Why?” I asked as I rubbed my temples, trying to stave off a growing headache. “I have your solution. Why can’t I leave?”

“Well, it’s like you said earlier,” Dustin said as he crossed his arms again. “They hit you with their ‘rainbow beam of friendship’. That means you are currently under their spell. You aren’t going anywhere in your condition.”

I gaped at him in disbelief. “Oh, come on!”

“Don’t worry, friend,” he said, giving me a warm smile. “None of this is your fault. We’ll sort this out soon enough, and when we do, you’ll be back in your right state of mind.”

“Sort what out?” I asked. “I’m telling you, I’m not—”

A sudden force around my neck silenced me as it cut off my air, a sickly yellow glow appearing around my neck. I gagged loudly before my head was forcibly yanked down and I found myself staring into the enraged face of a unicorn.

“You!” his hissed. “What… the fuck… are you doing here?!” There was a cloud of magic around his throat, and it pulsed each time he spoke. His glare intensified, and the hold on my neck tightened.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dustin approaching with a look of concern on his face. “Paul, what are you doing?!”

“Taking… care of… a problem,” the unicorn wheezed, “that has… been plaguing me… for a long, long time.” He gave his head a yank to the side, and I was suddenly on my back. Reaching up, I futilely grabbed at his magic, trying to free myself, but my fingers just passed right through the cloud.

“Dude, calm down!” I heard someone shout. There was a sharp ‘thud’ off to the side, and I could suddenly breathe again.

Gasping for air, I rolled over onto my hands and knees and glanced up. The unicorn was rubbing his sparking horn while glaring at Dustin, who was rubbing his hand and wincing.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the unicorn growled.

“Trying to calm you down, man,” Dustin huffed. “You straight up attacked him! What the hell?”

“I’m fixing… your mistake,” the unicorn wheezed as his horned ceased sparking. “You should never… have brought him here.”

As I staggered back to my feet, Dustin gave the unicorn a confused look. “What mistake?”

“Do you recall the… anomaly I told you about months ago?” the unicorn growled.

“You mean the one that was messing up your plans?” Dustin asked. He rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, yeah I remember, but what does that have to do with—” He froze, his eyes going wide before darting over to me. “You can’t mean…”

“Precisely,” the unicorn snarled before his horn began to glow again. The pressure returned around my neck and I once again found myself being dragged along the ground.

“This,” the unicorn grunted, lifting me into the air, “is the bastard that’s been causing me so much grief. The thorn in my side. The bane of my existence.” His magic flickered slightly before strengthening again.

“I don’t even, ugh… know you,” I rasped, struggling to breathe.

“The fucking princess’s pet,” he continued, ignoring me. “This waste of flesh is in league with the ponies. Has been since he first arrived here. I tried to get him to see reason in the beginning, but he ignored me and chose ponies over his fellow humans. I didn’t give up though. I tried to save him… but now he’s nothing more than the princesses’ lapdog, doing whatever they tell him to. They tell him to jump, he jumps. They tell him to bark, he barks.” He glowered up at me, his lips pulled back in a sneer. “You’ve all probably noticed it by now. Defending the actions of the ponies, claiming that they don’t know that humans are intelligent. Claiming that we are the ones in the wrong.”

There came several sounds of affirmation for the surrounding crowd, and I noticed with a sinking feeling that everyone was glaring at me.

“Hey! I never said—” I began, only to have the force around my neck tighten, cutting me off.

“A dog, ever loyal to its master. That’s all he is, and that’s all he’ll ever be,” the unicorn grunted. He paused briefly before a dark grin slowly spread across his muzzle. “And what’s a dog without his collar?” The light around his horn flickered slightly before flashing. A black collar, complete with a tag in the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark, appeared in the air in front of me. Another burst of magic and it slithered around my neck, wrapping tightly around it before buckling. With that, I was dumped back onto the ground again.

“That’s it, boy. Bark!” the unicorn sneered as I hacked and coughed, gasping for air. I struggled to get to my feet, only to have someone suddenly kick me in the side, forcing what little air I had out of my lungs. Gazing up through watering eyes, I saw Amy glaring down at me.

“Fucker,” she spat before turning and stalking away.

“...not my fault,” I wheezed pathetically. As I pushed myself into a kneeling position, Chelsea moved in front of me. With her hands on her hips, she just stared down at me and shook her head.

“You were always kinda weird, Max,” she said, “but… well, I have to be honest. This has to take the cake.”

“There was a... time you found it endearing,” I gasped, looking up at her.

“Yeah, back when it was funny,” she said. “Now, it’s just… weird. I mean really? Siding with the fucking ponies? How messed up do you have to be?”

I tried to respond, to somehow defend myself from this deteriorating situation, but with the collar restricting my air supply, I couldn’t get the words out before she began to walk away as well. Refusing to let that be the end of it, I staggered to my feet to go after her, only to suddenly be yanked back down onto the ground.

“You’re not... going anywhere,” the unicorn growled, his face inches from mine. From this distance I could see that his coat was covered in sweat. His breathing was coming in heavy gasps, and the magic around his horn was flickering on and off as he held me down. I had seen Twilight in a similar state several times before. She had called it ‘magical exhaustion’, or something like that.

“You’re lucky, boy,” he hissed. “If I hadn’t just wasted a huge amount of magic earlier, I would end you right here, right now...” He trailed off, his eyes becoming unfocused. One of them flashed, the iris becoming a deep emerald green for a brief second before, with a shake of his head, his gaze sharpened again.

“As it is,” he continued, “I don’t have the energy required right now to do so. However, I’ve come too far now for you to just fuck everything up. I cannot—will not—have you running around causing trouble… again. There might be nothing you can do to stop the coming storm right now, but I’m not going to risk it.” Gritting his teeth, the magic around his horn flared brightly and I was lifted bodily into the air by my neck.

As I struggled weakly in the air, his horn flashed again and the rock directly beneath me began to shimmer and undulate like water. The humans nearby quickly backed away, eyeing the rippling ground with confusion and surprise.

“What’s wrong?” the unicorn asked, giving me a look of faux confusion as I stared down at the flexing ground in trepidation. “You look a little tense. A little nervous. Tell you what. How about a nice, relaxing dip to help you calm down?”

With that, he slowly began to lower me.

As my feet came in contact with the ground, they sunk into the rock with very little resistance. I winced at the sensation that slowly worked its way up my legs as I was submerged deeper and deeper into the earth. It was like being dipped into cold jello, except I could also feel the rough edges of the rock pulling and tugging at my pants. The ground was both a solid, and a liquid at the same time. A shiver ran down my spine at the sensation, and I began to struggle again but I was unable to escape his magical grasp.

This continued until I found myself immersed within the ground up to my neck. The unicorn cancelled his magic with little difficulty, the spell practically collapsing on its own. The magic around me disappeared, but before I had a chance to move, the ground hardened again.

“What the…” I frowned, trying to lift my arm but instead found myself unable to move an inch. The rock encasing my body remained firm and unyielding. I opened my mouth, only to be gagged suddenly by a piece of cloth as it wrapped around my head.

“There, that... should hold you,” the unicorn wheezed. “You aren’t going anywhere now. You can stay down here and rule over your new domain. You are now the king beneath the mountain. King of—” His words were interrupted as he dissolved into a hacking cough. Wiping his mouth with a hoof, he gave me a withering glare before he turned his gaze away and shook his head.

“I don’t have time for this,” he growled under his breath.

Dustin approached tentatively, his eyes wide.

“Dude… what the hell was that?” he asked, staring down at me.

“I made it so he couldn’t do anything stupid,” the unicorn huffed. He took a step, only to suddenly wince and lift a hoof up to his head.

“You okay?” Dustin asked, giving him a concerned look.

The unicorn nodded, his eyes closed. “I’m fine.” A pause. “Maybe not.” He sighed. “I used a lot of energy earlier before coming here. That, combined with what I did to this thing—” he kicked the back of my head with a hoof, causing me to let out a muffled grunt “—proved to be a little too much, and now it’s beginning to affect me.”

“I thought you were trying to lay low,” Dustin said with a frown. “What did you do to exhaust yourself already?”

“I had to get away,” the unicorn said. “The Sisters found out what I’ve been up to.” A look of worry spread across the faces of the surrounding humans, but the unicorn held up a hoof. “They don’t know where we are, but we are unfortunately going to have to move our plans forward.”

“How much forward?” someone inquired from the crowd.

“We need to move now,” the unicorn replied. He paused before glancing over to Dustin. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

Dustin exchanged looks with someone who was standing somewhere behind me before shaking his head. “Nah, bro. We’re good to roll.”

“Splendid,” the unicorn said as he massaged his temples. “Then get up there and cause as much chaos as possible. I’ll finish up down here and bring up the second wave. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, we can finish this tonight.”

Dustin gave him a quick salute before turning and marching off. He left my line of sight, but I could still hear him shouting orders. “Alright, everyone up an’ at ‘em! Time to get to work. Grab whatever makeshift weapons you’ve managed to make, and get ready. Stan, get the ammo ready. Tracy, you get the medkits. The Vanguard is taking the lead, just like we trained for. Everyone else follow slightly behind. Remember, if we run into any problems, Tanker is our backup plan…”

His voice was soon lost in the noise that followed as people started to move about. The clattering of metal, the shifting of cloth, and the sound of people shouting at one another filled the air. I couldn’t see any of it, though, as I could only stare straight ahead into the smirking face of that bloody unicorn prick.

“And just like that, it’s over,” he said, only to me. “I played my pipe and they danced to my tune. I pit one against the other, and they all topple. Like a line of dominoes. Checkmate. Yahtzee. Bingo. I win, you lose. Just like that.

“It’s strange though,” he continued, tilting his head to the side. “I’m almost going to be sad when this is over. Almost… but not quite. It was fun while it lasted, but all things must come to an end, no? It almost seems unfair. All things considered, it’s almost too easy. Then again, she never really had a chance to begin with. Not after my contingency plan went into effect. I will miss these little games we played together...

“I won’t miss you though,” he said, sneering down at me.

Unable to speak, I could only growl as I glared up at him.

“It’s nothing personal, I assure you,” he said. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most unfortunate for you, really. To have such bad luck. Almost… chaotic really,” he muttered, frowning slightly. He gave me a hard look before slowly shaking his head. “Truly unfortunate.”

I made a loud, sick-sounding gagging noise around the cloth in my mouth. This caused the unicorn to snort and shake his head. He opened his mouth, no doubt to spew nonsense or insult me some more, only to close it again as Dustin shouted out behind me. “Oye, Paul! We’re ready to go!”

The unicorn glanced up.

“Then go,” he said, waving a hoof, “and good luck to you, my dogface friend.”

“Right,” I heard Dustin say. He paused before speaking again. “Remember, you all stay here while we Earth humans go up, got it?” I heard a low murmur come from behind me, and I saw a couple of Equestrian humans out of the corner of my eye nod their heads. “You come up when he gives the signal, got it?” The Equestrian humans turned to look at the unicorn before nodding again.

“Good,” Dustin said. “Don’t worry. When this is all over, the ponies won’t bother us anymore. Alright. Let’s go!”

Craning my neck around as much as my position would let me, I watched out of the corner of my eye as a medium sized group of humans made their way towards the entrance to the cavern. They were outfitted with crudely made weapons and gear, and most of them had looks of determination on their faces. However, a few looked uncertain, one or two glancing over at me as they left. Unable to call out to them, I could only watch them go until the last of them left my line of sight.

Relaxing my neck, I turned my head back around to face the unicorn again, only to blink in surprise when I saw he wasn’t there. I glanced around, trying to find him, but he was nowhere. The only other creatures I could see from my position were a few Equestrian humans off to the side who were giving me curious looks.

Ignoring them for the time being, I tried to move again, only for the rock encasing me to remain hard and yielding. I couldn’t move any part of my body besides my head even an inch.

I was stuck… in a hole in the ground.

I was stuck as a group of Terran humans went to wage war on the ponies.

There was currently nothing I could do.

And my nose itched.

…

...fuck.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Excavation Site < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Brass Star was a very confused pony.

And worried. Definitely worried.

Having trained for nearly a decade to be a Human Handler, she’d seen many strange things in her life, most of them human-related. She’d witnessed a human, who had been renowned for her violent temperament, waste away on top of her handler’s grave when the unicorn had passed due to heart complications. She had witnessed a human carry an injured mare over ten miles through rough terrain to receive medical attention, even though said human had a broken leg. She had witnessed a human completely ignore the fact that it couldn’t swim as it dove into a river to save a filly from drowning.

She’d witnessed many oddities from humans throughout her career as a Handler, and almost all of them had been protective in nature. It was almost as if the humans had a sort of sixth sense for danger. Bad weather coming? The humans hunkered down. Flood coming? The humans headed for high ground.

A monster attacking a city, however? That was a different story.

Nopony was sure if it was territorial or some other instinct, but if there was one thing humans seemed unwilling to run from, it was a monster attack. It was guaranteed that after each monster attack, reports would flood in about humans attacking the monster or defending ponies. When a hydra attacked Oakvale, it was a small group of humans that drove it off, protecting the pony inhabitants with their life. It wasn’t just that particular case either. Every time a report came in about a monster attack, so too came the reports about humans protecting ponies against the monsters.

It was almost like the humans had some instinctual need to protect ponies from creatures that would do them harm.

It was part of a Handler's job to know about these kind of instincts and evoke them.

That still didn’t stop Brass Star from being confused and worried when her humans had stopped tunneling and had placed themselves protectively between Brass Star and the ponies that were currently approaching through the dark, a light from a horn illuminating the way.

“What are you lot doing?” she asked, glancing around. “Come on. Back to digging.” She made a loud clicking noise with her teeth. “Come on. Get!” None of the humans moved. They kept staring intently at the approaching ponies. Several had their lips pulled back in a silent snarl.

The hair on the back of Brass Star’s neck began to stand up.

“What has gotten into you lot?” she muttered under her breath, only to gasp when the new ponies drew close enough to see, revealing two unicorns, one of which was very familiar. “A-Archmage?! What are you doing here?”

The Archmage eyed at her blankly, the light from his horn casting shadows upon his face. He continued to stare at her for a few more seconds before he said calmly. “You may leave.”

“W-what?” Brass Star gasped, taking a step back. “But… I’m supposed to be here until this evening, when Amber Rose gets here—”

“There’s been a change of plans,” the Archmage interrupted, his tone unchanging. “You are excused.”

“But sir! We’re almost to the source!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“But sir!”

“Thank you, Brass Star,” the Archmage growled. “Go home.”

Brass Star opened her mouth to continue to protest, only to pause and close it a second later. Hanging her head, she sighed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good girl,” the Archmage muttered.

Keeping her head lowered, Brass Star made her way past the Archmage. As she moved, her humans moved with her, keeping themselves between her and the Archmage. She was just passing the other unicorn when she stopped, her eyes widening. He was dirty gold in color, his mane only slightly darker than his coat. His eyes were hooded, and almost seemed empty, as though the lights were on but nopony was home.

However, what caused her to pause was his horn, which was currently sparking and oozing magic.

Brass Star took a step back, her eyes wide in horror. “S-sir! Your horn!”

“I’m fine,” the unicorn replied emotionlessly.

“But sir!”

“Brass Star,” the Archmage sighed, glancing over his shoulder. “He’s fine.”

Brass Star gaped at him. “Pardon me for saying so, sir, but that is not fine!”

“Brass Star…”

“That is a serious buildup of magic!”

“Brass Star.”

“That can be life-threatening if not treated!”

“Brass Star!”

“We need to get him to the hospital right now!” Brass Star cried, taking a step towards the overcharged unicorn. There was a bright flash, and Brass Star and the humans ceased to exist within the tunnel.

“How... troubling…” the Archmage gasped, the magic around his horn dimming slightly. “To have my vast reserves… reduced to this.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “No matter. We’re almost done.” As one, the Archmage and Golden Ingot turned and headed further into the tunnel.

Reaching the back wall, they paused. The Archmage lifted up a hoof and pressed it against the rock, letting his senses spread out through the hoof and into the earth. He stayed that way for a few seconds before lowering his hoof and backing up.

“About a foot left to go,” he muttered, eyeing the wall critically. The magic in his horn flared slightly as he gauged how much of his reserve he had left.

“It’ll have to do,” he muttered, eyes narrowing. The light around his horn grew brighter. A low groan came from the rock wall in front of him before suddenly, with a loud echoing crack, it collapsed inward in an explosion of rocks and dust. Yellowish-green light shone through the hole, causing the cloud of dust to glow eerily in the gloom. The very air seemed to pulse and hum with some unknown magic.

The pair waited for the dust to settle before stepping through the newly formed hole in the tunnel wall. They emerged into a large circular cavern. It had a dome-shaped ceiling, and the floor had been carved perfectly flat. Misty fog filled the room, swirling and wafting lazily on unseen currents. In the dead center of the room, a large hole was carved into the rock. It was almost twenty feet in diameter, and the yellowish-green light was emanating from deep within its depths. Scattered all around the pit were statues of faceless humans, all carved from blackened marble. They were cracked and withered with age, some missing limbs and heads, while others were nothing more than a pile of broken marble.

“Never thought I’d see this place again, let alone use it,” the Archmage murmured, gazing around at the ominous room. “It’s just as well, all things considered. It’s always good to have a plan B in place for just such an occasion. We—GAH!” With a cry of pain, the Archmage nearly collapsed but managed to catch himself at the last second. Fighting to stay standing, he winced as another wave of pain coursed through his body.

“If this is what dying feels like, then no thank you,” he growled, shaking his head. Turning to Golden Ingot, who was watching everything with a blank expression, he motioned towards the pit with his head. “Well, get going. You know what you need to do.”

Golden Ingot nodded before stiffly making his way towards the pit, working his way through the sea of statues. The Archmage followed, albeit at a more reserved pace.

Golden paused at the edge of the pit and glanced down into its depths. It was hard to tell if the shifting contents within were a liquid or a gas. Whatever they were, they swirled together in a chaotic, swirling mess of glowing substance.

The pair just stood there for a few minutes, staring into the pit, before Golden suddenly dropped like a rag doll. All his legs went limp, his neck flopping back and forth weakly as he toppled head over hooves down into the abyss. He disappeared into the fog below without a trace.

There was a brief second of silence before a flash of white light broke through the swirling gas. Lightning erupted from the pit, arcing across the ceiling and walls of the cavern, leaving dark streaks against the aged stone. A sudden wind billowed around the room, pulling at the Archmage’s mane and tail, and causing some of the statues to collapse. The very room seemed to shake slightly, bits of rock falling from the ceiling.

This continued for several long minutes before fading. The mist began to settle back upon the floor as the light in the pit faded back to a sickly yellow.

The Archmage stared down into the pit with a raised eyebrow.

“Strange,” he mused. “That should have worked. Why didn’t it work? Last time it only… took…” He trailed off, a deadpan look crossing his face as he stared into the pit. Facehoofing, he growled softly. “Added the fuel, but still need the spark.” Lowering his hoof, he watched the glowing mist of the pit swirl around for a few seconds before a small smirk spread across his face. “Well, it’s not like it matters anymore. I was just going to dispose of him anyways.”

His legs shaking, the Archmage moved to stand at the very edge of the pit. Swaying slightly on his hooves, he laughed weakly to himself. “Well, old bean. It’s been fun, but it’s time for this little vacation to end. Ta ta!”

With that, the Archmage closed his ice blue eyes.

He leaned forward, a peaceful look on his face, and began to fall.

Over the edge.

Down into the pit.

As he toppled past the point of no return, his face scrunched up. He opened his eyes, the deep emerald green orbs glancing around in confusion. “What the—? Where am I?” A gasp escaped his lips as he caught sight of what lay before him. His eyes widened and he tried to teleport to safety, only for his horn to spark and flicker uselessly. He opened his mouth to scream, but before the air could escape his lungs, the glowing fog consumed him.

All was still for a moment.

Then there was an explosion, and the cavern was consumed in a flash of yellow light.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Deep within the Royal Gardens, one particular stone statue trembled. A large series of cracks slowly began to work their way across its surface, white light shining from within. The shaking grew worse as the light continued to build up until finally, with a loud crack, the top half of the statue exploded.

A figure emerged from the smoking base of the statue, threw back its arms, and yawned.

“Free at last, free at last!” Discord groaned as he stretched. “Thank me almighty, I am free at last.” His shoulders and neck popped several times as he twisted his limbs about at impossible angles.

“Really, that was some of the worst sleeping conditions I’ve ever had in my life,” he groused, stepping out of the remains of his stone prison. “Zero out of ten. Would never recommend. Seriously, Celestia, you need to get with the times. Stone is so last millennium. Where are the box-spring mattresses? Then again,” he said, reaching back and pulling out a spring that had become lodged in his back, “box-springs are a pain in the back as well. Maybe a nice waterbed, hmmm?”

Working out the last of the kinks in his body, Discord straightened up.

“Oh, it feels simply marvelous to be back home again,” he cooed, flexing his talons. “Not to say it wasn’t fun to play make-believe for a while—” he reached up and pulled a fake unicorn horn off of his head and tossed it over his shoulder “—but now it’s time for things to get serious.”

Pulling a large pocket watch out of… somewhere, Discord flipped it open before consulting it. A pink pony with a beanie cap and swirling eyes stared up at him from the face of the watch, a large dopey smile on her face. Her forelegs acted as the arms of the clock, except they were spinning backwards while stopping and starting at random intervals. That wasn’t the only odd part of the pocket watch, though. Instead of numbers, different splotches of colors lined the outer edge of its face, all of them a different shade of blue or pink.

It must have made some sense to Discord, for he stared at the odd pocket watch for a few seconds before gasping loudly, a look of overly-dramatic horror on his face.

“Goodness! Is it really that time already?!” he cried. “Oh, I’m late! I’m late!” Stuffing the watch back where it had originally come from, he then snapped his claws. A large scroll appeared from thin air in front of him.

“Now then. What have we got left to do?” Discord hummed as the scroll unrolled itself all over the gardens. It hung from trees and got tangled in the bushes as it continued to unroll to impossible lengths.

Pulling out a small pair of half-moon spectacles, Discord perched them on the end of his nose before glancing at the scroll. ‘To-Do List’ was written across the top of the page in large, gaudy letters. The first thing listed simply read ‘Celestia’ with a cartoon picture of her with buck teeth and a dunce cap.

“Let’s see,” Discord said, pulling a quill out from behind his ear. “Ol’ Cake Flank, taken care of.” He crossed her name off of the list. The next item read ‘Luna’ with a picture of a moon with a butt on it. She too was crossed off the list. “Crater Flank, taken care of as well. The Princess’s pet? He’s currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. Darkflare, check. His cronies, check as well. Golden Ingot, check. The Princess of Shipping…” He paused, scratching his head with the quill as he stared at Cadance’s name. After a few seconds, he shrugged and moved on. “Eh, someone else is currently working on that at the moment. Moving on. The Coming Dawn, check. Took care of them earlier than planned, actually.”

He continued down the list, crossing off names in a similar manner as he went, until he reached the bottom. “That should take care of everyone except… for…” Discord stared at the last few names on the list before a large, devilish grin spread across his face. Giving the end of the scroll a flick of his wrist, it rolled back up like a window shade and disappeared in a ‘poof’ of smoke.

“Well,” he sneered, his grin growing until it threatened to split his head in half. “I think it’s about time for me and six special mares to have one last reunion… and settle the score once and for all.”

Just then, the ground began to shake. The surrounding trees groaned loudly, with several of them beginning to list to one side as the ground beneath them cracked and shifted. Yellowish smoke began to snake up through the cracks in the ground. Wafting over to Discord, it surrounded the draconequus before slowly being absorbed into his body. Yellow light began to glow from Discord’s eyes as more and more of the energy emerged from the ground and congealed around him.

As the last of the smoke phased into the draconequus’ body, he just stood there, basking in the feeling. Static ran up and down his body, causing the parts of his body that had fur to fluff up slightly.

Gazing down at his sparking claws, Discord chuckled darkly. “Well, this certainly proves to be entertaining.”

With that, he flapped his mismatched wings before zooming off into the night, cackling madly.

Author's Note

Ho ho ho? More like No no no! :pinkiecrazy:

Merry Christmas!!!
From all of us here at MadMax Industries©

Chapter 61: The Fall of Canterlot

The Mareitime Cathedral’s bells tolled out loudly over Canterlot.

Canterlot Castle had become an overturned anthill. Armored ponies bearing both Solar and Lunar armor ran to and fro, trying vainly to keep order. Many of them were missing parts of their armor, having quickly donned their uniform when the initial alarm had been sounded. The chain of command was currently in shambles, the confused guards unsure of who to report to or where. Several higher ranking ponies were currently out and about, helping search for a high-priority human and had yet to return.

It didn’t help that there were unconfirmed reports of a small group of unicorns making their way through the lower levels of the palace, attacking anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. Some of them supposedly matched the descriptions of several inmates that had escaped from Canterlot’s dungeons earlier in the year.

In an attempt to get a handle on the situation, guards had been dispatched to the throne room, the last known location of the Princesses. The hope was that the Princesses would be able to shine a light on what was currently going on. However, none of the guards that had been sent had yet to return.

To make matters worse, the residents of Canterlot were currently making their way to the castle’s entrance, drawn there by the tolling of the bells. Scared, they were drawn from their homes in the middle of the night, only to become confused when the guards stationed by the gate told them to return to their homes. It was an internal crisis, not an external one.

Most of the ponies did so, albeit reluctantly. However, there were some—mostly minor nobles—who refused and demanded entrance to the castle grounds. When the guards refused, a small riot broke out, requiring more guards to be called and lead to further confusion, many guards believing that the source of the alarm were the ponies at the front gate.

All in all, Canterlot Castle had quickly dissolved into a chaotic mess that would have made a certain draconequus weep tears of joy.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Will you, ugh… hurry it up?”

“Stop moving!”

“Then hurry up!” Ebony grunted, wincing in pain. “Gah! Stop yanking so hard. Be gentle!”

“I’m trying, but you moving your head is messing me up!” Avera growled. Draped over Ebony’s shoulders, she had the unicorn’s head held in one hoof, while the other hoof held one of her feathers. The quill of the feather was inserted into the locking mechanism on the magic inhibitor that was currently around Ebony’s horn.

Giving Ebony’s head another tug, Avera tried to get a better look at what she was doing.

“Stop pulling!” Ebony yelped. “I’m not a bobblehead!”

“Stop complaining!”

“Then go faster!”

“I’m going as… fast as I can,” Avera muttered, expertly wiggling the feather back and forth. “I’ll have you know that this is a lot harder than it looks. It’s not like bucking trees or kicking down doors. You have to, unf… be precise. If I’m not careful, the tip can snap off and become stuck in the lock, and then—hold still—this thing is stuck on your horn for good. You’ve already caused me to break three—will you stop moving your thrice-bucked head!”

“I can’t help it!” Ebony groaned. “It feels like you’re trying to rip my horn out of my forehead!”

“That’s because you keep moving! This would be painless if you’d just stay still.”

“Will you two shut up and get a move on?” Primrose snapped, glancing nervously over her shoulder. “This is no time for arguing! We need to—” The thundering sound of hooves running down the corridor caused all three mares to tense. Avera and Ebony froze while Primrose turned to stare down the corridor, her ears perked forward. Her body tensed, muscles quivering as she prepared to spring. No one relaxed until the noise faded into the distance, leaving only the sound of distant screams and the tolling of bells.

“Hurry up!” Primrose hissed, her eyes flashing once as she turned back to the pair.

“Oh, we’re going to be in so much trouble for doing this,” Ebony whined.

“The alarm bells are currently ringing like there is no tomorrow,” Primrose said. “I highly doubt anypony will care about what we’re doing.”

“Then why are you so nervous?” Ebony asked, glaring at the batpony.

“I’m not worried about a guard finding us,” Primrose muttered, ears swiveling around her head. “I’m worried about what caused the alarm. The last time the bells rang was when the changelings attacked.”

“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure the other guards can deal with it,” Ebony said, before wincing again. “Ow!” She glared up at Avera. “I would like to go on record for saying that I do not agree with this course of action. What if Tempest catches us?”

“Duly noted, and don’t care,” Avera grunted, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth. “Almost… got it. Just a few… more… seconds!” With a click, the inhibitor split in two, clattering noisily to the ground. Avera quickly jumped off of Ebony’s back, allowing the unicorn to stretch.

“Ugh, thank Celestia,” she groaned, rolling her shoulders and tilting her neck back and forth.

“Yeah, yeah, thank her later,” Avera said. Turning, she presented her side to Ebony. “Get these things off of me, will ya?”

Glancing down at the pegasus’ bound wings, Ebony chewed nervously on her lip. “I don’t know. We’re already in immense trouble with Tempest about our previous behavior. She’s going to flip out if—when she finds out about this.” She shifted from hoof to hoof. “We were detained. No magic, no wings.”

“Are you kidding me?” Avera asked, gaping at Ebony. “I just spent five minutes trying to get that ring off your horn. You are not backing out of this now!”

“We could get in trouble for this!” Ebony said, waving her forehooves back and forth.

“We’re already in trouble!”

“We could get in more trouble!”

“Who cares?!” Avera shouted, her tail whipping angrily through the air. “Shit’s going down, guards are running about, bells are ringing, and you’re questioning the release one of the main things that will keep us safe?! What if something happens and Primrose and I need our wings?”

“We aren’t supposed to be in situations that require wings or magic,” Ebony shouted back. “We are relieved of active duty. We can’t fight, and we can’t get involved. We’re lucky we aren’t currently in a holding cell.”

“We can fight,” Avera corrected. “We’re just not supposed to, and I’m not letting Tempest’s stupid restrictions get me hurt. Now get these things off my wings!”

“But…” Ebony began but trailed off as she stared at Avera’s bound wings. They were quivering by her sides, the feathers slightly disheveled by the restraints. “But what do you plan to do?”

“Whatever the buck we need to!” Avera growled. “Don’t you dare back out of this!” she added as Ebony continued to look unconvinced. “Get these things off my wings or I swear by Luna’s frozen teats that I’ll stick that inhibitor back on your horn with so much force that you’ll never get it off again!”

Turning to Primrose, who had been silently watching the two bicker with a blank look on her face, Ebony gave the bat pony a pleading look. “Can you help me out here? Explain to this hothead why this is a bad idea.”

Primrose shrugged. “I actually agree with her.”

“I… but, what…” Ebony stared at her for a few seconds before finally sighing and shaking her head. “Fine.” Her horn lit up and the restraints holding Avera’s and Primrose’s wings to their side unlatched, falling uselessly to the ground. “There. You happy now?”

“Very,” Primrose groaned, flexing her wings.

“Ahhh, mama missed you,” Avera cooed, nuzzling one of her wings. “Yes she did. Yes she did.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Ebony asked Primrose.

“There isn’t really a plan,” Primrose answered as she threw the restraints out a nearby window. “First thing was to get free, the next is to acquire some armor. Other than that, I didn’t really have a plan. You?” she asked, turning to Avera.

The pegasus shrugged. “Find out what’s going on and buck shit up.”

“So, you wanted out of your restraints, but had no real plan after that?” Ebony asked, glancing between her two winged partners. They glanced at each other for a brief second before turning back to Ebony.

“Basically,” Primrose answered at the same time Avera said, “Yup!”

Ebony stared at the two before sighing again. A small smile touched her lips.

“The Max way?” she asked.

“The Max way,” Avera nodded with a smirk. After a few seconds, her smile faded slightly. “Although first we have to find some armor.”

“We could probably find some spare ones in the barracks,” Primrose offered. “If that doesn’t work, we can just head down to the armory.”

Ebony rolled her eyes before her horn began to glow. There was a bright flash of magic, and with the sound of clinking metal, all three mares were suddenly adorned in familiar-looking black armor.

“Nice!” Avera whistled, looking down at her armored self. “I totally forgot you could do that.” Reaching back into one of her side pockets, she smiled before pulling out her hoof claws. Quickly attaching them to her hooves, she scraped them experimentally on the ground. Sparks danced across the floor.

“I put the summoning runes in our armor as well as Max’s,” Ebony said, double-checking her gear. “It makes it easier to be prepared at a moment’s notice. The only problem is, the further away you are from the armor, the more energy the spell uses.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though.”

“Alright,” Primrose said. “Now that the armor has been taken care of, let’s get going.” She reached up to a pair of goggles perched on top of her helmet. Pulling them down over her eyes, she glanced over at her two companions. “Time to figure out what’s going on.”

The other two nodded. “Right.”

As the trio made their way down the hall, Ebony glanced at Primrose.

“We don’t know what’s going on… so where are we headed exactly?” she asked.

“Throne room,” Primrose replied, glancing down an adjacent corridor as they passed, her ears perked. “It’s close enough to the main hall, plus one of the princesses should be stationed there. There was some operation going on earlier today from the sound of it, so one of them should hopefully still be there.”

“And if they aren’t there?” Ebony asked.

“If nopony’s there, we’ll just head to the main gate instead,” Primrose answered.

Ebony still looked unsure, but before she could voice her concerns, a trio of ponies rounded the far end of the corridor. They were outfitted in cobalt armor identifying them as Battlemages, and upon seeing the trio, the newcomers froze. The group just stood there, eyeing each other with varying degrees of surprise.

Ebony was the first to break the silence.

“Zen Glory?” she asked, taking a tentative step forward. “Is that you?”

The foremost Battlemage cocked their head to the side. “Major? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Ponyville?”

“We were, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we arrived here a couple days ago,” Ebony replied. “Our charge is here also. Well, our ex-charge, to be exact.”

“We can catch up with one another later,” Primrose interrupted. She pointed a hoof at the new arrivals. “Do any of you happen to know what’s going on, or why the alarm bells are going off?”

Zen Glory ignored the bat pony, instead keeping his gaze locked firmly on Ebony.

“You made changes to your armor?” he asked slowly, his eyes narrowing.

Ebony blinked before glancing down at her armor. It was identical to the other Battlemages’ in all except color and glow. Her dark armor stood out in contrast against its cobalt counterparts, glowing a deep crimson while the other three pulsed with yellow light.

“Um, yes?” she answered uncertainly, looking back up at Zen. “I mean, I did make a few modifications to the enchantments, as well as a color change. Why—”

“That’s not important at the moment!” Primrose huffed. “The palace is currently at high alert, so can we please stay focused on the situat—”

A bolt of lightning interrupted her, arcing past her head and almost taking her ear off in the process. The fur along the side of her face stood on end, the air in the hallway suddenly feeling electrified. A low hum filled the air. Slowly, all three mares turned to stare at Zen Glory, whose horn was still smoking and sparking.

“Z-Zen?” Ebony stammered, her eyes wide. “What’s… what’s going on?” She took a step back. “What are you…?”

“Sorry, ladies. It’s nothing personal,” Zen sneered, his eyes flashing. “It’s just, you three were supposed to be out of commission right now, but from the look of things, that’s changed. We can’t have you three ruining the Archmage’s plans, so unfortunately...” His horn lit up again and he launched another bolt of lightning, this one at Avera. Her eyes widened and she ducked under the bolt, the back of her mane catching the tail end of it. The smell of burnt hair filled the air.

“The buck is your problem?” Avera shouted angrily, rubbing at the smoldering strands of hair.

“I think we might have just discovered the source of the alarm,” Primrose said, her eyes narrowing.

“Then let’s take care of it,” Avera growled before launching herself forward.

“No, wait!” Ebony cried, but it was too late; Avera was already halfway down the hall.

The Battlemage to the left of Zen Glory stepped forward, her horn flaring to life. A section of her armor flipped open, revealing a small, barrel-like container beneath it. With a flick of her head, a stream of water burst from the opening and streaked down the hall towards Avera. She tried to dodge, but the water followed her, arcing through the air as it tracked the pegasus. Avera tried to duck under it at the last second, but the stream twisted, slamming into the side of her face.

Immediately her entire head was encased in a globe of water.

Falling to the ground, Avera struggled vainly to free herself from the ball of water but her hooves were unable to get a grip on the liquid orb. She shook her head from side to side, tried to use her wings to remove it, and even went as far as to smash her head against the wall, all in a vain attempt to free herself from the suffocating ball of water.

“Avera!” Primrose cried, starting towards the flailing pegasus.

Zen Glory stepped forward, magic gathering at the tip of his horn. With a sharp ‘crack’, another bolt of lightning flew down the corridor.

Primrose flared her wings in an attempt to slow down, but it was too late; the bolt was upon her. Her eyes widened as the spear of thunder rushed towards her, causing the very air to crackle with its energy. Her fur stood on end as it rushed to meet her.

Closing her eyes, she braced herself for the strike.

“OH NO YOU DON’T!”

A wall of vines exploded across the middle of the corridor, separating the two groups. The bolt of lightning slammed into the vegetation, causing several of the smaller vines to burn and crack, but the rest of them remained strong.

Staring at the sudden wall of interwoven creepers in confusion, Primrose glanced back over her shoulder.

Magic pulsed over Ebony’s horn, causing a slight distortion in the air around it. One of her saddlebags was open, and a multitude of leafy tendrils emerged from it, clinging to Ebony’s sides, as well as running along the floor and walls to where the barrier of vines had appeared. Some of the creepers were still moving, wrapping lovingly around Ebony’s legs and upper body.

Primrose blinked several times. “What the buck? Where did all the vines…?”

“I’m a master of plant-based magic,” Ebony said, sounding slightly out of breath. The magic around her horn dimmed slightly, but held. “I… I can grow and manipulate any flora that I’m familiar with.” She sagged, her legs trembling slightly before she managed to recover. “I keep several different specimens in my bags, to help when I find myself in urban areas where plant life is scarce. Don’t want to be at a disadvantage.” She groaned, the magic around her horn flickering once. “Oh, I think I used too much magic.”

“How long can you keep this up?” Primrose asked as another bolt of lightning struck the makeshift barrier.

“Hopefully long enough,” Ebony said. Turning her attention to Avera, who was still thrashing about, she grabbed ahold of the pegasus. “Here,” she said, pushing a vine-covered hoof into the water, “just give me one second.” The ends of the vines twisted slightly before, with a soft sucking sound, they began to absorb the water encasing Avera’s head.

After a few seconds enough water had been consumed that Avera could breathe again.

“Ah, buck,” she gasped as the roots continued to work until there was no more water left. She inhaled deeply before beginning to cough. “Ack! Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck. Ugh, some went up my nose!”

“Hold still,” Ebony instruct. “The roots should take care of most of the water.”

“What do you—” Avera began, only to freeze when one of the smaller roots slowly and gently slithered its way into one of her nostrils.

“Don’t move,” Ebony repeated. “This might feel weird, but it won’t hurt.” She winced as another lightning blast charred the vines, several sparks flying through gaps in the plants.

“Ugh, I can feel it wiggling around,” Avera hissed, scrunching up her nose.

“Um, should we be worried about them?” Primrose asked as more lightning hit the barrier.

“The vines won’t keep them out for long,” Ebony replied, keeping her attention on the root currently in Avera’s nose. “However, it should stall them for a while. Unless, of course, one of them—”

A loud sucking noise suddenly filled the hall, followed by an explosion. A wave of heat slammed into the trio shortly before the wall of vines was consumed in fire. The inferno roared for several seconds before suddenly dying, leaving nothing behind but ash and three grinning Battlemages.

“—is a pyromancer,” Ebony finished lamely, her eyes wide. “Shit!”

“Thanks, Backdraft,” Zen Glory snickered. The unicorn to his right just gave him a feral smile, her eyes hidden behind a pair of darkened goggles.

“Shit,” Ebony repeated. Carefully, she extracted the root from Avera’s nostril as quickly as possible. “Not good!”

“Nice try, Ebony, but your plants can’t help you now!” Zen Glory sneered, static beginning to build up around his horn.

Keeping her voice low, Primrose turned slightly towards Ebony, but kept her gaze on the three unicorns. “Do we have a chance to take them?”

“If it was just Zen and Riptide, I could,” Ebony whispered back, “but with Backdraft here, I’m out of my depths.”

“We’ll take down Flamey,” Avera hissed. She opened and closed her hoof claws several times, studying the pyromancer with a critical eye.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Primrose asked Ebony softly, an eyebrow raised.

Ebony nodded. “They might have been my friends, but that doesn’t mean I won’t defend myself from them.”

“Good,” Primrose huffed. “Now then. Let’s—”

A fireball flew by overhead, causing all of them to duck.

“Enough talking,” Zen Glory growled. “Now, are you going to surrender, or are we going to have to put you down?”

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Ebony slowly turned to face the sneering unicorn. “I know we haven’t seen each other for a while, Zen. Especially since I was transferred to Ponyville. All that time separated from one another, I think you’ve forgotten one thing: I’m a Major.” Her horn began to glow, and more vines crept out of her saddlebag, twisting and wrapping around her body.

“And you all are just Sergeants,” she finished, glaring at the trio.

Zen Glory let out a barking laugh. “You don’t really think that you can take all three of us by yourself, do you?”

“Three? No,” Ebony shook her head. “Maybe two of you though. If my magic holds out,” she added under her breath.

“Is that so?” Zen Glory scoffed. “Well, as long as Backdraft is here, I highly doubt you’ll be able to do anything.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Primrose said before her hoof suddenly came up in a blur. A knife flashed through the air with a shrill whistle, heading straight for Backdraft. The unicorn dove to the side with a yelp, but the knife still managed to nick her cheek.

Before Backdraft had a chance to recover, Avera was off down the hall, heading straight for her.

“This again?” Zen Glory grunted, shaking his head. “It didn’t work the first time. What makes you think it’ll work a second time?” Beside him, Riptide’s horn flared to life, accompanied by a mass of water lashing out towards Avera again. However, unlike last time, a mass of roots exploded into life in front of the water, absorbing it with almost no effort.

Avera ducked under the roots and continued towards Backdraft, Primrose close on her heels.

“You and those damn plants!” Zen Glory growled, giving Ebony a hateful glare.

She smirked. “That’s what you get when you pick a minor element to master. Throwing sparks around won’t get you very far in this fight.”

“My thunder is more than enough to take you down,” Zen snarled. His horn began to glow, sparks dancing up and down its length.

“If you say so,” Ebony smiled. Her magic flared, and suddenly a bunch of leaves began to sprout up all along the lengths of vines that were wrapped around her body. “Shall we get started, then?” she asked.

With a shout, a bolt of lightning erupted from Zen Glory’s horn and launched itself towards Ebony. Quickly bringing up the mass of roots, she used it as a makeshift shield. The roots, still full of water from Riptide’s previous attack, just sizzled and popped, but other than that remained unaffected.

“Is that all you can do, Zen?” Ebony asked. Lowering her rooty shield, she lashed out at him with a whip-like vine.

Riptide’s horn flashed and a wall of water appeared between Zen and the vine, only for the vine to slice through the water effortlessly. Zen Glory was knocked off of his hooves, sliding across the floor and into a wall.

Ebony turned her attention to Riptide.

“You do realize that water won’t work against my plants, right?” she said with a frown. “They’ll just keep on absorbing it.”

“Oh, I know,” Riptide said with a smile. “I’m counting on it.” Her horn flashed once. The roots Ebony had used to absorb the previous water attacks shuddered suddenly before shriveling up and dying. They crumbled, falling to the floor as dust.

“Ah,” Ebony winced, the magic around her horn sputtering. “What the buck was that?”

“Oh, just me taking my water back,” Riptide smirked. Sure enough, small streams of water were emerging from the dried remains of the roots. They floated up and consolidated into three small spheres of water that orbited around Riptide’s head.

Zen Glory staggered to his hooves.

“You horse!” he grunted. His horn flared and the orbs of water began to spark and crackle.

“Block these,” Riptide sneered. “I dare you.” With that, she launched the electricity-infused spheres at Ebony.

Eyes widening, Ebony lunged to the side but wasn’t fast enough to avoid all the orbs. One of them caught her back left leg, sending a bolt of electricity up it, causing the muscles to lock up. She crashed to the ground in a heap, her left hind leg sticking out at an odd angle.

As she was struggling to get her leg working again, Primrose landed on her back next to her with an ‘oomph’. Her mane was smoldering, and the exposed fur around her face and neck was covered in soot. When she coughed, a cloud of smoke escaped her mouth.

“So,” she wheezed, peering over at Ebony upside down, “how’s your fight going?”

“Could be better,” Ebony said with a wince, massaging her leg. “Yours?”

“Same,” Primrose grunted as she got to her hooves. Giving her body a good shake, she charged back into the fray, where Avera was currently riding Backdraft like a bronc rider, all while the unicorn was launching fireballs in random directions as she tried to shake the pegasus off.

“Come on!” Avera shouted while holding on for dear life. “Is this the best you’ve got? Ivory has more kick than you! Come on! Impress me!”

Backdraft snorted, her nostrils flaring wide as she continued to try and buck Avera off.

As Ebony got back on her hooves, Zen Glory stepped forward.

“I’m going to enjoy taking you down a peg, Major,” he said, practically spitting the last word out. “You and your so-called ‘special team’. Special my flank. For what? Protecting some stupid human?” He snorted, shaking his head. “If I didn’t know for a fact the Anomaly was being taken care of already, I’d take a shot at him myself.”

“Keep talking, Zen,” Ebony grunted. Vines crept down her legs, spreading out and anchoring to the floor, helping to keep her stable. “You’re just making things worse for yourself.”

“Is that so?” Zen sneered. “Alright, I’ll end this quickly then.” His horn began to spark again, a buildup of electricity occurring until, suddenly, the static dissipated harmlessly into the air.

“What the…” Zen blinked, glancing up at his horn. Scrunching up his muzzle, he tried to get a current running through his horn again, only to be met with the same results.

“I told you, you were just making it worse,” Ebony said with a smirk.

“What did you do?!” Zen Glory snarled.

“Oh, nothing much,” Ebony said, reaching up to gently stroke one of the dozens of leaves that were sprouting from her vine-covered armor. “Just having my little plants here doing their stuff while we were busy.” She gave him a large grin. “Isn’t transpiration a bitch?”

“Transpiration?” Zen asked, his brow furrowing. “What do you…?” He trailed off, his eyes widening as he realized that the air in the hallway had slowly become more humid that it had been earlier.

“Mm-hmm,” Ebony hummed, still rubbing the leaf. “I’ve had them releasing water vapor into the air at an accelerated rate. It also helped that Riptide was providing water as well, even if she did take some back. The longer they are active, the more moisture is released into the air, and the less effective your lightning becomes.” Lowering her hoof, her expression became serious. “I told you, Zen. There’s a reason I’m a Major, and you’re still just a Sergeant. You’re just a one-trick pony.”

“‘One-trick pony’?” Zen Glory hissed. “I’ll show you a one-trick pony!” He rushed at Ebony, his horn glowing.

“Zen, no!” Riptide cried.

The minute Zen’s hooves came into contact with the vines carpeting the floor, they latched onto his legs. There was a loud ‘crack’ as both his front legs broke, bringing him to the ground. The creepers began to wrap around his body, holding him in place even as he struggled.

Walking forward, Ebony eyed the struggling Battlemage with a neutral look. Wordlessly, she raised a hoof before bringing it down on Zen’s head. With an echoing ‘crunch’, his head whipped back. His eyes glowed yellow before fading. They rolled up into his head and he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Zen!” Riptide cried. She turned her gaze to Ebony, glaring hatefully at her. “You’ll pay for that, Rose!” Her horn glowed and a blade of water exploded from beneath her armor, lashing out towards Ebony at great speed. However, the leaves surrounding Ebony’s body expanded, taking the brunt of the blow.

Before Riptide had a chance to recover, Ebony lashed out with a whip of her own, the vine striking Riptide, sending her bodily into a wall. Her head struck the wall, causing her helmet to fly off. Just like before, her eyes glowed yellow before fading, and she slid down the wall, motionless.

Ebony waited a few seconds to see if Riptide would rise. When she didn’t, Ebony sagged and sighed in relief. She turned, only to yelp in surprise as both Avera and Primrose landed in front of her.

“Ugh,” Avera groaned, sitting up and rubbing her head. “Did somepony see the tags on that carriage?” She tried to move her wing, only to gasp in pain and hold the quivering limb close to her body.

“What—” Ebony began, only to have a loud snort cut her off.

Backdraft was crouched down, steam erupting from her nostrils with each huff. Her teeth were bared, and she pawed at the ground with a hoof. The air around her seemed to shimmer and swim, and Ebony could feel the heat coming off of her from across the hallway. Slowly, her horn itself began to glow white, like a piece of metal heating up.

Ebony’s eyes widened in alarm. Moving quickly, she lashed out with a hoof, throwing a ball of tangled herbs and roots at the enraged unicorn while shouting, “Avera! Prim! Deep breath!”

The two did as instructed instantly, taking a deep breath and holding it.

Backdraft snarled before backhoofing the ball, causing it to burst harmlessly against her armor. A cloud of spores erupted from the broken clump of herbs, causing her to whip her head back with a loud whinny. She shook her head, blowing air out her nose as she tried to clear it. Growling, she took a step towards Ebony, only to wobble suddenly before toppling to the ground. She remained there, unmoving.

Lighting up her horn, Ebony gave her head a flick and the spores dispersed.

“What was that?” Avera asked as she got shakily to her hooves.

“Ground up passiflora incarnata,” Ebony asked, breathing heavily. The vines currently clinging to her armor slowly began to unravel themselves, creeping back into the saddlebag from which they had emerged. “Normally when taken in small doses, it helps ponies relax,” she continued. “However, my own special blend and highly concentrated mix knocks ponies out instead.”

“And why didn’t you lead with this to begin with?” Avera asked.

“Because it can also affect us too, and too much of it can kill,” Ebony huffed. “That, and I only had one on me at the moment and I was hoping to save it for later in case we ran into some higher ranking Battlemages.”

“What made you change your mind?” Primrose asked, brushing soot off her wings.

“The spell she was charging,” Ebony answered.

“What spell was it?” Avera asked. She moved forward and cautiously poked Backdraft’s unconscious form.

“You don’t want to know,” Ebony said. She paused, trying to catch her breath before continuing. “Let’s just say it would have taken the cleaning staff several weeks to clean up the hall and leave it at that.”

“Damn,” Avera whistled before straightening up again. “Still, I can’t believe they turned traitor like that. I wonder what their end goal is.”

“They aren’t traitors,” Ebony said, earning her an incredulous look from the other two.

“Pardon?” Primrose asked, digging a hoof into her ear. “Would you care to repeat that?”

“They aren’t traitors,” Ebony said again. “I noticed it first with Zen and then with Riptide. They were under the influence of somepony else’s magic.”

Primrose gave her a blank stare. “Mind control?”

“Mental magic,” Ebony corrected, “and most likely.”

Silence filled the hallway for several long seconds before Avera suddenly swore loudly.

“Grah! Son of a bitch!” she cried, kicking Riptide’s discarded helmet. “I hate dealing with mental magic!”

“You’re a pegasus. What do you know about mental magic?” Primrose asked.

“Enough to know that it sucks in a situation like this,” Avera growsed. Gesturing around at the unconscious bodies, she continued. “It would be so much easier if they were all just traitors. See, if the Battlemages were actually traitors, we’d could just charge them all for treason and be done with it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. However, add mental magic to the mix and it changes everything. They now become the victims. We can’t blame them for their behavior, meaning instead of having all the Battlemages to blame, there is only one or two ponies pulling the strings.”

Primrose cock an eyebrow. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“Yes, because how are you supposed to tell who’s really brainwashed and who’s just faking it?” Avera asked. “How can you tell who’s in charge?”

“Well, according to Zen, it was the Archmage’s plan,” Primrose said.

Avera snorted. “How do we know he isn’t being controlled as well?”

Primrose and Ebony looked at each other before both rubbed their foreheads with a hoof.

“She’s got a point,” Ebony muttered.

“I don’t want to think about it right now,” Primrose groaned. Stretching, she worked the kinks out of her neck before slowly making her way down the hall.

“Oi, where are you going?” Avera called after her. “Throne room is the other way.”

“Not going to the throne room anymore,” Primrose grunted.

“What?” Ebony yelped. “Why?”

Glancing over her shoulder, Primrose pointed at Zen Glory. “You heard him. ‘The Anomaly is being taken care of already’. Max is in danger. I’m going to go find him.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Ebony called to her. “I’m sure he’s nice and safe with Twilight at the moment.”

Primrose paused and gave Ebony a look. “This is Max we’re talking about.”

Ebony opened her mouth, only to close it again a moment later. “Damn,” she breathed, shaking her head.

“Yeah,” Primrose said before continuing her way down the corridor.

“But we aren’t his guards anymore,” Ebony called out again. “He’s not our charge.”

“I’m not going to find him because he’s my charge,” Primrose shot back. “I’m going to find him because he’s my friend.” With that, she turned and disappeared around a corner and was lost to view.

Avera turned and gave Ebony an expectant look.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Ebony sighed. “Let’s go find the hopeless troublemaker before somepony else does.” She took a step forward, only to stagger slightly. Blood slowly began to drip from her nose.

Alarmed, Avera asked, “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Ebony answered as she recovered. “I just used too much magic. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.” She walked off down the hall at an uneven gait, swaying slightly from side to side. “I just hope we don’t run into anything else before we find Max.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Coming Dawn < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Sir, I really must protest!”

“And I already told you, I don’t care,” Stacker said as he strapped on the last of his armor. The gray plates were charred in places, mirrored in part by its owner who was covered in bandages and singed fur. The rest of the Coming Dawn were in similar condition, but still they donned their armor quickly without complaint.

The unicorn who was currently arguing with Stacker gave him a dirty look, pushing her glasses back up her muzzle as she did so. A nurse’s cap was perched atop her head, and she had a red sash about her chest.

“You are in no condition to be going anywhere, let alone putting that armor back on,” she huffed. “Please return to your beds immediately.” She glared around at the other guards as well. “All of you!”

“Can’t do that, ma’am,” Stacker said, shaking his head. “Hear those bells out there? We got to go.”

“The bells are even more reason for you to stay here,” the nurse growled. “It’s hasn’t even been a couple of hours since you all showed up in the ward, bruised, bloodied, and burned. Some of you even have borderline third-degree burns. You need rest, not more excitement!”

“That’s not your call,” Stacker said, fastening the last strap. Flexing his wings, he opened and closed them several times, wincing slightly as the right one, which was covered in burned feathers, quivered slightly. “We have a responsibility to see to.”

“I could make it an order,” the nurse sneered.

“Are you?” Stacker asked, cocking an eyebrow.

The nurse continued to glare up at him for a few seconds before finally sighing and looking away. “Fine, but for the record, I’m against this. My duty is to heal the injured, not allow them to go back out and hurt themselves.”

“Noted,” Stacker nodded. His eyes flicked over to one of the two beds that was still occupied. A pained look crossed his face before he could stop it. “Just… take good care of her, okay?” he asked.

The nurse glanced over to the bed as well, and her expression softened.

There, lying unconscious and hooked up to several different machines, was Sunny. She was in bad shape. The fur on the left side of her face had been completely burned off, leaving behind red, angry inflamed skin. A bandage covered her eyes, the area over her left eye slightly bloody. The fur around the bald patch of skin was blackened and charred. Her mane had been singed short, the once long locks now barely falling across her forehead. An IV ran to the crook of one of her forelegs, the medicine inside the bag dripping at a constant rate. Her nostrils were encrusted with blood, plastic tubes inserted in order to provide her with clean oxygen. The heart monitor beside her bed was beeping at a lethargic pace.

Every so often she would groan, her wings shifting slightly beneath the blankets.

“We’re keeping a close eye on her,” the nurse assured. “Don’t worry. She’s in good hooves.”

“That’s all I can ask for,” Stacker muttered. Giving Sunny one last glance, he then turned to the other members of the Coming Dawn. “Alright. Time to go see what’s going on. Let’s move.” The guards nodded before beginning to file solemnly out of the room. The last one out was Windbreaker, the bandaged pegasus giving Sunny one last sad glance before closing the door behind her.

Silence fell over the room, broken only by the beeping of the heart monitors. After a few seconds, the nurse sighed explosively and massaged her forehead.

“Guards. It’s like looking after foals again,” she muttered under her breath before moving to attend to the two remaining patients. Giving Sunny’s vitals a quick check to make sure she remained stable, she then turned her attention to the second bed’s occupant.

“And how are we doing?” the nurse asked quietly. She shined a light into the patient’s eye, but there was no reaction. Letting out another sigh, the nurse just shook her head before heading towards the office in the back.

Melodic Wind just continued to stare up at the ceiling, her unswollen eye glazed over. Unknowing of the world around her, she just kept muttering quietly to herself. “Pegasus, seven, eight, six, twenty-five, twenty-six, seventeen, twenty-six, eighteen, thirteen, nine, one, twelve…”

Neither patient, nor the nurse in the back, heard the door creak open. Slowly, one bare foot slipped through the opening, making no noise as its owner stepped into the room. Leaving the door opened a crack, the new individual glanced around until their gaze came to a stop on Sunny.

Eyes narrowing, they let out a small chirp before creeping forward on silent feet.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The sound of pounding hooves filled the air as the Coming Dawn hurried down the hall. They moved at a quick pace, despite several of them moving with a limp. Stacker was out in front, a determined—if not somewhat weary—look on his face.

As they rounded a corner, one of the guards moved beside Stacker.

“Sir, maybe we should have stayed in the medical wing,” she said. “I’m all for helping during a crisis, but let’s be serious here. None of us are in the best of shape. I’m sure the other guards can handle whatever’s going on.”

“That’s what we thought about the Changeling Invasion, Shine, and look what almost happened,” Stacker growled. “If it wasn’t for Avera’s paranoia, Luna would have been captured by the changelings in her sleep.”

“That was before Tempest became Captain of the Royal Guard,” Shine shot back. “I’m sure they can hold their own now. Especially with the Lunar Guard and the Battlemages backing them up.”

Stacker paused long enough to give the unicorn a hard look. “Corporal Shine, you are more than welcome to return to the medical wing if you’d wish. It will not be held against you, and nopony here would think less of you. However,” he growled as he began trotting again, “I am going to see what’s going on, and help out in any way I can.

“That offer goes out to all of you,” he called back over his shoulder. “Those of you who aren’t feeling up to par don’t have to come. I am going though. Alone, if I have to.” Silence fell over the hall as all the guards continued following after Stacker, not a single one of them turning around to head back to the medical ward.

“That was a low blow, Sarge,” Shine muttered, her ears folding against the back of her head.

Stacker opened his mouth to apologize, only to freeze as a low groaning noise reverberated down the hall. All the guards froze, their ears perking up as they went on high alert. For a few seconds all they could hear was the constant ringing of the alarm bells, but then the groaning came again, slightly louder than before. There was something guttural beneath the noise, almost like a growl.

Slowly, the Coming Dawn grouped together in a tight circle, all facing outwards.

“What was that?” Windbreaker breathed, her eyes darting around the hall.

“Shine?” Stacker said slowly, his wings quivering by his sides.

“On it,” the unicorn muttered. Her horn flared to life, and her eyes began to glow softly. A few seconds passed before she glanced over her shoulder. “The door to your right, Sarge. Three life forms.”

All eyes locked onto the door in question.

“Species?” Stacker asked quietly, a hoof slowly reaching back for his knife.

Shine flinched. “Not sure. The spell keeps flickering back and forth, almost like it can’t decide.”

“We move cautiously then,” Stacker grunted. “Thunderspark, Cloudspire. On the door. Everypony else, get ready.” The two guards nodded and began to creep slowly towards the door.

“Sarge, what’s the plan?” Windbreaker asked in a whisper.

“Take down, non-lethal,” Stacker answered. “We don’t know what’s on the other side. It could be ponies trying to hide, so we need to—” The door exploded in a shower of wood and splinters.

What stepped out into the hall looked like someone had tried to combine a pony with a human, but had failed. The skin was pulled taut over its bipedal form, giving it a bony, malnourished look. Remains of golden armor hung about its upper body, the metal torn and sheared. Several pieces were stuck in the creature’s flesh, causing blood to stream across its patchy white fur.

Standing tall, it glanced around the hall before its blank eyes landed on the stunned guards. Its lips peeled back, exposing massive, predatory teeth.

“What the buck is that?!” Windbreaker gasped, her eyes wide.

“Thunderspark, Cloudspire, ditch and roll!” Stacker barked. Cloudspire moved without hesitation, using his wings to catapult him back and away from the creature. Thunderspark was not so lucky.

Moving faster than its size should have allowed, the creature grabbed Thunderspark’s wing mid-jump, its claws digging into the appendage and drawing blood. The pegasus let out a cry before crumpling, his body going limp.

“Private!” Stacker shouted as the creature released the unconscious pony. As Thunderspark fell to the ground, his body began to glow a sickly yellow. Within a few seconds, his legs and wings were twitching sporadically. There was a loud series of cracks as his bones began to shift and warp beneath his flesh. Armor warped and folded as his body seemed to grow. His legs elongated, and his hooves split and tore as long, bony digits erupted from the skin.

Twelve seconds after it all began, the transformation stopped. Slowly the changed form of Thunderspark staggered upright, his enormous wings flaring as he became adjusted to his new bipedal stance.

“T-Thunderspark?” Windbreaker asked tentatively

Thunderspark turned, his blank, white eyes locking onto Windbreaker. He stared at her for a moment before his mouth opened impossibly wide, revealing a massive maw of sharpened teeth. An inequine shriek issued from his mouth.

“Go, go, go! Back down the hall, double time!” Stacker shouted. “Don’t let ‘em touch you! Unicorns, bring up a barrier. Keep ‘em as far back as possible!” In a clatter of armor, the Coming Dawn turned and sprinted down the hall, different hued barriers of magic popping up behind them as they retreated.

Letting out twin bloodcurdling shrieks, the creatures launched themselves down the hall, following in hot pursuit. Similar cries could be heard in the distance, echoing throughout the hall.

The shrieks of the damned.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Search and Seizure < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“That appears to be the last of them,” Night Light grunted as he stepped over the unconscious form of a Battlemage.

The corridor showed signs of a recent battle, the walls cracked and charred due to spellfire. The floor was littered with bodies of fallen Battlemages, their cobalt armor glinting in the light of multiple fires that dotted the hall. Several of the Battlemages had been tossed through windows, their unmoving forms now lying in bushes only a floor below.

A dozen or so ponies picked through the wreckage, their armor scuffed and dirtied.

Finishing his examination of one of the senseless mages, Night Light glanced up. “Sergeant Flare, what’re the casualties?”

Nearby, a unicorn removed her helmet, her red fur covered in sweat. Brushing a lock of white hair from her eyes, she glanced around at the bodies.

“Eighteen Battlemages total, sir!” she called out in a Coltish voice. “Sixteen unconscious an’ two dead, poor buggers. Didn’ know about the mind control until it was too late. Gave a good fight, they did.”

Night Light nodded. “Any from our side?”

“Iron Hoof got hit in the initial attack,” Flare answered, glancing over at the downed earth pony in question. “His armor took the majority o’ the blast, but I think he’s out fer the time bein’.” The earth pony raised a hoof and waved it back and forth before issuing a dry wheeze. A cloud of smoke proceeded to escape his lips.

“Aye, that’s nice,” Flare grinned. “Anyways, just a couple o’ minor scrapes and bruises fer the remainder o’ us. Well, except fer Nightwing o’er there, the damned scrote. He got hit by a burst o’ static near the end o’ the fight.”

This earned her a glare from a nearby pegasus, his fur and feathers fluffed up and sticking out in all directions. His enormous owl-like wings stood out straight from his sides, erect and unmoving.

“I wouldnae ride ‘em in tae battle, sir,” Flare said with a smirk. “Watch it, Nightwing. Yer owl is showin’.”

“G-go buck yourself, C-Crimson,” Nightwing stuttered, an eye twitching as more static ran across his body.

Flare laughed. “Aye, awa' n bile yer head, ya damned eejit.”

Night Light watched the two bicker before turning his gaze to a unicorn who was examining a discarded helmet.

“What’re you thinking, Lance?” he asked softly.

“The enchantment is definitely in the armor,” Lance replied, rolling the helmet around in his magic. “I can’t tell when it was put there, but I recognize the magical signature.” Lowering the helmet, he glanced up at Night Light. “It’s the Archmage’s.”

Night Light sighed.

“Looks like the Princess was right,” he said, shaking his head. “We’ve got a traitor.”

“I’m not sure if it’s that simple, Colonel,” Lance said as he stood up, tossing the helmet aside. “While the magic signature does match the Archmage’s, there’s something wrong with it. It feels off, kind of like when he ‘accidentally’ zapped Maple when she walked in on him showering.”

“Chaos magic?” Night Light asked with a raised eyebrow. “Why would that be present?”

“If I may, sir?”

Night Light smirked. “Come on, Terminal. You know you can speak freely around me. You’ve been in this squad almost as long as I have.”

Lance shrugged. “I don’t know why there would be any chaos magic in the armor, sir, but if the Archmage is behind it, I can’t see what the end goal would be. He’s already the head of both the Battlemages and the Academy, so I can’t see this being a grab for power.”

“With the Princesses out of commission, he would be the next in charge,” Night Light muttered. “Prince Blueblood’s title is just for show, and Princess Cadance has the Crystal Empire to deal with. None of the nobles would stand against him so long as their pockets keep getting filled with bits.”

“Why not just enchant all our armor then?” Lancer asked. “It doesn’t make sense to just do the Battlemages if you’re staging a coup. Even if you manage to ensnare all of them, you’d still have to deal with the Royal Guards, the Lunar Guards, the Coming Dawn, and the SAS. There’s no way the Battlemages could take on all of us successfully. The Archmage should know this, so what’s he playing at?”

“That’ll be something you can ask him when we catch him,” Night Light said. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Crimson Flare and Nightwing still arguing with each other as the other members of the Search and Seizure taskforce watched on in some amusement.

A frown crossed his face.

“Oye, Crimson, Nightwing! Enough!” he barked. Silence fell as all eyes turned to him. “We are currently on high alert, some of our own forces have turned against us, and all three Princesses are currently missing. This is no time to be goofing off! Are you SAS members, or new recruits?”

“Sorry, sir,” they both said at the same time, throwing a salute. “Won’t happen again!”

“See that it doesn’t,” Night Light growled, his eyes narrowing. Straightening up, he gazed around at the assembled taskforce. “Alright, here’s the plan. Go around and relieve the Battlemages of their armor, then tie them up and prop them against the wall. We’ll send a healer down to look at ‘em the next chance we get. Crimson Flare, Earthen Peak—” he turned to face the mentioned mares “—you’re on destruction duty. I don’t care how you do it, but I don’t want their armor to be wearable once you’re done. Got it?” As various sounds of affirmation reached his ears, Night Light nodded. “Good, now get to it.”

As the others started to go around and unequip the unconscious Battlemages, Terminal Lance stood up and glanced at Night Light.

“How are you holding up?” he asked softly.

“I’m fine,” Night Light said, a bit too sharply.

Silence fell between the two for a brief moment before Lance spoke again. “I’m sure she’s fine, Night.” A grunt was all the answer he got. “I’m serious. Her and her friends have been through worse. She’s probably safe right now, trying to figure out a way to fix all of this.”

This earned him a sigh from Night Light. “I’m sure she is. I just can’t help but worry for her. If this is a coup, she’ll be one of the main targets.”

“She’ll be fine, Night,” Lance said, his voice firm. “She’s got more magic in her than anypony I’ve seen before. Truthfully, I pity whatever moron is stupid enough to try and go up against her.”

“Yeah,” Night Light muttered. A small smile slowly worked its way across his face. “She’ll probably turn them into potted plants.” Both of them chuckled at that.

A sudden clatter drew everyone’s attention to the end of the hallway. A gang of humans suddenly rounded the corner. Clad in make-shift armor, a few of them even carried rudimentary weapons. They froze upon seeing the ponies, and their eyes widened.

One of the humans chirped softly, glancing around at the downed Battlemages. “<What the hell happened here?!>”

“That’s not standard armor for our human forces, is it?” Lancer asked, eyeing the humans curiously.

“No, it’s not,” Night Light hummed. “I also don’t recognize any of them.”

Lance glanced sideways at him. “Civilian class?”

“Not with that armor.”

“New recruits?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Night Light muttered, his eyes narrowing.

One of the humans in the back of the group pushed forward. “<Who cares what the fuck happened, get ‘em!>” Pulling back his arm, the human proceeded to chuck a taped-together spear at the nearest pony. The spear flew shakily through the air, wobbling horribly due to its poor aerodynamics. Still, Crimson had to duck to avoid getting impaled.

“Oye! Watch it, ya wanker!” she cried as the spear zipped by her ear. Staggering back, she glared at the humans. “What the fuck are ya doin’, ya dreich, oof-lookin, skelly, bawface minger! Ya tryin’ tae take mah ear off, or what? ‘ho trained ya, ya smarmy-ass bastard?! Why, I have half a mind tae—”

zzzzzzzzpfth

“—GRAH!” Crimson collapsed backwards, a crossbow bolt protruding from a gap in her shoulder armor.

“Crimson!” Nightwing squawked. He flared his wings, only to wince as another bolt imbedded itself through his right wing. With a grunt, he crumpled to the ground.

“Iron Hoof, Earthen Peak, extraction now!” Night Light shouted as both his and Terminal Lance’s horns lit up. Interlocking blue and green barriers appeared between the humans and the downed ponies, providing cover as Earthen and Iron moved to grab their injured comrades.

The human who had fired the bolt—a male with a cage muzzle on his face—reloaded the crossbow and took aim again. With a soft ‘click’ he fired the crossbow, the bolt zipping through the air. It struck the magical barriers, which instantly shattered, allowing the speeding bolt through with little resistance.

Both Night Light and Terminal Lance grunted in pain, clutching their horns as their magic died unexpectedly. Night Light barely managed to duck in time, the crossbow bolt nicking his ear as it whizzed past.

“What bucking clod gave them nullstone weapons?” Lance hissed.

The crossbow-wielding human took aim for a third time, this time aiming at the downed Crimson Flare, who was being dragged along by Earthen Peak. Just as he was about to fire though, Night Light sprang into action.

Horn lighting up, he grabbed Crimson and Earthen in his magic and yanked them back. At the same time, he flung open the door to a nearby janitor closet, flinging the pair behind it before diving in himself. There was a loud ‘thunk’ as the bolt embedded itself in the door, its head cracking the wood slightly. Lance did the same with Nightwing and Iron Hoof, pulling the pair with him into a small alcove on the opposite side of the hall. Likewise, the rest of the team took refuge behind varying forms of cover.

“What the buck is their issue?” a pegasus huffed, leaning against a nearby column.

Terminal Lance stuck his head out of the alcove for but a moment before quickly pulling his head back in. “Humans advancing down the hall, sir. They’re about ten meters out.”

Pulling a small mirror from out of one of his pouches, Night Light used it to peer around the closet’s door. He focused on one of the approaching humans, a female with long red hair. Brow furrowing, he lit up his horn. A cloud of magic appeared around the female. For a brief moment the magic held, keeping her frozen in place, but then the cloud shattered, and the human was free.

“Of course,” Night Light muttered, rolling his eyes. In a louder voice, he called out, “they have nullstone on them! Physical magic’s going to be ineffective against them.” Beside him, Earthen reached into a small satchel strapped to her thigh. Pulling out a pair of glowing yellow gems, she clicked them together before pushing past Night Light and chucking them down the hall.

“Flash gems out!” she shouted. A bright burst of light blazed through the hallway, followed by pained cries from several of the humans. A crossbow bolt zipped by far overhead, too far to have been aimed properly. It was clearly a blind fire. Earthen pulled out two more gems and threw them as well, with similar results.

As she shifted back into the closet, Night Light glanced over at Terminal Lance.

“How is he?” he asked, motioning towards Nightwing.

Lance moved to examine the injured pegasus, only for Nightwing to push him away.

“I’m fine!” he grunted. Reaching up, he broke off the bolt’s shaft, but left the head in the wound. “It’s just my wing. I’m fine. Crimson needs the attention more.”

Lance exchanged looks with Night Light before both of them nodded. Reaching into his armor again, Night Light pulled out two knives, holding them in his magic.

“On three,” he grunted. “One… two… three!”

Diving out from behind cover, Lance launched himself into the closet that Night Light had just vacated. Night Light moved into the hall, flinging first one, then the other knife down the hall at the humans. The first one missed entirely, flying overhead and causing several of the humans to squawk and duck out of the way. The second knife found its target, and a human collapsed to the ground with a scream, clutching a bleeding arm.

Snorting with satisfaction, Night Light ducked into the alcove with Iron Hoof and Nightwing just as the humans retaliated, a shower of arrows and spears raining down on the ponies.

Lance pulled a medical kit out from his bags and began to tend to Crimson.

“Sir, should we think about retreating and finding a better position to dig in?” Iron Hoof asked.

“It wouldn’t work,” Night Light replied, shaking his head. “The only thing down the hall is a cul-de-sac. It’s a dead-end, and we’d be trapped.”

“Teleport?”

“Not with this many ponies,” Night Light sighs. “It would take too much energy.”

“What’s the plan then?” Nightwing asked as he nursed his injured wing.

“Come on, we can tak’ ‘em!” Crimson called from across the hall. She winced as Lance pulled the bolt from her shoulder before dressing it. “They’re jist a bunch o’ humans. How hard can it be? We train with ‘em all the time!”

“She’s right,” Night Light nodded. “I’m not sure where they came from, but we should be able to corral them.” Pulling out another knife, he frowned. “At least, most of them.” Stepping out of the alcove, Night Light flicked the knife down the hall, earning another pained cry from a human that crumpled to the ground. He remained out long enough to confirm the hit before retreating back to cover. Before he could though, an arrow struck him in the neck.

“Colonel!” someone shouted, their voice mixing with other cries of concern and alarm.

Sagging against the wall, Night Light gagged in pain. He reached up with a hoof to remove the arrow, but then thought better of it. Instead, he pressed a hoof to the wound, trying to stop the blood flowing down his neck and into his armor. Someone grabbed him from behind and began to haul him back into cover, but not before something caught Night Light’s eyes.

The human that had managed to hit him was lowering his bow, a smug smirk on his face.

Night Light’s eyes widened. ‘It’s like staring into the face of a predator.’

With one last heave, Iron Hoof pulled the injured unicorn back into the alcove. Propping him against the wall, Iron carefully removed Night Light’s hoof and checked the wound. After a few seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank Celestia,” he breathed. Straightening up, he called out, “The arrow missed the major arteries. It looks like it just caught the skin around his neck. He’s going to need medical attention though, before it gets worse.”

Lance nodded before undoing the straps to his satchel. He tossed it over to Iron Hoof, who caught it deftly and began to pull out bandages.

As Iron Hoof tended to his wound, Night Light turned his head to face Lance.

“C-change of plans!” he rasped out. “They aren’t regular Equestrian humans. They’re Terran humans.” He winced as Iron pulled the arrow out of his neck, but didn’t voice his discomfort. Iron muttered out an apology before beginning to bandage the wound.

“Terran, sir?” Lance asked, a confused look crossing his face.

“They’re… ugh, they’re intelligent.”

“How intelligent?” Earthen Peak asked before tossing out another pair of flash gems. There was a flash and a yelp, and a spear ricocheted off the wall, nearly impaling one of the fallen Battlemages as it landed.

“Anomaly-level, I think,” Night Light groaned.

Earthen Peak’s ears splayed back. “Ah, buck.”

“We… we just need to—” Night Light began, only to be cut off by the sounds of a commotion coming from further down the hall. “<Ah, fucker! Where the hell did you come from?!>” There were loud chirps and shrieks, accompanied by the sound of a crossbow being fired, yet no bolts zipped by. Being mindful of Iron Hoof still working on his neck, Night Light fished around in his bags before pulling out his mirror. It had a small crack in it now, from where he had landed on it when he collapsed. Inching to the edge of the alcove, he held the mirror out and glanced down the hall.

The humans were still there, but most of them were now turned in the opposite direction, their attention now on a door further down the hall. Said door had several arrows and bolts embedded in it, as well as a spear. One of the humans chirped loudly before waving a middle finger at the door.

Suddenly, one of the arrows in the door began to glow with a rosy magic. It ripped itself from the door and, flipping through the air, rushed back down the hall at the humans. Unable to move fast enough, one of the humans caught the arrow in the leg. With a scream, he motioned towards the arrow but didn’t touch it. A second arrow quickly followed the first, ending up stuck in the human’s other leg. The human screamed again before motioning to the new arrow. He repeated the action, motioning first to one arrow, then the other, each one accompanied by a scream of pain.

Rolling his eyes with a snort, Night Light lowered the mirror before shouting down the hall. “You, down the hall! Identify yourself!”

There was a lull in the fighting, in which no sound could be heard, before a snarky voice called back down the hall. “Oh no. Uh-uh. We’re not going to answer that until you identify yourself. How do we know you’re worth rescuing? You Battlemages?”

Night Light smirked.

“Oh no,” he shouted back, his voice cracking slightly due to the pain. “We were here first. You interrupted our party. How do we—buck!” An arrow clattered off the floor, inches from his hoof. “How do we even know you’re on the guest list?”

A chuckle drifted down the hall. “Fair enough.” The voice paused as the sound of something impacting wood echoed down the hall. This was followed by a loud bark from one of the humans. “<Fuck! I missed!>”

When the voice spoke again, all the previous humor was absent. “Anomaly’s Guards, First Lieutenant Avera Noctus reporting in!”

“The Anomaly’s guards? I thought they were dismissed,” Lance muttered under his breath, his brow furrowing.

Night Light shot him a look before shouting back. “Royal Guard, Search and Seizure branch! Colonel Night Light speaking. If I remember correctly, one of you is a Battlemage, correct?”

“Yes,” Avera called out before pausing. “She is a Battlemage, but she’s in control of herself.”

“Great, we can use all the help we can get,” Night Light shouted before dissolving into a coughing fit.

“I’ve done all I can, sir,” Iron Hoof muttered as he finished up bandaging Night Light’s neck. “It should hold for a while, but you need real medical attention.”

Night Light nodded, grimacing in pain.

“Um, that might be a problem,” Avera called out, her voice taking on a nervous tone. “Our unicorn is, uh… running on empty. The rest of us are pretty banged up too—”

She was suddenly interrupted by a human chirping loudly, nearly shrieking. “<What the hell are you ponies nickering about, huh? Huh?! Trying to decide which one of you fuckers is going to die first?>”

“Be warned,” Night Light hollered over the chirping. “The humans are intelligent. Anomaly-level intelligent. We have reason to believe they are Terran humans.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Great,” Avera muttered under her breath. Turning to Primrose, she shook her head. “Can this get any better?”

Primrose opened her mouth but paused, her ears twitching.

Faint at first, the sound of clanking metal was slowly growing louder. Peering out into the hallway from the room they had taken shelter in, all three guards glanced back down the hall, their ears twitching in time with the clunks.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ebony whispered.

The sound of metal had now risen to a thundering volume. It seemed to reverberate around the hallway, causing the very floor to tremble. The noise had almost become deafening when around the corner came… it.

It was humanoid in appearance, that much was apparent. Standing nearly seven feet tall, it looked like someone had crudely slapped a bunch of metal parts together in an attempt to make a set of armor. The chest plate was pointed, as were the shoulder pieces. The helmet was curved, with only three slots indicating where the mouth and eyes were. Leather straps were visible between gaps in the metal, keeping the armor together as the human within moved around. It carried a large, metal fence rail in its hands as a makeshift spear.

The metal abomination ground to a stop upon seeing the standoff between humans and ponies. A stillness fell over the carnage-filled hall as everyone stared at the new arrival.

Avera was the first to break the silence. “Okay, that’s kinda awesome. Scary, in a piss myself kinda way, but still awesome.”

“Max’s is better,” Primrose grumbled.

One of the humans, a bearded male wearing a camouflage jacket, stepped forward. “<Tanker! Excellent timing. You deal with those three—>” he pointed in Avera, Ebony, and Primrose’s direction “<—and we’ll deal with the others. Okay?>”

The metal human nodded stiffly before turning his attention to the three ponies directly in front of him.

“Oh bloody buckin’ heart bleed,” Primrose breathed, her eyes widening.

The armored human howled before lunging for the trio. Down the hall, the other humans did the same, charging Night Light and his forces.

“Scatter!” Avera barked before ducking as the armored human swung his sharpened fence-spear through the air. Ebony followed suit, diving off to the side to avoid being hit by a second swipe.

“How are we supposed to take him down?” she shouted, her horn sparking uselessly.

“Aim for the knees and head,” Primrose ordered. “We don’t need to kill him, just immobilize him.” Jumping over a spear thrust, she aimed a kick at the human’s head. The human barely ducked in time, the mass of metal making him slow and cumbersome. He staggered, losing his balance for a moment.

Avera decided to use that momentary distraction to her advantage and, dashing forward, she kicked at the human’s left knee with both hooves. A loud ‘clang’ echoed around the hall, and Avera fell to the ground, her hind legs trembling horribly. “B-b-b-b-buck! The knees are reinforced!”

“Aim for the back of the knees,” Primrose called out. “It’ll be weaker there, in order to allow him to walk.”

The human turned to face Primrose and raised his spear. Anticipating an attack, Primrose jumped quickly into the air to avoid it. Her eyes widened when, instead of attacking, the human shifted his grip on the spear. “Buck!” Snapping open her wings, she tried to redirect herself in midair, but it was too late. The spear thrust upwards, tearing through her armor, her stomach, and erupting out her back in an explosion of blood.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Six mares raced down the smoke-filled hall. Well, five mares raced down the hall; the sixth one was pushed along complaining all the way.

“I’m sure Princess Celestia and Luna are taking care of it right now,” Twilight whined, attempting to dig her hooves into the smooth floor. Her attempts were futile, as Applejack barely even slowed her pace. “They probably don’t even need our help. We should just go back to searching, and let them focus on the problem.”

Applejack just kept right on pushing. “Ain’t happening, sugarcube.”

“But, they could be in the middle of a dangerous fight right now. We shouldn’t distract them!”

“Twi, them bells are ringin’. The princesses are gonna need our help. Now buck up and get movin’. We can look for Max afterwards.”

“But—”

“Applejack is right, darling,” Rarity called back over her shoulder. “Remember the last time the Cathedral bells rang? All those nasty changelings. Ugh.” She shivered, grimacing in remembrance.

“Yeah!” Rainbow cheered, zipping by overhead. “Something big’s going down. Maybe the changelings are back for round two!” Fluttershy squeaked, staring at her with wide eyes. Ignoring her, Rainbow threw a couple of punches before doing a loop through the air. “We get to teach them another lesson! I’ve been dying for a rematch.”

This just caused Twilight to struggle more.

“B-but that’s why we’ve got to find Max!” she cried. “He’s out there somewhere, and could be in danger!”

“Darling, all of Canterlot is in danger!” Rarity chided. “I’m sorry for saying it, but this is more than just about Max right now. Oh, don’t give me that look,” she added as Twilight glared at her. “I’m concerned for him as well, but right now the best thing we can do is find the princesses and take care of whatever trouble has decided to rear its ugly head. The sooner we do that, the sooner the threat is gone and Max is safe, and the sooner we can go back to searching for him.”

Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but paused, her brow furrowing. After a couple of seconds, she grudgingly closed her mouth and stopped trying to escape, falling in step beside Applejack.

“Fine,” she grumbled, “but the minute this is over with, I’m going back to searching.”

Rarity’s gaze softened. “I know, dear. And we’ll be right there with you.”

The group rounded the corner of the hall, only to slide to a halt a moment later. They gaped at the sight before them, ears splayed back and eyes wide.

The throne room doors were wide open, one of them dangling precariously from one hinge. Large scratches covered the doors, gouged deep into the golden metal. Smoke billowed from the throne room, choking the ceiling high above with thick, black smoke. Colored glass was scattered across the floor, twinkling dangerously in the torch light.

“What in tarnation happened here?” Applejack breathed, gazing around at the destruction.

“It looks like a herd of buffalo stampeded through here,” Rainbow muttered. She had to hover close to the ground in order to avoid the smoke above.

“I don’t like it,” Pinkie whimpered. Her mane and tail had lost their usual volume, now hanging limply to the ground. She glanced around fearfully, small tremors running through her body. “It… it feels wrong here. Something’s wrong….” She trailed off and huddled closer to Applejack.

Twilight swallowed thickly before steeling herself. “Come on, girls. Let’s go see what happened.” Slowly—carefully—they crept forward into the throne room. It was roughly in the same state as the doors. Windows were shattered, allowing smoke to escape through them and into the night sky. The carpet leading up to the throne dais was ripped and torn, patches of it still burning. The banners hanging from the pillars were all on fire, the flames burning slowly as they slowly crept higher and higher. The grand throne was on its side, split in two from where it had fallen from the dais.

“I… I don’t understand,” Twilight stammered. “What happened here?”

“It looks like it was attacked,” Fluttershy breathed, holding a hoof to her muzzle.

“I know that,” Twilight huffed, “but how, and by whom? How did they manage to get to the throne room without the guards stopping them? Why are there no bodies? Where are the Princesses?”

Rarity winced, rubbing her horn, which was beginning to spark. “Twilight, darling. Do you feel that?”

Giving her a confused look, Twilight lit up her horn as well, only for her eyes to widen.

“I recognize that magic,” she breathed. “It’s… it’s Di—”

“Eeep!” Fluttershy squeaked in alarm. She jumped back and quickly hid behind Rarity, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Fluttershy, darling. What is it?” Rarity asked, glancing over her shoulder. Fluttershy didn’t move from her hiding spot, but did point a trembling hoof towards the far end of the room. Everyone turned to see what she was pointing at, squinting through the smoky air. It took a few seconds, but then Twilight could just make out two figures slowly emerging through the haze of smoke.

“Hello? Who’s there?” she called out, but the figures didn’t answer.

Slowly, the girls were beginning to backup, all while nervously watching the approaching forms.

“P-Princess?” Twilight gulped. “Is… is that you?” Again the figures didn’t answer, but a low growl reverberated through the air. “Girls, I think it’s time to—” A sudden breeze blew through one of the broken windows, stirring the air and revealing what was approaching through the smoke.

Fluttershy screamed.

The creatures were like nothing Twilight had ever seen before. They were some gross, grotesque abominations that looked more in place in a fevered nightmare than in reality. They practically made the changelings look like puppies, and she still had trouble sleeping for several weeks after the invasion due to what she had seen. Blood dripped from the terrors’ claws, their bony hands and forearms soaked in the crimson liquid. Drool dripped from their elongated muzzles, pointed teeth glinting in the light of the surrounding fires. The thing that made the horrors worse was that she instantly recognized the coat colors, as well as the hair that wafted behind the creatures on a nonexistent breeze.

Twilight trembled as cold, lifeless white eyes glared down at her from the twisted face of her once-kind mentor. “P-Princess? What… how…?”

Celestia threw back her head and let out an ear-piercing shriek, Luna following shortly after.

Screams filled the throne room as both princesses lunged forward.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Octavia peered apprehensively through the curtains of the living room window, staring up at the palace in the distance. Framed against the night sky, the white towers of the castle seemed to glow orange, the light flickering ominously. Smoke wafted into the air from unseen fires, obscuring the stars and tinting the moon red. The Mareitime Cathedral’s bells were still tolling loudly, making her anxiety levels rise.

She still remembered what happened the last time those bells rang.

Those pods had not been a pleasant experience.

Pulling her head back and letting the curtain fall across the window again, Octavia glanced over at the door, double-checking that it was locked. Upon seeing that it was, she breathed a sigh of relief, only to jump as a faint, echoing shriek came from the direction of the palace.

“What’s going on up there?” she whispered under her breath. Rubbing her hooves together, she moved through the candlelit room and sat tentatively down on the edge of the couch. A half full wine glass rested on an end table, and she picked it up in trembling hooves. Taking a sip in an attempt to calm her nerves, Octavia hummed softly to herself.

Lowering the glass, she allowed herself a small smile, only to flinch as another faint shriek came from outside. Hooves shaking, she placed the glass back down and began to stand up, only to nearly scream in surprise as a door slammed shut upstairs. Staring wide-eyed up at the ceiling, her ears twitched in time with the sound of someone walking around.

“V-Vinyl, is that you?” she called out. The hoofsteps paused before heading for the stairs. A few seconds later, Vinyl appeared on the landing of the living room.

“Oh thank goodness,” Octavia breathed, placing a hoof on her chest. “You nearly scared me half to death!” She paused upon getting a good look at Vinyl. Her usually messy bedhead mane was combed and styled, hanging down the side of her face. She had her signature shades on, her red eyes completely invisible behind the tinted lenses. Two metal tags dangled from a small chain around her neck.

Octavia blinked as she took in Vinyl’s appearance. “Vinyl, honey. What’s… what’s going on?”

“I’m going out, ‘Tavia,” Vinyl said, her tone neutral. “Lock the door behind me. The runes should hold. You can hang out in my room if you’d like. I moved one of your cellos in there.” She turned to head towards the door, only to pause when Octavia called out.

“Vinyl, wait!” Octavia bit her lip, glancing nervously at the window. “What’s going on? Is it a riot? An attack?”

“I don’t know, ‘Tavia.”

“But you have an idea.”

“...Yes,” Vinyl sighed.

Silence fell as the pair just stood there, unable to look at each other. Finally, Octavia glanced up, peering through her bangs with a melancholy look on her face.

“I know you once served in the Guard years and years ago, back before we met,” she said softly, “but that doesn’t mean you have to go, you know. They don’t need you to be there. You can stay here, with me, where it’s safe.”

“I know,” Vinyl muttered, “but I’m not going to help the guards.” Slowly, she reached up and gently brushed a hoof against the metal tags, causing them to clink together softly.

“I’m going to meet an old friend.”

Author's Note

Terminal Lance is brought to you by personofuninterest. I hope I'm doing him justice.

Chapter 62: Rise of the Humans

You know, there comes a time in your life when you have to sit down and ask yourself ‘what the hell happened?’. It’s entirely random when this occurs, differing from person to person, but the cause of such moments tend to be similar across the board: getting fired from work, getting in an accident driving home, failing a big test you spent all week studying for. Moments where you just have to sit back, stare off into space, and wonder how the fuck it all came to this.

I’ve had several of these moments before in the past. However, this one really takes the cake.

“Okay, ‘ax. ‘ink, ‘ink!” I muttered around my gag. “‘ou’ve ‘een in worse situations ‘efore, right? Right. So, ‘ow are you gonna ge’ outta dis one?” After thinking for a few seconds, my brow furrowed. “‘ow am I gonna ge’ outta dis?” Chewing on my cheek, I tried moving again, but like the numerous other attempts I had made over the last half hour, I was met with the same result. With my body encased in rock, I was completely immobile from the neck down. And it wasn’t like being buried up to your neck in sand either. Sand was forgiving. Sand shifted a little. Rock gave no fucks. I could barely breathe as there was hardly any space for my chest to expand before being stopped by the rock around me.

I wasn’t going anywhere without some outside help.

...and my nose still itched, goddamn it!

Setting aside my own discomfort, I tried to focus on the bigger picture. The Terran humans were currently on the move, and I had to warn Twilight and the others. Not only that, but a unicorn claiming to be a transformed human was wandering around and causing mischief. Yet, here I was, stuck in a hole in the ground.

Like a fucking daisy.

How the fuck did it come to this?

I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear the sound of approaching feet until they were suddenly right in front of my face. Jerking my head back in surprise, I winced as the back of my head smacked against the ground. Tears of pain welled up in my eyes as I craned my head back and stared awkwardly up at the Equestrian human who was gazing down at me. I waited for him to do something, but he just stood there, watching me with his head tilted slightly to the side.

“‘an I ‘elp you?” I asked after a minute with him not doing anything.

“King?” he chirped, tilting his head in the other direction.

I blinked. “Wat?”

“King,” he said more firmly. Reaching down, he pulled the cloth out of my mouth.

I gagged, spitting to try and get the taste of my tongue.

“Thanks… and my name’s not ‘King’,” I said, squinting up at him. “It’s Max.”

“Oh,” the human oh’d, his mouth forming an ‘o’ shape. His brow furrowed for a brief second before he nodded his head slowly. “King Max.”

“No,” I growled. “Just Max. I’m not a king!”

This caused the human to give me a confused look. “Mad God called King, yes? King beneath mountain. King now, yes?”

“No, I’m not a—”

“King?” Craning my neck around, I blanched as I saw that more and more humans were approaching. Nervousness started to well up in my chest for a brief moment until I noticed that none of them appeared aggressive. In fact, the majority of them had curious looks on their faces. A low murmur swept through their ranks as they surrounded me.

Now I know how a toddler feels, I brooded. After being considered one of the tallest kids in my school, as well as being one of the tallest humans in Equestria for nearly a year, it was kind of annoying to suddenly realize that my eyes were now level with all their shins.

This is a load of bullshit, I pouted.

A soft grunt came from directly behind me, and suddenly a pair of legs came into view on either side of my head as someone knelt down behind me. Hands clasped my chin and my head was gently pulled back into a lap. I tilted my head back to try and see who was holding me, only to scrunch my face up when locks of brown hair tickled my cheeks and nose.

“Alpha,” a soft voice said, and I blinked in surprise. I recognized that face. Blue eyes, poofy light-brown hair that reminded me of Pinkie’s mane, and—a quick glance down—feet that were scabbed over and covered in scars.

“I know you,” I said dumbly.

She nodded, humming softly as she continued to hold my head. “Ponies put in metal cave. Got out. Found Alpha again.” Another hum and she pulled my head further into her lap. There was a warm heat against the back of my head, and I suddenly remembered that during our last encounter, she had only been wearing a shirt.

Staring straight ahead, I felt as if my cheeks would burst into flames. Ignorant of my current discomfort, the female human seemed content to just hold me, occasionally stroking the top of my head with a soft hum. She, um… she…

I blinked before glancing up at her. “Um, you don’t happen to have a name or something, do you?”

“Name?” she asked before her eyes suddenly widened. “Pyresteed!” she chirped excitedly. “Pyresteed, yes!”

“Pyresteed?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “Who the hell gave you that name?”

“Striped pony,” she said, stroking my head. “Striped pony gave name when out wandering in Alpha’s territory. Gave name before went into forest. Pyresteed went to Alpha’s den after that. Waited for Alpha.”

I frowned. “Why are you calling me ‘Alpha’?”

“You are Alpha, yes?” she asked. “Alpha of pack, no? Ponies listen, yes? Alpha then.”

“I swear, you guys make my head hurt,” I grumbled, leaning my head against her thigh. Damn these humans, they drive me to drink.

Silence fell over the cavern for a moment, before suddenly one of the humans knelt down in front of me. She gave me a curious look before reaching forward and poking my forehead gently.

“Why in hole?” she asked innocently.

I stared at her, bewildered. “Pardon?”

“Why in hole?” she asked again, tilting her head to the side. “Why not out, helping human-not-humans?”

“We don't really see eye-to-eye at the moment,” I huffed, “so they stuck me down here and went to go attack the ponies.” I paused, giving the human a contemplative look. “Why are you still down here? Shouldn’t you be up there, helping the other humans? Trying to free yourself from the ponies?” They didn’t answer as I expected.

The human shifted on her heels, a troubled look crossing her face. “Not… Not wanna,” she muttered.

I jerked my head up, staring at her wide-eyed. “Wait, what? B-but I thought…”

“Human-not-humans want attack ponies,” another human spoke up from the gathered crowd. “Not want to.”

“But aren’t they doing this for you guys?” I asked. “In the end, isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Human-not-humans not speak for pack,” a third human said, shaking her head. “They stay in den, but not packmates. Make own decision. Not decision for pack.” The humans around her murmured in agreement.

“They never asked you…” I muttered, my brow furrowing. “But then… you guys can’t possibly like to be under the control of ponies, right?” Heads shaking and soft growls made me frown. “Then what do you guys want?”

“A place to dig!” a human chirped suddenly, bouncing on the heels of his feet. “A place to make den! Dig earth, find stone!” Several more brightened up at this, nodding their heads enthusiastically.

“Yeah! Earth dig!”

“Den making for young!”

“More pack territory!” another called out. “Much digging! Larger pack!”

“Um, want to stay with pony,” a young looking female with a collar spoke up nervously.

I gave her a confused look. “You want to stay with your ponies?”

“Y-yes, stay with pony,” she said, nodding hesitantly.

Her behavior, while timid, also caused several alarms to go off in my head. Swallowing, I gave her a warm smile before speaking, keeping my voice low. “You know you don’t have to stay with the ponies. You can leave if you want. They wouldn’t hurt you for it.”

She gave me a horrified look. “Pony never do that!” she shouted. “Pony found when was young, abandoned by pack. Took in and cared for. Give food and warmth. Keep safe from loud noises in sky when water falls.” As she talked, she became calmer, yet her voice became more firm. “Pony help me. I help pony. Keep safe from other ponies who threaten pack. Keep pony safe.”

“So you’re fine with being a pony’s pet?” I asked, an eyebrow raised.

The human snorted.

“Not a pet,” she growled. “Not wanna be a pet.”

“But you just said—”

“Want… want what you have!” she said, eyes lighting up. “Want what King has. Human pony equal!” This caused a great stirring in the surrounding humans, several of them crying out while others repeated what she had said. “Human pony equal! Human pony equal!”

“‘Human pony equal’?” I breathed, scrunching up my face in confusion. “What the hell does…” I trailed off, my eyes widening as a sudden thought came to me. “It’s not about being free. It’s about being equal.” Looking up at the pack of humans around me, I repeated myself. “You don’t want power. You want equality. You want to live with ponies. Not above them or beneath them, but with them.” When they all gave me staggered grunts of confirmation, my mind whirled into motion.

I can work with this, I thought, my eyes darting back and forth. I can work with this. I’m not out yet. Let’s see...

“Alpha?” Pyresteed asked, bending down and giving me an upside-down concerned look. I felt… something press against the back of my head, and, cheeks reddening, I tried to ignore it. Instead, I put on a determined face and glanced around at all the humans gathered around me.

“You want to be able to dig dens and make packs, right?” I asked. “You want to be free to live your lives, make your packs strong, and live life, right?” A few nodded, but the majority remained still, all their eyes locked unblinkingly on me. “You want to protect those you care about, ponies and humans alike, right?” More nodded, a tremor of excitement rippling through the crowd. “Fine,” I growled. “Tell you what. Get me out of this hole, and I’ll try and get that for you. Help me stop the other hu… the human-not-humans, and I’ll personally talk to Celestia about it. I’ll make her reward you for your efforts. You just need to help me protect the ponies one more time.”

My words seemed to hang in the air as they echoed eerily around the cavern. They slowly died down though, silence falling as all the humans remained motionless, staring at me. A lump slowly began to form in my throat.

Then a human stepped forward. Kneeling down, she placed her hands flat on the ground in front of me. At first nothing happened, but then, slowly, the palms of her hands began to glow a soft blue. Taking a deep breath, she paused for just barely a second, before her hands slipped into the ground, scooping out a handful of rock like it was clay. She tossed the chunk aside and it clattered loudly as it skittered across the floor.

And just like that, other humans joined in.

Stepping forward, they knelt down and began to dig into the solid rock with their bare hands. They moved quickly, and soon my upper half was almost free. I watched them work, my mouth hanging open in shock. That’s… that’s magic! B-but how? Pyresteed dug her hand into the rock around my arm, only to touch my skin instead. I flinched, expecting to feel pain, but instead just felt a gentle warmth emanating from her skin.

This… this is amazing!

The humans continued their digging, and within a few brief minutes I was free. Pulling myself out of the crater that had formed around me, I began to dust myself off. However, before I could finish, I was grabbed by the front of my shirt and lifted bodily into the air. “What the—?!”

Cold, gray eyes stared into mine as the male human held me in the air, my feet dangling inches above the ground. I grabbed onto his arm, his muscles feeling like cords of iron beneath my hands. As I dangled there, struggling weakly, I got a good look at him. His chest was bare, revealing a heavily scarred and muscular body. A trio of fireballs, each spinning around the other, was branded on the right side of his chest.

He sneered at me as I struggled, revealing several sharp, metal teeth.

“You promise den, yes?” he growled, eyes flashing. “Mates? Hunting?”

“I promise to talk to Celestia,” I grunted. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Celestia?” the human asked coldly.

“Yes, Celestia!” I gasped. “Celestia, Princess, Pack Leader, Sunbutt! I just need to get to her.”

“Fine,” the human snorted. He released my shirt, and I sagged to my knees. “Get King to Sunbutt. If no den, will chew on bones!”

Pyresteed was beside me in an instant, her teeth bared as she snarled up at the human. “No touch Alpha! You hurt him, I kill you!” The male human leered down at her, but she didn’t flinch. Eventually, he relented and stepped back.

“For fuck’s sake,” I gasped, rubbing my neck as I clambered to my feet. “What, you’re going to eat me if Celestia doesn’t agree to give you a place to make a den?”

The human nodded. “Tear flesh from bones!”

“You’re a goddamn psycho,” I muttered. Brushing myself off, I paused and glanced back up at him. “That’s it,” I breathed, glaring at him. “Your name is now Psy.” He just gave me a blank look, and I went back to cleaning myself up. Reaching up, I tried to remove the collar, only to find it was the magical kind like Twilight had on me my first week in Ponyville. That shit wasn’t coming off without unicorn help, so I left it alone.

As I finished brushing the dust off my clothing, I glanced around. “Alright, now… how do we get up to the palace?”

A ripple ran through the crowd, and a human stepped forward. I couldn’t help the small smile that touched my lips.

“Come, yes?” Tarzan asked, cocking his head to the side. “Go to palace, yes? Come?”

“Oh, now you want to take me to the palace,” I said, rolling my eyes. Still, I smiled at the familiar face. “Alright, big boy. Lead the way.”

“Follow, yes.” Tarzan nodded. “Come now.” Gesturing for me to follow, he turned and began to make his way through the crowd of humans, which parted for him.

“Alright,” I said, laughing softly as I followed him. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

“Shit?”

I paused mid-step and glanced to the side to find Jane walking beside me.

“Shit?” she asked innocently.

I closed my eyes and groaned. “Ah, fuck me…”

Her eyes lit up. “Fuck!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > The Coming Dawn < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The door to the medical wing burst open, and the Coming Dawn tumbled inside. Pulling himself from the pile of bodies, Stacker lunged for the door, shutting it just as something large slammed against the other side. The door creaked and warped, but held. At least until the things on the other side began to pound on it. The wood cracked, and splinters flew everywhere.

Stacker winced as one of the splinters hit his cheek, drawing blood. “Shit, that’s not going to hold them for long.”

“W-what the buck are those things, Sarge?” Corporal Shine asked as she extracted herself from the pile.

“I don’t know,” Stacker grunted, his eyes never leaving the besieged door, “but we don’t have time to stand about wondering. We need to figure out how to stop them first, and fast.”

“Stop them?” Shine squeaked. “Did you see what happened to Thunderspark? We can’t touch those things! How are we supposed to beat what we can’t touch?!”

“They were pounding on your magic barrier earlier, weren’t they?” Cloudspire asked, staggering to his hooves. “You haven’t turned, so it appears that we can use magic on them. Take a deep breath and stop acting like a recruit!”

Glaring at him, Shine opened her mouth to argue, only to have Windbreaker cut her off. “Stacker… you might want to see this.”

“What?” Stacker growled. Glancing over his shoulder, he froze, his eyes widening.

Seated at the head of Sunny’s bed was a male human. Faint scars covered his arms and chest, and it was easy to see that he was missing several fingers. His brown hair was short and patchy from where he was balding prematurely. He had his scar-covered arms wrapped around Sunny, who was lying with her back against his stomach. At the guard’s sudden appearance, the human had tightened his protective hold on the unconscious pegasus and was glaring at them with uncertainty. After a few seconds, his eyes widened and he relaxed, chirping softly.

“Is… isn’t that the human that helped us out with the changeling?” Windbreaker asked. “The one we saved in Baltimare?”

“What the buck is he doing here?” Shine muttered, her eyes narrowing. “How did he get up here? I thought we handed him off to the trainers. How’d he get free?”

“Doesn’t matter. Worry about it later,” Stacker growled as the door shuddered again.

Just then, the door in the back that led to the office flung open, causing most of the guards to whip around and crouch low. The nurse emerged, a disgruntled look on her face. “What in the name of Celestia is going on out here? I have patients that need peace and quiet!”

“Sorry, ma’am. Nothing to be concerned about,” Stacker said, giving her a lopsided grin. Behind him, the door shook. “We have everything under control.” The door shook again, several nails popping out of the hinges. “Although, you might, um… want to barricade yourself in your office until we sort things out.”

The nurse just stood there, eyes wide.

“Ma’am, I must insist that you—”

The door exploded, sending large chunks of wood flying everywhere. A piece launched through the air and embedded itself in Cloudspire’s withers, sending him to the ground in a shower of blood. The human yelped, quickly covering Sunny to protect her from any stray pieces.

As the abominations stepped through the gaping hole, Stacker began barking orders. “Basher, grab Cloudspire and get him into the office. Take the nurse with you. Shine, shields up and try to keep them back.”

“Sarge, I’m running on low!” Shine gulped, her horn sparking sporadically.

Stacker huffed. “Just give me what you’ve got.”

Shine nodded once before a look of concentration crossed her face. Her horn sparked, magic flickering up the length of it before a light blue barrier blinked to life, to block the abominations’ advance.

The one in front snorted, giving the barrier a quick sniff before its elongated muzzle scrunched up. Pulling its arm back, it drove its fist into the barrier. The barrier flickered, a spiderweb of cracks springing to life across its surface.

Shine gasped, her eyes widening as blood suddenly began to trickle from her nose. Another blow to the barrier brought her to her knees. “S-Sarge, whatever you’re gonna do, do it soo—” A third blow caused the barrier to shatter and die. Shine’s eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed unconscious to the floor.

“Shine!” Stacker shouted, taking a step forward, only to stop as the abomination that used to be Thunderspark suddenly loomed over him. Unable to move fast enough, he could only watch in horror as it reached a clawed hand out for him…

...only to suddenly be knocked down by a tan blur.

The human growled at the fallen creature, his lips peeled back to reveal several missing teeth. The creature tried to rise only for the human to lash out, catching it on its chin. It fell backwards in a daze just as the second abomination descended. Claws flashed, and the human howled in pain. Ignoring his injuries, he lunged for the creature, and the pair tumbled to the ground. Stacker had to dive to the side as they rolled past, each one tearing into the other.

This continued until the two of them rolled into a wall. Stunned, the creature slumped to the floor as the human extracted himself. Grabbing the thing’s head, he smashed it against the wall several times until the abomination stopped struggling.

By now the second hybrid had regained its senses. As it struggled to stand, Stacker moved quickly. Grabbing a nearby IV stand, he brought it down on the back of the creature’s head. It fell to the ground again, completely unconscious.

Silence fell over the room, broken only by the sound of Sunny’s heart monitor.

Slowly, the office door opened, Basher and the nurse sticking their heads out.

“Is… is it over?” the nurse asked nervously

“I can’t believe it was that simple,” Basher huffed. “Should’ve hit ‘em in the head first thing.” He glanced over at Windbreaker. “How come a human can take them down so easily when we were having trouble?”

Windbreaker just shrugged.

Ignoring them, Stacker turned his attention to the human, who was now inspecting the bleeding claw marks on his chest. Rubbing the cuts with a finger, he inspected the crimson digit curiously. He watched the human for a few seconds before sighing and shaking his head. “That’s the second time you’ve saved my life.”

The human chirped, licking its bloody fingers.

Sunny continued to rest, oblivious to the world around her.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Well, this is mildly convenient,” I said, glancing around.

Traveling up a tunnel carved into the stone, Tarzan had led me down the same path Dustin and the other humans had taken earlier. It was a narrow tunnel, with barely enough room for two people to walk side-by-side. There wasn’t any room for lanterns, so a few steps in, everything became pitch black, and I had to follow Tarzan by touch and sound. After a good couple of minutes heading steadily upwards, a glint of light began to shine through the dark.

We emerged from the tunnel into what appeared to be an old, neglected holding cell. The stones were cracked and crumbling, and the iron bars were rusted almost completely through. Several of the cells’ doors were hanging from their derelict hinges.

“I don’t know which I find more surprising,” I said absentmindedly, as more humans crawled out through a hole in the masonry. “That this has managed to deteriorate as much as it has, or that Celestia hasn’t used this enough to allow it to get in the state it’s in.” Giving the place one last look-over, I grabbed the cell’s door and heaved. The door groaned and creaked, but remained firm.

There came a grunt from behind me, and a fist suddenly slammed into the door right by my head. The hinges snapped, and the door flew forward and clattered noisily against the far wall of the holding area, nearly taking me with it. I let go at the last second and glared at Psy. He sneered at me before stepping out of the cell.

“Remember, don’t kill anyone!” I called after him. “We’re here to stop the human-not-humans, not kill them.”

He snorted and kept walking.

I shook my head, swearing under my breath before following him, the other humans following after me. Emerging from the dungeons, I glanced around, trying to orient myself.

“I have no clue where I am,” I muttered, glancing down the hall one way, then the other. I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried to rack my brain. There were stairs at the end of the left-hand path, leading down to wherever. Probably more dungeons or maybe a vault of some kind. On the right-hand side, there were a couple of tapestries depicting various ponies doing stuff before the hallway curved and was lost to view.

“Right it is then,” I huffed.

Our group made our way through the corridors, the humans glancing around curiously. Several of them got distracted and began opening doors, peering inside and occasionally disappearing into the rooms. They wouldn’t be gone long though, catching back up to the pack after a few minutes.

As we walked, I kept my eye out for any signs of ponies: a barricaded room, muffled hoofsteps, eyes peeking out from hiding places. I saw nothing though, and the longer we walked, the more nervous I became.

Where is everyone? I thought. We should have run into someone by now. My nervousness grew as we climbed a staircase, only to find a pool of blood at the top. There was no body nearby, and no trail to follow, meaning that either the body had disappeared or it was carried off.

Maybe it was a unicorn? I mused, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Yeah… probably a unicorn. A few humans studied the blood, one of them even dragging her finger through it before giving said finger a tentative lick. She made a face before gagging. “Bad blood.”

“We need to keep moving,” I said, giving her a gentle push. She nodded before cleaning off her finger and hurrying along.

A few staircases, a couple hallways, and a backtrack later, I was beginning to recognize the area from when Rainbow and Shining were chasing me around. We passed by several more patches of blood. Some had hoofprints around them, others had hand and footprints. The sight of each new pool of crimson made my stomach twinge.

This continued, until suddenly the bloodstains stopped. I stopped—causing the humans behind me to stop as well—and glanced around, confused. Backtracking, I spied a pool of blood down a side corridor, along with a streak leading to a closed door. There was a faint noise coming from the other side.

Keeping my eye on the door, I crept forward and tried the door handle, only to find it locked. I glanced back at Psy and pointed at the door.

It was ripped off its hinges in a matter of seconds.

Putting on a determined face, I stepped through the doorway. I glanced around, only for my eyes to widen in shock. The room appeared to be some kind of office, with several desks and tables scattered throughout. The curtains had been torn down and covered the furniture, acting as makeshift tablecloths. Ponies were laid out upon every flat surface, all of them horribly injured in some way. Arrow wounds, stab wounds, broken bones, and worse. Their breaths were shallow, several of them barely breathing. The fabric beneath their bodies were all stained a deep red.

At my sudden entrance, three humans that were also in the room froze, glancing up from what they were doing with shocked looks on their faces. One of them was even holding an injured pony’s head down as she struggled weakly to stand, a blood-stained cloth covering a gash on the pony’s neck.

Psy moved to step past me, his eyes locked on the humans as he snarled. I blocked his path and shook my head. “Wait.” He snorted loudly, but stepped back, even if it was reluctantly.

“What are you doing?” I asked the humans, eyeing them closely. Two of them were female, their skin pale in the torchlight. The third was a big, heavyset man with ebony skin. He was seated in a chair, which buckled slightly beneath his weight. All three were staring at me, fear in their eyes.

Ignoring them, I glanced around at the ponies. Upon taking a second look, I realized that several of them had their wounds bound, torn pieces of curtain acting as makeshift bandages.

Pulling my gaze away from a particularly banged up pegasus, I turned back to the humans. I stared at the big man. “I… your name is Drake, right?” I asked. “That’s what Dustin said.”

Licking his lips, he nodded hesitantly, his hands shaking.

My eyes slowly drifted down to the pony he was tending to. She had a large gash on the side of her chest, which Drake was currently trying to bandage.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Drake swallowed before glancing down at the pegasus as well.

“Trying to help,” he said softly as he continued to wrap the pony’s chest. “I… went to medical school a couple of years before dropping out. I have some knowledge of caring for injuries… although I’ve never had to fix up a pony before.”

My brow furrowed. “Why are you helping them, though? Last I checked, you all thought ponies were evil and needed to die. Why help them?”

“Not all of us think like that,” Drake said sadly. “Just the majority. Which is to be expected, with what most of them have been through.”

“And you’re different?”

“I didn’t have a bad experience with ponies,” he sighed. “I didn’t have a good one either. Apparently there aren’t many humans with my skin color around here, and that earned me the attention of several different ponies who were… less than pleasant with their fascination. I survived, though, as you can see.” He finished tying the bandage, double-checking to make sure that it was secure before glancing up at me. “Does that mean that I want all ponies to suffer? No. That wasn’t how I was raised.”

“But, what—”

“I grew up in America, boy, and I’m black,” he said, laughing dryly. “If you followed the news, you should know what that’s like, right? Does the name Trayvon Martin ring a bell?”

“It might,” I muttered. “I usually try to avoid stuff like that. It makes me want to bash my head against the wall.”

“Right,” Drake grunted. “Anyways, I’m used to people judging me based on what I am… and quite frankly, it sucks. That’s why I’m not out with Dustin and the others, bringing ‘righteous justice’ upon the ‘evil’ ponies. Not all ponies are evil, just like not all humans are good, and not all blacks are gangsta.” He cracked a weary smile. “I hold the ponies who’ve wronged me accountable for their actions, and only them. Not these ponies. Not the ones that haven’t done anything to warrant my wrath.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything before?” I asked, glaring at him. “Back when I was trying to convince everyone that ponies weren’t to blame, you remained quiet.”

He gave me an incredulous look. “Seriously? After what happened to you, you need to ask that? You’ve seen first hand what happens when you bring that stuff up, man. I’m not stupid. One person against fifty? Good luck trying to convince them of anything.”

“All it takes is one,” I said coldly.

“Maybe,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Maybe not. I wasn’t gonna risk it.”

“‘I have a dream’.”

“...That’s cold, man, and you know it.”

“Then what’s changed?” I growled. “What made you decide that you needed to do something other than follow? What finally made you decide to stick your neck out?”

“I came up here, and saw what was happening.”

I blinked, taken aback by the pain in his voice. My anger faded slightly, replaced with confusion. “What?”

“Look at them,” Drake said, motioning around at the ponies. “These aren’t guards. They’re not even fighters. Some of them are dressed as maids for God’s sake! They didn’t fight back. They just screamed and tried to run away. What good does attacking them do? They don’t control anything up here. I mean, I can understand attacking the rulers, but the servants? That’s just so… so… cruel! It’s unnecessary bloodshed. That’s why I changed my mind. So I snuck back when no one was looking and started to try and help whoever and however I could.”

“And you moved them in here?”

“Better in here, behind a locked door, than out there in the open,” Drake huffed. “Sure, the door doesn’t offer much in the way of protection, as you’ve just shown, but it’s better than nothing.”

“I guess,” I hummed. Glancing over at the girls, who had both calmed down and were now watching curiously, I nodded my head in their direction. “What about them?”

“I’m not sure,” Drake said, clicking his tongue. “They don’t speak a lick of English, so I can’t understand a word they say. I didn’t even know they followed me until they started to help me move the ponies. I’m assuming they didn’t like what was happening either. There was one more of us, but she wandered off to find more stuff to turn into bandages. You didn’t happen to see her, did you?”

I shook my head. “You’re the first people we’ve come across since arriving the castle.”

“I see,” Drake muttered. “I hope she’s alright.”

I opened my mouth to ask him another question, only to pause as one of the girls approached my timidly. Her eyes darted up to my face as she fidgeted before returning back to the ground. She seemed to almost chicken out before, dashing forward, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

She was small, her head barely reaching my chest, but she was strong. I could feel my ribs creaking as she buried her face in my shirt.

“Dank u voor de sterkte,” she muttered before pulling herself away and returned to her tending of the ponies. The other girl gave her an incredulous look before shaking her head and moving to help her.

I stood there, unsure of what had just happened.

“So,” Drake hummed after a brief moment, a smile on his lips, “not to break up a lovely moment like that, but what’s your next move?”

I shot him a dirty look.

“I’m already in a relationship, thank you,” I huffed. “As for my next move, I’m going after Dustin. I need to stop him before he does any more damage… or hurts any more ponies.”

“You aren’t going to kill him, are you?” Drake asked nervously.

“I don’t plan to, but that’s up to him.”

“I guess I can understand that,” he sighed. “When you leave this room, take a right. Keep walking until you hit a set of stairs, go up them and then take a left. That’s as far as I went before leaving.”

I gave him a quick smile. “Thanks.”

“Good luck.”

“Same to you,” I said, looking around at the ponies. “If I happen to bump into a pony that can help, I’ll send them your way.” This caused Drake to give me a strange look.

“Can you really communicate with them?” he asked.

“Depends,” I said.

“Depends on what?”

“On if they can understand me,” I said with a smirk. “I can communicate with some form of pony sign language. It only works if the pony knows it.”

He shook his head, laughing weakly. “I swear, you are the weirdest-ass cracker I’ve ever met.”

I gave him the bird before turning to leave, but stopped just short of the door. Glancing around, I pointed at three humans who had followed me in. “You three, stay here. Don’t let anyone in this room, unless he says it’s okay,” I said, pointing at Drake. “Got it?” They nodded before creeping further into the room.

With that, I turned and exited into the hall.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It soon became apparent that I hadn’t really needed Drake’s directions after all. All I had to do was follow the bloodstains, and the destruction after that when the number of crimson pools diminished. Apparently when the humans had run out of ponies to attack, some of them had taken to damaging the walls and decorations as they went along. Paintings were destroyed, windows smashed, and vases tipped over. Really, it was almost like they were trying to leave a trail behind them.

This trail of destruction went on for a while, going this way and that, almost as if the person leading them didn’t really have an destination in mind. Or, I realized with a smirk, they got lost and didn’t know where they were going.

After a few minutes we came to a fork in the corridor, with the vandalism going off in both directions. Glancing between the two paths, I sent a dozen or so humans down the left side before taking my remaining followers down the more heavily abused right side.

“And remember,” I called after the second party, “no killing unless you have to!”

“Move faster,” Psy growled, bumping into me. “Blood. Smell blood. Need fight, now!”

I shot him a glare. “We’re here to stop the fighting, not join it.”

“Humans fight,” he muttered, eyes darting back and forth. “Humans always fight. Need to fight. Prey, yes. Hunting prey.”

I was about to scold him when a faint shout echoed down the hallway, followed by another one. The humans perked up, staring towards the source of the noise unblinkingly. More shouting, followed by the sound of a spell being fired off snapped me out of my stupor. “Alright, let’s go.” We raced off down the hall, the sounds of shouting and fighting growing louder as we drew nearer. Sprinting around a corner, I skidded to a stop at the sight before me.

Ponies in cobalt armor littered the floor, some missing parts of their armor which had been thrown to the side. In the middle of the hall, a group of humans were huddled, trying to push forward under a barrage of spells coming from a group of ponies further down the corridor, hunkered behind doors and alcoves. While the spells barely seemed to affect the humans’ makeshift shields, they were still enough to slow the humans’ advance to a crawl.

At our arrival, a pony poked her head out from behind a door and glanced down the hall. Her face scrunched up and she quickly withdrew again, just as an arrow flew towards her. “”

“”

Ignoring the unintelligible whickering coming from down the hall, I pointed at the group of humans. “Alright, help the ponies, but remember: try and do it without killing if possible!”

“Prey is prey,” Psy growled before charging down the hall. A split second later, the rest of the humans followed after him. At the sound of running feet, one of the Terran humans turned and glanced behind him. Seeing the approaching horde of new humans, a brief smile crossed his lips, before quickly turning to confusion, and then fear, as Psy suddenly lept the last few feet, pouncing right onto the unaware group. Startled cries and confusion turned the fight into chaos as the rest of the Equestrian humans joined in.

I moved to join them, but a loud crash from a room off to the side drew my attention instead. The door, hanging from one hinge, crashed to the floor as something large emerged from within. It had to stoop to go through the doorway, but when it straightened up, I stepped back in shock. “The fuck?!”

At my shout, the large armored human turned to face me. In his hands, he gripped what appeared to be a cast-iron fence post, the tip of which was stained red.

“You!” he shouted, his voice echoing inside the rounded helmet. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

I couldn’t answer. I could only stare up at this behemoth, mouth agape. They were building something like this down there? Where the hell did they get the materials?!

“Tanker!” came a shout, causing both of us to jump. Glancing down the hall, I saw Dustin waving his hands frantically from amidst a mosh pit of fighting humans. “Dude, get your armored ass over here. We need help!”

Tanker grunted before awkwardly turning and beginning to stomp down the hall. Shaking my head, I lunged forward and jumped on his back, wrapping my arms around his neck. Or at least attempted to. His armor was thick!

Tanker staggered slightly under my unexpected weight, but managed to stay standing. Bending his knees, he threw himself backwards, slamming his back—and me—into the wall. Stars exploded in front of my eyes, and my grip loosened slightly. Taking advantage of this, he reached up, grabbed my arms, and proceeded to throw me bodily across the hall and into the other wall.

I slid slowly to the floor, winded and gasping for breath.

“Fucker,” Tanker growled, shaking his body to try and adjust his armor. Lifting the fence post, he thrust it towards my stomach.

Eyes widening, I rolled to the side quickly, barely avoiding the piece of pointed metal. I scrambled to my feet, still trying to catch my breath. As Tanker pulled the makeshift spear from the masonry, I realized something that I had forgotten. Something important.

I didn’t bring a weapon with me.

Before I had time to lament my stupidity, Tanker swung at my head. Yelping, I ducked and quickly dove between his legs, rolling away. He tried to stomp on my legs as I passed, but the armor appeared to be too bulky, and impeded his movements.

Staggering to my feet again, I looked around for something—anything—that might help me fight this juggernaut of a—

“”

A loud nicker from my right caused me to jump, and I yelped upon seeing Ebony standing in the doorway to the room Tanker had emerged from. She was disheveled, her armor and mane in disarray. Her eyes were bloodshot and a steady stream of blood flowed from her nose. She appeared dazed.

“Ebony?” I gasped. “What the he—shit!” Tanker swung at me again, nearly taking my head off in the process. I stumbled backwards, trying to put some distance between me and him.

“Hold still, you little prick!” Tanker growled.

“How about no,” I shouted back. He lunged again, and I ducked under his arm, trying to keep myself behind him and out of his reach. While he might have armor, it slowed him down. It was also probably very heavy, and I could hopefully use that to my advantage.

Cocking back a foot, I aimed a kick at his backside. It connected, bringing him to his knees, as well as causing pain to explode up my leg. I had forgotten that there was no real cushion in my homemade sandals, so I just essentially kicked his armored ass barefoot.

“Sonofabitch!” I grunted, clutching my foot.

“” Ebony nickered,

~Can’t understand you~ I signed quickly as Tanker struggled to stand again. ~Use hoof-language!~

“<What? Why?>” she whinnied before snorting and shaking her head. Leaning against the doorframe, she signed, ~Max, stay still!~

I froze as her horn sputtered to life, the amount of blood leaking from her nostrils increasing, before realization struck me and I held my arms out wide. The magic around her horn flared with blinding light.

CLANK

“Oh yeah, baby!” I shouted, my voice echoing around the helmet that had suddenly materialized about my head and shoulders. “This is more like it!” Turning to give Ebony a thumbs-up, I paused when I saw she was passed out, slumped against the side of the doorframe. Her chin and mouth were now stained red, the blood dripping steadily to the floor. “Shit, Ebony!” I took a step towards her, only to have a fence post glance off my shoulder plate.

“The hell is this?” Tanker screamed. “Where the fuck did you get that armor?!”

“From a friend,” I snarked. “Where’d you get yours? Build it in a cave from spare bomb parts? Seriously, you trying to be Iron Man with that shit?”

“You’re one to talk, Mr. BioShock,” Tanker growled before lunging forward.

Standing my ground, I grabbed the approaching spear with my now gauntleted hands and heaved. This caused Tanker to stagger into me, and we both fell into the wall.

“” someone squawked as we crashed through the wall and into a room in shower of dust and stone. Still holding onto the fence post, I pulled my fist back and smashed it into Tanker’s head, causing a loud ring to echo around the room. He immediately released the spear and staggered away, holding his helmeted head.

Not waiting for him to recover, I held the iron fence post like a bat and swung it at his head.

CLAAAAaaaAAAAaaaAAANG!

“GAH!” He roared, falling back against the wall and causing the plaster to crack.

“For whom the bell tolls, bitch!” I shouted, taking another swing. He held up his arm to protect himself, and the post glanced off the metal and thudded into the floor where it stuck. Tugging on it, I tried to pull it free, but before I could succeed, Tanker backhanded me. I tumbled backwards, my head smashing against the inside of the helmet as I landed on my back. Fuck! Note to self, put cushions in here.

As I got back on my feet, Tanker grabbed the fence post and yanked it from the floor.

“Tanker!” Dustin’s voice echoed down the hall. “Where the fuck are you? We need you now!”

“Working on it!” he shouted, hefting the spear.

I charged forward as he was shouting, only to have to backtrack as he thrust the spear towards my stomach. Unable to move fast enough, I caught the tip of the post in my gut. It tore through the material, but luckily didn’t do more than scratch my stomach.

As he pulled the spear free of the cloth beneath my armor, I held a hand over the hole.

“Yeah, you’re not so tough now,” he sneered.

“Just because I’m not decked out completely in armor like you doesn’t mean something like this will slow me down,” I huffed. He lunged again, and I sidestepped, kneeing him in the stomach as he stumbled. His suit may have been bigger, and may have more armor, but it was also more restrictive.

He released the spear and grabbed my leg, taking me down with him as we collapsed to the floor. I kicked him frantically, trying to free myself. Lifting a hand, I brought my fist down on the back of his head. My gauntleted fist.

My glowing, gauntleted fist.

Of fucking course! Why didn’t I think of that before?! Jerking my foot free, I gave Tanker’s side one last kick before scrambling away. I needed distance for what I was about to do.

Lurching to his feet, Tanker used the makeshift spear to steady himself. “Oi! Where the fuck do you think you’re going, you little piece of sh—”

Turning quickly, I raised my right hand, the gauntlet’s red glow intensifying as the magic runes etched into it began to grow brighter. I could already feel the heat emanating from the glove, and I hadn’t even activated it yet.

Bring my fingers together, I gave one, last silent prayer. Please don’t roast everything.

snap

In a roar of flames, a fireball exploded from around my hand and flew towards Tanker. He didn’t even have time to scream before it crashed into him, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the wall in an eruption of fire and heat.

As the fire faded, Tanker slid slowly to the floor where he laid, unmoving. His armor was charred and there was—comically—an outline of him on the wall, surrounded by soot and burnt plaster. His eye and mouth holes were smoking slightly.

Breathing heavily, I kept my distance, waiting to see if he’d stand back up. When nothing happened, I crept forward carefully and nudged him with my boot. He remained motionless, shallow breath coming from within the helmet.

“That’s it then,” I muttered. With that, I turned and staggered off, stopping just long enough to pick up Ebony before exiting the room through the hole we had made in the wall.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Avera stared wide-eyed at the burnt wall from her hiding spot in the far corner of the room. After Primrose had gotten impaled by the spear, she had dragged her body over while Ebony had attempted to distract the armored human. Things had been going downhill until suddenly, the armored human had come crashing back into the room, followed—somehow—by Max in his own suit of armor.

The two had fought for a few minutes until Max had suddenly blasted the other human with a giant fireball, ending the fight and putting the armored human out of commission. Then, before she had time to recover enough from her shock and surprise to call out to him, he had picked up the unconscious form of Ebony and left.

“Damn,” she breathed, still staring at the charred half of the room.

A wet, weak chuckle came from beside her.

“I… I told you Max’s was better,” Primrose rasped.

“Shut up,” Avera ordered, pressing a bloody hoof down on the gaping wound in Primrose’s stomach, trying to staunch the blood with a piece of cloth. It was useless though, the cloth already thoroughly soaked with blood.

“Come on, now that the big guy’s taken care of the human, we can get you medical attention,” Avera hissed. “Just hold on. Y-you… you’re gonna be fine.”

Primrose just wheezed, her eyes slowly dimming.

Biting her lip, Avera tossed aside the bloodied cloth. She hooked her hooves under Primrose’s forelegs, and, lifting her carefully, began to drag her towards the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I limped down the hall, wincing as I put pressure on my bruised foot. It wasn’t broken, but now that I didn’t have adrenaline pumping through me, it was starting to hurt. Still, I kept walking, making sure to keep Ebony’s body tucked safely by my side.

The rest of the humans were wrapping up their fight when I finally reached them. Some of the Terrans were unconscious, lying prone on the ground. The rest were being corralled and tied together by the ponies, who were eyeing the Equestrian humans nervously as they stood off to the side.

As I approached, the ponies tensed and several of the unicorns began channeling magic down their horns. Keeping ahold of Ebony, I reached up with the other hand and pulled my helmet off.

“” a voice called out from the crowd. A few seconds later a familiar face emerged.

Night Light staggered forward, eyeing me warily. He looked a little worse for wear, a bloodied bandage wrapped around his neck. Coming to a stop in front of me, he winced and held a hoof to his neck.

“” he nickered, eyes narrowing. “<What’s going on?>”

Gently lowering Ebony to the ground, I stood back up.

~Sorry, can’t understand you~ I signed. ~The girls blasted me with the Elements, and now I can’t understand what you’re saying~

This caused his muzzle to scrunch up. “”

“Yeah, see. No clue what you’re saying,” I said with a shrug.

Night Light snorted and shook his head.

~Okay~ he signed, wincing in pain as he did so. ~What’s going on?~

~Short version? Equestrian humans are intelligent~ I replied, causing his eyes to widen. ~They’ve been getting smarter over the past few years, but nobody seemed to notice. As for these fucks—~ I motioned towards the bound Terran humans ~—they’re humans from my old world, who believe ponies are enslaving the Equestrian humans by means of some spell, so they’re trying to revolt and free themselves~

As I finished signing, Night Light grunted and rubbed his temple with a hoof. A white unicorn approached, saying something to Night Light who in turn replied. As the pair talked, a pony that looked like a medic moved to examine Ebony. I crouched down, watching her as she examined my unconscious friend. After a brief moment, she glanced up and gave me a small smile and nod.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god. Now then… where’s the other two—

“”

Glancing over my shoulder, I blinked when I saw Avera struggling towards us, dragging something behind her. It took me a few seconds, but upon realizing what she was dragging, I blanched.

“Primrose!” I shouted, staggering down the hall. There was a shout and a clatter of hooves as several ponies, including Night Light, followed after me. As the medic started working, I could only stare in horror at the sight before me. Her armor had been sheared clean through, and there was a gaping hole in her abdomen through which blood was steadily flowing. The wound bubbled as she breathed, her breaths coming in short, wheezing gasps. Her eyes were dim and barely open, and she seemed to be hanging on by a thread.

The medic winced as she inspected the wound. “”

“” Night Light nickered. I didn’t like the grim look on his face.

“” the medic answered with a grimace. “”

“<Like Tartarus there’s nothing you can do!>” Avera snarled. “<You are not giving up on her!>”

“” the medic shot back. “”

Man, I don’t like being left out of the conversation, I brooded as the medic leaned forward and peered at Primrose’s pauldron, or rather a couple of small symbols etched into the side. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the etchings before she suddenly perked up.

“<She’s a sanguinarian?>” she yelped, glancing quickly over at Avera. When Avera nodded at whatever it was she asked, the medic dove into her saddlebags. “<Where is it? Where is it?>” she muttered under her breath as she rummaged around in the bags. “<I know I saw it earlier. Where the buck is—ah ha!>” Crying out happily, she pulled her hoof out of the bags, revealing…

“Is that a blood bag?” I asked in bewilderment. My talking earned me a couple of confused looks from the gathered ponies, but the medic ignored me. Holding Primrose’s head gently in her hooves, she grabbed the blood bag in her teeth and tore it open before dumping the entire contents into Primrose’s mouth.

“<Come on, hun. Swallow it,>” the medic cooed as she rubbed Primrose’s throat.

Primrose gagged, struggling weakly before she began to swallow. At first nothing appeared to happen, but then my eyes widened as the edges of the wound began to close. Hope began to well up in my chest, only to die as the healing stopped. The wound had barely closed a centimeter.

My eyes narrowed. Blood heals her, but it’s not enough...

“” the medic hissed as she tossed the empty blood bag away. “”

“” Avera shouted, waving her hooves at the medic.

“” the medic shouted back.

Avera snorted, glaring at the mare. “”

“” the medic growled. “”

“<But—>”

“”

Growing tired of their unintelligible bickering, I shoved the medic aside. She gave an indignant squawk, but I ignored her. Gingerly, I picked Primrose up, being mindful of her wound. Her blood dripped down onto my gloved hands, staining the material, but I didn’t care. Clothing could be cleaned.

As I turned her to face me, her eyes fluttered open. She gave me a blank look, a spark of recognition flashing across the dim orbs. I gave her a weak smile, which she dazedly tried to return. Reaching up, I used my thumb to push her lips aside, exposing her fangs.

“” the medic began.

Pushing Primrose’s mouth open, I took a deep breath before, with forced determination, I forced her head down and drove her fangs into the side of my neck. I gasped as her fangs pierced my skin, twin points of burning pain. Instantly I felt my blood begin to flow, coating her fangs and painting her tongue and the inside of her mouth red. For a brief moment she was still, then she twitched. Her tongue touched my neck tentatively, almost as if she was unsure of what was going on.

“Come on, Primrose,” I grunted. “You're not dying today…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Cold.

That was what Primrose felt. A coldness that crept through her entire body and seemed to chill her very bones. It hadn’t started that way though. There had once been pain, and a fiery burning sensation in her gut which had caused her agony with every move she made, no matter how small. However, the burning had quickly numbed, replaced by the cold.

Cold… it reminded her of home. A home that was now so far away. Of snow and stone, flowers and sun.

A green pegasus with a yellow mane frolicked through a sea of yellow flowers before her. Primrose blinked dazedly as she realized that she recognized them. Their name was on the tip of her tongue.

“O-oenothera,” she murmured weakly. “Oenothera biennis.” Yes, that was it. Her family used to grow them around their home. She had gotten her name from them.

Both her names.

She smiled as the young pegasus before her rolled about in the flowers happily, a large grin on her face as yellow petals flew through the air. Mother would no doubt scold them later, but for now, it was worth it.

Primrose tiredly watched the pegasus play for a few minutes, her strength slowly fading. She felt tired, and the urge to close her eyes and fall asleep was growing. Surely a brief nap in the sun would be alright. It might even help with the coldness in her body. Her eyes slowly began to drift shut, but she was jerked back awake by the feeling of somepony tugging on her forelegs.

“Leave me alone,” she muttered, too tired to pull herself away. “Let me sleep.”

Somepony shouted something, and even though the speaker was practically by her ear, the words were muddy and unclear, as if shouted from a great distance. If felt like she was being dragged now, and her stomach twinged as she shifted. She didn’t feel any pain though, just a sudden burst of numbness. Wearily, she ignored the pulling sensation and returned her attention to the pegasus in the flowers.

The pegasus was now lying spread eagled on her back, wings flared wide as she stared up at the clouds far above. Flowers surrounded her head like a crown, mixing well with her yellow mane. She just laid there, basking in the sun as she watched the clouds drift about on the wind, not a care in the world. Just a lazy filly, enjoying life.

“Sundrop?” a distorted voice called out. “Sundrop, come inside.”

Turning her head, Primrose glanced about. A house had appeared in the distance, on the edge of the field of flowers. A mare was standing in the doorway, presumably the one who had called out.

Primrose blinked, and gave her head a small shake. At first she thought it had just been her vision, but upon looking again, it was the same as before. She could tell the pony was a mare, but all other details were impossible to make out. She could see the mare, but at the same time could not. What was her fur color? White? Yellow? No, it almost looked purple? Red? It made Primrose’s head hurt, so she looked away.

“Sundrop, come inside,” the mare called out again. “You need to get washed up. Dinner’s almost ready!”

The young filly pouted, snuggling deeper into her bed of flowers.

Primrose smirked. Ah, youthful rebellion. It was so—

She blinked, staring dazedly up at the clouds far above. Around her, flowers bobbed and danced in the breeze, tickling her fur and bringing with them a pleasant aroma. What had she been doing earlier? Something about humans… and… and…

She frowned as the memories slowly began to drift away. There had been a large human in armor, right? No… that must have been a dream. She must have dozed off while lying in the sun. Yes, she decided, that was it. She had just drifted off due to the warmth of the sun and had a strange dream.

But if that was the case, then why was she so cold?

...what had she been doing before?

“Sundrop! I’m not going to tell you again,” the voice called out once more.

Oh yeah, Primrose realized. Dinner was ready, and mother was calling her to come in. She smiled, only for the smile to slowly turn into a pout. But she was too comfortable, she didn’t want to get up.

Suddenly a white face appeared above her, framed by deep emerald green hair. Green eyes twinkled as the upside down mare stared down at her, a knowing smirk on her face.

“Come on, Drops,” the mare said. “We best get going before mother gets mad. Or at least more mad, seeing as you’ve destroyed her flowers again.

“I didn’t destroy them,” Primdrop snorted. “They’ll be fine.”

The mare raised an eyebrow. “Really? ‘Cause it looks like you flattened them.”

Sundrop stuck out her tongue. “Nuh-uh!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“I didn’t flatten them. I just made them more comfy!” Sundrop pouted.

“Right, okay,” the mare said, rolling her eyes. Her smirk faded, becoming a warm smile as she gazed down at Primrose. “Come on, little sis,” she said softly. “Let’s go get cleaned up.” Getting up, she began making her way towards the house. “Come on. I’ll race ya!”

“W-wait!” Sundrop cried, scrambling to her hooves. “Wait for me, Sis!” Flaring her wings, she—

Primrose jerked awake, her eyes fluttering open. A mare in armor was above her, saying something that she couldn’t understand. She stared down at Primrose, concern in her eyes. There were other ponies around her, as well as a large mass that seemed familiar but she couldn’t place it right now.

What’s going on? she wondered as the mare above her reached up and opened a plastic bag with her teeth. Primrose felt her mouth pushed open, and the contents of the bag were suddenly dumped into her mouth. Gah! What the—?! A warm liquid filled her mouth, a metallic taste clinging to her tongue. She struggled weakly for a moment before swallowing. A faint warmth flared to life in her chest before fading again, consumed by the cold.

Ponies were arguing around her now, shouting at one another, but Primrose ignored them. Her vision was failing, the edges creeping in as everything faded to black. She didn't care though. She was too tired. She just needed to sleep. Maybe… maybe if she was lucky, she’d return to the field of flowers again.

She was pulled back from the brink by something big picking her up, holding her as one would a foal. Her eyes fluttered open, and she stared blearily into the concerned face of a human. He had a scar running across his nose, leading to his right eye, which was milky white.

Primrose’s eyes widened a miniscule amount. Wait… I know you.

The human gave her a weak smile, which she returned. Her vision wavered as he lifted a hand towards her, and the human’s face was replaced with a white one, framed by emerald hair.

I’m coming, Sis, Primrose sighed as darkness claimed her. It might be three hundred years later than expected, but I’ll finally see you soon—

Blood exploded into her mouth, startling her. She noted dimly that her fangs were now buried into the human’s neck. Hesitantly, she touched her tongue to the human’s flesh, the familiar taste of blood slowly consuming her senses. Memories began to flash before her eyes.

A fire, consuming the small, homely house in the dead of the night.

Screams of those trapped inside.

Shadows dancing across the destroyed flowerbeds, cackling madly as they set the place ablaze.

Red eyes flashing in the dark.

Her sister, white fur marred with blood, crushed beneath a burning beam. She was shouting at her, waving her hoof, begging. “Run! Run, Little Drop! Run and don’t look back!”

“B-but—”

“Please!” Enchanter yelled, her face scrunching up in fear and pain. Tears trailed down her cheeks, glinting in the light of the fire roaring around her. “You must live! Run, Sundrop! Don’t stop, just run! Don’t give up!

Don’t give up.

Don’t give up.

Don’t…

Eyes snapping open wide, Primrose clamped down on Max’s neck, digging her fangs deeper into his flesh. Wrapping her hooves around him, she gulped greedily as his blood began to fill her mouth, flooding down her throat and into her stomach. As she drank, a fire erupted in her gut, chasing off the cold and clearing her head.

Her instincts took over, drawing strength from the willing source beneath her.

She drank the blood of her friend.

She drank to survive.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I yelped as Primrose suddenly latched onto me and began to drink in earnest. Surprisingly, after the initial clamp down, the process was fairly painless. Just a slight burning sensation where her fangs were embedded in my neck. I could feel her sucking, her lips pressed against my skin. A soft chuckle escaped me as I thought of something. Hopefully I can explain the hickey to Twilight before she gets the wrong idea.

Primrose clung to me as she continued to drink my blood like a person dying of thirst. This continued for a couple of minutes until she finally began to slow. Giving one last gulp, she pulled her fangs free and collapsed back into my arms.

As I lowered her to the ground, I studied the wound in her stomach. It had shrunk significantly, now resembling a knife wound instead of the gaping hole it had been. Her breathing, while still shallow, no longer contained an unsettling wheeze. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, her scleras black and pupils mere slits against her red irises. Blood stained her lips dark crimson.

I had barely set her down on the ground before the medic was upon me, slapping a gauze over the bite mark.

“” she tsked. “<You’re lucky she didn’t drain you, what with the state she’s in. What were you thinking?>” She began wrapping a bandage around my neck, having some difficulty when the collar got in her way.

“<But that’s his MO,>” Avera chuckled weakly. “<Act first, think later.>” She gazed down at Primrose, her smile fading. “”

The medic finished bandaging my neck before glancing down at Primrose as well. “” Pulling more bandages out of her bag, she began to clean the wound. Primrose was unresponsive, staring off into the distance.

Holding a hand to my neck, I got to my feet only to sway due to a sudden bout of lightheadedness.

~Are you alright?~ Night Light asked.

~Fine~ I signed. ~Just a little lightheaded~

~Understandable~ He signed with a nod.

As I placed a hand on the wall to steady myself, I felt something poke my knee. Glancing down, I found Avera staring up at me. She said nothing, just reached up and wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me into a hug. A small smile touched my lips, and I patted her head gently.

“It’s good to see you too,” I muttered.

She nickered softly before pulling away.

~So, what’s your plan now?~ Night Light asked.

~Well, the original one was to stop them~ I signed, glancing over at the captured Terran humans. ~It seems you and the Equestrian humans have that under control though~

~Yeah, it was good that you came when you did~ he signed. ~A few more minutes and it might have been a different story~

I laughed. ~I didn’t do much. It was the Equestrian humans that helped you out~

He hummed softly, giving the Equestrian humans a once over. They stood off to the side, keeping an eye on the Terran humans. ~I suppose so~

“” the medic nickered, glancing over her shoulder. “”

Night Light grunted. “”

“”

“” Night Light sighed.

Reaching down, I placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. ~What’s going on?~

~We’re going to attempt to move the injured to the medical wing~ he replied.

My eyes lit up.

~Great!~ I signed. ~We passed by a group of ponies in need of medical attention on the way here. They were in bad shape, but were being looked after~

~Where?~

~They were in a room down the hall and—~

The floor shifted beneath our feet as the castle suddenly shook. The force caused many of us to lose our balance, ponies and humans alike tumbling to the ground. I luckily staggered into a wall, only to have Night Light slam into my legs a second later. The few windows that were nearby shattered, sending shards of glass tinkling to the ground. The whole place shook again, stronger than the first quake. A deep, earthy groan echoed through the halls before the tremors slowly stopped.

“<What the flying buck was that?>” Avera whickered as she got to her hooves.

“Ugh… what the fuck was that?” I groaned, pushing myself off the wall. My armor had left an indent in the plaster, the white dust covering the black metal.

“” a large unicorn asked.

I ignored him and stumbled to one of the broken windows, glass crunching beneath my boots. Clinging to the window sill, I leaned forward and peered out. It took my brain a few seconds to process what it was seeing, but when it did, my eyes widened. “The hell…?”

Both the sun and moon were in the sky, slightly overlapping each other and turning the sky blood red. The clouds were a darker shade of scarlet, and the stars had become glowing embers against the hellish heavens. Large chunks of land hovered high above, almost like islands in an invisible sea. A dark liquid cascaded off of several of them, falling like a waterfall to the ground far, far below. Clouds drifted low, hovering near the islands. Unlike their bloody brethren higher up, these clouds were pink in color and seemed to be raining the same dark liquid.

That in-and-of-itself was enough to freak me out, but it got worse.

Much worse.

There, looming over the far end of the palace like a massive obelisk, was a creature I had seen only twice before: in a dream, and as a statue. A massive lion’s paw gripped one of the castle’s towers, causing the structure to groan loudly. Red eyes glowed in the gloom as they glowered down on the palace.

As I stared up at the monstrous form before me, two massive mismatched wings unfurled, blocking out the horizon. A deep echoing chuckle seemed to make the very air vibrate as its lips pulled back to reveal sharpened teeth.

There was no doubt about it.

Discord had arrived.

Author's Note

Red light is shining through the window.

It seems the battle is almost over.

It fills you with...

D E T E R M I N A T I O N!

Chapter 63: Not a Fan of Puppeteers

“I’ve got to be dreaming,” I breathed as I stared up at the gargantuan figure of Discord. There was no way in hell that this was real. My eyes had to be playing tricks on me; I was delusional due to sleep deprivation, Primrose had sucked out too much of my blood and I was now passed out and having a weird-ass nightmare. Any explanation would do, except for the one that expected me to believe that the eldritch abomination before me was real.

Yet, there he was, looming over the palace like a death cloud.

“Twilight and the others managed to take that down?” I said weakly. “There’s… there’s no way. How the…?”

Beside me, one of the guards—an earth pony mare—stared up at the colossal figure as well, her mouth agape. “<Sweet Celestia...>” The other ponies were much more animated, nickering and whining in a panic.

“”

“”

“”

“”

“<That's great, this is really buckin' great, man. Now, what the buck are we supposed to do? We're in some pretty deep shit now, man!>”

“”

“”

“”

“”

“<Sir, we need to—>”

“” Night Light roared suddenly, snapping me out of my daze and causing me to jump. All ponies fell silent, staring at him with wide eyes. He snorted, glaring at everyone even as blood dripped from the stained bandage around his neck. “” He paused, allowing the gathered ponies to nod before continuing “” A murmur rippled through the crowd, and determined looks appeared on several blood-stained faces. However, some ponies still seemed unconvinced of whatever Night Light had said.

Leaving the ponies to sort out… whatever it was they were sorting out, I turned to look back out at Discord, but paused upon catching sight of the Equestrian humans. They were in horrible shape, many of them cowering down behind corners and in the shadows. They were staring up at Discord with looks of abject horror, several of them even appeared close to passing out. Tremors racked their bodies, and they whimpered pitifully. The castle shook again, causing them to shrink back and huddle against each other in fear.

Not all of them though.

A select few were different. Instead of Discord, they were watching me with calm, collective looks on their faces. Pyresteed was among them, her eyes boring into mine. The intensity with which they were staring at me was unnerving. It was almost like they were waiting for something.

“What?” I asked uneasily.

“Alpha fight, yes?” Pyresteed asked. It was more a statement than a question.

“Me, fight that thing?” I asked incredulously, pointing at Discord through the broken windows. “Are you crazy!? There’s no way I can fight him, let alone beat him! This isn’t some Shadow of the Colossus bullshit! What? He’s going to have some glowing symbol somewhere on his body I have to stab a bunch before he keels over and dies? No, not happening. Not going to—”

“Alpha.”

“—happen. It’ll be like be like an ant fighting a boot! A pitcher fighting a stone. And you know what they say about the stone and the pitcher. Whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it's going to be bad for the—”

“Alpha.”

“—pitcher. What?!”

“Alpha. Fight.” Despite how softly she said it, the words had some other emotion behind them, one that I couldn’t place. Pride? Determination? Hope? I wasn’t sure. She just continued to calmly stare at me, despite the hellish landscape displayed through the broken windows. Discord was now bent over some part of the palace and appeared to be tearing bits of masonry free and flinging them back over his shoulder without a care in the world. He was effortlessly disassembling Canterlot Castle like it was a Lego set, piece by piece. There was no way in hell that I… that anyone could—

“Alpha.”

I jumped as a soft hand suddenly touched my face. My eye darted away from Discord, only to suddenly find itself lost in a sea of sapphire blue as Pyresteed’s eyes filled my vision.

“Alpha, calm,” she said, keeping her hand on my cheek. It was then that I noticed that I was breathing heavily, my heart pounding wildly in my chest. Lifting a trembling hand up, I placed it on top of hers before taking a deep, shaky breath.

“Why?” I asked. “Why do you want me to fight so badly?”

“It what Alpha do, yes? Protect ponies, protect pack.”

“But… but just look at him!” I tried to turn my head back to look at Discord, but was stopped by Pyresteed keeping my head in place with her hand.

“You say protect ponies from human-not-humans,” she said. “You protect them, yes? Protect ponies, protect pack. You Alpha? Then fight, Alpha. Fight.”

“And how do you suggest we get to him?” I breathed.

“Pack help,” she said, removing her hand and taking a step back. “Pack get you there, safe.” I gave her a confused look, and she motioned behind me. Turning, my eyes widened in surprise.

Standing behind me, with grim, determined looks on their faces, were several Equestrian humans, all of whom I recognized instantly. There was Tarzan and Jane, who stood alongside side one of the other human males that had kidnapped me inside the garden, who was hereby named ‘Kerk’. Behind the three of them, hefting one of the Terran human’s makeshift hammers on his shoulder, was Psy, his lips pulled back in a silent sneer.

Sighing, I turned back to Pyresteed. “You guys are putting way too much faith in me. You know that, right? I don’t even know what I can do against him.” She remained quiet, giving me what could only be described as a pleading look.

“Fine,” I huffed. “Fine. I’ll do it. Damn you, and damn your sparkling eyes, but I’ll do it.”

Pyresteed perked up. “Fight?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “You get me there and I’ll… I’ll figure something out, I guess.” As she chirped excitedly, I glanced around for my helmet. It was lying on the ground off to the side, and I moved to retrieve it. As I picked it up, Night Light approached.

~We’re moving the injured to the medical wing~ he signed. ~We’re might need your help in moving some of them~ Glancing over his shoulders, I saw that the ponies were now making makeshift stretchers out of pieces of the doors.

~Sorry, no can do~ I replied. ~We’re going after Discord~

“” he whinned, his eyes widening. The ponies behind him stopped working, their heads whipping around to stare at him. Hissing something under his breath, he glared up at me. ~Are you mad?! You can’t take on Discord by yourself~

~I won’t be by myself~ I signed before motioning at the humans behind me. ~Besides, we have to do something~

~No. No. No way. That’s not happening~ he signed, his glare intensifying. ~For one, it’s suicidal. For another thing, Twilight would never speak to me again if she found out I let you do something as stupid as this~

I grinned, giving him a lopsided smirk. ~Well, Twilight’s not here right now, and I’m old enough to make my own decisions, Dad~

“” He grimaced, snorting in irritation.

“” A large unicorn called out.

“” Night Light huffed, clicking his tongue. Several ponies nickered, their eyes widening in shock.

Pushing a hoof against his temple, Night Light snarled before glaring up at me again. ~I… I can’t let you do that. As a Colonel of Equestria’s Royal Guard, it’s my duty to make sure all civilians are safe, and I have the authority of the crown to do so~

~There’s only three beings I’ll potentially listen to: Two humans, and one pony. None of them are here at the moment~

~I can have you detained for your own safety!~

Staring down at him, I threw my arms open wide and took half a step forward. We stayed that way for several long, tense seconds: him glaring up at me, and me waiting for him to do something. Finally, he averted his gaze.

“” Grinding his teeth together, he stomped a hoof on the ground, causing the marble beneath him to crack slightly. He paced back and forth a few times (looking remarkably like Twilight when she was trying to figure out a problem) before suddenly wheeling around. “” he barked out, causing two of the guards to salute. “<Change of plans. I want you two to grab three more able-bodied ponies and follow the Anomaly. He is your primary—no, your only concern, got it? If something bad happens to him then so help me, I’ll have your cutie marks!>”

They both nodded before the unicorn pointed at three other ponies. The five of them then moved towards me.

I was wary at first, expecting them to jump me, but instead they took up position around me. Three unicorns, one pegasus, and an earth pony.

~I hope you know what you’re doing, boy~ Night Light signed, still glaring at me.

“Not a clue,” I said, smiling down at him. His eyes narrowed, and he huffed as he turned away. My human entourage eyed the new pony additions curiously, much to the guards’ discomfort.

My smile faded slightly as I watched Night Light gathering up the wounded, and my brows furrowed. I had the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something, something important… but what was it?

My eyes narrowed, only to widen a second later when I remembered.

~Wait~ I signed, causing Night Light to glance back at me. ~The group of injured ponies we passed on our way here!~ This caused his eyes to widen as well.

Turning, I pointed at a group of humans huddling in the corner. “You. Can you guys take the pony to the room with the injured ponies and the three human-not-humans we met earlier?”

The only response I got was a whimper as they shrunk back further into the corner.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. “You don’t have to fight Discord or anything. In fact, you’re going in the opposite direction!” When they just continued to give me fearful looks, I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Okay, look… listen, just lead these ponies—” I pointed at Night Light “—to the room with the injured ponies. After that you can do whatever you want, okay? You can even go run and hide in the caverns for all I care, just get these ponies to that room.”

At first none of them moved, but then slowly, one by one, they began to crawl from the corner, casting furtive glances at Discord as they scuttled along.

Shaking my head in exasperation, I turned back to Night Light. ~These humans will take you there, but don’t expect much more from them~

He nodded, watching the humans as they raced down the hallway. Once they reached the corner, they hid behind it, heads peeking out as they waited for the ponies to follow. They charge other humans with wild abandonment, but piss themselves at the sight of Discord. Wonderful.

~Oh, also~ I added, ~be aware that there are three terran humans in the room as well~ Night Light stiffened, eyes narrowing, but I continued quickly. ~They aren’t hostile. In fact, they’re trying to tend to the injured. Try not to be too rough with them~

He was silent for a few seconds before sighing loudly and nodding again. Turning to the other guards, he nickered, “”

I watched as the guards slowly made their way down the hall, carrying the wounded with them on their makeshift stretchers. It was a rather solemn sight: the less injured carrying those who bore more severe wounds. Primrose and Ebony were on a stretcher together, near the end of the procession. Reaching up, I absentmindedly rubbed the bandage that was hiding the bite mark on my neck.

Avera made to go with the guards, only to pause and glance back, giving me an inquisitive look. I slowly shook my head, and she nodded once. Reaching into her armor, she pulled out a hunting knife, which she handed to me before turning and following after the last of the retreating group. They rounded the corner, and within a minute or so, the clattering of their armor had faded into nothingness.

I glanced down at the knife before slipping it carefully into a gap between my armor and the leather underneath. Once it was secure, I turned and glanced at Pyresteed.

“Alright,” I said, breaking the silence. “Let’s get this over with.”

She perked up. “Fight?”

“Yup, fight. Lead the way,” I said, placing my helmet over my head. With that, I motioned down the hall with an arm. She nodded before taking off, her scarred and calloused feet lightly tapping against the marble as she flitted down the hall. After a brief pause, the other humans followed after her.

“” the lead unicorn said as he glanced at the other four guards that had stayed behind.“

” They saluted before moving to various positions around me.

I eyed them briefly before grunting and running after Pyresteed. My armor clanked loudly as I moved, the noise mixing ominously with the bells still tolling in the distance.

Our group—five Equestrian humans, five Equestrian ponies, and myself—raced down the destroyed halls of the palace.

We raced towards Discord, the source of all our problems.

And the bells continued to toll.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“You can’t tell me that it wasn’t a little funny.”

“Not now, Dash,” Twilight growled. She raced down the hallway, followed closely by Applejack and Rarity. Pinkie Pie pronked along, leaving Fluttershy to bring up the rear. They all galloped down the hall, weaving around and through the rubble that had gathered in the corridor.

Rainbow flitted by overhead, careful to steer clear of any of the broken windows.

“Oh, come on!” she cooed, twisting around to smirk at Twilight as she flew backwards. “You have to admit that you found it a little funny.”

“Not now, Dash!”

“I mean, seriously,” Dash continued. “The Princesses charge us, and you got scared and teleported them outside into a fountain! How can you not find that—”

“Rainbow,” Rarity interrupted, panting slightly as she ran. “While I do certainly believe that we might all look back at that moment and laugh later, let’s focus on the more pressing concerns, shall we?”

“Yeah,” Applejack huffed. “Like what the hay’s goin’ on with the Princesses! They looked like somethin’ outta a nightmare!”

“Oh, oh! Maybe it was a Nightmare Night costume! A really spooky, realistic one!” Pinkie chirped as she bounced along. “Like, maybe Luna’s getting an early start on this year’s—”

“Thank you, Pinkie,” Twilight said, cutting her off, “but I highly doubt that was an intentional transformation on their part. Or if it was, something went horribly wrong. And I wasn’t scared,” she scoffed, giving Rainbow a dirty look. “I was just… startled, is all. They caught me by surprise. I meant to teleport them away like that.”

“Uh-huh,” Rainbow smirked. “Come on, Twi. You were just as confused as the rest of us when they disappeared. Admit it, you were scared.”

“I wasn’t scared!”

“Was too!”

“Was not!”

“Was too!”

“Was not!”

“Is this really the best time for this?!” Rarity snapped, glaring at the two. “Both Princess Celestia and Luna have been turned into those horrific… abominations, and here you two are arguing over if you were scared or not! I mean, really.”

Both Twilight and Rainbow’s ears splayed back, and they glanced away from each other.

“That’s what I thought,” Rarity continued with a sniff. “Now, if you two could quit bickering long enough for us to—GAH!”

The castle took that exact moment to suddenly shift violently, causing everyone to stumble as the floor beneath their hooves shook. Rarity nearly face-planted, grabbing Applejack’s neck at the last moment in order to save herself and, coincidentally, cutting off Applejack’s air supply. The cowpony grunted, her eyes crossing as her face slowly turned a lovely shade of blue.

The marble beneath all their hooves cracked as a deep groan reverberated through the corridor. Bits of ceiling rained down, and several nearby paintings and tapestries fell from their hooks.

Slowly, the tremors died, allowing the ponies to regain their footing.

“What’re you tryin’ tah do, kill me?” Applejack wheezed as Rarity released her neck.

“Sorry, darling.” Rarity frowned, stepping around a pile of dust and debris. “It was not intentional, I assure you.”

“Wheee! Do it again! Do it again!” Pinkie cheered, still lying on her back. She kicked her legs in the air and giggled. “The whole castle felt like somepony hooked it up to one of Mrs. Cake’s toys. The ones that Pumpkin and Pound aren’t allowed to play with!”

“W-w-what was that?” Fluttershy whimpered as she slowly got to her hooves.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said slowly, staring down at the cracked floor with a worried look on her face, “but something tells me we should probably keep moving. The sooner we reach the Elements of Harmony, the sooner we can sort Luna and Princess Celestia out and the sooner we can work on fixing this entire mess.”

“Awww,” Pinkie pouted as she rolled upright.

“And you’re sure that the Elements will change the Princesses back?” Rarity asked as they began to run again.

Twilight remained silent, chewing on her bottom lip as she ran. Her eyes darted back and forth, and her brow furrowed as her thoughts raced. Eventually, she sighed before answering. “No, I’m not sure, but at the moment they’re our best bet for fixing whatever is going on. They haven’t let us down before.”

“Yeah, right,” Rainbow sneered, rolling her eyes, “because they were so helpful when we used them on the big guy.”

“They did their job, Rainbow,” Twilight said tensely. “I might not have liked the outcome, but they did what they were supposed to do. They removed the chaos magic from Max.”

“That’s fine and all, but can we even get tah them?” Applejack asked. “Last Ah checked, didn’t the Princess have spells on the Element’s door tah stop ponies gettin’ in? How are we supposed tah get past ‘em?”

“There are defensive spells, yes,” Twilight said with a nod. “However, Princess Celestia taught me the required counterspells the week after I became a princess, just in case we ever had to use them and she wasn’t around. I just never thought that such a situation would happen,” she finished, her ears splaying backwards.

“Well, thank goodness for that!” Pinkie cried. “If they hadn’t, Twilight wouldn’t be able to get the Elements, meaning we wouldn’t be able to use them, and then we’d be in big, big trouble!”

“Yeah… big trouble,” Twilight murmured. She glanced sideways out the windows that were rushing by, a troubled look crossing her face. Movement from one of the lower building’s windows caught her eye, and she slowed her pace.

A human flitted down the hallway of the other building, Twilight only able to catch glances of her as she passed in front of the windows. She was running in the opposite direction, a look of fear clear on her face even from this distance. The human glanced over her shoulder once before putting on a burst of speed, and becoming lost to view.

Twilight watched her disappear, a small frown crossing her muzzle.

“Twilight, watch out!”

“Huh?” Glancing around, Twilight blanched as she about ran face-first into a fallen pillar. Scrambling sideways, she almost toppled over, only being stopped at the last minute by Applejack nudging her with her shoulder.

Regaining her footing, she gave Applejack a weak smile. “Thanks, Applejack.”

“No problem, sugarcube,” Applejack smirked, before she took on a concerned look. “Are you okay? You seem a little outta it at the moment.”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed. “I’m just… I’m just worried about Max, is all. We don’t know where he is, all this horrible stuff is happening, and, well… I just hope that where he is right now, he’s alright.”

“I’m sure he’s fine, darling,” Rarity said, giving Twilight a small smile. “I wouldn’t worry about him too much. He can take care of himself, after all.”

“Yeah, the big guy’s fine!” Rainbow chirped, flying by overhead. “He can handle the crazy stuff that’s happening. I mean, he’s faced down manticores, timberwolves, and even an infected human! Hay, he even fought and won five rounds in a human fighting ring!”

Twilight’s ears splayed back, and her eyes widened in alarm.

Rarity winced. “You probably shouldn’t have mentioned that last one, Rainbow.”

“Yeah,” Applejack agreed uneasily. “He was in pretty bad shape after that one.”

“Let’s just stop talking about it, okay!?” Twilight asked shrilly, one of her eyes twitching. “Let’s just get the Elements, fix Celestia and Luna so that they can fix the bigger problem, so I can go back to looking for—”

A massive lion’s paw smashed through the wall in front of the mare, causing dust and debris to rain down upon them, and causing all of them to scream. A deep groan echoed through the halls, the floor beneath their hooves vibrating as the paw grasped the edges of the new hole. With a loud ‘crack’, it tore off a large section of the wall with very little effort.

A red eye filled the hole, glancing around before zeroing in on the mares. The pupil shrunk before a deep chuckle came from outside. “I spy with my little eye, an apple, a diamond, and a looney pie!”

“Discord!” Twilight shouted, wings flaring.

The eye disappeared, and the mares barely had enough time to move before another hole was torn into the wall, this time by a massive eagle’s talon.

“I spy with my eyeball, a rainbow, a moth, and a know-it-all!” Discord continued with a merciless chuckle.

“Oh, I know, I know!” Pinkie cried as she dodged falling debris. “Applejack’s the apple. Applejack’s the apple! Right? Right?!”

Ignoring her, Discord tore off another chunk of the building, throwing it over his shoulder without a care in the world. It crashed into one of the lower buildings, destroying the roof and causing parts of the building to collapse.

“Discord!” Twilight shouted again, drawing the massive draconequus’ attention.

“Princess Sparkle, it’s been too long,” he purred, a large smirk exploding across his face. “You never visited me in the gardens. What kind of Princess of Friendship are you? Even your human paid me a couple of visits from time to time.”

“Enough!” Twilight snorted, stomping her hoof. “I should have known you were behind this. It reeks of your doing!”

“Why,” Discord chuckled, “whatever are you talking about, Princess?”

“Don't ya dare play dumb with us, Discord!” Applejack snorted, her nostrils flaring wide. She glared up at the draconequus. “We know yer the one behind all of this!”

Rainbow Dash nodded, flying over to hover beside Applejack. “Yeah! This has got your cloven hoofprints all over it!”

“Fine, you caught me red-handed,” Discord sneered, raising up his paw, which had turned a dark crimson color. As he did so, his tail wrapped around a tree, only to uproot it a second later. Lifting it to his mouth, he took a bite out of it as though the leaves were made of cotton candy. “But you can’t really blame me for this,” he said around a mouthful of cotton tree candy. “It’s really not my fault. After all, I didn’t pull the trigger… I simply provided the gun. And you ponies supplied the ammunition.”

“Shut it!” Twilight growled. “Release Princess Celestia and Luna from whatever spell you have them under this instant!”

Discord tossed the remaining tree over his shoulder before cocking his head to the side and bringing a claw up to his chin.

“Hmmm. How about no?” he hummed before suddenly bringing his paw crashing down upon them.

Twilight’s horn flared, and the six of them blinked out of existence a second before Discord’s paw had a chance to flatten them. They reappeared several meters down the hall in an explosion of light.

“Ho ho! What’s this? It appears the game is afoot,” Discord gasped. Suddenly, a weird red plaid hat adorned his head, large earflaps covering the sides of his face. Pulling a large, curved wooden horn out from under his arm, he placed it to his lips and blew a loud series of notes before shouting. “Tally-ho, chaps! Release the hounds!”

The sound of baying came from down the hall, and after a few seconds a trio of bloodhounds with Discord’s face came scampering around the corner.

“Run!” Twilight shouted.

“And here I thought he couldn’t get any more hideous,” Rarity gasped, staring at the Discord-bloodhounds in horror before turning and hurrying down the hall with the others.

“Twilight, which way?!” Rainbow cried as they neared a split in the corridor.

“Right!” Twilight panted, bring up the rear. “Take a right and up the stairs—YAH!” She yelped as one of the Dis-Hounds grabbed at her tail, pulling out a clump of hair in the process. Cocking a hind leg back, she bucked the dog in the head, causing it to tumble backwards with whine.

“Nark! Nark!” The other dog creatures barked as they continued the chase.

Twilight’s eye twitched. “I’m not a nark!”

Yipping happily, one of the Dis-Hounds leapt forward and sunk its teeth into her back leg. Letting out a scream of pain, Twilight lit up her horn and, craning her head around, blasted the dog in its face. It flew backwards with a squeal before exploding into a cloud of smoke.

Standing awkwardly on three legs with the injured one held in the air, Twilight turned and hit the other two dogs with the same spell, causing them to explode as well.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy cried, her eyes widening.

“I’m fine,” Twilight huffed even as blood streamed down her leg and dripped to the floor below. “I’m fine. It’s… it’s just a scratch.” She tried to put weight on it, only to grimace, the leg shaking horribly.

“Oh ho! What have we here?” A large chunk of wall fell away, revealing the grinning face of Discord. He smirked down at Twilight, his red eyes glowing with perverted mirth. “Well, the antlers won’t fetch me much, but the wings look like they could be used to stuff a couple of pillows. And the bust will look so nice mounted above my fireplace.”

As he reached for her, Twilight flapped her wings and took to the air, barely avoiding being snatched up by the giant paw.

“Oh, a feisty one!” Discord sneered. “I like feisty ones. They make the best jerky!”

“I’ll give you some jerky!” Rainbow growled, flying forward. Before she could get far, a rosy barrier sprang to life in front of her, blocking her path.

“No!” Twilight shouted, half limping, half flying down the hall. “Don’t try and fight him. Just run!”

Rainbow shot Discord one last glare before, with a growl, she reluctantly turned and followed quickly after her friends.

“That’s right, keep running,” Discord called after them. “It won’t do you any good though. Nobody can escape the hunt!”

“Why are you doing this?” Fluttershy cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I… I thought we were friends!”

“Friends?” Discord asked, tearing out another section of wall as the ponies ran past. “Don’t make me laugh! We were never friends, you naive little strumpet.”

“B-but, the tea parties… a-and the… the…”

“It’s called acting, yellow quiet!” Discord cackled. “The naivety of you ponies never ceases to amaze me. I wanted to be free, and the only way to accomplish that was to convince everyone that I was reformed. I can’t believe you all never realized it was all a ruse. Especially you, Twilight Narkle.”

“I’m not a nark!”

“S-so, all the time we spent together, everything we s-shared, it meant nothing to you?” Fluttershy mewled, glancing over her shoulder as she ran.

Discord pulled several parts of the roof off before pausing, his smile fading slightly. He adopted a thoughtful look. “Hmmm, I’ll tell you what—you let me squish you, and then I’ll let you know if I feel sad about it, okay?” Ripping up another tree, he placed it lengthwise down the hall and gave it a huge push, sending it rocketing down the hall towards the retreating ponies.

Twilight’s eyes widened as the tree trunk raced towards them like a speeding train, and her horn flared with magic. There was a loud ‘crack’, and the six mares disappeared just as the large wooden missile reached them.

They reappeared in an explosion of light, each yelping in surprise as they tumbled across the floor of the Elements’ room.

“Ugh, Ah think we left mah stomach behind,” Applejack groaned weakly.

“Wheee! Let’s go again!” Pinkie giggled, her eyes rolling about her head.

“Okay, yeah, that was great and all,” Rainbow grunted, pulling herself out from underneath Rarity and Fluttershy, “but why didn’t we just teleport to here in the first place?”

“Because,” Twilight panted, gasping for air, “it takes a lot of magic. I had to disable all the security spells, teleport all of us in, and then activate all the spells again. They won’t keep Discord out for long, but hopefully long enough.” Getting shakily to her hooves, she limped along on three hooves towards the ornate chest sitting atop a small pedestal.

“Twilight, your leg,” Fluttershy murmured as she got to her hooves.

“We can deal with it later,” Twilight grunted, wincing in pain. “We have to take care of Discord first.” Supporting herself with the pedestal, she opened the chest’s lid, revealing the Elements of Harmony.

Upon seeing the glittering jewelry, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank Celestia. They’re still here.” Pulling the Element of Magic out and placing it upon her head, she did the same with the other Elements, tossing them to their respective owners. “Quick, put them on before Discord—GAH!”

The room rocked back and forth, causing Twilight to fall off the pedestal and onto her back. Luckily, everyone was able to put their Elements on before they too tumbled to the floor. The room shook again before, with a loud, grinding ‘crack’, the ceiling was ripped away like the roof being removed from a dollhouse. The hellish sky above was revealed, as well the grinning face of Discord.

“Well, this certainly brings back memories, doesn’t it?” he asked, a large grin spreading across his muzzle.

“Girls! Now!” Twilight shouted as she staggered to her hooves. The gem in her crown began to glow, and she was quickly lift into the air. Around her, the other Element Bearers followed suit, their necklaces pulsing with power. The crackle of electricity filled the air, and stray bolts of lightning dance around the room. Light began to leak from the Elements, consolidating into a single point just above all their heads. In one finally burst, the energy flew to Twilight’s horn before an explosion of color erupted force in a hurricane of power.

The rainbow beam flew through the air, heading straight for Discord. It bore down on him like a thunderbolt…

...only to pass through the empty space where his head used to be.

“W-what?” Twilight gasped before dropping to the ground. She collapsed with a whinny as her injured leg gave out.

“You didn’t really think that would work, did you?” Discord chuckled, his voice echoing around the room. “A telegraphed attack like that? Please! Anyone can see it coming a mile away.”

“It worked on you once,” Rainbow shouted, stomping her hoof.

“Indeed it did, I will give you that,” Discord hummed. “However, that was mostly due to me underestimating you six pains in the neck. That, my little ponies, won’t happen again.”

“What do we do now?” Applejack asked. She glanced around nervously, her ears splaying back.

“Unng, get to the rooftop,” Twilight groaned as Rarity and Fluttershy helped her up, supporting her between them. “It’ll give us more room to aim.”

“And if he dodges again?” Rainbow asked.

“Then we keep blasting him until we hit!” Twilight growled. “Unless you have a better idea?!”

Rainbow puffed out her cheeks and glanced away, but didn’t say anything.

“That’s what I thought,” Twilight panted. “Now, everypony hold on. Rarity, Fluttershy, you might have to help me stand after this.” Her horn began to glow, and before anyone could protest her use of magic, the Elements’ room disappeared in a flash of light.

They reappeared atop one of the palace’s rooftops, their hooves clacking against the shingles as they tried to find purchase. Wind pulled at their manes and coats, and Applejack had to grab onto her hat to stop it from blowing away.

“Damn,” Rainbow breathed, glancing wide-eyed around at the chaotic landscape around her.

“This isn’t like last time,” Pinkie murmured, her hair losing its poofiness. “Where’s the cotton candy clouds? Where’s the chocolate milk?” A shiver ran down her spine as a low, keening wail echoed around the castle, followed by another and then another. “This isn’t fun anymore.”

Twilight sagged suddenly, blood dribbling from her nostrils as she gasped in pain.

“Twilight!” Rarity shrieked.

“’M fine,” she slurred, even as the blood stained her lips. “Just used too much magic. I’m… I’m fine. Where’s Discord?”

“There he is,” Applejack said, pointing with a hoof.

The draconequus was no longer focused on them. He was crouched over one of the lower buildings, his attention drawn toward something else. Twilight could faintly see spellfire flying through the air only to wash over Discord with no visible effect.

“Now’s… now’s our chance,” she wheezed. “While he’s distracted. Let’s do this!”

“Right!” all her friends said at the same time, nodding their heads in unison. They moved to stand around her, Rarity and Fluttershy still supporting her weight.

As the familiar warmth began to slowly spread throughout her chest, a weak smile touched Twilight’s lips. She gave a sigh of relief as she was slowly lifted into the air, taking the weight off of her injured leg. It still hurt, a dull throb pulsing from the bite wound, but she was able to ignore it.

Around her, her friends floated as well, the gems in their necklaces taking on a faint glow that gradually increased in intensity. The light around the gems began to change color, each one taking on the familiar tone of their respective Bearer. Orange, pink, red, blue, purple; the colored light danced around the floating ponies, consolidating together around Twilight’s crown.

Discord remained oblivious to what was happening behind him, still crouched over the half-destroyed structure below.

The Element of Magic flashed white, and Twilight felt the gathered energy flow through her, warming her body and easing her pain. A ball of swirling rainbows gathered around the Bearers as all their eyes began to glow. Narrowing her eyes, Twilight aimed as best she could, focusing on the colossal target in front of her. He was right there, right in front of them. Statistically, she shouldn’t be able to miss.

Her eyes widened when Discord suddenly straightened up triumphantly, something clasped tight in his lion’s paw. He cackled madly, waving the paw back and forth before bringing it in front of his face. He started to turn around, and Twilight panicked. Before Discord had a chance to notice them, she double-checked her aim one last time. Satisfied, she quickly felt for the mental trigger in her mind and, with a loud gasp, pulled it with all her might.

A beam of rainbows exploded out of the center of the Bearers as the Elements of Harmony fired. The surrounding area was bathed in a prismatic wave of light as the blast raced towards Discord.

Twilight bit her lip, praying that he wouldn’t notice until it was too late. Luckily, even as the rainbow raced towards him, Discord remained distracted by the object in his grasp. Shaking it back and forth, he jeered loudly, although Twilight couldn’t understand him as his words were lost in the roar of the Elements. Her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing. What does he have? It isn’t a pony, is it?

Discord shifted, and she was suddenly able to see exactly what it was that he was holding. Her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes widened. She tried to cancel the Elements of Harmony, but was unable to. She could only watch in horror as the rainbow beam slammed into Discord, consuming the draconequus in an explosion of light.

As the world around them went white, Twilight let out a soul-rending cry.

“No!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As we traversed the halls, it soon became apparent that the architecture had taken a lot more damage than I had originally thought. I wasn’t sure if it was the constant shaking of the castle, the fighting, or whatever Discord was now doing, but getting through the halls was turning into something like an Olympic event. Fallen pillars, piles of rubble, collapsed arches littered the halls; it was a bloody obstacle course! It didn’t help that I had my armor on as well, the bulky attire slowing me down and preventing easy movement.

And to make matters worse, I was still feeling the effects of Primrose’s… feeding.

Clambering over another pile of debris, I paused and sagged against the cracked wall, trying to catch my breath. A bout of lightheadedness took me, the dizzying sensation causing me to wince as my stomach churned. The side of my neck throbbed gently, a constant reminder of the bite mark.

As the room slowly stopped spinning, I felt something nudge my knee. Cracking open an eye, I glanced down through my helmet’s porthole. One of the ponies—the male unicorn with white fur—was nudging me with his hoof, a concerned look on his face.

“” he nickered. “”

“You know… I still can’t… understand you,” I panted.

“” the pegasus squawked, glancing over her shoulder. “”

“<I’m working on it!>” the unicorn yelled at her before turning his gaze back to me. His eyes softened, and he waved a hoof at me, beckoning me along.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” I grunted, pushing myself off of the wall.

“Alpha, come,” Pyresteed said from further down the hall. “Come, fight.”

“I said I was coming,” I yelled as I staggered forward, heading towards her and the other waiting members of my entourage.

“<Terminal, I don’t see how the Anomaly is supposed to handle Discord when he’s clearly on his last leg,>” the pegasus nickered as we set off again. She flew through the air beside me, shooting me a strange look before glancing back at <Terminal>.

Hey, I’m starting to recognize some of their weird-ass horse words! I realized, chuckling weakly to myself. I had no clue what it meant, but I was fifty percent sure it was the white unicorn’s name… okay thirty-five percent sure… twenty…

Fuck it, I didn’t know if it was his name or not, but I had heard the same three clicks and a neigh every time a pony wanted to get his attention, so it had to be related to him in some way.

“<You would be tired too if you had that much blood taken from you,>” <Terminal> replied.

The pegasus clicked her tongue. “<Maybe, but that still doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s practically half-dead to the world!>”

“<It’s fine, Steelwing,>” <Terminal> snorted. “<I’m sure he has some kind of plan.>”

I paused briefly midstep, my brow furrowing. Why do I suddenly feel like someone has unrealistically high expectations of me?

“<I hope so,”> <Steelwing> huffed before lowering her head and zooming off down the hall as she scouted ahead. She disappeared around the corner, only for a loud squawk to echo back down the hall. “<Buck!>”

“<Steelwing!>” <Terminal> whinnied loudly, his eyes widening in alarm. His pace increased, and he galloped off, the other ponies following close behind me. The other humans and I brought up the rear.

As we rounded the corner, the source of the pegasus’ distress was revealed. A tree had come crashing through the wall, causing the floor to collapse, falling through several stories to where it now rested, far below. This left a huge gap between us and the rest of the hallway, leaving nothing but empty space between us and a good hundred foot drop.

“<Where the buck did this come from?!>” <Steelwing> growled, glaring at the misplaced tree. Oddly enough, there appeared to be a large bite taken out of the tree’s canopy.

“<I’ll give you three guesses as to where,>” one of the unicorns nickered, leaning carefully out and glancing through the gaping hole in the building. Discord was visible, tearing apart a different building with unabandoned glee.

I paused, my eyes narrowing as something about Discord caught my attention.

“Is… is that a hunting cap?” I muttered in disbelief.

The earth pony mare gave me a confused look before shaking her head and snorting. “<Forget about where it came from, how are we going to get across? It’d take too long to climb down the rubble and back up the other side.>”

“<I’ve got this,>” <Steelwing> huffed. Flying down, she looped her legs around the earth pony’s body, causing her to yelp as she was lifted into the air. <Steelwing> carried her across the gap carefully before setting her down on the other side of the tree, the foliage hiding them from view. After a few seconds, <Steelwing> reappeared, heading back over to grab her next passengers.

“This take too long,” Psy growled. Hefting his hammer unto his shoulder, he took several steps back before, with a running leap, he launched himself across the gap. He disappeared into the foliage, branches and leaves flying everywhere as he tore through the canopy. There was a brief pause before a loud yelp came from the other side. “<What the—? Where the buck did you come from?!>”

“<What the buck was that?>” breathed, staring wide-eyed at the hole that Psy created leaves.

Kerk grunted softly before following after Psy, leaping across the hole with little effort. Jane glanced expectantly at me, and I shook my head.

“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I can’t make that jump. I’m not even going to try.”

She just blinked before her gaze drifted to something behind me. I didn’t have any time to turn before something grabbed me and lifted me off my feet.

“Go, yes?” I heard Tarzan ask.

“Yes!” Jane chirped, nodding energetically.

“W-what? Wait, no!” I shouted as he carried me bodily to the edge of the gap. I heard several of the ponies nickering in alarm, but Tarzan ignored them. “No, let’s talk about this! There’s got to be another way across! I don’t like where this is goin—GAH!” I flailed helplessly as Tarzan heaved me across the hole and into the foliage of the tree. Leaves and branches smacked my helmet as I ripped through them. Unable to see and unable to aim, I prayed that I would make it to the other side.

Halfway through the branches, a particularly large one caught one of my shins, causing me to flip. I burst out of the leaves and landed hard on my back. My momentum caused me to roll across the floor until I crashed into a wall with a loud ‘crack’. The impact left me dazed, and I just laid there, staring up at the ceiling.

After a few seconds, a pony head appeared above me. “<Are you okay, sir?>”

“Did anybody catch the number on that bus?” I slurred. Rolling about, I staggered shakily to my feet. Psy was standing off to the side, staring at me with a neutral look on his face, as was Kerk.

The guard watched me for a few seconds before turning and calling back through the tree’s foliage, “” The sound of affirmation came from the other side. The mare turned her attention back to me, only to yelp a second later as both Jane and Tarzan suddenly burst through the leaves, alighting softly on the marble. She glared at them before snorting and stalking off down the hall, grumbling to herself. “<Bucking humans, leaping around like bucking lemurs and shit. Scaring mares half to death. Ain’t right.>”

“I don’t like it when you pick me up,” I growled, shooting Tarzan a glare as I rubbed my now bruised shoulder. “It’s never fun.”

“Alpha weak,” Psy snorted.

Tarzan gave me a confused look. “Alpha across, yes?”

“Alpha not a football, yes?” I snarked. “No more picking me up, and definitely no more throwing me around. Got it?” He nodded, and I went back to rubbing my shoulder. The sound of flapping wings reached my ears and I turned around. <Steelwing> fluttered through the gap in the foliage, carrying <Terminal> with her. He looked pretty uncomfortable with the situation, his eyes darting nervously to the pile of rubble far below.

He didn’t relax until he had all four hooves on the ground.

“<Ugh, I’m so glad I’m not a pegasus,>” he grunted.

“<What’s the matter, Lance? Not a cloudhopper?>” <Steelwing> smirked.

“<My parents were earth ponies, thank you,>” <Terminal> nickered. “<I enjoy having hooves firmly on the ground.>”

“Getting real sick of this,” I grumbled, looking back and forth between the two of them. “What the fuck are you two saying?!”

<Terminal> gave me a confused look before shaking his head and closing his eyes. It was only then that I noticed his horn was glowing softly. A look of concentration crossed his face, the light growing brighter until, with a ‘crack’, the other two unicorns appeared out of thin air.

Turning to Tarzan, I hooked a thumb back at the unicorns. “See that? That’s a lot easier than you tossing me about like a rag doll.”

He snorted but said nothing.

“<Alright, we’re all across,>” <Terminal> snorted, cracking his neck. “” A shout came from further down the hall, and upon glancing around, I saw the earth pony peeking around from around the corner.

“<Oi, Lance!>” she whinnied. “<The rest of the hallway is mostly clear! We’ve got a clean shot to the stairs!>” <Terminal> nodded and started forward, the other ponies accompanying him.

“I guess we follow them,” I muttered.

Psy huffed before stalking off down the hall as well.

The corridor was fairly clear of debris, the biggest being a pillar that had fallen parallel to the wall. Even the windows weren’t broken, although one of them was cracked. A curving stairway rested at the far end, as did an archway running underneath it that lead deeper into the castle.

Reaching the stairs, I had just started up them when a loud nicker came from behind me. I glanced around, only to find the ponies were headed through the archway instead.

“<Where do you think you’re going?>” <Terminal> asked, giving me a confused look. He pointed a hoof through the archway. “<The courtyard is this way. You know? Courtyard? Where Discord is?>” When I continued to stare at him blankly, he growled and shook his head. “<Really wish I had learned hoof-language now.>”

“<Hang on a second. Let me try something,>” the earth pony neighed, stepping forward. She glanced up at me, before signing, ~Where go?~

“<You know hoof-language?>” <Steelwing> snorted, raising an eyebrow.

“<Not a lot,>” the earth pony replied. “<Only a few basic words. Nothing more.>”

I waited until she turned back to me before replying.

~Up~ I signed before pointing towards the ceiling. This caused her to snort loudly and shake her head. She didn’t need to translate for the others, the gesture being enough to get the message across, and their responses were the same as hers.

“<Why in Tartarus is he going upstairs?>” <Steelwing> grunted, fluttering her wings. “<There’s nothing up there but some spare offices!>”

“<It’s not our place to question it,>” <Terminal> sighed. “<Night Light ordered us to protect the Anomaly, nothing more.>”

<Steelwing> grunted, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, she and the earth pony quickly climbed the steps, getting in front of me and the other humans. <Steelwing> motioned for me to follow her.

I shrugged before continuing up the stairs. The staircase turned halfway up, heading back in the other direction. The landing had several large, stained-glass windows adorning its walls, and I paused to glance out of one of them. Through the colored glass, I saw that there was a small drop to a roof below. As I was watching, Discord’s tail whipped by outside.

Hang on a second… this… this might work, I mused, eyes narrowing. Ignoring the ponies climbing the second half of the stairs, I stepped towards the windows instead. I ran a hand over a particularly large piece of red glass. Satisfied with it, I pulled back and drove my gauntleted fist through the glass, shattering the window instantly.

As the large shards of glass fell to the floor with a loud clatter, several yelps came from behind me. “<What the buck are you doing?>” Ignoring the ponies nickering behind me, I knocked a few remaining pieces of glass out of the frame before stepping through.

The wind pushed against me as I stepped out onto the roof. Several shingles came loose under my weight, but I managed to stay standing. My human companions stepped through the broken window as well, their bare feet finding better purchase on the shingles than my boots.

“<Are you bucking serious? What the buck is he doing?>” <Steelwing> squawked as she peered through the broken window.

“<Night Light owes me big for this,>” <Terminal> grunted, pulling himself carefully through the window and onto the roof.

Pyresteed carefully walked up to me and pointed. “Alpha, look.”

“I see him,” I muttered weakly.

Discord was currently wrapped around a nearby tower. The roof was ripped off, and he had his head stuck inside the tower. As I watched, he quickly pulled his head back impossibly far just as a beam of rainbows flashed through the air.

“<The Elements of Harmony,>” <Terminal> breathed as he moved to stand beside me, his eyes wide.

“You didn’t really think that would work, did you?” Discord suddenly chuckled, still hanging off the tower. “A telegraphed attack like that? Please! Anyone can see it coming a mile away.” He paused, an ear twitching before he continued. “Indeed it did, I will give you that. However, that was mostly due to me underestimating you six pains in the neck. That, my little ponies, won’t happen again.”

“‘You six’?” I muttered before my eyes widened. “Twilight!”

Discord chuckled again, and his tail began to move. Repositioning itself around the base of the tower, it began to constrict, the masonry beneath it cracking and crumbling, making the tower more and more unstable.

Not caring that I could somehow understand what Discord was saying, nor caring that I didn’t really have a plan, I stepped forward, raised my right hand, and snapped my fingers. Fire erupted around my hand and, pulling my arm back, I threw it at Discord with all my might.

“Discord!” I howled as a large fireball sailed through the air, the prismatic flames taking on an eerie appearance beneath the blood-red moon high above. It slammed into the side of his head, the fire splashing across his face, singing his fur. His grip on the tower slipped, and he fell backwards, arms flailing comically through the air. After a few seconds he righted himself and glanced around in confusion.

Then his gaze landed on me.

“You!” The comedic bewilderment instantly left his face, replaced instead by a look of cold fury. Unraveling himself from the tower, he flared his mismatched wings before launching himself into the sky.

“<Lance,>” <Steelwing> gulped. Her eyes were wide as she watched Discord slither through the air towards us. “<I suddenly understand why the Anomaly’s guards failed their assignment.>”

“<Yeah, I’m kind of figuring that as well,>” <Terminal> nickered. His horn began to glow, as did the other unicorns’, magic crackling down their lengths. “<Doesn’t matter though. We have a job to do.>”

The ponies seemed nervous, and I couldn’t really blame them. As Discord got nearer, I suddenly realized how big he was and, needless to say, I was beginning to have second thoughts.

“So, how much experience points do you think this will get me?” I asked Pyresteed, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. I had his attention, but I had no fucking clue how I was going to take him down. My plan so far consisted of the following: step one—shoot fireball, step two—get his attention, step three—???, and step four—profit.

She gave me a confused look before chirping. “Alpha, fight.”

“Yes, but how?”

“Alpha strong. Can beat!”

“Yes… but how?!” I growled.

She blinked once before opening her mouth, but it was too late.

A pair of mismatched paws smashed down on either side of us, destroying the roof and sending shingles raining to the ground far below. The impact nearly caused me to topple over as the roof shook beneath me, and I struggled to remain upright. The ponies had it a lot worse, what with their hooves, and the earth pony nearly slid off the roof completely, only being saved at the last moment by <Steelwing>.

Discord sneered down at me, his lips pulling back to reveal yellowed, crooked fangs.

“You,” he growled, his red eyes narrowing. “It’s always you, isn’t it? I’m beginning to understand how Celestia feels when dealing with me. I would ask how you managed to escape, but I’m beyond caring at this point.”

“It’s okay, I wasn’t going to tell you anyways,” I said, sounding more confident than I was. Truthfully, it was taking everything I had to simply not stutter.

“Why?” Discord growled. “Why are you constantly against me? We should want the same thing, and be working together on the same side. I brought you here to help me, but instead you side with the blasted ponies! Why? Why?! Why are you ruining my symphony of catastrophe? Look around you, boy!” He shouted, leaning back and motioning around at the world that was slowly being torn apart. “This is what the ponies deserve! This is poetic justice! Are you so stupid—so blind—that you can’t understand that? Can you not see?!”

Beside me, <Terminal> nickered something, glaring up at Discord.

“I’m gonna be honest here,” I said, glancing around at the floating islands. “I’m not a big fan of it. It’s a bit too terrifying for my taste.”

“You insolent, little bastard!” Discord snarled. Ripping his paw free from the roof, he lunged for me.

<Terminal> whinnied loudly, and the unicorns suddenly released a salvo of spellfire. The spells struck Discord’s paw, causing him to hiss and flinch back, parts of his fur now singed. Still, this barely slowed him down. Growling, he swatted the ponies away with a flick of his wrist. They tumbled across the rooftop, several smashing through the stained-glass windows in an explosion of colored glass shards. <Terminal> struck the side of the building and rolled, his limp body sliding down the roof and out into space.

“<Lance!>” <Steelwing> yelped, diving off the roof to save him.

Ignoring the pegasus, Discord gave his paw a shake before reaching for me again. “Come to Dissy!”

Psy stepped forward and swung his hammer around, only to have Discord flick it effortlessly away. Before Psy had a chance to recover, Discord picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. He flew through the air before landing in a tree far below.

“No more distractions!” Discord sneered, lunging for me again. I tried to dodge, but was ultimately too slow. The massive paw wrapped around me, hauling me violently into the air. I gasped as the air was crushed from my lungs, the pressure he was putting on my armor causing it to creak and groan.

“Alpha!” Pyresteed shouted from somewhere below.

Cackling madly, Discord began to shake me around like a maraca. The force was enough to send my helmet flying off. I wasn’t sure where it went though, the world spinning as my eyes rolled in my head. My stomach voiced its displeasure at the sensation, and I gagged.

The shaking eventually stopped, and a large pair of red eyes suddenly filled my vision.

“Got you, you little bastard,” Discord said gleefully, “and unlike last time, I’m not just going to stick you in a hole in the ground and hope for the best. Oh no, this time I have power and I’m going to use it. Oh, but what to do with you?” he asked, giving me another shake. “Teleport you to the top of a tall, frozen mountain? No, that wouldn’t be satisfying. Oh, how about I turn you to stone? No, no… you’d probably figure out a way to get free. Heaven knows that I did. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?” He hummed, tugging at his goatee thoughtfully. Slowly, his eyes began to drift towards the tower he had been wrapped around earlier. His eyes lit up, a large, creepy grin spreading across his face.

“Oh, I know!” he cooed, slowly turning back to smirk down at me. “Oh, yes. This is going to be so much fun. It’s kind of funny too? Last time I turned her friends against her.” His grin continued to grow until it threatened to split his head in half. “This time—” his grip around me tightened, causing me to gasp in pain “—this time, I’ll turn the object of her affection against her instead. Oh, this is brilliant!” He cackled. “I can see it now: the despair on her face as her heart’s desire rips her heart from her chest. Delicious!”

“Not… gonna… happen,” I grunt, struggling in his grasp. After a few seconds of wiggling about, I managed to pull my arm free, and with it, the knife Avera had given me. Flipping it around quickly, I plunged it into Discord’s paw.

He paused and glanced down at the knife before giving me a deadpan look. “Seriously?”

I stared down at the knife as well. It had barely broken the skin. Pulling it free, I stabbed him again, only to be met with the same results. Undeterred, I just started stabbing him a bunch of times.

“Stop it,” he grunted. “That’s annoying.” He gave his paw a quick shake, which caused the knife to fly from my hand. We both watched as it tumbled through the air and disappeared into the gloom below.

Discord glanced back up at me and cocked an eyebrow. “That was your plan?”

“No,” I huffed. “That wasn’t my plan. That was a… distraction.”

“A distraction?” He scoffed. “You know what? Never mind, I don’t care. Just hold still. I need to mess around with your mind for a second.” Holding me up, he extended a claw towards my head. I quickly lifted up my hand to protect myself, only to have the claw slice into my gauntlet.

I screamed in pain as he pulled his claw free, taking the gauntlet with it in a shower of blood.

“Whoops! Well, that’s what you get for being stupid,” Discord tsked. “You can’t really blame me for that; you brought that on yourself. Now, for the last time, hold still. I don’t want to damage you further before I can sic you on Twit-light Narkle, but I’m not above breaking my toys.”

He moved to touch my head again, and again I lifted my bloody hand to stop him, but he knocked it away with his claw. With that, he moved the claw to my forehead.

“Remember,” he growled as his eyes began to glow a sickly yellow, “make it slow, and make… her… scream.”

I could do nothing but look on in horror as he lowered the claw, the glowing tip inching closer and closer to my face. Trying to grab it with my hand only resulted in the appendage slipping through my bloody grasp. I could feel the heat emanating from talon as it pressed against my forehead—

A wall of rainbows slammed into us like a freight train, engulfing both Discord and I in a whirlwind of prismatic light. A loud roaring filled my ears, muffling Discord’s screams as the rainbow tore into him. It swirled around his body, ensnaring his body like chains. His grip around me tightened to almost unbearable levels before suddenly vanishing. I felt myself plummet through the air even as the rainbow blaze around us slowly grew to blinding intensity. I didn’t even have a chance to scream before the world was consumed in white light...

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

White.

That’s all that the world consisted of.

It wasn’t even a pure white either; it was tinted light blue in some places, dark blue in others. It wasn’t uniform, and seemed to shift about so that no place was the same hue for more than a few seconds. White specks floated through the air, flickering in and out of existence seemingly at random.

I glanced around in confusion, unsure of how I wound up in this place. There seemed to be nothing here, the place seeming to stretch on forever, yet it also felt like it was closing in on me. I reached out a hand, half expecting to touch a wall or something, only to have it pass through the air effortlessly. The sudden movement caused the air to stir, and I was suddenly aware of a mist that hung about the ground. It was so thick that it hid my feet from view when I glanced down, my legs disappearing into the swirling white fog.

Glancing down also brought to my attention the fact that I was no longer wearing my armor. I was in regular clothing, and appeared to be unscathed. My previous injuries and scars were gone, and as I raised my hands, I realized that I could see out of my right eye again.

I stared down at myself for a good while, opening and closing my right eye experimentally, unused to it being functional. Ultimately, I closed it and kept it closed. I had become so used to it being blind that it felt unnatural to see out of it again.

It was then that a noise reached my ears through the mist that surrounded me: a soft thumping of something that, as I listened, seemed to grow louder. Footsteps, but unnatural in sound.

Click-thump. Click-thump. Click-thump.

Slowly, the mist parted, and out of the nothingness a familiar figure loomed.

I took a step back, my eye widening.

“Nice job, hero,” Discord growled as he slowly emerged from the mist. “Are you happy with yourself? Are you satisfied with what you’ve done? With what you’ve ruined!?” His tail thrashed back and forth angrily, stirring the mist around him. He was a lot smaller than he had been, only standing about eight feet high now. He even seemed to be shrinking as he drew nearer, but his anger stayed the same.

I raised my fists and stood my ground.

“Do you know how long I’ve been planning this?” he snarled as he stalked up to me. “Do you have any idea how many years of planning, scheming, and preparation I had to go through in order to get everything in place? Then you just come bumbling in and turn everything upside down! Why the hell couldn’t you have just done as you were told?!” he finished with a roar, thrusting his face in front of mine. “Why couldn’t you have been a good pawn, just like the rest?”

I said nothing, glaring up at him in silence.

He stayed that way for several seconds, his nose pressed against mine as he growled softly. Suddenly, he winced. With a grunt of pain, he staggered backwards, clutching at his head. Steam began to waft off of his body.

“I just need to… just, no… No, I… wait… not yet,” he snarled. The steam increased, practically billowing off his limbs as his body began to simmer and morph. His appendages began to quiver and shrink, and I had to step back again as the muscles beneath his fur began to ripple like water. There were several loud cracks as his knees inverted. Scales and feathers began to fall from his body, disappearing into the mist below. He thrashed about, his entire form still shrinking further until he was almost the same height as me.

There was one final crack, followed by an eruption of steam that completely hid his body from view. The obstructive cloud began to disperse, and as it did so, I felt my eye widen and my jaw drop.

A human now stood before me. His face was wrinkled with age, his gray hair streaked with flecks of white. Even his beard had patches of white throughout it. His eyebrows were bushy, sticking out over a pair of deep blue eyes. He had a dark green turtleneck on beneath a long lab coat. A pair of full-moon glasses rested upon the tip of his crooked nose, the glass within tinted red. He pushed them up as he composed himself.

“That’s better,” he muttered in Discord’s voice. Reaching up, he brushed off his coat before glancing around at me. “Ah, yes. That’s right… you. Hmmm, let’s start over, shall we?” He turned and, with a flourish, gave a small bow.

“My name,” he said formally as he straightened up, “is Doctor Paul Taylor Riddick, Sc.D. And with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

“What?” I breathed, my eye widening as I stared at this new human in bewilderment.

After a moment, he sighed and shook his head.

“Come, come, young man. It’s common courtesy,” he chided softly. “It’s a called an introduction. I gave you my name, now let’s hear yours.”

I continued to eye him for a few more seconds before saying simply, “Max.”

This caused his eye to twitch, his face contorting with rage.

“Your full name, boy!” he barked, before adding in a calmer tone, “if you’d please.”

At the sudden shout, I had jumped and taken another step back. Glaring at him, I huffed softly before answering. “Maximilian Zane Williams.”

“There,” the human—Paul—said with a smirk, “that wasn’t so hard, was it, Mr. Williams?”

“Fuck off,” I grunted, flipping him the bird.

This caused him to frown, his eyes becoming hooded. “So uncivilized. Although, I guess it’s to be expected… from you.”

“So are you Paul or Discord?” I asked, ignoring the insult.

He opened his mouth to reply, only to pause a moment. A thoughtful look crossed his face as he mulled the question over.

“Yes,” he said eventually.

I raised an eyebrow. “Yes to Paul, or yes to Discord?”

“Yes,” he said again, this time with a smirk.

I snorted in annoyance before glancing around. Despite Paul showing up, nothing else seemed to have changed. We were still alone, just two humans lost in an endless sea of swirling mist. White specks floated by, flickering in and out of existence.

“Where are we?” I muttered under my breath. Turning back to Paul, I glared at him as I repeated myself. “Where are we? What did you do?”

“Me?” he asked incredulously, placing a bony hand on his chest. “Oh no, don’t blame me, Mr. Williams. This isn’t my doing. I’m innocent here. You can thank your friends—the ponies—for our current predicament. As it is with most of the things they do, we’re the ones who must now suffer the consequences.”

I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant, only to blink in surprise when I was suddenly faced with empty space. He had been standing in front of me one second; the next, he was gone.

“What the fuck?” I muttered as I glanced around, searching for him. “Where the hell did you—”

“I don’t understand you, Mr. Williams.”

I yelped in surprise as he spoke from behind me. Whipping around, I saw that he was pacing about slowly, all while giving me a curious look.

“The fuck?” I gasped, placing a hand over my thundering heart.

“You, who has seen the worst side of Equestria firsthand,” he continued, pushing his glasses up his nose again. “I don’t understand. You arrive and are plucked from the desert by a pony who not only enjoys forcing humans to fight each other to the death, but also takes sadistic joy in torturing his own kind. Two weeks you are kept in deplorable conditions, only to be sold like some common household pet. Then, after you arrive in Ponyville, you are almost molested by several different mares, treated as an animal by all who come across you, and are fought over as a sex object.

“Then,” he continues, suddenly off to my right with his back to me. He glances over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised, “you are kidnapped and forced to fight within a pit for the entertainment of ponies. Something which nearly cost you your life, I might add.”

“Gee, I wonder whose fault it is that I got pulled here in the first place,” I snarked, giving him a pointed look.

“And despite all these hardships,” he said, speaking over me, “you don’t seem to blame the ponies for these slights against you.” He began to slowly circle me, rubbing his hands together absentmindedly. “In fact, you consider some of them your friends. You begin a relationship with one. You even sided with them over your own species. Your own kind. Why? Why are you so loyal to them? What have they done to win your undying loyalty? Do you even know?”

“Nothing,” I replied, turning in order to keep him in sight of my left eye. “I help them because I choose to help them. It’s my choice, my decision, done of my own free will.”

“And that’s what I don’t get,” Paul said, suddenly right in my face. He was so close that I could see myself reflected in his glasses.

I flinched but didn’t back down, glaring back at him. “I didn’t side with anyone. I’m trying to help both sides, human and pony. They can live together peacefully, helping one another.”

“Impossible,” Paul sighed, stepping back and beginning to pace again. “Impossible, and that’s not a word I throw about casually.”

“What about you, huh?” I asked. “You seem rather dead-set that ponies are evil and need to die. What the hell did they do to you, hmmm?”

“Oh no, they aren’t evil,” he tsked. “At least, not in the strictest sense of the word. As for what they did to me, that’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time,” I deadpanned, spreading my arms and motioning to the swirling mist around us.

He paused in his circling and cocked his head to the side.

“I suppose we do,” he muttered before starting to circle again. “Very well, Mr. Williams. My story. I guess it starts as most stories do: at the beginning, and with an idea.

“Skipping over my birth and adolescence, I was a member of a select group of scientists that were working on a top secret government project during the Cold War. The project was codenamed ‘Project Recall’. Its main focus was, at its core, to find a way to control and harness temporal forces.”

“Temporal… wait, you mean time travel?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Precisely,” he said, pointing at me. “We were trying to tap into the power of—as you put it—time travel so as to be able to use it on the war front. Think of all the good that could have been achieved with such power. History changed, lives saved, outcomes rewritten. We could have stopped Ivan before he was able to start spreading his communistic ways across the world. Stopped his plans before they were able to be put into effect. There wouldn’t have been a Cold War; Ivan wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“But, time travel,” I said with a laugh. “I mean, really? Come on! That’s a myth!”

“It wasn’t our first idea, I assure you,” Paul said, suddenly popping into existence several meters away from me. “Many of my colleagues ignored the theoretical and focused mainly on improving weapons that were already invented. Bombs, missiles, flamethrowers, machine guns, tanks, napalm. That’s where most of the money went. However, someone higher up must have liked the idea enough, because the project was given the green light just days after it was first suggested.”

“So you were basically wasting taxpayers’ money on a project you didn’t even think would work?”

“Yes,” he said before pausing. “Well, not quite.”

“So you did believe that it was possible?”

“Yes, I was one of the few believers in our group,” he sighed. “I had to be, considering that I was the head of the project. Besides, it wasn’t like we were going in blind. We had the previous project’s notes as well, so we had some foundation to build on.”

“Previous project?”

“Yes. Project Recall wasn’t the U.S’s first forays into time travel. Back in the 1940’s, the destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge, managed—accidentally, mind you—to travel back in time during one of their tests of an experimental device that would render the ship invisible to enemy devices. Granted, they supposedly only managed to go back about ten minutes, but that fact alone was the basis for our project.” He trailed off, his brow furrowing as he glanced down at his hands.

“This history lesson is great and all,” I said, snapping him out of his daze, “but what does it have to do with you trying to bring destruction down on the pony race?”

He stared at me blankly for a few seconds before a frown crossed his face. “I’m getting to that, Mr. Williams. Patience. Project Recall started out strong enough, and we had high hopes for what was to come. However, within a few months things began to go downhill fast and we were hit with setback after setback. Eventually, our backers pulled our funding, and the project was about to be scrapped.”

“So… you never got the theoretical time machine working?” I asked as I rubbed my temples. I could feel a headache coming on as I tried to figure out what Paul was getting at with his story.

“I, sadly, can’t tell you that because we were never able to actually finish the device,” Paul sighed, clasping his hands together. “We were close though, but time was not on our side. Nor was fate, apparently.” He slowly walked up and stood in front of me, staring at me over his red-tinted glasses. “I decided to stay late one night in order to work on the machine—a last-ditch effort to get it working and save the project. We needed the machine completely operational by morning, or we were done. I had just turned on the generators for a quick test run, but something… something went wrong. I’m not sure if it was a crossed wire, the machine’s mechanisms overheating, or some outside influence, but just as I pulled the lever, an explosion consumed the room and me with it. The shockwave knocked me out, and the world went white.”

“I think I can guess what happened next,” I muttered.

“You’d be correct in your assumption.” Paul nodded. “When I awoke, I was here, in Equestria, with half my lab along from the ride. It ended up embedded inside of a mountain, with me trapped inside. It took three days for me to blast myself out using various explosives strewn throughout the wrecked laboratory, but I managed to do it. Just before my oxygen ran out, too. Unsure of where I was at the time, I ended up wandering aimlessly through the wilderness for the better part of a day.” He paused, his face darkening. “That’s… when she found me.”

“Celestia,” I breathed.

“Yes, Mr. Williams,” he growled. “Celestia. Now, I won’t go into too much detail about our initial encounter. We did have a bit of a communication barrier, but when we were finally able to understand one another, she was rather curious as to what I was.” He paused, running his tongue slowly over his lips before shaking his head. “I should have known then that things wouldn’t end well, but in my naivety and exhaustion, I remained blind to the signs.

“She must have determined that I wasn’t a particularly worrisome threat, because she took me back to her palace, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in what is now the Everfree Forest,” he continued. “It was there that everything went to Hell in a handbasket. Don’t get me wrong, Celestia was kind enough—as was her sister when she introduced us—but she didn’t treat me as an equal. She instead treated me more like an exotic pet than a sapient creature, something that she could show off to the nobles to make them ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’. She acted more like a teenager whose parents had just bought her a new puppy than a princess dealing with a new species.”

“And that’s what caused you to go crazy?” I ask incredulously.

“No, it wasn’t,” Paul huffed before glaring at me, “and don’t call me crazy. No, Celestia treating me like a pet wasn’t the problem, although it was a bit of an annoyance. No, the real problem—the first domino falling—came from one of the nobles. They were interested in me as well, but not in the same way as Celestia. One of the younger ones—a bullheaded unicorn whose name I have chosen to forget—decided that it would be good sport to pit himself against said unknown creature in order to prove his worth. Unprovoked, he attacked me, and I defended myself. I did so a bit too well, it seems, as I ended up killing the unicorn. This, of course, caused Celestia to freak out.

“My wounds had barely begun to scab over when she had me locked in the dungeons. I tried to explain the situation to her, I tried to make her see that what had happened had been an accident, but she wouldn’t listen. I was ‘too chaotic’ for her.” He rolled his eyes. “I was too chaotic when her own ponies could get away with murder with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. They had their two alicorn goddesses to protect them from reprisal; I had no one.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, Celestia came to the narrow-minded conclusion that my ‘chaotic tendencies’—” he made air quotes with his fingers “—was due to what I was. So, she decided that in order for me to become more ‘civilized’, she needed to show me the power of harmony. Just take a second to think about that one,” he laughed, though there was no joy in it. “One of her ponies attacks me, and I’m the one that’s in the wrong. Unacceptable.

“I tried to talk her out of it, but she had made up her mind. I told her I refused, but she didn’t listen. In the middle of the night, when everyone else was asleep and unaware of what was going on, she had her little pet Star Swirl cast a spell on me that was supposed to turn me into a pony; to bring me into harmony.”

“Wait…” I said slowly, my eye narrowing. “‘Supposed to’?”

“It didn’t work!” Paul said with a lopsided grin. “Rather, I should say that it didn’t work as intended. Star Swirl managed to turn me into a pony, yes, but the transformation only lasted about ten minutes. Then I suddenly—and painfully—turned back into a human. At the time, although I was angry and in pain, I was also thankful. I was still human; I was still me. I had somehow denied Celestia her xenophobic plan. I had thought it was over…

“I was wrong.” He trailed off, his eyes becoming unfocused as he gazed off into the distance.

I watched him curiously for a few seconds before rolling my eyes. The old geezer appeared to be lost in the past. Opening my mouth to shout at him and snap him out of his daze, the words had just started to form when, with a flicker, something large appeared in front of me. I didn’t get a good look at it; it was there for but a second before disappearing again, but I what I saw was enough to cause me to jump.

It was huge, standing so much taller than I was that it practically filled my vision as it loomed over me, a pair of wings spread wide. It was out of focus, almost like it wasn’t really there. Its body flickered and distorted, reminding me of an old television whose antennas were crooked. It flickered in and out of sight for a brief moment before it disappeared completely.

I placed a hand on my chest, my heart threatening to break out of my ribs at any second. Spinning in a small circle, I tried to find any trace of the presence, but there was nothing. Not even the mist appeared to have been disturbed.

Breathing heavily, I turned my attention back to Paul, who was eyeing me expectantly.

“W-what?” I asked.

“I asked you a question, Mr. Williams. It’s usually considered courteous to answer,” he said, tsking softly.

“Sorry. I was… distracted.”

“Youths these days,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Very well, I shall repeat myself. You, much like myself, probably came to this world thinking that magic was fake, right? That’s one of the bigger differences between Earth and Equestria, correct? The presence of magic?” I nodded dumbly, and he grinned. “Exactly. But, what if I told you that that wasn’t true? Earth, despite what we might think, does indeed have magic.” He raised his hands, sickly yellow sparks dancing between his bony fingers. “Chaos magic.”

I gave him an incredulous look before laughing. “I’d say dementia seems to have set in, gramps.”

“But it’s true,” Paul said, lowering his hands and beginning to pace back and forth. “Think about it: here in Equestria there’s Harmonious magic, right? Pegasi control the weather, earth ponies control the plants, ponies help convert winter to spring, and so on and so forth. The Princesses even move the sun and moon across the skies.” I scoffed at that, but he ignored me. “With that in mind, where’s the one place that is not under the control of ponies? The one place that is left to its own devices?”

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. “The Everfree Forest?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding happily. “Very good, Mr. Williams, the Everfree Forest. A place that is filled with Chaos magic, by yours truly, I might add. Now, what happens in the Everfree? Plants thrive without pony intervention, the animals tend to themselves, and the weather is nigh unpredictable. Doesn’t that sound oddly familiar?” he asked, giving me a pointed look. “Doesn’t that sound remarkably like Earth?”

“An odd coincidence doesn’t mean that there’s magic on Earth,” I huffed, crossing my arms. “Besides, if there was indeed Chaos magic on Earth, why don’t we have timberwolves, manticores, hydras, and other weird creatures running around?”

Paul smirked. “Because Earth lacks one basic thing those creatures need in order to exist.”

“Logic?”

“Harmonious magic,” Paul said. “There is none on Earth, but here it’s abundant. Harmonious magic mixed with Chaos magic can lead to… interesting results.” He motioned back and forth between us. “You and I are prime examples of this.”

My eye narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” he said with a smirk. “As I said, I was wrong when I said that Star Swirl’s spell didn’t work. It did, in fact, work. Just not as intended. It didn’t turn me into a pony. It turned me into something else entirely.”

“A psychopath?”

“A god!” he cried, arms thrown out wide. “It didn’t show right away. Somehow Luna managed to convince Celestia to let me go. I spent the next few days hiding from her, sleeping during the day and hanging around Luna during the night. She seemed to sympathize with my plight of not being liked, and I used this to my advantage. Things returned to normal—or as normal as things could be in a magical world full of talking ponies—and I began working on trying to figure out how to get back home. Then, it happened.

“I woke up to find that my left hand morphed into an eagle-like claw. Celestia was elated to find out, believing that the reason Star Swirl’s spell hadn’t worked was because I wasn’t meant to be a pony, but a griffon instead. She was wrong. I cornered Star Swirl and tried to force her to stop the spell, but there was nothing she could do. There was no reversing it; the effects were permanent. Over the course of next few days my body slowly, painfully, excruciatingly, transformed into an abomination. In the end, the spell was successful. It took my humanity from me. Celestia robbed me of my humanity. And with that, I vowed to get revenge.”

“And your revenge?”

“She took my humanity from me; I would take her precious order and harmony from her,” Paul said grimly. “But first, I had lots of preparation to do. Before the transformation claimed me completely, I took some of my blood; my DNA. Using it, I planned to create humanity in Equestria, with a little help from a unicorn friend I had made over the course of my time here. With her help, I began the process of creating a new human race. Unfortunately, my blood was not enough. The spell had done its work too well; my human DNA had been corrupted. Luckily, I was able to work around that problem. I just had to combine several other species’ DNA as well: diamond dogs, minotaurs, wolves, etcetera. It took multiple tries, but eventually I was able to recreate humanity.”

My eye widened in shock as my mind processed what he was saying. “You made the Equestrian humans?”

“Indeed, they are my children.” He nodded. “Created by me using the various machines in the laboratory that came with me. Created in order to take control of the ponies when the time was right.”

I frowned, my brow furrowing. “The Equestrian humans were meant to control the ponies?”

“We dominate equines back on Earth,” Paul said. “I would show Celestia who was in control when humanity stood triumphant over her precious little ponies. Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan.”

“The Equestrian humans were too stupid.”

“I jumped the gun,” he said with a grimace. “I got too eager; too ambitious. The humans were still developing, still growing, yet I decided to preemptively start my revenge. I hit Star Swirl first, the cause of my transformation. Oh, I didn’t kill her, oh no. But I did take something special from her, oh yes. Just to make sure she suffered as I did.”

I nodded slowly, only to pause, a confused look crossing my face. “Wait… ‘she’? I thought Star Swirl was male.”

For some reason this seemed to amuse Paul.

“You and everyone else when I was done with her,” he chuckled, his glasses flashing. “A pity too. She was so looking forward to being a mother. I won’t deny that I enjoyed the look of despair on her face, but she wasn’t the instigator of all this; Celestia was. I did my best to make her life a living hell, spreading chaos as far and wide as I could. Unfortunately, before I could finish exacting my revenge, she and her sister managed to thwart me and imprison me in my stony prison. I remained there for over a thousand years, until I managed to escape a couple years ago. The rest is, as they say, history.” He slipped his hands into his coat pockets as he finished, looking at me expectantly.

I groaned and rubbed my head. “Okay, let’s say for one second that I did believe you. Why is that Celestia and Luna don’t remember you? They were shocked to learn that I was intelligent.”

“That was a little bit of genius on my part,” Paul said. “It seems that my transformation gave me an uncanny control over mental magic. I can make ponies turn on each other, give up their morals and ideals, and even—should enough power be used—cause them to forget certain things. One massive spell that nearly killed me later, and Paul T. Riddick, the human, was lost. Only Discord remained.”

“So all of this was to get revenge on Celestia?” I asked. “Creating humans, bringing me and the others here to this world, and staging this revolution; all of this was to get revenge on Celestia? To make humans the dominant species on the planet?” He nodded. “That’s insane!”

“I’m not insane!” he screamed suddenly, causing me to jump. “Don’t you dare judge me! You haven’t experienced what I have. You don’t know what I went through.” Sickly yellow sparks danced up and down his body, and his eyes flashed red. “I… am not… insane,” he said slowly, taking deep breaths as he tried to calm himself.

“Sorry,” he said in a much calmer voice. “He… I sometimes get a little riled up. The human mind isn’t designed to last over a millennium. It… slips occasionally.”

Silence fell over the unnatural world, the mist drifting lazily past. We stared at each other as my brain tried to make sense of everything he had just told me. It all didn’t make any sense, and yet at the same time, I somehow knew he was telling the truth.

Rubbing at my closed eye, I sighed heavily.

“So what do we do now?” I asked softly.

“Do, Mr. Williams?” Paul asked, clasping his hands behind his back. “Why, it’s simple. We wait.”

I gave him a blank look. “Wait for what, exactly?”

“I don’t know!” he said with a happy laugh, throwing his hands into the air. “I don’t know about you, but I have time to spare. You may have ruined my plans this time, but I—unlike you—appear to have all the time in the world to think up another one. So you can spend this time doing whatever you want; I’m gonna get a head start on my plotting.”

“And what makes you think you’re going to get another chance?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m over one thousand years old, Mr. Williams,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve been turned to stone three times. I highly doubt I’m going to die any time soon.”

“Maybe not from natural causes,” I said, “but I don’t think Celestia will allow you to remain a threat. Especially after what you’ve done here today.”

Paul laughed, throwing back his head and cackling madly. His glasses flashed again, turning his eyes red for a brief second.

“Celestia won’t kill me,” he wheezed, resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “It’s not in her nature. Even when something like me is a threat to her ponies, she prefers non-lethal tactics. Banishment to the moon, imprisonment in Tartarus, frozen in ice, or imprisoned in stone. Even when the changelings had invaded Canterlot, she didn’t seek violence on their race. It’s her nature to be compassionate, and it’s her biggest weakness. Even after all I’ve done here, she won’t kill me, I can almost guarantee it. I’d even be willing to bet she just seals me in stone again.”

“You really think she’s going to be that naive?”

“Past experience says ‘yes’,” he smirked. “Old age won’t kill me, and neither will Celestia or the Elements of Harmony. Face it, Mr. Williams. It’s just a matter of time before I get another chance.” His smile faded, and his face darkened. “And next time, you won’t be there to fuck everything up.”

“And if I decided to try and stop you here and now?” I asked.

This just caused him to laugh again. “What are you planning on doing, Mr. Williams? Strangle me to death? There’s nothing here but you and I. No, there’s no way that you can kill me. Sorry, but it’s not going to happen—”

A blinding flash of light interrupted him, and we both had to shield our eyes. A gust of wind suddenly whipped up around us, stirring the mist into a veritable whirlwind. A loud chiming noise echoed around us, followed by a metallic ‘thunk’. The light began to fade, and we lowered our hands, blinking tears from our eyes.

There, with its head embedded into the ground in between us, was an axe. The metal head glinted as the little flecks of white light popped and sparkled around it. The mist, disturbed by whatever forces had brought it here, began to slowly consolidate around it once more.

Both Paul and I stared at the axe with wide eyes before slowly glancing up at each other. Neither of us moved, each holding our breath.

Then, as one, we both dove for the axe.

Chapter 64: From the Ashes and the Dust

Drew Rayner slowly stood up, his eyes unblinking as he kept his gaze locked on the sight before him. Frozen beside him, with his crutches half-raised to push him out of his chair, Jack Mayfield shared a similar expression. Neither moved nor breathed as they continued to stare in growing dread at what was happening before them.

“Dude, are you seeing this?” Drew asked breathlessly.

“Yeah,” Jack replied. “Kinda wish I wasn’t.”

Around them, the building began to creak and groan, causing both men to glance around nervously. Cracks appeared on the walls, slowly creeping down from the ceiling. Bits of plaster began to rain down as well, covering them in a thin layer of white dust.

Drew swallowed loudly. “Do you think the walls will hold?”

“I have no clue,” Jack muttered. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” The building groaned again as parts of it shifted before falling silent. They held their breath for a few moments, waiting to see what would happen. When the ceiling didn’t cave in, both breathed sighs of relief.

“We need to get out of here,” Drew said as he dusted off his lab coat.

“And go where, exactly?” Jack asked. He swiveled around in his chair, the wheels squeaking slightly as he moved. “Do you know how to get out of this forest? Because I certainly don’t.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “We just keep walking, dude. We’ll get out eventually.”

Jack groaned and closed his eyes. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he shook his head. “We don’t even know how big this forest is. It might take five days for us to find the edge of it. Are you willing to be out there for five days straight? With all the creatures we’ve encountered?” He gave Drew a pointed look. “With all the creatures we haven’t? What if there’s something worse out there that we haven’t encountered yet, simply because we haven’t wandered into its territory?”

“Okay, so then what?” Drew huffed, throwing his hands up. “Do we just stay here and hope for the best? Hope that those things—” he pointed at the partially obscured outside window “—don’t manage to get in?”

Jack glanced at the window as well, the pane of glass now covered in small chips and scratches, many of them fresh. It was impossible to see outside any more, their view obstructed by the large, black—

The building suddenly shifted again, a loud groan echoing through the halls. The sound of breaking glass from several rooms over reached their ears, followed by a yelp. A tentative knock came from the inner window, still covered by a blanket. “Um, excuse me. I know we’ve done this song and dance before, but would you fine gentlecolts mind opening up? I would very much appreciate it!”

Ignoring the muffled voice, Jack bit his thumb, his gaze darting around the room. His eyes landed on an old bunsen burner and he paused.

“Drew…” he said slowly, not taking his eyes off the burner.

“Yes?”

“Go get the spare tanks of propane. I have an idea.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Ignoring the worried calls from her friends, Twilight tumbled through the air, half-falling, half-flying in her desperate attempt to reach the ground. She was hyperventilating, gasps coming in quick, sporadic bursts as she struggled to get her wings to work. Her muscles burned, her head was pounding, and her vision was blurred with tears, but she pushed onwards.

As she neared the ground, her wings finally gave out and she fell the last five or so feet. She landed hard, her injured back leg giving out. Pain instantly shot up through the leg, causing her to topple onto the grass with a scream. She didn’t stay down for long though, doggedly struggling back to her hooves. Her injured leg was trembling too much to support her weight, so instead she just flutter-hopped herself forward, towards the remains of Discord.

The Elements of Harmony had done their job, and they had done it perfectly. The minute the rainbow beam had struck the draconequus, stone had immediately started to creep across his body. As he was petrified, the world slowly was restored, freed from the mind-warping reality it had been forced into. The floating islands returned to the ground, the discolored clouds vanished, and the blood-red sky returned to the cool violet of night as Discord’s magic dissipated. Within seconds, Discord was nothing more than a massive statue jutting up into the sky.

Unfortunately, Max had shared the same fate as the draconequus, his body turning to stone even as he plummeted to the ground far below. Twilight had tried desperately to catch him with her magic, or even slow him down, but she was unable to. She was forced to watch as Max’s petrified form disappeared into the gloom below, lost to view in the darkness. Even with the light provided by the waning eclipse far above, she wasn’t able to see where he had landed; only the general vicinity of his body.

However, before she had a chance to hurry down and retrieve him, it had happened. She had just managed to descend from her current rooftop to a lower one when, with a deafening ‘crack’, the large statue of Discord had collapsed. Chunks of stone rained down, clattering off rooftops and buildings, and piling up in the courtyard far below. She had to raise a wing to shield herself from smaller, ricocheting bits of rock. Within seconds, a veritable mountain of stony debris covered the destroyed courtyard and its surroundings.

This included Max.

Tears streamed down her face as Twilight climbed over the sea of rocks, the uneven footing provided by the jutting stones slowing her down. More than once loose debris shifted under her weight, and she nearly twisted her hoof on several different occasions. Still she pressed on, heading towards the far wall of the courtyard.

As she started digging frantically through the rocks, Rainbow flew down, carrying Applejack with her. Dropping her passenger down upon a fairly level section of debris, Rainbow then fluttered over to Twilight. “Twilight, calm down!”

“No! I can’t!” Twilight cried, pawing through the rocks. Struggling to push a large boulder aside, she glanced around at Rainbow, eyes wide. “Rainbow, help me, p-please!”

Rainbow shook her head. “Egghead, you’re in no condition to—”

Letting out a feral scream, Twilight grabbed the boulder with her magic and tried to heave it into the air and out of the way. Instead, her magic wavered slightly before fading. The rock rolled backwards, heading right for her. Before it could crush her, Applejack rushed up and slammed her shoulder into the boulder, pushing it aside.

“I gotcha, sugarcube,” she said, adjusting her hat.

Twilight gave her a weak smile before suddenly hissing in pain. Blood began to trickle from her nostrils and the corners of her eyes. She swayed dangerously and nearly collapsed, but Applejack moved to support her. “Whoa, there. Need tah take it easy, Twi.”

“N-nuh,” she stuttered nasally. “I needed… I need to find Max.” She tried to pull away, but only ended up sagging against Applejack’s shoulder more.

Applejack exchanged unsure looks with Rainbow, who just shrugged, before sighing and shaking her head.

“Alright, Twi. We’ll help ya look,” she said softly. “Just take it easy. Don’t want ya gettin’ even more hurt.”

Twilight nodded, breathing heavily through her mouth. Her lips were stained crimson from the blood, which slowly dripped from her chin onto the rocks below. Pushing herself off of Applejack, she started weakly digging again, only to have the smaller rocks steadily refilling her futile attempts. She whimpered before quickening her pace.

As Applejack and Rainbow began digging as well, the others arrived. Fluttershy was struggling to carry Rarity through the air while Pinkie pronked along behind them, jumping effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the ground.

“Thank you, Fluttershy, darling,” Rarity sighed as she was placed gently on a large piece of broken stone that looked like it had been part of Discord’s dragon leg.

“Oooh, what’s going on here?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up to the edge of the crater Applejack, Rainbow, and Twilight had managed to make.

Pushing aside several smaller pieces of debris with her wings, Rainbow called out, “Pinkie! Quick! The big guy is somewhere beneath this rubble. We need help finding him, and fast!”

Pinkie blinked, her mouth forming an ‘o’ before she quickly saluted. “Roger dodger, Dashie! Commander Pie is on the case!” Crouching down, she began to sniff about, climbing effortlessly through the wreckage, her tail twitching back and forth.

Rarity let out a gasp.

“Max is underneath all this?” she asked, glancing around.

“Eeyup,” Applejack grunted as she bucked her hind legs into a large chunk of stone, shattering it into smaller, more manageable pieces. Wiping her brow, she glanced up at the unicorn. “So, are ya gonna help out, or just stand there and watch?”

“Me, pick through these heavy, dirty rocks?” Rarity asked, eyeing the debris nervously. “Is… is that really necessary? Maybe I could just—”

“Rares!”

“Oh, alright,” she sighed before jumping down. Her horn lit up and she began to lift rocks out of the way. Fluttershy joined in as well, and although she was only able to move the smaller pieces of debris, she did so with surprising speed.

The six of them continued to search feverishly through the sea of rubble, slowly spreading out as they picked through the statue’s remains. Rainbow and Applejack worked quickly, a silent competition flaring to life between them to see which one of them would be able to find Max first. Pinkie kept snaking her way through the rocks, popping up here, ducking around there. The only way to tell where she was at some points was to look for the pink tail that stuck up above the debris, constantly twitching back and forth at odd intervals.

This continued for several minutes until Twilight tried to push a sizable piece of rock—one that resembled part of the side of Discord’s face—over, only to collapse against it suddenly with a pained whinny.

Fluttershy was by her side in an instant. “Oh no! A-are you alright?” Not waiting for a reply, she grabbed Twilight’s hooves gingerly with her own and turned them over. A gasp escaped her lips, her eyes widening in alarm at the state of Twilight’s cracked and broken hooves. Blood leaked from the cracks, mixing with dust from the rubble to create a horrid paste of blackened gunk.

“Oh dear, that’s not good,” Fluttershy mumbled. A small frown crossed her face as she stared down at the dirtied hooves before she turned and tucked her head under her wing. A few seconds later she emerged again with a roll of bandages held in her mouth.

“Fluttershy, you don’t have to… ugh, do this,” Twilight muttered, wincing as Fluttershy went about attempting to clean the wounds. Pulling a feather from her wing, she used the tip to gently remove any small pieces of rock caught in the fresh cracks.

“Twilight, this is serious,” she said as she worked. “I can only do so much. You need medical attention. For this, and your leg,” she added, her gaze darting to the bite mark still oozing blood on Twilight’s hind leg.

“But Max—”

“Do you want to lose your hooves?” Fluttershy asked. She glanced up at Twilight through her bangs, her usual timid voice surprisingly firm. “I’m worried about Max too, but you’re doing no good by injuring yourself further looking for him. Think of how Max would feel. Do you think he’d want you hurting yourself just because of him?”

Twilight’s ears slowly splayed back, and she lowered her head.

“I guess not,” she mumbled. “I just… I need to… find...” She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Regardless, Fluttershy smiled softly. “It’s alright, Twilight. We’ll find him. Everything will turn out okay in the end.” Twilight sniffed before giving her a tearful smile in return. With that, Fluttershy returned to carefully bandaging Twilight’s hooves.

It took her a few minutes to wrap both of Twilight’s forehooves, being extra careful to make sure that the bandages were tight enough to prevent more dust from getting into the wounds. Satisfied with her work, she tucked the remaining bandages back under her wing. “There, that should work for now, but it’s only temporary. You should really get those looked at as soon as possible.”

“Thanks, Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a lopsided grin. She moved to return to searching, but was stopped by a hoof on her shoulder.

“Please, no more digging, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “You’ll ruin the bandages.”

Twilight gave her a confused look. “But I barely have any magic left, and I have no strength in my wings. The only thing I can do is dig with my hooves. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Just rest. We’ll take care of the rest.” Fluttering her wings, she took to the air and returned to clearing away the rubble with Rarity, leaving Twilight to herself.

She made to stubbornly follow after the pegasus, but instead stumbled. A hiss of discomfort escaped her lips as dull pain shot up through her hooves. A frown touched her lips, and she slowly sat down, being mindful of her injured hind leg, which stuck out at an odd angle. She shifted the leg into a more comfortable position, wincing as the partially scabbed-over wound pulled on her coat. She sat there, watching her friends continue to dig through the stony remains of Discord, searching for her human.

She continued to observe from the sidelines until her vision began to blur. Blinking back tears, she swallowed thickly before looking away.

“Why?” she whimpered, staring down at her bandaged hooves. “Why did this have to happen?” She had finally managed to work up the courage to confess to Max, and things had been going almost perfectly… but then the world had been flipped upside down. The Elements just had to take away Max’s ability to understand her, Max just had to disappear, and Discord just had to ruin everything again. Why couldn’t things just be like they used to be, when life was calmer and things seemed so simple? There was no fighting, no evil plots. It was just her, her friends and Max.

Max…

A faint smile touched her lips even as tears slowly slid down her cheeks. Memories seemed to flicker before her eyes. The day that Max had tagged along with her when she went to the beach with her friends. How he had dived headfirst into the water, nearly giving her a heart attack when he didn’t surface right way. She had just assumed that, like Equestrian humans, he wouldn’t be able to swim. He had then spent the rest of the day proving her wrong, all while playing ball with her and Rainbow.

Then there was the time that she had managed to convince him to go to the spa with her. Just the memory of the look of pleasure on his face as Lotus worked on the muscles in his back was enough to draw a giggle from her.

There were so many memories like those. Max with his head stuck in the freezer as Spike climbed up on his back to join in. Max play-fighting with Rainbow as ponies watched in fascination. Max roughhousing with her brother, with Cadance rolling around and laughing in the background. Nightmare Night and the fun they had together playing the different games scattered throughout Ponyville. Snuggling up together in front of the fire on the cold winter nights, a nice book and a warm human beside her. Eating out at Scratchers. Listening to Max and Octavia playing duets together. Hearth’s Warming Eve, and the wonderful gifts he had given her. Her confession of love. Their first night together as a couple. Their dance and dinner beneath the stars. So much had happened ever since Celestia had first sent Max to her.

“It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year,” Twilight murmured, her eyes softening. “It seems like only yesterday he had arrived at the library…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight let out a tired sigh as the door closed behind Applejack and Rarity, both of whom were escorting a nervous Fluttershy home. Pinkie Pie had already left, needing to get back to Sugarcube Corner in order to prepare for tomorrow’s expected rush. That just left one other pony behind with her.

“Oh, horsefeathers,” Rainbow groaned from where she was splayed out on the couch. “That. Was. Horrible.”

“I know what you mean,” Twilight grumbled. “I thought one basilisk was bad enough, but having to deal with three? Thank goodness we had Fluttershy there, or else things might not have turned out as well as they did.” She was forced to pause as a sudden yawn escaped her. “Oh, I’m tired.” Lighting up her horn, she pulled off the pair of saddlebags that were draped over her back and deposited them on the floor. She undid the latch, revealing several different books on dangerous magical creatures. Pulling them out, she began to put them back in their proper place on the library’s shelves.

“Twilight?” A voice coming from the kitchen caught her attention, and Twilight glanced over her shoulder. Spike was peering around the archway into the kitchen, and upon seeing Twilight, his face lit up.

“Twilight! You’re back,” he said with a smile as he entered the room. “You were out there so long, I was beginning to worry.” Walking up, he quickly grabbed Twilight’s leg and pulled it into a hug.

“Yes, I’m back,” Twilight said, leaning down to give Spike’s head a brief nuzzle. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“Oh, come on! There was no need to worry,” Rainbow called from the couch. “We had everything under control. Those basilisks never stood a chance!” Still lying down, she pumped her hoof in the air, only to wince in pain a second later.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Dash.”

“Oh,” Spike gasped, breaking out of the hug. “Hold on a second!” Turning around, he raced back into the kitchen, only to return a few seconds later with a cup on a saucer, which he handed to Twilight. She gave the cup a curious look before tentatively sniffing its contents. A smile touched her lips.

“Tea?” She asked. “Jasmine Tea?” she added upon taking another sniff.

“Uh-huh!” Spike nodded proudly.

Twilight gave him a warm smile. “Thanks, Spike. You’re the best.” Lifting the cup to her mouth, she took a sip, only to sigh happily and close her eyes. “Oh, I really needed that.”

Spike chest began to swell and he quickly ran a claw over his spines.

“It was nothing,” he said, although Twilight could hear the pride in his voice. “I just thought you’d like a little something when you got back from—ulp!” Spike froze, his eyes widening in surprise. His cheeks began to puff out, a small trickle of smoke escaping from his nostrils. A low rumble emanated from his stomach, slowly working its way up his throat until it escaped in a large belch of green fire. The flames expanded and a scroll popped into existence. Twilight reached to grab it, only to jump back with a startled yelp as the flames expanded again and a large crate suddenly materialized in the air. It fell to the ground with a loud ‘thud’, something inside shifting about on impact.

As the green flames died down, everyone stared wide-eyed at the crate. Rainbow slowly climbed down from the couch.

“Dang, Spike, what the hay did you eat?” she asked with a laugh. Flapping her wings, she took to the air and began to circle the crate slowly.

Spike, who was rubbing his throat, just shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s from Princess Celestia! She even sent a letter with it,” Twilight said. Despite how tired she was, some excitement still managed to work its way into her voice. She picked up the scroll with her magic and deposited it in her hoof, only to pause. “I wonder what she would be sending me this late in the day though…”

“Well, let’s crack this bad boy open and find out!” Rainbow said, rubbing her hooves together.

Twilight nodded before her horn lit up. The top of the crate began to glow as a pink aura surrounded it. After giving it a small tug, a frown crossed Twilight’s face. Her horn began to glow brighter and, with a grunt, she pulled the lid of the crate off, revealing what was inside. The sight drew gasps from all three of them. Lighting up her horn again, Twilight gently grabbed and lifted the human out of the crate’s interior.

As the human dangled there, upside down, Twilight was able to get a good look at it. Or rather, ‘him’, as she quickly noticed. Ropes bound his wrists together, the skin around them looking rather red. He was a fairly large human height-wise, although he looked rather thin in her opinion. Medium-length brown hair hung from his head, with odd streaks of blond running through it. His cheeks and chin were covered in a layer of stubble which was already beginning to blend into the hair on his upper lip. Brown eyes surveyed the room with unnatural curiosity as the human slowly spun in circles.

Silence filled the room as Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike all stared at the human, who in turn stared back at them whenever he spun around to face them. Slowly, Twilight’s brow began to furrow, a perplexed look crossing her face. She stepped forward and, lifting a hoof, gave the human a quick series of pokes in the side of his stomach…

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“He didn’t seem like much at first, did he?” Twilight said to herself. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hoof, trying and failing to fight back more tears. “Just an annoying brat of a human, always getting into trouble. It seems not much has changed, huh?” A sniffle escaped her. “Facing off against Discord by yourself… what were you thinking? Were you even thinking at all?”

The tears kept coming as more memories came and went, each one leaving a sickly sweet feeling in her chest. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear the sound of approaching wingbeats until a pony suddenly dropped to the ground with a ‘thud’. Startled, she glanced up at the new arrivals.

A battered looking pair of guards—one pegasus and one unicorn—stood before her, glancing around at the sea of rubble with tired looks on their faces. The unicorn’s horn lit up, and three more guards suddenly appeared in a flash of light: two unicorns and an earth pony.

“What the…?” Twilight gasped, drawing the attention of the guards. The first unicorn guard eyed her tensely before sighing and hanging his head. Muttering something to the other guards, they nodded and began to spread out. With that, the unicorn slowly walked over to Twilight, stopping in front of her and throwing a salute. “Princess.”

Twilight blinked in sudden recognition.

“Terminal?” she asked, peering closely at the guard. “Terminal Lance, is that you?” Quickly, she wiped her eyes again, trying to hide the tears.

“Yes, ma’am,” Terminal replied, lowering his hoof, “and despite the circumstances, it’s good to see you again, kiddo.”

Twilight gave him a confused look. “What are you doing here, Terminal? Aren’t you part of my dad’s squad? Wait,” she gasped, her eyes widening in alarm. “Where’s Dad? He isn’t—”

“He’s fine,” Terminal answered, a little too quickly. “He’s fine, I assure you. As for what I’m doing here, well… when the Anomaly told Night Light that he was going after Discord, your dad assigned us to look after him.” He paused, kicking at a piece of loose stone. “Guess we kind of failed at that, huh?”

Twilight watched the stone bounce across the ground, her ears splaying backwards. “It’s not your fault. He seems to have a knack for finding trouble.” The stone rolled to a stop, and her eyes were drawn to the guards that were now picking through the rubble as well. “What… what are they doing?”

“Searching for your human,” Terminal said simply. “We’re here to help you look for him. It’s the least we can do, given we couldn’t keep him safe.”

Twilight nodded, swallowing thickly before quietly muttering, “Thank you.”

Terminal bowed before turning and heading off to join the others in their search, his horn lighting up as he began to lift rocks into the air.

With the guards’ added help, they were able to sift through the rubble with a bit more ease than before. Rocks that had been giving even Applejack and Rainbow trouble fell quickly to the experienced unicorns’ spells. After resting for a while, Twilight joined back in, helping Fluttershy, but stopping occasionally to make sure she wasn’t aggravating her injuries too much. There had been a moment of excitement when the earth pony—Earthen Peak, Twilight believed her name was—found Max’s helmet, the metal crushed and dented. However, upon searching the surrounding area thoroughly, they weren’t able to find anything else.

The helmet hadn’t worried Twilight too much; she knew that Max hadn’t been wearing it when he had fallen. Still, she had hoped that he had landed somewhere near it, even if the odds of that being the case were not in her favor.

Twilight wasn’t sure how long they searched for, as the sun and moon remained stationary high above them, frozen in a perpetual state of a partial eclipse. Her friends stuck by her, loyally searching even as the hard work began to take its toll. They were all covered in a varied mixture of sweat and dust, something that Rarity seemed to be trying to ignore. The guards worked silently, voicing no complaint nor slowing in their work. She tried to remain as vigilant, but her injuries would not allow it. Several times she had to stop in order to give her hooves a rest.

It was during one of these breaks that a shout suddenly came from the other side of the courtyard. “Twilight! Everypony! I found him!”

Twilight glanced up quickly, a smile working its way across her lips only to disappear as she saw the look on Pinkie’s face. Her normally cheerful expression was now solemn, her mane hanging limply about her face and shoulder. She gave Twilight a sad look before turning and glancing back down into the large hole she had emerged from. Everyone quickly convened.

Pushing herself to her hooves, Twilight limped along quickly, not caring about the pain flaring up in her leg. She stumbled and almost fell, but Applejack quickly moved to support her, carrying her the rest of the way. As the pair crested the top of the crater, Twilight gasped. The strength left her legs and she sagged against Applejack.

There, at the bottom of the excavated hole, still half buried under the rubble, was Max. No longer stone, his broken body was in poor shape. Gashes of various sizes covered his face, blood and dust caking its features. His armor was dented and covered in large scratches, with several pieces of metal sheared off, leaving behind jagged edges. A particularly large dent was located in the center of his chest, and even from her position at the top of the crater, Twilight could see the blood trickling from beneath the warped metal.

A sob escaped her lips at the sight of her human, the sight before her reminding her too much of the state he had been in after the pit fight. They had barely been able to save him then; with Canterlot in chaos, they weren’t able to help him this time, either.

Fluttershy was the first one down into the crater, bandages already in her mouth. She cleared off a few stray stones that still covered Max’s chest before attempting to remove his busted armor. Unable to find a latch and unfamiliar with armor in general, she struggled weakly until Terminal suddenly appeared beside her. His horn lit up, and the front of Max’s armor was ripped away in a burst of magic, taking with it part of his shirt and leaving behind his bare, bloodied chest.

Fluttershy gave him a thankful smile before leaning down and pressing her ear against Max’s chest, her other ear twitching as she listened. After a moment, she lifted her head and called out, “He’s got a steady pulse!”

“The wounds look worse than they are,” Terminal added. Lighting up his horn, he began to gingerly pull Max the rest of the way out of the rubble. He lifted him out of the crater and deposited him gently onto a relatively flat surface.

Pushing off of Applejack, Twilight limped forward, the others moving out of her way to allow her through. She stumbled, collapsing by Max’s side. Immediately, she pressed her ear against his chest, wanting to hear his heartbeat for herself, just to make sure. It took a moment, but then she heard it: the soft, rhythmic thumping that resonated through his battered chest. It was slow, but steady, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that he was just sleeping.

Lifting her head, she glanced down at Max’s face, only to pause, a small frown touching her lips. His breaths were coming in short, ragged gasps, and part of the reason soon became apparent. There was a black collar around his neck, with a tag bearing her cutie mark. It was bound tightly against his throat, the skin around it red and raw.

Lighting up her horn, Twilight tenderly removed it. She eyed it curiously, wondering where he had gotten it. It was a magic collar, obvious due to the lack of a manual latch; only a unicorn could have put it on him. Casting several detection spells, she tried to locate any hidden spells or enchantments on the collar, but found none. It was just a regular collar, one that bore her cutie mark.

She eyed the collar for a few more seconds before carefully wrapping it around her own neck, making sure that it wasn’t too tight. With that, she stood back up on shaky legs.

“We should get him to the medical wing,” Terminal said as he moved to stand beside her. “While his wounds aren’t severe upon closer inspection, he still needs medical care.”

“Ah’m on it,” Applejack said. Walking over, she slipped herself under one of Max’s arms. Earthen Peak moved to the other side of the human and did the same, the two earth ponies lifting him with some effort. Rainbow fluttered down and grabbed his feet, keeping them from dragging on the ground.

“Let’s get out of here,” Terminal said, glancing around again. “The chaos has stopped, but I don’t like the fact that Discord’s statue crumbled. It seems like the only time that happens is when he breaks loose.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Twilight muttered. “For now, let’s go.”

Slowly, they made their way out of the rubble-filled courtyard, the carriers being careful not to jostle their passenger too much. With Applejack occupied, it fell to Fluttershy to help Twilight stay steady on her hooves. The group entered the palace, leaving behind the destroyed scenery. Far above, a nightingale flew along, chirping noisily in the silence.

The group made their way through the ruined halls of the palace, skirting around piles of masonry and marble. Terminal and Rarity walked up front, using their magic to push the larger piles aside so that the trio carrying Max could get through. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight brought up the rear, Twilight leaning on Fluttershy as she walked. The remaining guards were positioned around the small procession, their heads on a swivel as they moved through the corridors. They would peer down adjacent hallways and peek inside rooms as they passed, searching for any signs of life, friendly or not.

They had just about reached the main staircase when the sound of hoofsteps came from ahead. The guards froze, their bodies tensing as the sound grew louder. A few seconds later, two large and familiar figures came around the corner and into view.

Twilight gasped, her eyes widening. “Princess Celestia! Luna!”

The Princesses, returned to their normal form, paused, their ears twitching as they spied the group. They glanced sideways at each other before slowly making their way forward. As they drew nearer, Twilight could see that they both looked exhausted. Their normally ethereal manes had lost their magical properties, now hanging limply about their shoulders; Celestia bore long, pink locks, while Luna’s mane was short and light blue.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, giving her fellow princess a weak smile. “There you are.”

Twilight eyed her nervously. “Princess, are you… okay?”

“For the most part,” Celestia said. “A little tired and dry mouthed, I must admit, but other than that, we are fairly fine.”

“Speak for thyself, sister,” Luna grumbled. “We have a headache that’s threatening to split our head apart. Curse the stone and water.”

“Oh, uh, how… how much do you remember?” Twilight asked nervously.

“Enough,” Celestia sighed. “Most of it’s a bit fuzzy, but I think we remember enough to piece together what happened.” She smiled down at Twilight. “Very well done with the teleportation spell, Twilight. That was some very quick thinking.”

“T-thank you, Princess,” Twilight stuttered as Rainbow snickered in the background.

“Verily, dear Sparkle,” Luna grunted, rubbing at a lump on the side of her head. “Though We would have liked it if thou… I mean, you had picked a better location. The stone the fountain was made out of was most certainly harder than my head.”

Twilight winced, giving the Lunar Princess an apologetic look. “Sorry, Luna. I panicked.”

Luna harrumphed and rolled her eyes, but gave Twilight a small smile nonetheless.

“Twilight.” Twilight blinked before glancing up at Celestia, who was giving her a weak smile. “After everything we’ve put you through, I’d hate to ask this of you, but I must. Neither Luna nor I have enough energy to correct our celestial bodies. Might you be willing to lend a hoof?”

Twilight’s ears splayed back. “I’m… I’m sorry, Princess, but I’m currently running on empty myself.”

“I see,” Celestia murmured, her ears splaying back as well. “Then I guess we’ll have to wait a while longer until our power has returned. A pity. I had hoped—”

“Um, I hate to interrupt,” Earthen Peak grunted, shifting about underneath Max’s weight, “but this, ugh… this bonehead’s a lot heavier than he looks. Do you mind if we continue on our way?”

Celestia gave her a confused look before seeming to notice Max’s condition. Her eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh… oh dear! What happened?”

“We’ll explain on the way, your majesty,” Terminal said. “Let’s just get him up to medical. There’s somepony else there that will be able to help explain things fully.”

Celestia blinked once before nodding. Both her and Luna fell in step behind the group as they continued on their way.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“I see,” Celestia hummed thoughtfully.

The medical ward had become quite crowded within the last hour. All of the beds were now occupied, the severely injured taking priority over those who just bore scrapes and cuts. There were so many wounded that mats were being set up out in the hall and in adjacent rooms just to accommodate them all, and more were still trickling in. Healers snaked between the beds, coming and going within the room as they tended to their patients.

The Princesses had taken up residence in the back of the room, seated on the large bay window located there. They were surrounded by a familiar group of guards consisting of members of the Coming Dawn and the Search and Seizure branch.

On one side of the Princesses, Sunny’s bed was positioned. Stacker sat on a stool beside it, keeping a close eye on her. The male human that had become attached to the pegasus was there as well, still holding the unconscious mare in his lap. The rest of the Coming Dawn had also taken up various positions around their unofficial member. Windbreaker sat at the foot of the bed, absentmindedly preening a wing as she stared off into space. Two beds over, the unconscious forms of Thunderspark and Cloudspire rested, their bodies returned to normal.

On the other side of the Princesses, beds containing Ebony and Primrose were located. Both ponies were unconscious, but Primrose was clearly in the worst shape. Several tubes ran to her nose and mouth, and she had several blood transfusion bags connected to her legs. The bandages wrapped firmly around her chest were already starting to turn red again. Avera sat between the two beds, staring at the floor. The only indication that she was listening was that her ears would twitch every so often and swivel around to face the current speaker.

The members of the Search and Seizure branch were in bad shape as well. Crimson Flare had several dozen stitches in her shoulder from where the bolt had struck her. Nightwing’s wing was bandaged and strapped to his side, unusable for the foreseeable future. The rest of the team were in a similar state, bandages covering the bruised and battered ponies.

Night Light rested off to the side, his neck wrapped in several layers of bandages. Twilight was curled up beside him, her body pressed firmly against his. Her own injuries were treated, white bandages covering her hind leg, wings, and hooves. Every few seconds she’d glance nervously over at a nearby bed, one which four Healers were currently working around. Max’s body laid limply across its surface, his feet dangling off the end. One of his legs was in a temporary cast, to keep it stable until the final cast could be made. The Healers were currently focused on his chest, the initial worry being that his shallow breathing was caused by cracked ribs. However, after doing a brief scan it was discovered that although the ribs were heavily bruised, none of them were broken or cracked. After examining him thoroughly, it was determined that the worst injury he had sustained had been his broken leg.

A miracle, in Twilight’s opinion.

Celestia shifted on the cushioned ledge of the window, a troubled look crossing her face.

“This is interesting, if somewhat disturbing as well,” she said, glancing up at Terminal who had just finished retelling what had happened, with a little help from Night Light when it came to his communication with Max through hoof-language.

“And you’re sure that Max said that our native humans are sapient?” Luna asked, eyeing the male human on Sunny’s bed with a mixture of wariness and unbridled curiosity. A bit of blue mane fell in front of her eyes, causing her to huff in annoyance.

“Those were his words,” Night Light grunted. “‘Equestrian humans are intelligent. They’ve been getting smarter over the past few years, but nobody seemed to notice’. That’s as much information as he managed to give me before more pressing matters arose, ensued, and were overcome.”

“How could we not notice something like this?” Luna murmured, rubbing her temple with a hoof. “Were we just blind, or did we choose not to see?”

“And the humans that attacked you,” Celestia continued. “Max claims that they were originally from his world as well?”

Night Light nodded. “That’s correct. According to Max, the Terran humans believed that ponies were enslaving the Equestrian humans through the use of some spell. That’s why they attacked us; they were revolting and attempting to free themselves from their perceived slavery.”

“Three guesses as to the creature behind their misconception,” Luna muttered.

“It wasn’t just Discord, though,” Celestia sighed. “Our own treatment of the humans—even in ignorance—is what led to the misconception of slavery.”

Luna hummed thoughtfully. “That may be, but there is one thing I don’t understand. If the humans were under the impression that we were enslaving them, why did the Equestrian humans help us, rather than their Terran counterparts?”

“Probably for fear of us, their slavers,” Celestia offered, her ears splaying back.

“Not necessarily,” Night Light said. “I can’t be entirely sure, but from what I gathered, the Equestrian humans were following Max. They did what he told them to. At least, I’m assuming they did, as several of them lead us to a group of injured ponies after Max told us about them.”

“Several of them accompanied him when he went after Discord,” Terminal added. “They even attacked Discord when he grabbed Max, though it did little good. We lost track of them soon afterwards.”

“It seems that we will not know the full story behind the motives of the Equestrian humans until Max has regained consciousness,” Luna said softly, glancing over at said unconscious human. She watched the Healers work for a few seconds before suddenly turning her attention back to Night Light. “Pray tell, where are the Terran humans you captured?”

“They’re in the throne room, under heavy watch from guards I trust completely,” he replied.

“Then that is where we’re going,” Celestia said, standing up. “If you six would please accompany me,” she added, turning to the Elements of Harmony. “The rest of you may remain here and rest. We’ll be back shortly.”

“B-but, Princess Celestia… I-I…” Twilight fumbled to speak. Biting her lip, she glanced over at the bed where Max currently rested.

“Worry not, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna cooed as she stood up as well. Approaching Twilight, she gave her a small nuzzle. “Max will still be here when you get back. Allow the Healers to finish their work. You’ll be able to rest with him after.”

Twilight nodded and made to stand up, but was stopped by an approaching Healer shaking her head.

“Hold on one second, your majesty,” the Healer said. Her horn lit up, and a splint was levitated over to Twilight’s injured leg. “If you’re going to insist on walking around on that hoof, at least let me give you some support, okay?” the Healer asked as she wrapped the splint.

Twilight tested out the splint, tentatively putting her weight on the leg. When no pain came, she gave the Healer a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

The Healer bowed before returning to her rounds.

“Alright, gals, let’s do this,” Applejack muttered, getting slowly to her hooves. “Ah don’t know about y’all, but Ah’m gonna need a vacation from this vacation. This has been one of the most excitin’ estrus weeks that Ah’ve ever had.”

“Hear, hear, darling,” Rarity chimed in. The others nodded in agreement as they followed behind the Princesses.

Twilight moved to follow, but paused. Turning around, she gave her father a quick nuzzle. “I’ll see you later, Dad.”

“Don’t worry, honey,” Night Light chuckled. “I’ll look after your human for you while you’re gone.”

Twilight hummed contently before turning and limping out after her friends.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The throne room was packed. Guards from various branches of the military littered the room: Night Guards, Royal Guards, Solar Guards, Wonderbolts, and Shadowbolts. Earth ponies and unicorns sat on the ground, while the pegasi perched on various pillars and window ledges around the room. It seemed that any guard that wasn’t injured was currently within the room. They weren’t just milling about either. All attention, every eye, was locked on the small group of humans that were bound in the center of the room. Two Sentinels—one Lunar and one Solar—stood on either side of the humans. Their horns were glowing, and magic runes covered the ground beneath the humans.

This was the sight that greeted Twilight as she entered the throne room. The chamber doors had been placed back onto their hinges. They were still battered and dented, but that would be fixed later. What mattered now is that they worked.

“Are these the humans?” Celestia asked, eyeing the group of angry looking humans as she passed, heading for her throne.

“They are, your majesty,” a voice spoke up. A few seconds later, Captain Tempest emerged from a group of guards. Her wings were ruffled, several of the white feathers covered in ash. “Colonel Night Light dropped them off, and we’ve been watching them ever since.”

“Anything to report?” Luna asked, walking behind her sister. Twilight and the other Elements followed along, eyeing the humans curiously. Rainbow flew closer to the group, only to back off when one of the humans snarled something at her.

“I have several squads out looking for any more Terran humans lurking in the castle,” Tempest continued. “I also sent several guards down to help out around Canterlot. Besides that, everything appears to have calmed down since Discord’s statue crumbled.”

“Thank you,” Luna said with a nod. Lighting up her horn, an ebony throne appeared beside the repaired golden one, and both sisters took a seat.

“So, these are more Terran humans,” Luna hummed. One of the humans, a gruff male with a bushy beard and tattooed upper arm, growled something, the bark-like noise causing Luna’s ear to twitch. She eyed them for a few more seconds before turning to Tempest. “How are you distinguishing the Terrans from Equestrian humans? The difference appears too subtle for my eyes.”

“Their facial structures are a little different, but we are using a more sure-fire way of weeding them out,” Tempest said.

“Which is?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tempest smirked. “Their body temperature.”

“That’s actually pretty clever,” Twilight praised as she limped up to the base of the throne dais. “If any humans have a temperature around ninety-eight degrees, you’ll know that they’re Terrans. If not, then they’re Equestrian. Simple, yet effective.”

“The issue of finding other Terrans is taken care of then,” Celestia hummed, “but what shall we do with these ones?” She stared down at the humans before her. It was strange, but now that she looked closer, she could easily tell the emotions on the humans’ faces. Most glared up at her with anger and defiance, but there were a few, an odd few, that held looks of worry and fear on their faces. The sight caused her heart to twinge slightly, a small frown crossing her lips. She didn’t like being the source of fear for any creature.

“I think the solution is quite simple,” Luna huffed. “They were brought here against their will, blame us for what’s happened, and they want nothing to do with ponies. Send them back home.”

“What, you mean back to their own world?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening.

“Certainly,” Luna nodded. “The spell is within our ability. We were going to send Max home before he changed his mind.” She motioned towards the humans with a wing. “We can do the same with them, only on a larger scale.”

“There’s just one problem with that, dear sister,” Celestia said. “Neither of us have enough magic to perform such a spell at the moment.”

“So stick them in the dungeon until such a time as we have regained our strength,” Luna huffed, crossing her forelegs.

“Should we really be punishing them like that?” Twilight asked hesitantly, Fluttershy nodding beside her.

“They attacked dozens of ponies and left several in critical condition,” Tempest growled. “We’re extremely lucky nopony died yet, but there is still a chance of it.”

“I understand that,” Twilight said, “but that’s not entirely their fault. They were misled and used. Their aggression came from a huge misunderstanding. I don’t feel right punishing them for that; it would just reinforce their views of us.”

“You are correct, my faithful student,” Celestia said softly. A small smile worked its way across her lips. “However, the dungeons are not to punish them. It’s simply to hold them until we can send them home. I fear at this point that there is very little we can do to mend their view of us at the moment. Keeping them in the dungeons will help keep not only the ponies of Equestria safe, but the Terran humans as well.”

“I suppose,” Twilight said slowly.

“Captain,” Celestia said, turning to Tempest. “Escort the Terrans to the dungeons. Tend to their injuries, keep them comfortable, provide them with food, and do not antagonize them. Have them placed under constant watch. I want reinforcement wards placed on the walls and bars, tracking spells placed on each human, and guard changes every hour, at least ten guards on watch at any time.” She motioned towards the Sentinels. “Take the Sentinels with you. Have them within sight of all the humans, no matter what.”

“Ma’am,” Tempest saluted. “If any try to escape or attack a pony?”

“Then use any means necessary to subdue them,” Celestia said. “While we may be trying to send them home, I will not allow them to harm my ponies any more. Equestria comes first, and the Terrans second. And no,” she added, smiling down at Twilight, “that does not include Max anymore. He is Equestrian, through both his actions and his relationship with you.”

Tempest saluted again before turning to a few of the nearby guards. “Get them on their feet and get them moving. If any can’t walk, levitate them, but don’t aggravate their wounds. The rest of you,” she shouted to the remaining guards scattered about the room, ”start combing the castle. Wonderbolts, Shadowbolts! Head down to Canterlot and help regain order. The last thing we need is a riot getting out of control.”

The guards moved forward and began to pull the humans to their feet. Several struggled, but the majority followed suit once it was clear what the ponies were trying to get them to do. One of the humans, a tall male that looked a little charred, needed to be levitated, and he groaned upon being moved. Those that bore fearful looks did not fight back, but the defiant ones required a few nudges in order to get them to walk. A few—the bearded human included—struggled to the point that they had to levitated as well, in order to keep them moving. Chirps and barks filled the air as the humans shouted unintelligible words at the surrounding ponies.

Twilight watched silently as the guards began to file the humans out of the throne room, only to suddenly gasp, her eyes widening. “W-wait!”

The guards paused as all eyes turned towards Twilight. She swallowed weakly, suddenly nervous under all the gazes. Limping forward, she approached the group of humans, one human in particular standing out. The face was familiar, and it had taken her a second to remember where she had seen it.

Coming to a stop in front of the humans, Twilight stared up into the face of Max’s ex-mate. Marefriend… er, girlfriend, she reminded herself. Her hair was longer, and the excess fat had faded from her face, but Twilight could still recognize her from the pictures she saw on Max’s phone device.

The female stared down at her, and Twilight could see a hint of worry in her blue eyes. She chirped softly, taking a step back as she brought her bound hands up in front of her.

“Twilight?” Celestia called out as she stepped down from the throne dais.

“I recognize this human,” Twilight said, not taking her eyes off of Max’s ex. “Her picture was on Max’s device.”

“It was?” Luna asked incredulously, walking up to stand beside Twilight. “Are you sure? I don’t remember seeing her.”

“I’m positive,” Twilight nodded. “It’s, um… it’s Max’s previous mate.”

Luna paused, cocking her head to the side as she scrutinized the human female closely. A few of the other humans began to crowd around her, trying to protect her from whatever they thought the ponies were planning on doing.

After a few seconds, Luna leaned back. “Hmmm, now that you mention it, yes. I do faintly recall seeing her face as well. Interesting. What are the odds?”

Still eyeing the human, Twilight lifted a hoof and absentmindedly played with the tag on the collar around her neck. The human’s eyes darted down to the collar before widening. Lifting her bound hands, she pointed at the collar and said something that came out as a series of grunts and chirps. The look of anger that crossed her face surprised Twilight, causing her to take a step back.

“Do you want us to leave her here with you, ma’am?” one of the guards asked.

“Nay,” Luna said, waving a wing. “Keep her with the rest of the Terrans. Meeting her was a happy coincidence, but we do not require her presence.” The guard nodded, and the humans were lead out of the room.

Absentmindedly playing with the tag of the collar, Twilight watched the humans going until she felt something nudge her shoulder. Glancing around, she saw Rarity giving her a concerned look. “Are you alright, darling?”

“Y-yeah,” Twilight said. She gave Rarity a weak smile. “I’m fine, Rarity. I just didn’t expect to see her here.” Her smile faded slightly as her mind began to wander. Did Max meet up with her while he was out running around? Did they talk? Why did the collar set her off? Did she know Max had it before me? These thoughts and many more continued to swirl around silently in her head, and she soon found herself longing to be back in the infirmary, alongside her human.

She managed to pull herself from her thoughts in time to hear Luna ask Celestia, “How are your magic reserves coming along, sister?”

“Still too weak for my liking,” Celestia sighed. “I can feel my connection to the sun again, but am unable to move it. A few more hours, I’d say, before I can correct its position.”

“Same here,” Luna huffed.

“Um, if that’s the case,” Twilight said tentatively, “do you need me for anything else, or may I return to the infirmary?”

Celestia gave her a warm smile. “I believe that is all, Twilight. Thank you.”

“I don’t know why we were needed,” Rainbow groused, crossing her forelegs. “We didn’t do anything.”

“You were here in case we needed the Elements,” Luna said, motioning towards the Element of Harmony dangling from Rainbow’s neck. “As it turned out, we didn’t need you, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with everything that has been going on recently.”

Rainbow huffed. “Fine… I guess.”

“So may I…?” Twilight began, giving Celestia a hopeful look.

“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia said, laughing softly. “You may return to the—”

The throne room doors slammed open, causing everyone within to jump. The few guards that still remained leapt into action, immediately throwing themselves between the Princesses and the doors even before they could tell who the intruder was. Horns were lit, wings were flared, and spears leveled at the open doors.

A lone guard stood there, breathing heavily. His eyes darted around the room until coming to a stop on the Princesses.

“Your majesties!” he practically squawked. “You must come immediately!”

“Calm yourself,” Luna ordered as she stepped forward. “What’s happened?”

“No time, don’t know,” the guard gasped. “Ponyville!”

“What?” Rarity yelped, her eyes widening.

Applejack followed suit. “Ponyville?! What about Ponyville?”

“Lead on,” Celestia said, stepping forward. The guard nodded before turning and hurrying off down the hall. The Elements shared an uneasy look between them before hurrying along after.

The guard led them down a series of corridors before coming to stop at an open balcony. As they stepped out onto the balcony and glanced at Ponyville far below, a loud gasp rippled throughout the group. A grim look crossed both Celestia and Luna’s face as the stared at the sight below them.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack breathed.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Fluttershy muttered, her hooves covering her mouth.

It was something out of a nightmare. The sun and the moon had shifted enough away from each other in order to properly illuminate the scene below. Black vines, some as thick as tree trunks, covered Ponyville entirely. They wrapped around buildings, broke through roofing and windows, and choked the land and sky. The source of the vines was clear; the majority of them coming from the same location.

The Everfree Forest.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The courtyard was still, a gentle breeze blowing over the endless piles of debris. A murder of crows cawed loudly as they circled above. The bloody light of the eclipse shone down upon the disaster, coloring the remnants of Discord a dark crimson.

Slowly, the crows began to descend, drifting steadily downwards.

A soft grinding sound suddenly echoed around the courtyard. After a few seconds, rubble at the bottom of a medium-sized crater began to shift about, some of the bigger rocks tumbling down the slope of dust and stone. A dusty, bloodied human hand slowly emerged, gradually followed by an arm, and then a body.

Paul T. Riddick groaned as he worked on pulling himself from the wreckage that used to be his twisted, demonic body. His bony body was naked, the pale skin covered in a mixture of dust and blood. A shaggy mane of tangled hair fell about his shoulders, his facial hair faring no better.

Pulling himself free, he staggered to his feet. He huffed and puffed, gasping for air.

“A valiant effort, Mr. Williams,” he wheezed. “A valiant effort indeed. A pity it wasn’t enough.” He licked his lips, then spat out a glob of dust and blood. “A hero, you are not.” Straightening up, he peered around at the debris field around him. “I must say, I don’t know who your exterior decorator is, Tia, but you simply must give me their number.

“Speaking of Tia,” he sneered, “let’s go see how they are faring.” Raising a hand, he made to snap his fingers, only to freeze. Slowly, he lowered the hand and stared at it, wide-eyed. “N-no…” He brought up his other hand, turning the pair of them about as he studied the long, bony fingers. “It’s… it’s not possible.” Tears slowly began to well up in the corners of his eyes. “After all these years… it really is.” Trembling hands trailed over arms and chest, leaving trails in the dust and blood.

A quick glance down brought a shout of joy, and the human began to dance about, doing an odd little jig in the middle of the crater. First hopping on one leg several times and then the other, he spun about in a circle, all while staring down at his body. His voice cracked, even as he laughed joyfully. “I’m… I’m… my body... I’m…”

“Hello, Riddick.”

The human froze in an odd stance, a leg lifted with his hands in the air. Slowly lowering his foot, he turned and glanced over his shoulder.

At the top of the crater, the wind blowing gently through her two-toned blue mane, stood a white unicorn mare. A pair of tinted glasses rested above her horn. She stared down at the naked human, a neutral expression on her face. Her eyes were narrowed, the pupils constricted into slits. Metal tags hung about her neck, glinting in the light of the fading eclipse.

“Wha…?” the human breathed, squinting up at the unicorn. “Mystic? Mystic Melody, is that you?” The smile returned to his face. “Melody! My old friend!”

“Actually, Mystic Melody is dead,” Vinyl said, her voice cold. “It’s Vinyl Scratch, now.”

“Hmmm. Yes, of course,” Paul muttered, tugging at his beard. “I should have known. You were always so cautious about somebody catching on to your lack of mortality. I see you changed your mane color. A pity. The blonde look suited you more, in my opinion.”

Vinyl’s eyes flashed. “Too bad I didn’t ask for it.”

“Oh, don’t be that way, my old friend,” Paul chuckled weakly. “Don’t get all grumpy on me already. It’s been so long since we last spoke to one another. Now, help me up,” he grunted, beginning to pull himself from the crater. “We’ve got work to do.”

Vinyl made no move to help the struggling human.

“What work?” she asked in a monotone voice. “Your humans are freed, Celestia has been punished, and you’ve gotten your old body back, apparently. What is there left to do?”

“Yes, I do have my body back,” Paul said joyfully. “Something I didn’t think was possible. However, Celestia has not suffered enough. With your help, we can hammer the final nail into the coffin. Hard. Just think about it: it’ll be like old times again, Melody!”

“It’s Vinyl,” Vinyl sneered, “and no, Riddick, it won’t be like old times. This time, I’m not helping you. I’m out.”

“But Melod—er, Vinyl,” Riddick coughed.

“No, Riddick,” she said, shaking her head. “Not this time. I’ve found a different human. One that I believe will do better than you. I’m throwing my lot in with him.”

“Another human?” Paul asked, coming to stop on the lip of the crater. “You don’t mean that boy, do you? Mr. Williams?”

“If you’re talking about Max, then yes,” Vinyl said. “I’ve talked with him, and seen what he values. I’m fairly sure he won’t throw me aside like yesterday’s garbage.”

“‘Throw you aside’?! I never threw you aside!” Paul said incredulously. “You were my only friend, Melody; my only friend on this whole planet. Even Star Swirl betrayed me, but not you. It was you and I against the world!”

“The world was never against you, Riddick,” Vinyl said sadly, shaking her head. “It was all in your head. You pitted yourself against the world needlessly. There were other ways, other methods you could have gone with, but you chose the path of solitude. You chose to become this.” She motioned around at Discord’s debris. “You did this to yourself, and no one else.”

“Celestia did this to me, or don’t you remember?” Paul growled.

“I remember a kind man,” Vinyl said, her voice softening. “One who was scared about the new world he found himself in, but still eager to learn. What happened to that man, Riddick? What happened to the man that spent a whole afternoon discussing science and magic with Star Swirl?”

“That man died,” Paul grunted, “the same day that Star Swirl cast her spell.”

“Then I guess I have nothing to regret,” Vinyl said evenly.

Paul shook his head. “Don’t do this, Melody.”

“Sorry, Riddick,” Vinyl apologized with a shrug, “but as you told me all those years ago, it’s not me… it’s you. Now, I have to get going. I have a marefriend waiting back home that could probably use some comfort and reassurance.”

“Then why did you come?” Paul asked, crossing his arms.

“Because,” Vinyl said, her horn lighting up. She lifted her tinted shades and lowered them over her eyes. “There is one particular promise that you made all those years ago that I’m actually going to hold you to, and I’m here to collect.”

A look of confusion crossed Paul’s face. “What promise was that, exactly?”

Vinyl smiled, fangs descending from her lips. “Just a taste.”

She lunged forward.

With a blood-curdling shriek, Riddick toppled backwards into the crater, Vinyl latched firmly to his neck.

Author's Note

How many of you saw this coming, huh? Be honest; how many of you knew that Your Human and You was going to turn into the season premier of Season 4? Huh? Huh?!

Once again, Terminal Lance is brought to you by personofuninterest. I hope that I'm still doing him justice.

Interlude: 'Moonstache'

It had been a long day for Celestia.

Stepping out onto her private balcony just off of her bedroom, she sighed heavily as she let her shoulders and wings droop. The nobles had been especially tiresome today. Even after over a millennium of ruling, there was no easy way to deal with it. She was fairly used to the vigorous toil that came with being a Princess, but sometimes certain days just let her feeling more exhausted than usual.

This was one such day.

It was about to get better though. Court was over, the nobles were gone, and she was now alone in her room. All alone. No plans, no obligations. Just peace and quiet and nothing.

Perfection.

When her assistant, Raven, asked her if she had any plans for the evening, she had given Celestia a sad look when informed that the Solar Princess had nothing planned save for being by herself. She had offered to stay with Celestia and chat, and even went as far as to invite Celestia over for dinner.

“Lily would be thrilled to see you,” Raven had said, mentioning her four-year-old filly.

Celestia had declined with a smile. When she said she had nothing planned, she didn’t mean that she had nothing planned; she meant that she planned to do nothing. Nothing but relax, let down her hair, and maybe roll about on the floor and scratch her back. No plans, what-so-ever. A nice change of pace, really.

But first, the sun needed to go down.

Standing in the middle of the balcony, Celestia turned her gaze upwards to the heavens. Her sun, now positioned near the horizon, was casting a fiery-orange light across the land, elongating shadows and causing clouds to take on the appearance of little embers in the sky. The sunset always excited Celestia. For the longest time it signalled the beginning of night, which meant that she could see Luna again, even if only a silhouette on the moon. But now, ever since her sister’s return, it signalled something else: the beginning of Night Court, which in turn signalled the Celestia didn’t have to deal with anything anymore until sunrise.

It was now all Luna’s problem.

Lighting up her horn, Celestia reached out and gently nudge the sun below the horizon. Faithfully, the orb sank, giving way to the darkness that was to be Luna’s canvas. Even as she retracted her magic, Celestia sensed her sister beginning her work from her own tower. Stars began to blink into existence against the purple-black backdrop, constellations forming even as she watched. It was breathtaking to watch, in Celestia’s opinion. Luna was always better at making the night sky; Celestia just didn’t have the artistic patience for such thing. She just slapped the stars up there and called it good. It was Luna who commanded the night, the stars dancing for her as she conducted them with precision and grace.

Celestia continued to watch the show before her, even giggling softly to herself as a few shooting stars streaked across the sky. Luna must be in a playful mood this evening.

After a few minutes, all the stars finally emerged and took their proper places. Now it was time for the prima donna to take the stage.

The moon was shy at first, slowly inching its way above the horizon as if hesitant to take its place. The sight brought a small smile to Celestia face. Luna only ever played around when she was putting on a show for someone. She did it for Cadance when they first met, and she did it for Twilight as a ‘thank-you’ for the wonderful night she had during her first Nightmare Night. Who are you trying to entertain tonight, Luna?

The moon continued to be reluctant to appear for a few more second before suddenly, and at great speed, zipping high into the sky. It came to a stop, and the smile instantly left Celestia’s face as she beheld what was on the face of the moon. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and even her hair lost its magical property in shock.

She stare up at the moon for several minutes, mouth opening and closing wordlessly until she finally found her voice.

“LUNA!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The doors to Luna’s bedroom flew open and Celestia marched in. She was trying to keep her anger in check until she had the full story, but steam was still escaping from her nostrils with each snort-like breath. Glancing around, she spotted Luna standing on her balcony with her back to the room. Celestia’s eyes narrowed when she saw that Max and Spike were standing there as well, all three of the balcony’s occupants staring up at the newly-rising moon. None of them turned around when Celestia entered.

Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Luna?”

“Hmmm, yes, dear sister?” Luna asked, turning her head slightly, although not enough for Celestia to see her face. “Can we help thee with something?”

“Luna,” Celestia began as she walked slowly towards the balcony, “I’ve had a long day, and I would like nothing more than to unwind a little and relax.”

“Certainly, sister,” Luna said with a nod. “We completely understand, and shall not bother you this evening.”

“I appreciate that Luna, I really do, but I have to ask you something first.”

“And what might that be, dear sister?”

Celestia couldn’t be sure, but Max was shaking slightly, almost like he was trying to hold in his laughter.

“Luna, have you seen the moon this evening?” she asked.

“Of course, sister. We raised it ourself not five minutes ago.”

“And did you happen to notice anything unusual about the moon?”

“We must say that we did not, Tia. To our eyes, the moon appears like it normally does each night.”

“I see…” Celestia said slowly before trailing off. She was now standing behind Luna on the balcony, and she had a clear view of the moon in the sky far above. “Then tell me, dear sister,” she continued, her voice calm yet icy. “Why, pray tell, does the moon have a mustache?”

And it was true, for there, upon the moon’s surface, was the silhouette of a very large—and very proper—mustache.

“Oh, does it?” Luna said cocking her head to the side. “Hmmm, so it does. Well, wouldst thou look at that!”

“Luna, why is there a mustache on the moon?” Celestia asked, rubbing her muzzle with a hoof.

“Because the beard didn’t work,” Luna answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Luna…” Celestia closed her eyes and groaned. She could feel a headache coming on.

“Yes?” Luna asked as she turned around.

Celestia opened her mouth to reprimand her sister, only to close it again with a click as she stared wide-eyed at her sister. Or more specifically, her sister’s face. There, on Luna’s upper lip, was an exact replica of the same mustache that adorned the moon’s surface, drawn in black marker.

“Luna… what’s with the mustache?” Celestia asked, feeling like a broken record player.

“It’s not a mustache, Tia,” Luna said with a large, shit-eating grin. “It’s a moonstache!”

Celestia felt her eye twitch.

“What… is with… the moonstache?” she asked through gritted teeth, practically spitting the last word out.

“We simply wish to match our friends, dear sister,” Luna said, motioning towards Max and Spike, who had turned around as well. Upon glancing at them, Celestia felt her blood pressure spike. Spike was bearing a large fake mustache, while Max had shaved most of his facial hair, leaving behind only the hair on his lip. All three mustachioed faces smiled innocently at her, all while the defiled moon still loomed over head.

Celestia felt her eye twitch again.

“Are you alright, sister?” Luna asked with faux concern.

“Oh yes, I’m perfectly fine, Luna,” she answered, her voice shrill.

“Oh good,” Luna said, nodding happily. “We were worried there for a second.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Celestia repeated. “The moon just has a giant mustache on it. It’s not a big deal; it’s not like I can already hear all the complaints and inquiries I’m going to get tomorrow about this, especially from the Astronomers Committee. Nope, nothing is wrong. Everything is peachy. In fact, why don’t we just add a monocle and call it good, huh? Huh?!” *twitch twitch twitch*

Luna gasped, her face lighting up. “Sister, that’s genius!” With an excited smile, she turned to Max who was already fishing something out of his pocket. That something turned out to be a black marker which he immediately uncapped. Leaning forward, he began to draw a monocle around Luna’s right eye. As he was doing so, a large monocle began to appear on the moon, almost as if a massive, invisible marker was drawing it there as well.

With his drawing complete, Max capped the marker again and leaned back to examine his work.

“There,” he said, holding back his laughter. “A monocle… no, wait. A moonocle!”

Amidst the laughter of all three mustached hoodlums, Celestia stood there, her eye twitching and the vein in her forehead throbbing. As Max began to draw a monocle first on Spike, and then on himself, she began to wonder how long Twilight would hate her if she just pushed the human off the balcony. Maybe if she gave him a grand funeral, a hero’s pyre, and made a large monument in his honor, Twilight might forgive her within a decade… maybe less. She could live with that—

She froze as Max suddenly reached over and quickly drew a mustache across Celestia’s upper lip and a monocle around her right eye. He even added an extra flair by scribbling a goatee on her chin before retreating. The trio’s laughter increased.

Scratch that previous thought.

They would never find his body.

Chapter 66: Princess Twilight Sparkle, part 2

Jack Mayfield was not having a good day… night… whatever. It was hard to tell what time it was at the moment, as both the moon and the sun were in the sky together at the same time in some perverse sort of twilight. The solar eclipse that had happened earlier had been quite interesting, however, but that was beside the point.

Whatever time of day it was, Jack was not having a good time.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Jack glanced nervously up at the ceiling. The entire structure he and Drew called their sanctuary was still being consumed by black vines that had appeared out of nowhere. The weight of all the intruding creepers was slowly beginning to cause the ceilings of several of the rooms to collapse. Thankfully, those rooms didn’t have anything important in them, but it was only a matter of time before one of the more important rooms was destroyed.

Like the room the two humans were currently occupying, for example.

Fearing for their lives, and in an attempt to drive back the vines, the humans had begun constructing something with which to save themselves. Already the skeleton of said device was taking shape, but they needed a little more time and no distractions. It had all been going fine until, well… until they had shown up.

“Are they still there?” Jack asked, glancing up from the contraption.

Drew huffed loudly and rolled his eyes. “What do you think, dude?” He pointed at the inner window. “Of course they’re still out there. You think they’re going to go away just because we’re ignoring them? Ain’t gonna happen. That zebra’s stuck around for this long.”

Jack glanced over at the window as well, through which he could see the weird zebra. Though, as of fifteen minutes ago, the zebra wasn’t the weirdest thing in the hallway anymore. That title was now reserved for the four pegasi in blue and yellow jumpsuits that had shown up out of the blue.

One of them, a pegasus with flame-like hair, appeared to be the leader. Her suit was ripped and torn, exposing her yellow fur in several places. Even as Jack watched, she continued to argue with the zebra. At least, Jack assumed they were arguing. He could only hear the zebra’s side of the conversation. The pegasi just hovered there, nickering loudly as she waved her forelegs about wildly.

“What? You think this is my fault?” the zebra asked, placing a hoof on his chest. “I assure you, I had nothing to do with this.”

The pegasus nickered again before jabbing a hoof at a nearby cluster of vines.

“Yes, I can see the vines,” the zebra huffed with a roll of his eyes. “However, I am not responsible for them.”

A hoof was pointed towards the humans, still watching through the window.

The zebra shook his head. “No, they aren’t a part of this either.”

The pegasus snorted and crossed her forelegs, giving the zebra a look of disbelief.

“In case you can’t tell,” the zebra said, “the vines are consuming their building as well. Do you really think that, if they caused this outbreak, they’d allow the vines to destroy their only source of shelter within the forest?”

The flame-haired pegasus grunted before looking over her shoulder and saying something to one of the pegasi, a beige coated one with light blue hair. It nodded before turning and zipping off into the sky. As it flew off, another pegasus—this one with a poofy yellow mane—said something to the zebra, only to receive an incredulous look.

“Excuse me?” he said. “That’s… first of all, do you realize how racist that is? And secondly, let’s hear you come up with rhymes on the spot.”

Shaking his head, Jack blocked the conversation and instead returned his attention back to the device he was supposed to be working on. He fiddled with it for a second before grabbing a long rubber hose.

As he was hooking one of the ends of the hose up to a custom-made valve, Drew leaned in. “So, this will work, right?”

“Most likely,” Jack replied, not glancing up. “There’s a good chance that it will work as intended.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming,” Drew muttered.

Jack paused and chewed on the inside of his cheek.

“It… might also explode as well,” he said emotionlessly before returning to his tinkering.

“Oh, well, yeah,” Drew said, leaning back. “Great, just great. ‘Might explode’. That’s awesome. Just one question, though. When were you going to tell me this?”

“I said it might. It’s very unlikely to happen though.”

“But it might. I don’t want to go up in a ball of fire and light.”

“Then you’d better not distract me,” Jack huffed. “The more you interrupt me, the more likely it is to not be correctly assembled!”

Grumbling to himself, Drew leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. The pair lapsed into silence, one working and the other watching.

In the background, the pegasi and the zebra continued to argue.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight winced as the chariot jerked upon touching down, jostling its occupants. “Geez, Dash, be careful! Some of us aren’t exactly in perfect health back here.” She rubbed her injured leg before gingerly hopping out of the chariot.

“Oh, come on, Sparkle,” Rainbow scoffed. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can kick some flank, right?”

“Except there are no flanks to kick, as it were,” Rarity sniffed as she stepped off the back of the chariot as well. “We’re here to solve the vine problem, Rainbow, not get in a fight.” Patting at her frizzy mane to try and get it back in order, she huffed in annoyance. “And as much as I’d like to get Ponyville back to normal, I agree with Twilight. You could have taken it a tad slower.”

“I wasn’t going that fast,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “Fluttershy was even able to keep up with me, though it felt like I was doing most of the work,” she added under her breath.

“Uh, that’s ‘cuz she’s been clingin’ tah the chariot ever since we took off,” Applejack deadpanned, pointing over her shoulder. Sure enough, a trembling ball of yellow fur and feathers was attached to the front of the chariot with such a grip that the metal was dented in places.

Rainbow paused in removing the harness. “Huh, I hadn’t even noticed.”

“Come on, Sugarcube,” Applejack said softly as she attempted to pull Fluttershy off the chariot. “We’re on the ground. Ya can let go now.”

“Wait, where’s Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, now free from the chariot’s harness. She glanced around. “Did she go on ahead?”

“I’m afraid not, dear. She fell out halfway here,” Rarity said nonchalantly, studying her reflection in a small mirror she conjured from somewhere. Satisfied with how she looked, she vanished the mirror before glancing at Rainbow, who was gaping at her with a look of disbelief. “I told you, darling. You were going a little too fast.”

“B-but… what?” Rainbow stuttered out. “Why didn’t anypony say anything?!”

“Because she looked like she was having fun,” Rarity said with a shrug.

“I think I see her,” Twilight said, shading her eyes with a hoof. She squinted slightly. “Yeah, that’s definitely her.” The others glanced up as well as the faint sound of laughter reached their ears. Pinkie was gliding down to the ground gently, hanging beneath a large square of cloth that emerged from a small pack on her back.

Rainbow stared with wide eyes. “Where… where did she get a parachute?”

“She ‘borrowed’ it from one of the Lunar Guards before we left,” Twilight said, making quotes with only one forehoof, as the other was busy keeping her steady. “I think she purposely fell out, just for an excuse to use it. Why else would she have wanted one in the first place?”

While they had been talking, Pinkie had drifted closer. When she was about ten feet off the ground, she unclipped the parachute. The others let out cries of surprise as she dropped through the air, only to hit the ground and roll, coming to a stop in a kneeling position with a water pistol held in her forehooves.

“Alright,” she said, suddenly adorned in camouflage clothing. “Let’s do this!” Swiveling around, she pointed the water pistol in several random directions before giving it a spin and tucking it into a holster on her hip. “Sergeant Pinkie has arrived to defeat the evil viney menace. I’m here to kick flank and eat cupcakes… and I’m all out of cupcakes.”

“Ah, Pinkie, dear. I don’t think now’s the best time for playing around,” Rarity sighed.

“Awww,” Pinkie whined, falling onto her flank with a soft ‘thump’, “but I just finished making the character!” She crossed her forelegs and pouted. “I rolled all those stats for nothing.”

“Rarity’s right, Pinkie,” Twilight chided. “Let’s take care of the vines first. You can play all you want afterwards.” Pinkie nodded before stripping out of the camouflage. Balling it up, she tossed it over her shoulder and into a nearby bush.

“Right,” Applejack said as she walked up, Fluttershy now attached to her neck and shoulders. “Now we just gotta figure out where tah aim these bad boys—” she tapped her partially-hidden Element “—so that we can keep the rest o’ Equestria from becoming plant food.” As one, the group turned to stare at the Everfree. The trees were choked in vines to the point where one could barely see any bark amidst the sea of blackened creepers.

“Uh, anypony know where tah start?” Applejack asked.

When no answer came, Twilight sighed heavily.

“I guess we better get moving,” she said. “We can start at the Castle of the Pony Sisters and work from there—”

“Twilight!”

A shout from in the distance interrupted Twilight’s planning. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes widened at the sight of a small blob of green and purple bobbing through the sea of vines. “Spike!”

Huffing and puffing, the little dragon scampered up before jumping up and clinging to Twilight’s neck. She lifted a foreleg and awkwardly returned the hug while also nuzzling the top of his head.

“Spike, thank the Maker you’re alright!” Twilight said at the exact same time that Spike cried, “Twilight, thank goodness you’re here! Everything’s going crazy!” Pulling himself up onto her back, Spike began to wildly wave his arms about. “The sky went all crazy with the night and day, day and night, and then the moon was all red, and then Canterlot looked messed up, and then all these vines came out of nowhere.” He tugged on his spines. “What’s going on?!”

“It’s a long story, Spike,” Twilight said, straightening up. “I’ll explain more later, once we’ve taken care of the vines. Discord was involved, though.”

Spike nodded. “Ah, say no more.” He paused. “Uh, Twilight?”

“Yes, Spike?”

“Why do you have a collar on?” he asked, pointing to the black collar currently around her neck.

“Well, you see…”

“And where’s Max?”

Twilight’s ears splayed off to the side and she glanced away.

“I’ll… I’ll tell you later,” she muttered in a shaky voice.

The sound of a throat being cleared caught their attention.

“Um, not to butt in on this,” Rarity said, “but Spikey dear, you wouldn’t have happened to see Sweetie Belle recently, have you?” Beside her, Applejack’s ears perked up.

“What? Oh, um... yeah!” Spike said. “I saw her a while ago. Her, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Zecora were escorted into town hall by one of the Wonderbolts. That’s where everypony is heading to hide from the vines. A bunch of the guards managed to clear out most of the vines, so it’s currently the safest place in Ponyville at the moment. I was there until I saw your chariot fly by overhead.”

Both Applejack and Rarity breathed twin sighs of relief.

“Wait!” Rainbow cried, perking up. “The Wonderbolts are here?!”

“Well, not right now,” Spike said, rubbing the back of his head. “They were here earlier trying to help out, but I’m not sure where they went.”

“I’m happy you’re alright, Spike,” Twilight said, “but you should have stayed in town hall where it’s safe.”

“B-but what about you?” Spike asked.

“We’re gonna go teach these vines a lesson for messing with Ponyville!” Rainbow said, jabbing her hoof into the air. “We’re gonna kick some flank!”

“I already told you, Dash, there are no flanks to kick,” Rarity sighed, rubbing her head with a hoof.

“I’m going with you!” Spike cried, clinging to Twilight’s neck.

“Spike, no,” Twilight said, twisting her neck to try and look at him. “You’re going back to the town hall, to where it’s safe.”

Spike shook his head before burying himself into her mane. “No, I’m staying with you.”

“Spike—”

“I can use my fire against the vines. That’s how I got through them before! It really works, Twilight, I swear!”

“Actually, Twilight,” Rarity piped up, “as much as I know you don’t want to hear it, that might be useful.”

“Rarity!”

“I’m just saying, darling, there are a lot of vines between us and where we need to go.”

“See? I can help!”

“Spike!”

“What? I can!”

“No,” Twilight said, stomping her hoof. “We don’t have time for this, Spike. You are going back to town hall and that’s fina—”

“Princess Sparkle?”

“What?!” Whipping her head around, Twilight’s eye twitched.

The Wonderbolt currently hovering in the air behind her raised a hoof in defense, her ears splaying back. “S-sorry, your highness. I didn’t mean to interrupt your discussion.”

An ashamed look crossed Twilight’s face and she blushed. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell like that.”

The Wonderbolt gave her an uncertain look before tentatively nodding her head.

“Hey, Misty Fly!” Rainbow called out. “What are you doing here? Where are the others?”

This caused the Wonderbolt to squint at her. “Dash? What... “ She paused before shaking her head. “Never mind. When the vines started consuming Ponyville, Spits went about trying to find a way to stop them. Whatever they are though is magical in origin, so we followed them to their source.” She pointed into the Everfree Forest. “That’s where the rest of the team is right now. I was sent back to find reinforcements.”

“Well, you found them,” Rainbow said, puffing out her chest.

Behind her goggles, Misty Fly blinked.

“You?” she asked incredulously. “What are you—” Her gaze landed on the necklace currently glinting around Rainbow’s neck, and her eyes widened. “Oh… oh! You’re the reinforcements.” Reaching up, she slapped her forehead with a hoof. “Should have known it was something like that. Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changelings; it’s always you six, isn’t it?” With a sigh, she shook her head. “Alright, this works. I can take you to the Captain, and then you all can take care of this.” She turned to head back towards the Everfree, but was stopped by Twilight.

“Actually, before we go, can you take Spike here back to town hall?” she asked, turning to the side to reveal the partially-hidden dragon. “As a baby dragon, he really shouldn’t be going with us.”

“Awww, come on, Twilight!” Spike huffed. “You always leave me behind.”

“That’s because I don’t want you to get hurt,” Twilight shot back before returning her attention to Misty Fly. “So, if you could…?”

“Sorry, your highness, but there’s no time,” Misty Fly said, shaking her head. “We have to go now.”

Twilight blinked. “But it would only take a second.”

“Princess, not to be rude, but we don’t have seconds to spare,” Misty Fly said. “During our reconnaissance of the area, we discovered that the vines have a flower-like part to them that is the source of the Black-Vine Virus. Can’t you hear the bells?” she asked, waving a hoof towards town. Sure enough, the faint sound of tolling bells could be heard if one listened hard enough. “The longer we take to get rid of them, the more likely it is that we’ll be dealing with a massive outbreak of infected humans. The vines are spreading. We need to take care of this now!”

Eyes wide and ears splaying back, Twilight stared up at her in shock. “T-the Black-Vine Virus?” She swallowed before nodding weakly. “I… y-you’re right. That’s definitely more important.” Turning her head, she eyed Spike worriedly. “Alright, you can come with.” Spike’s expression brightened. “But,” she continued, “you’re to stay close to me the whole time, got it?”

Spike nodded furiously before taking a seat on Twilight’s back.

With a sigh, Twilight turned back to Misty Fly. “Lead the way, if you’d please.”

With a flutter of her wings, Misty Fly threw a salute.

“Right this way, Princess,” she said. “I’ll take you to the Captain. Recruit!” Rainbow Dash snapped to attention. “You’re up here with me. Help me find a safe path for the ground-walkers. We don’t need any of them getting hurt on the way to the objective.”

Rainbow threw a salute of her own before taking flight. With the two pegasi in front, the group began to make its way cautiously towards the Everfree, and what was waiting within.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh, thank Celestia,” Rarity gasped, breathing heavily. “It… it seems to have stopped chasing us.” Around her, the others were in a similar state: sweaty, out of breath, and covered in various scratches and mud.

“Ugh, I’ve got to lay off the sweeties,” Pinkie groaned, flopping unceremoniously on the ground.

“Ah thought cragadiles were supposed tah be slow,” Applejack grunted. She took a deep breath before casting a glare upwards. “And Ah thought that y’all were supposed tah be findin’ us a safe path through the forest!”

“Well, sorry,” Rainbow huffed, folding her forelegs. “It’s kinda hard to see a cragadile, especially when it’s submerged in mud! Besides, you all handled it just fine.”

“That’s beside the point!” Twilight snapped. “Not all of us can just fly to safety, Dash!” She was in the worst shape out of all of them. Her eyes were bloodshot, dried blood caking the corners as well as the edges of her nostrils. She limped along on three legs, her injured leg held up close to her body.

“Why didn’t you just use your magic on it then?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight’s eye twitched.

“Because I’m running on empty!” she shrieked, only to double over in a coughing fit a moment later. Specks of blood fell to the ground as the red fluid began to leak from her nose again.

On her back, Spike gave an alarmed shout. “Twilight!”

“I-I’m fine,” she gasped. “I’m fine,” she said again as a worried Fluttershy approached with a wadded up kerchief in her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she gagged before spitting a red wad of saliva onto the ground. She stared at it for a few seconds before her ears splayed back.

“I’m not fine,” she muttered under her breath.

A worried look flashed across Rainbow’s face, her earlier bravado forgotten. “Geez, Twilight. I didn’t realize you were in that bad of shape. Why didn’t you say something?!”

“It’s nothing,” Twilight said quickly. “I’m… I’m just gonna… We need to deal with all this first—” she motioned around at the vines, almost falling over in the process. Spike barely grabbed on in time to stop himself tumbling off “—and then we can worry about me.”

“Ah don’t know, Twi,” Applejack said as she approached. “Ya aren’t lookin’ so hot right now. And, well, who knows what else is gonna come after us. Ya know, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for you to go back to Ponyville and rest.”

Twilight turned to her and gave her a sharp look. “What? Why?”

“Well, seeing as you’re injured and all,” Applejack said, biting her lip.

“You’re all injured too,” Twilight huffed, motioning around at the others and the dozens of scratches they had received running through the trees to escape the cragadile.

“Yeah, but not as bad as you.”

“Injured or not, you’re going to need me, Applejack,” Twilight said. She tapped the crown currently resting on her head. “Or have you forgotten the plan?”

Applejack glanced away, her ears splaying off to the side. “It’s just… ya bein’ a Princess and all…”

“Exactly,” Twilight grunted before spitting out another wad of bloody saliva. Glancing around, she accepted the proffered kerchief from Fluttershy and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. Once she was done, she tucked the kerchief into the black collar still around her neck before turning back to Applejack.

“As a Princess, I’m saying that I’m fine and that’s final,” she said.

“But—”

“That’s final. Now, where’s Misty Fly?” As if on cue, a loud thunderclap echoed around the forest, followed by a pained howl. Another thunderclap sounded and the howling ceased, silence falling over the forest again.

A few seconds later, the Wonderbolt fluttered into view.

“That takes care of that,” she said, brushing her hooves together. “Now, is everypony okay?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered quickly.

“No,” Applejack said shortly after, earning her a glare from Twilight.

“Yes,” Twilight said again, this time slower. From her back, Spike glanced at the Wonderbolt before silently shook his head ‘no’.

Misty Fly glanced confusedly between the two before her gaze slowly drifted down to Twilight’s injured leg, still held up close to her body. Her eyes widened slightly before she looked up and glanced around at the darkened skies. Without saying a word, she flew off, only to return a moment later with a medium-sized cloud in her hooves. She pushed it down in front of Twilight.

“Get on,” she said.

Twilight blinked. “What?”

“Get on,” Misty Fly repeated, motioning towards the cloud with a nod of her head.

“I… I don’t need—”

“Your majesty, we still have some ways to go,” Misty Fly interrupted. “You aren’t going to be able to go too fast with your injured leg.” She nodded to the cloud again. “Think of it as a… makeshift gurney, pegasi-style.”

“Come on, Twilight,” Spike said softly from her back. “You need this.”

Twilight eyed the cloud for a moment, nibbling on her bottom lip, before sighing. “Alright.” She stepped up onto the cloud, careful to not dislodge Spike from her back, before settling down. Her injured leg jutted out at a weird angle. Once she was comfortable, she glanced around. “Um, how am I supposed to move?”

Misty Fly cocked her head to the side. “Can you use your wings?”

Twilight blinked before giving her wings an experimental flap. The cloud floated forward a foot or so, but Twilight winced in pain. “They’re a little sore. I think I can manage though.”

Misty Fly shook her head before glancing up. “Recruit!”

Rainbow perked up before floating down. “Yeah?”

“Escort the Princess here,” Misty Fly said, motioning towards Twilight. “You get her to the destination, and you get her there safe and sound, got it?” She put extra emphasis on the word ‘safe’ and gave Rainbow a hard look.

Rainbow cast a look at Twilight before nodding her head.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, giving her a salute before moving around to hover behind Twilight.

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but stopped. Instead, she lowered her head and stared at the cloud in front of her. Truthfully, her entire body hurt and it felt good to be off her hooves; the once-white bandages that the Healers had put on them were now covered in mud and twigs. Her head was pounding, her muscles were stiff, and she felt like she was about ready to collapse at a moment’s notice. The only thing that had been keeping her going was adrenaline, which had run out as soon as they had escaped from the cragadile. She was running on empty, both magically and physically.

She remained silent as Rainbow placed her hooves on either side of cloud around her flank. With a small shove, she began to gently push her injured friend forward. The others followed, quickly taking up arbitrary positions around the cloud.

Misty Fly took to the air again, flying ahead to scout out the path.

They walked in silence, with only the sound of sticks breaking under their hooves and Rainbow’s wing beats filling the air. Upon Twilight’s back, Spike did his best to help, massaging the tense muscles in her shoulders and back. He was no masseur, but it was better than nothing, and Twilight cooed softly under his ministrations.

Every few minutes Misty Fly would have them stop as she glanced around the forest, her ears perked. After a few seconds of nothing happening, they would begin moving again. They encountered only a small group of spider-plant vines, which were quickly driven off by a combined assault of Misty Fly’s lightning strikes and Spike’s dragonfire.

Twilight had lost track of long they had been traveling for, but eventually Misty Fly paused again only to let out a small whoop.

“I recognize where we are,” she said. “Our destination is just ahead. Come on!” She flitted ahead quickly, though she made sure to remain within sight.

As they moved forward, Twilight raised her head and glanced back at Rainbow.

“Thanks, Dash,” she said softly.

Rainbow gave her a blank look before cracking a weak grin. “Any time, Twi. I wouldn’t leave ya hanging.”

A few minutes later, the group emerged from the treeline, only to gasp in surprise. Before them a large, narrow ravine opened up. Vines snaked forth from the depths of the ravine, twisting and turning their way into the trees. Also on the edge of the ravine was a large, crumbling structure that looked like someone had ripped part of a building out and threw it down in the middle of the forest. Vines choked the building, hiding most of it from view. From what little she could see, though, Twilight could tell the building wasn’t designed by ponies.

As they stared at the structure in wonder and confusion, Misty Fly put her hooves to her lips and let loose a shrill whistle.

“Oi! Spits!” she called, waving a hoof. It was then that Twilight noticed a small group of equines gathered around a hole in the building. Three of them were dressed in Wonderbolt jumpsuits, while a fourth—a zebra stallion—had a simple desert bandana around his neck.

At Misty Fly’s cry, one of the Wonderbolts glanced up. Twilight instantly recognized Spitfire, having met the Wonderbolt Captain several times before.

“Misty Fly. You’re back faster than I thought,” Spitfire called out as the group approached.

“Yeah, I got lucky,” Misty Fly said, pointing back at her entourage.

Spitfire’s eyes widened upon seeing the Elements before she scowled and cursed under her breath. “It’s one of those problems, isn’t it?”

“I don’t have the exact details, but it seems that way,” Misty Fly replied.

“What is it this time?” Spitfire asked, turning to Twilight. “An evil spirit within the forest? An ancient foe of the Princesses returning?”

“Discord,” Twilight deadpanned.

Spitfire gave her a blank look before throwing her hooves in the air. “Oh come on! You can’t do that! That’s like... cheating, right? He’s already been taken care of once!”

“Well, he’s at it again,” Twilight sighed. She glanced over at the building. “So, what’s going on here?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Spitfire said, crossing her forelegs. “We tracked the vines back to this ravine, and after some investigation we discovered this building here, as well as its occupants.”

“Occupants?”

“Humans,” Spitfire sighed. “Intelligent humans. Anomaly level, if the zebra is to be believed, although we can’t get a closer look due to the vines blocking the entrance.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait? More Terran humans? Here?”

It was Spitfire’s turn to blink. “More?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, nodding absently as she stared at the building. “It’s… a long story, but the short of it is Discord brought a large number of them here and, due to the fact that we can’t understand each other, they attacked Canterlot Castle in an attempt to overthrow the Princesses.” While she had been talking, the other Wonderbolts had gathered around, each with a varying degrees of bewilderment on their faces.

“Why would they want to do that?” Surprise asked.

“Because they thought that we were enslaving the Equestrian humans with magic,” Twilight explained. “The attack was some form of misguided revolt in order to free them from our control.”

“That’s stupid,” Fleetfoot scoffed. “What would be the point of that? Why waste magical energy enslaving a species of dumb animals when you can just train them? I mean, just a few minutes alone with an Equestrian human should have been enough to show them that they’re nothing but mindless beasts... what?” she asked upon seeing the strained look the Elements shared between themselves. “What?” she asked again, scrunching up her face.

“The, uh… the Equestrian humans are kind of intelligent as well,” Twilight said, rubbing the back of her head.

The Wonderbolts gave her a look of disbelief.

“You’re… you’re joking, right?” Fleetfoot said. “You’re pulling our legs.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Twilight sighed. “It seems that something has been increasing the intelligence of the Equestrian humans, or at least that’s what we’ve been told.” She rubbed her temples with a hoof. “That’s another headache in the making. It’s going to be a nightmare to sort everything all out once this is over with.”

“Right,” Spitfire said. “Let’s focus on the vines first.” Taking to the air, she headed towards the ravine, motioning for the Elements to follow her. As they gathered around the edge, Spitfire pointed a hoof downwards. “Now, I’m not entirely sure, but I’d bet quite a lot of bits that what you need to take care of is down there.”

Upon glancing into the ravine, it was clear what Spitfire was talking about. Carved into one of the cliff walls was a cave whose entrance was choked with vines. Around the mouth of the cave, vines burst from the earth, digging their way up the cliffside towards the top of the ravine. Through the mess of black creepers, a pale blue light shone from within the depths of the cave. It was barely visible, so much so that if Twilight turned her head just right, she could mistake the glow for moonlight.

“Well, I think that’s pretty definitive. We found the source of the vines,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, but how are we supposed tah get to it?” Applejack asked.

“Duh, that’s easy!” Pinkie chirped. “Take the stairs, silly!” True to her words, there was a staircase carved into the wall of the ravine, running down towards the cave. The steps were narrow, and if that wasn’t dangerous enough, they were completely covered in vines.

“Ah ain’t goin’ down that,” Applejack said, peering down at the stairs. “All those vines… that’s not gonna end well for anypony. One twisted ankle, one misplaced step, and it’s a neck-breakin’ tumble downwards.”

Twilight turned to Spitfire. “Do you know what the glow is all about?”

“Nope,” came the reply. “None of us have even attempted to go down there.”

“Oh, come on. This is easy,” Rainbow said, puffing out her chest. “I’ll go check it out and be back within ten seconds. Then Fluttershy and I can carry you all down.” She made to take off, but was stopped by Spitfire, who stepped down on her tail, hard.

“Before you go rushing in, Recruit, check the ravine again,” she growled.

Along with her friends, Twilight peered back into the ravine. She squinted, trying to see into the gloom. The darkness must have been playing tricks on her eyes though, as the shadows seemed to twist and writhe almost as if they were alive.

“Wait a minute,” Twilight muttered under her breath. Leaning forward on her cloud, she stared into the darkness, only to blanch a second later when she finally realized what she was seeing. It wasn’t the shadows that were moving.

Hundreds of spider-plants slithered about along the ravine floor, twisting and slithering over each other in a writhing mass of vines. A dark haze drifted across the ground, and it took Twilight a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t fog, but Black-Vine Virus spores. The spider-plants snapped and puffed, continuing to send clouds of black spores wafting into the air.

Beside her, Applejack swallowed thickly. “Is… is that... ?”

“A cloud of Black-Vine Virus spores?” Spitfire finished while cocking an eyebrow. “Yes, yes it is.”

Applejack’s ears splayed off to the side and she pawed nervously at the ground before stepping back from the ravine’s edge. “Ah don’t know about y’all, but as a human rancher, that’s making mah anxiety rise.”

“How are we supposed to get through that?” Rarity asked breathlessly. “Can we even get through them?”

“Maybe they just go after humans?” Pinkie offered with a tentative smile.

“They don’t,” Spitfire huffed. “They go after ponies too. Trust me, I know from experience. It’s not something you want to happen to you.” She motioned down towards the sea of writhing vines. “They’re the reason we haven’t ventured down to investigate yet.”

Rainbow perked up. “W-wait a second! What about Spike’s dragonfire?” She motioned towards the young drake still perched upon Twilight’s back. “He can clear them out with that, right?”

“That… might actually work,” Spitfire said slowly.

“Not with that many vines,” Twilight said, scrunching up her face. “There’s too many for him to deal with.” At her words, Spike huffed and crossed his arms. She glanced over her shoulder and gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Spike, but it’s true.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he admitted dejectedly.

Turning back to Spitfire, Twilight continued. “A baby dragon doesn’t have enough fire to deal with all of the vines. He’d run out before we got down the stairs. Judging by the amount of vines down there, we’d need nothing short of an adult dragon to clear them out with fire.”

“Sorry, but we’re fresh out of those,” Fleetfoot snarked with a roll of her eyes. “How about your magic? Can’t you make fire with that?”

“That might not be the best thing to ask her,” Rainbow warned quickly. “She’s, eh… kinda running on empty.”

Fleetfoot gave her an exasperated look.

“Alright, fine,” she groused. “No asking the alicorn for magic.” Leaning back in the air, she crossed her forelegs over her chest. “In that case then, I’ve got nothing. Where are we supposed to get a buck ton of fire—”

FWWWOOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHH

“”

A bright light suddenly flooded the area, driving back the surrounding darkness. It was followed almost instantly by the roar of fire. With a yelp, everyone spun around, the Wonderbolts taking up position between the Elements and the new potential threat.

“What in the name of Celestia?” Spitfire breathed, her eyes wide.

Standing in the same field outside of the building, with a strange device strapped to his back, was one of the Terran humans. The device, which was comprised of a large tank and some tubes, was hooked up to a hose, which ran around to a large pole-like object that was grasped in his hands. From the tip of the makeshift flamethrower, a gout of fire issued forth like a geyser, washing across the side of the building. Vines turned to charcoal almost instantly as the flames swept over them.

The human laughed maniacally and danced about wildly, a black figure against the fiery backdrop. Lifting the pole into the air with both hands, he hooted and whooped as the flames consumed the choking vines. “<♫ Come on baby, light my fire! Come on baby, light my fire! Try to set the night on fire! Yeah! ♪>”

From the now-cleared entranceway a second human shouted at the first, waving a crutch about frantically. He shouted something at his companion before motioning towards the ravine. “”

The human with the flamethrower paused his burning to give the other human a look before turning and making his way hurriedly towards the ponies. At his approach, the Wonderbolts crouched down and flared their wings wide. The human ignored them, as well as the fearful looks from the Elements.

“By order of the Crown, back off—” Spitfire began, only to have the human suddenly shout at her.

“” he growled before shoving his way through the startled ponies. Flamethrower held high, he dashed down the stairs, taking them two at a time. As he descended, he set fire to the vines all while laughing maniacally.

Cautiously, the ponies approached the edge of the ravine just in time to see the human disappear into the gloom. Every few seconds a burst of flames appeared in the darkness, marking the human’s descent to the bottom of the ravine. His laughter and weird chittering language echoed up from the depths. “<♫ Light my fire! ♪>”

“Well,” Fleetfoot said as she stared into the abyss. “We found our fire.”

Spitfire shook herself from her stupor and took to the air. “Alright, everypony form up. Fleetfoot, Surprise. You’re with me. We’re gonna grab some thunderheads and try and help him out.”

“Is lightning going to be effective?” Twilight asked.

“Against a bunch of them? No,” Spitfire answered. “However, against individual ones it seems to work just fine. We’ll keep the one or two odd ones off his back. Hopefully he’ll clear the rest out.” Another geyser of fire burst forth into the night, followed by a whoop.

“At least somepony’s having fun,” Fleetfoot grumbled before taking off to find a stormcloud, Surprise following behind her. “I’m glad he’s on our side.”

“Is he, though?” Surprise asked, her brow furrowing.

“Misty Fly,” Spitfire continued. “You stay with the other human.” She motioned towards the crutch-bearing human that was still standing in the entranceway to the building. The zebra was standing next to him, watching everything play out with an amused look on his face. “Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t run off or try to hide. When all of this is done, we’re taking both of them back to Canterlot.”

Misty Fly saluted before flittering over to the building.

“And as for you guys,” Spitfire said, turning to the Elements. She paused, before sighing and shaking her head. “I don’t know… do whatever you need to.” With that, she flew off.

Twilight glanced around at her friends before peering back into the ravine. Bursts of flames were now coming from deeper in, their source nearly at the cave’s entrance. The fire was now also accompanied by bursts of light and the muted sound of thunder. Smoke wafted up from the depths as the vines burned. From her back, Spike shifted about as he tried to get a better view of what was going on.

Silently watching the scene for a few more seconds, Twilight then sighed before stepping gingerly off the cloud. “Come on, girls. Let’s go.”

Stepping carefully down the cleared steps, all seven of them descended into the depths below.

Author's Note

And the rest is history...

Chapter 67: This is My Kingdom Come

The journey back to Canterlot, while significantly slower than the mad dash to Ponyville, was much more relaxed. Tension was low, and a gentle murmur of conversation filled the air as the Wonderbolts flew along lazily.

Down below, the landscape was now free from the smothering embrace of the black vines. The earth was churned up in places and many structures had structural damage, but everything was now clear of vines. That, combined with the fact that the sun and moon were slowly correcting their courses, meant that everything was returning to normal.

Or as close to normal as it could be, given the situation.

Two chariots flew through the air, carrying their occupants towards the capital at a steady pace. The lead chariot—pulled by Spitfire and Soarin—held Twilight and Spike. The second transport, which was further back and slightly lower in the sky, contained the two Terran humans, both of whom were wearing nervous looks on their faces as they sat as far from the edge of the chariot as possible. Every so often, one of them would cast a nervous glance down at the ground far below before shifting uncomfortably about.

The remaining Wonderbolts flew alongside the chariots, keeping a close eye on the humans while chatting softly amongst themselves. They weren’t present in Canterlot during the events prior to the vines appearing, and as such these were the first Terran humans they were aware of outside of the Anomaly. A few of them would drift closer to the chariot to get a better look at them, which only seemed to increase the humans’ nervousness.

Resting with her head upon the railing, Twilight watched wearily as the countryside flashed by below. She had been the only Element to make the return trip to Canterlot, although calling herself an Element Bearer now seemed inaccurate after she had placed her Element in that strange tree along with the others.

Her friends had bid her farewell as she had boarded the chariot, electing to stay behind for various reasons, all of which she could not, and did not, blame them for. Rarity—after nearly squeezing the life out of her sister in a bone-crushing hug—remained behind to help with the cleanup. Pinkie also stayed behind to help clean up, using her Pinkie sense to find any buildings that might collapse due to structural damage; the twitchy tail never failed.

Rainbow stayed to help the weather team keep the sky clear from the abnormal storms that were trying to creep in from the Everfree, as well as using her speed to act as a messenger. Applejack stayed due to the need to look after her farm, her family, and her humans, many of whom were spooked from the vines. Luckily, they remained infection-free, as none of the vines that attacked the farm were spore-bearers.

Lastly, Fluttershy remained in order to calm her animal friends down, as well as provide medical aid to both animals and ponies alike. Zecora joined her as well, using her knowledge of potions and concoctions to help out.

The only one who had decided to go with Twilight was Spike, who refused to leave her side for even a moment. Even now he was propped up against her side, taking a nap while using her wing as a makeshift blanket. He had fallen asleep almost immediately upon take off, tuckered out from the excitement of the day. Every few seconds a gentle snore would escape his lips, bringing a smile to Twilight’s face. She remembered that snore; it was comforting, letting her know that he was still there… Still with her.

Silently, she mulled over recent events. The vines, the tree, the Elements, and the odd locked box; it all felt like a dream, although that could be due to how tired she was. She wasn’t sure how long she had been awake for, having lost track of the time a while ago. It felt like days had passed, although it could have been only hours for all she knew. She was exhausted, her body ached, and longed for a nice soft bed, but she couldn’t sleep just yet. Or rather, she wouldn’t. There was still stuff to do, things that needed to be taken care of, and she refused to sleep until she could do so beside Max, even if it was in one of the medical beds.

With her weary mind swirling with random thoughts and speculations about things, she failed to notice when grasslands turned to foothills, foothills to steep slopes, and steep slopes to cobbled streets. She only realized where she was when Spitfire called back over her shoulder, “We’ll be at the palace in a few minutes, your highness.”

Twilight blinked before glancing around. The streets of Canterlot were devoid of ponies, although the same could not be said for debris. Dozens of carts had been overturned, barrels had been smashed, and several makeshift barricades had been toppled. Smoke still rose in several locations, but luckily there were no open flames. The fact that no guards were present in the streets was also a lucky break, as that meant that martial law had not been declared; the citizens had returned to their homes willingly.

As they approached the castle walls, a group of pegasi in black and purple jumpsuits rose from the parapets and raced towards them.

“There you are,” the light gray pegasus in the lead called out as she neared. “We were beginning to wonder if you had gotten lost, Spits.” She had a short dark purple mane, the same color as her uniform. Yellow eyes surveyed the weary Wonderbolts with curiosity, a look of worry flashing across her face at their appearance before she managed to hide it behind a mask of professionalism.

“Hey, Freefall,” Spitfire replied, her words slurring slightly as she gave the pegasus a weary smile. “No, we didn’t get lost. We’re only now just getting back from our patrol. Something weird came up in Ponyville that required our attention.”

“You think you had weird? You should have been here earlier. Now that was weird,” Freefall said before glancing over Spitfire’s torn-up uniform. She grimaced at the sight of the dried blood. “By the wing and feather, Spits. You look like hammered shit. What got a hold of you, a timberwolf?”

“No, it wasn’t a timberwolf,” Spitfire sighed. “It was something in the Everfree though. We took care of it.”

Freefall hummed softly. She continued to eye Spitfire for a moment longer before finally noticing that Twilight was sitting in the chariot. Her eyes widened and she let out a loud squawk. “Your majesty!” Flipping around, she threw a hasty salute in midair. “Sorry, ma’am. Didn’t see you there!”

“‘s alright,” Twilight mumbled softly, waving a hoof about weakly. “There’s no need to salute me. It’s been a long day for everypony.”

“You said it,” Freefall muttered before turning to her crew. “Alright, Shadowbolts! Fall in. We’re helping the Wonders escort Princess Sparkle back to the palace.” With a nod, the rest of the Shadowbolts fell in beside their brighter-colored rivals.

Freefall fluttered over to glide beside Spitfire.

“So, uh… what’s with the humans?” she asked, nodding towards the two humans seated in the second chariot.

“That’s a long story,” Spitfire said, “and I’d rather wait until the other Princesses are present as well so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

Freefall nodded once before going quiet.

The rest of the trip was in silence.

When the chariots finally touched down on a landing pad at the palace, the moon was high in the sky and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Twilight groaned happily as she stepped down off of the chariot, her stiff muscles popping and creaking in protest. She winced as her injured leg twinged, but ignored it for the most part. The splint was doing its job, at least.

The humans stepped down from the chariot as well, but remained close to their ride. The one with crutches was muttering something to his companion under his breath as he eyed the surrounding pegasi worriedly. His companion scoffed, but kept his eyes locked on Spitfire as she walked past him.

As Twilight made sure that the still-sleeping form of Spike was tucked securely between her wings, the nearby double doors swung open and five unicorns in gold armor stepped out. The foremost one saluted to Twilight as she approached. “Ma’am, welcome back.” Upon noticing the two humans, he stiffened and quickly nodded to the unicorn on his right, who stepped forward, a thermometer held in her magic.

Twilight held up a hoof. “Yes, they’re Terran humans—” all the guards tensed “—but they’re with me. They helped solve the issue in Ponyville. I’m bringing them to the rest of the Terrans in the dungeon, so if you could escort us there?”

The lead unicorn eyed the humans suspiciously for a few seconds before nodding. “Very well, if you’d all follow me.” With that, he turned and marched back inside. Motioning to the humans to follow her, Twilight walked through the doors as well, the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts on her heels. The humans hesitated, but eventually followed after the retreating ponies, the one with crutches clunking along slowly. The remaining unicorns fell in step around the large group, eyeing the humans warily.

Twilight’s limp gradually grew worse as they made their way through the silent halls, but she refused to rest. Resting would come later; for now, she dragged herself along despite the discomfort, her breathing shallow and ragged. Both Spitfire and Freefall gave her concerned looks, but she stubbornly refused any help they offered. Even the humans were eyeing her worriedly, but she didn’t care. She just had to drop the Terrans off with the rest of their kind, head to the medical wing, climb into Max’s bed, and sleep.

Oh, glorious sleep… she could now see why Max loved it so.

Rounding the corner, Twilight made to head towards the dungeons, only to blink in surprise upon seeing Luna approaching from the opposite direction. Her gaze was on the floor as she walked, a small frown on her face. Her mane and tail were astral again, wafting lazily in an unseen breeze behind her.

“L-Luna?” Twilight stuttered out.

Glancing up, Luna perked upon seeing who had called her name. A smile crossed her lips. “Ah, Twilight Sparkle. You’ve returned! Victorious, I hope?”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded. “The vines have been taken care of, but we had to return the Elements to a strange tree in order to get rid of them.”

Luna’s eyes lit up.

“Ah, so it was the Tree then,” she said softly. “We were curious… but it matters not. You can ask my sister about it later and I’m sure she can tell you more about the Tree. Still, you should feel proud, Twilight Sparkle. You figured out a solution, and have once again saved Equestria. Twice in one day, in fact. But, pray tell…” Her eyes slowly drifted to the two humans, “who have you found in the process?”

Twilight sighed before repeating for what felt like the hundredth time, “These two are Terran humans that we found in a strange building above the tree. They don’t appear to be aggressive against ponies, though. In fact, they helped us clear the vines around the tree. I’m taking them down to be placed with the other Terran humans until later.”

“They helped you, you say?” Luna hummed thoughtfully as she eyed the humans. She was silent for a moment before glancing at the unicorn guards. “Provide them with food and drink, and then take them to the… others in the Grand Hall. Watch them, but don’t make them feel unwelcome.” The way she said ‘others’ caused Twilight’s ears to perk.

“Others?” she asked. “What others?”

“They are not the first Terrans that have been helpful during this time of crisis,” Luna said. “We decided to house them in the Grand Hall, away from their… violent companions. So far they have shown no signs of aggression. If anything, they seem resigned to whatever fate that may be in store for them.”

“And what will their fate be?” Twilight asked.

“We shall discuss that later,” Luna said with a smile. “For now, these two need some food. They look a little gaunt.” She nodded to the unicorn guards, who returned the gesture before beginning to herd the humans along. They weren’t rough, even going as far as to match the pace of the crutch-wielding human, who glanced back at Twilight before allowing himself to be led off.

Twilight watched them leave until they rounded the corner and were lost to view. Once they were gone, she sighed heavily.

“Finally. It’s over,” she breathed. From her back, Spike grunted softly before snuggling further into her mane. Grabbing a few strands, he began to suck on them happily. Twilight smiled at the sensation before letting out a massive yawn.

“Twilight,” Luna said, moving to drape a wing over her shoulder. “Pray tell, where are the other Elements? Did they not return with you?”

“They stayed behind to help clean up Ponyville,” Twilight said, blinking tears from her eyes. The world was beginning to blur slightly, her exhausted brain refusing to focus properly. “Without the Elements, they felt they could be the most help back home.”

“Did they now?” Luna asked, humming thoughtfully. “I see. Well, luck be with them in that endeavor. We’ll have to send some supplies to help with the relief later. I suppose that—”

“Luna,” Twilight interrupted with a huff. “I’m… I’m sorry if this comes across as rude, but if it’s all the same to you, I think I’d like to hold off on any questions you might have until later. Right now, I just want to go and lie down… with Max.” She started to turn, but was stopped by Luna’s wing.

“I am sorry, Twilight. I truly am,” she began, her ears splaying back, “but there is one last thing you must take care of before that can happen. If you would be so kind, please follow me to the throne room.”

Twilight’s ears splayed back.

“W-what? Why?!” she shouted. “I’ve done everything asked of me so far! What else do you need? What’s going on?”

Luna’s expression turned solemn.

“We are dealing with the Terran humans, once and for all.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Upon arriving at the throne room, Twilight noticed that it was surprisingly empty. A dozen or so guards were present, most of them clad in Night Guard armor. They were grouped around the walls, silently eyeing the large group of humans that was positioned in the middle of the room. A small handful of ponies in lab coats were huddled around a few mobile chalkboards in a corner of the room, the surfaces covered in scrawling notes.

Said humans were shackled together with a single, long link of chain. A few glared at the pacing ponies with hatred, but for the most part the majority of them just sat with their heads lowered, exhausted looks on their faces.

At the far end of the room, at the base of the throne dais, Celestia rested upon a large cushion. Her mane, much like Luna’s, had returned to its normal magical state. Beside the Princess, much to Twilight’s surprise, stood her father, Terminal Lance, and Captain Tempest. All three ponies looked somewhat rested, although they still had dark bags under their eyes. They conversed with Celestia in hushed whispers.

Twilight jumped slightly when Luna nudged her with a wing. The Lunar Princess then motioned for her to follow and the pair set off across the throne room, Twilight limping along behind Luna. High Wind had offered to take the sleeping form of Spike up to the medical ward, as the Wonderbolts were heading that way to get Spitfire checked out. He’d be up there, along with Max, once she finished with the task at hand.

As they neared the gathered humans, Twilight couldn’t help but notice that almost all of them had received some medical treatment; bandages were visible beneath their clothing.

“You treated their injuries?” she asked Luna.

“Of course,” came the reply, “although it was done with some difficulty.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked.

“What with our inability to communicate easily, the doctors had trouble indicating that they were there to help,” Luna said, eyeing the humans. Several of them glared at her, but none moved. “Most of them drew away,” she continued, “and a few even lashed out in anger or fear. I do not believe they knew what we were trying to do.”

“Well, if what Max told Dad was true, the Terrans were under the impression that we are controlling humans using a spell,” Twilight muttered thoughtfully. “If that is the case, they could have easily assumed that we were trying to brainwash them again.”

“We came to the same conclusion and were about to give up with providing them aid,” Luna said.

“What changed their minds?”

“One of the more injured females finally stepped forward,” Luna explained. “The doctors were able to patch her up, and the others were able to see what was going on. After that, many more allowed the doctors and nurses to treat them, but even still, a select few continued to refuse any and all aid.” Twilight nodded weakly as she allowed her gaze to drift over the humans. She caught sight of Max’s ex glaring heatedly at her from the middle of the circle, and she quickly looked away.

The pair had just about passed the last of the humans when a gray unicorn suddenly hurried over to them. He wore no armor, Twilight noted, and instead was clad in a lab coat. His black mane was rather messy, and there were bags under his amber eyes. She could just barely make out his cutie mark peeking out from beneath the hem of the white coat: a shooting star with a two-tone blue trail behind it.

He gave them both a big smile as he approached.

“Ah, there you are,” Luna muttered, eyeing the unicorn blankly. “I was wondering where you had gotten off to. Twilight, this is Researcher Shooting Star,” she said, motioning towards the stallion with a wing.

“How do you do?” Twilight asked as politely as she could; her exhaustion was beginning to wear her down.

“I-I’m fine, Princess, t-thanks for asking,” Shooting Star stuttered out, the large grin still on his face as he stared unblinkingly at her.

“Shooting Star here works at the Human Research Facility,” Luna said. “He’s requested to be here to observe the Terrans before we send them home.”

Twilight gave the stallion a confused look. “What for?”

“W-what for?” If it was at all possible, the stallion’s eyes widened further. “Princess, t-this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!” He fell in step beside Twilight, matching her slow, limping pace with his own.

“I didn’t realize it was that big a deal,” Twilight mumbled, ears splaying back. Having lived with Max for long enough, the thought of more Terran humans, while interesting, didn’t excite her as much as it would have a year ago.

“O-of course it’s a big deal, your highness,” Shooting Star said breathlessly. “These humans are so much like our own, but completely different at the same time. W-why, from just studying them for a few hours we have already noted ten similar patterns in behavior, as well as fifteen unique ones we’ve never seen before.”

This caused Twilight to pause, and she gave him a curious look. “What behaviors, exactly?”

Shooting Star licked his lips before pulling a clipboard out of one of the coat’s pockets. “Well, first off, unlike our own Equestrian humans, the Terran humans have no discernible pack hierarchy between each individual. However, they still tend to group together rather than stand alone. They also seem to support one another, despite not being part of the same pack or family. We aren’t sure why they do this exactly, but given enough time, we could probably come up with a—”

“Our decision is final, Shooting Star,” Luna interrupted, glancing over her shoulder to look at the stallion. “They are being sent home immediately.”

“B-but, Princess! Please, reconsider!” Shooting Star cried. “If we could just study these creatures for a few more hours—maybe even a day or two—just think of what we could learn about our own humans!”

“You have until we perform the spell to continue your observation, Researcher,” Luna said before turning her head back around.

Shooting Star opened and closed his mouth several times before glancing sideways at Twilight. A small blush appeared on his cheeks.

“S-surely you can see the benefit of our work, Princess Sparkle,” he said softly. “Somepony as smart as you should be able to see how this could benefit ponykind. Perhaps you c-could convince your fellow Princess to postpone the spell. Or perhaps allow us to keep one of the Terran humans here a while longer? We w-wouldn’t need all of them! Just three or four.”

“Sorry, Shooting Star,” Twilight said, giving the stallion an uneasy look, “but I agree with Luna. The sooner we send the Terrans home, the better. For both us and them.”

Shooting Star’s ears drooped. “O-oh… okay...”

Feeling slightly bad for the stallion, Twilight moved and draped a wing over his back for a moment.

“I’m sure what information you have now is plenty useful,” she said with a somewhat forced smile. “Besides, Luna did say you had a few more minutes to watch them. That has to count for something, right?”

A large blush appeared on Shooting Star’s face as Twilight’s wing touched him, and he stiffened. Swallowing thickly, he nodded his head slowly. “I’ll, um… I-I’ll just go observe some more then, s-shall I? S-sorry for bothering you, Princess.” With that, he turned and hurried off, his face more crimson than gray.

For a moment, Twilight watched him leave, a confused look on her face, but then she shook her head and sighed. Turning, she followed Luna, who had already reached the throne dais. She was whispering in her sister’s ear, who now had a small smile on her face.

As she approached the gathered ponies, her father perked up, and a weary smile spread across his muzzle. Stepping forward, he gave her a loving nuzzle. “Hey, pumpkin. How ya doing?”

“Hey, Dad,” Twilight murmured. “I’m fine, but I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“I know how you feel,” Night Light replied, stepping back.

Twilight smiled before glancing over at Celestia, who was giving her a look filled with pride. “My faithful student. It seems you were successful with defeating the vines.”

“Yes,” Twilight said, “although we did have some help along the way.”

“So I’ve heard,” Celestia said, nodding to Luna. “Still, we know how difficult it must have been for you and your friends to give up the Elements. It took a great deal of courage to relinquish them, and you have our thanks.”

“So, you knew about the tree?” Twilight asked, ears splaying back.

“I did,” Celestia confessed, “but I did not know for sure if it was connected to the vines. Remind me at a later date, and I’ll tell you the story behind the Tree, but for now, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Still, you performed admirably and I couldn’t be more proud. Now, if you’ll excuse me...”

Getting to her hooves, Celestia looked down at the humans gathered in the center of the throne room for a moment.

“Right!” she said suddenly and loudly, drawing all eyes to her. “I think it’s about time we send these poor souls back to where Discord had pulled them from. Colonel Night Light, Terminal Lance—” the two Guards straightened up “—my sister and I will need to borrow some of your magic for this task. Do you both feel up to it?”

“Ready and able, you highness,” Terminal replied.

“I suppose I have a few dregs left to give,” Night Light chuckled.

“Very well,” Celestia said, nodding to them both. She then turned her attention to her Captain of the Guard. “Captain Tempest?”

The pegasus saluted. “Ma’am?”

“While we get the spell ready, try your best to communicate with the humans what we’re about to do,” Celestia said.

“Right,” Tempest nodded. Jumping down of the throne dais, she marched towards the humans. As she did so, she barked at the nearby researchers. “Bring me a blank chalkboard and something to write with.” The researchers scrambled to do as she asked, and soon Tempest was standing in front of the humans with a blank chalkboard beside her, and a piece of chalk in her hoof. Twilight moved to stand on the opposite side of the board, curious as to what Tempest was up to.

The humans eyed the two ponies nervously.

“Right,” Tempest said, tapping the chalkboard with a wing. “I know you lot can’t understand me, but if you’re anything like the Anomaly, you should be able to understand pictures.” With the chalk, she drew a rudimentary house on the left side of the board, with stick figure pony and human inside. This earned several startled cries from the humans, as well as some dark muttering.

Ignoring them, Tempest then proceeded to draw another house on the other side of the board, this one with only a stick figure human inside. She paused before giving the human a smiling face.

“There,” she said, placing the chalk down. She backed up and turned to the humans. “Understand?”

The humans glared at her silently for a few moments, before one in the middle shouted out something that none of the ponies could understand. Whatever was said though caused the rest of the humans to huddle together, shaking their heads in either fear or disagreement with what they thought the pictures represented. Mutterings ran through the group as they eyed the chalkboard darkly.

“I don’t know how I could have made it more clear,” Tempest growled under her breath.

“Here, let me try something,” Twilight said, taking the chalk in her magic. Wiping the board clean, she then began to draw a large circle on the left side of the board. Within the circle, she drew a smaller circle before drawing a sun and moon on either side of it, attached to the circumference of the larger circle.

Moving over to the right side of the board, she drew out a sun again, but unlike before, she began to draw smaller circles leading out away from the sun in a straight line. She continued this until she had nine circles of various sizes all in the row.

“What are you doing?” Tempest asked, an eyebrow cocked.

“Drawing our world and theirs,” Twilight said as she added a small circle right above the third circle from the sun. As a finishing touch, she added a curved line between the four circle and the fifth. Stepping back, she admired her work.

“Max showed me a diagram of his world,” she said, glancing sideways at Tempest. “Or the ‘solar system’ as he called it. It stands to reason the other Terrans will recognize it, too.” Sure enough, curious muttering was beginning to come from the group of humans, many of them craning their heads to see what Twilight had drawn.

Turning to face them, Twilight made sure they were looking at her before motioning all around her.

“Equus,” she said, although she knew that they couldn’t understand her. Gesturing around again, she then pointed at the small dot in the center of the left-hand circle before repeating, “Equus.” She paused for a moment before tapping on the circle again and pointing at the gathered humans. Then, starting at the circle indicated as ‘Equus’, she drew a line across the board to the third circle in the line-up on the right side. Finishing off with an arrow pointing at said circle, she said, “Earth. Home.”

With that, she put the chalk down and backed away.

“Do you think they’ll understand this time?” Tempest asked, eyeing the diagram. She blinked before her ears swiveled around to point towards the humans. Excited chittering was slowly spreading throughout the group, many of the humans pointing at the board as they whispered to their neighbors. A few still looked skeptical, but the majority of the Terrans looked almost hopeful.

“I’d say they might,” Twilight said with a smile.

The sound of hoofsteps caused the pair to glance around.

Princess Celestia and Luna were approaching the gathered humans, both their horns glowing softly and their eyes blazing white with power. On either side of them, Night Light and Terminal Lance stood, their horns pulsing with magic as well.

“It is time,” Celestia said simply, her voice thrumming with power.

Twilight and Tempest backed away, Twilight pulling the chalkboard with her in order to give the Princesses room to work.

“Are you ready, sister?” Celestia asked as she eyed the humans. Her gaze drifted over the nervous faces before her, her own remaining emotionless.

“Verily, dear sister,” Luna huffed. “Let’s get this over with.” Their horns began to glow brighter, to the point where it was painful to look at them. Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud ‘crack’ and a flash of brilliant blue light. Twilight lifted a hoof to shield her eyes, but before that she caught the briefest glimpse of a large harbor with an arched bridge, and a large white building overlooking the harbor that looked like the sails of a ship. For a brief moment, a warm breeze rushed through the throne room. A loud ‘splash’ could be heard.

And then it was over.

The light faded, and the ponies blinked the stars from their eyes. Where the Terran humans had been moment before was now empty, save for the chains that had bound them. No smouldering circles, no residue, no aftermath; just empty floor, carpet, and chains.

“Is… is that it?” Twilight asked, glancing around.

“Yes,” Luna huffed. “Why? Were you expecting something else?” She was breathing heavily, sweat beading up on her brows. The two unicorns weren’t any better off: Terminal was gasping for breath while Night Light looked close to passing out. Celestia was the only one that didn’t look worn out from the spell, though she was breathing through her mouth.

“Well, yeah,” Twilight huffed. “With how much magic the spell takes, and with how big a deal it is, I thought it would be, well… more!” To emphasize her words, she waved her hooves about.

Luna gave her a confused look.

“Were you not once a participant in said spell?” she asked. “I thought you and your friends had it cast on you before, in a different world.”

“Yes, we did,” Twilight said with a nod, “but we didn’t see the spell itself. One minute we were there, the next we were home.”

“It’s a fairly anticlimactic spell,” Celestia offered with a smile. “As we told Max once before, it requires nothing from those it’s being cast upon. A slight tingle is felt, and then you are transported back to your own world. The only issue is, you can’t be one-hundred percent sure where you will end up on the other side.”

“So, we just sent the Terrans back,” Twilight said slowly, “with no knowledge of where on their world they’d end up? What if they were transported someplace hostile or dangerous?”

“That was one of the main reasons Max decided to stay behind,” Luna said, “but in this case, it was for the best.”

“But how can you justify—” Twilight began, only to stop as Celestia draped a wing over her back. Glancing up, she blinked in surprise upon seeing the sad smile upon the Princess’s face.

“It was for the best, Twilight,” she said softly. “Do you really think any of them would have been happy living here? Especially after what they experienced?” When Twilight shook her head, Celestia continued. “It’s better for them to be in their own world than trapped here against their will. Wherever they ended up, I’m sure they’ll be able to support each other.”

“Sooo, is it over?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“Not quite,” Luna said, not meeting Twilight’s eye.

“‘Not quite’?” Twilight repeated. “What else do is there to do?”

Removing her wings from Twilight’s back, Celestia turned to a pair of guards standing beside a side door. “Let them in.”

The guards nodded, and Twilight blinked as a small group of humans entered the room. The group consisted of three females and three males, two of which she recognized as the humans that had helped her and her friends out with the vines. The other male was a heavy set human with dark skin.

As the humans followed the guards to the center of the room, they glanced around in awe.

“Is everything prepared?” Celestia asked one of the guards.

“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply, the mare saluting sharply. “Shall I retrieve it?”

Celestia smiled. “Please do.”

The guard nodded before hurrying off.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked as she eyed the new humans.

“I fear that we might be playing favorites,” Celestia said bashfully, her ears splaying off to the side. “You see, unlike their companions, these six humans have all displayed compassion towards ponies in some way, be it helping the wounded, or helping solve an ongoing crisis.”

“As such,” Luna said, picking up from where her sister left off, “we shall be giving them a bit of a… helping hoof of our own.” At her words, the throne room doors opened, and a pair of unicorns entered carrying a large row boat in their magic. As the boat was placed on the floor, Twilight could see that it was full of warm clothing, food, canteens of water, rope, and many other survival items.

Twilight pulled her gaze from the boat and glanced up at Celestia. “What…?”

“A helping hoof,” Luna repeated as Celestia nodded. “Since we are unsure of where they’ll end up, we’ll give them a little… aid, as it were. They might not need any of it, but it’s the least we can do to show our appreciation.”

“So, these humans get special treatment because they were nice?” Twilight asked, her ears splaying back.

“Like we said, playing favorites,” Luna huffed. “Yes, it’s not fair,” she added quickly when Twilight opened her mouth. “The other humans were just doing what they thought was right, yet look at it from our perspective: dozens of guards have been injured, many of which are in critical condition, because of the actions of their more violent counterparts.”

“We can not just outright punish any of them,” Celestia continued for Luna, “as they were being manipulated. However, some form of justice must be served.” Extending a wing, she motioned to the boat now sitting on the floor. The six humans were eyeing it in confusion, clearly unsure as to why there was a boat in the middle of the palace, so far from water.

“So, we will do what we can,” Celestia said softly. “We’ll return them all home… but only give aid to those who have earned it.”

“Still, it doesn’t feel right,” Twilight mumbled.

“No, it doesn’t,” Luna agreed. “However, it is not your burden to bear. My sister and I decided upon this course of action, so it will be our sin to carry. Just remember, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, giving Twilight a pointed look, “not everything is as black and white as we would like it to be. Sometimes, you must choose between the lesser of two evils. Such as whether to save your friends… or save Equestria.

“We pray you’ll never have to make such a decision though,” she finished, giving Twilight a sad smile.

Licking her lips, Twilight nodded thoughtfully before turning her attention back to the six humans. Tempest had wheeled the chalkboard back out again, and was currently showing them the diagram Twilight had drawn earlier. From the looks on the humans’ faces, they understood perfectly what was going on… even if they didn’t know the how.

The large-set male had already gotten into the boat and was sitting happily in the back, a too-small lifejacket about his neck. As the others peered at the contents of the boat cautiously, he glanced around. When his gaze met hers, his smile faded slightly as his eyes flicked down to the collar around her neck. He was still for a moment before nodding to her.

Twilight blinked in surprise, but the human had gone back to fiddle around with the lifejacket. By then, the other humans had gotten situated in the boat as well and were now sitting awkwardly, almost as if unsure of what to do.

“Shall we send them off as well?” Luna asked, glancing at her sister.

Celestia shook her head. “I’ll do this one. You’ll need you magic to lower the moon in a few hours.”

Luna blinked. “But what about your sun?”

“Oh, I’m sure you can handle that as well,” Celestia said with a smirk before stepping forward. Her horn began to glow as she began to channel the magic for the spell.

Terminal Lance moved forward as well.

“Do you need our help again, your highness?” he asked. His voice was confident, even as his horn sparked slightly.

“No, but thank you, Terminal,” she said. “Although, I may need you to bring my pillow to me once I’ve finished.” Eyes glowing, she stepped forward and stood before the humans, who were now giving her nervous looks. The females even looked ready to bolt, but the heavy-set man whispered something to them that seemed to calm the whole group down. It probably also helped that Celestia was giving them her signature motherly smile.

“I know you can’t understand me,” she said softly as she stared down at the seated humans, “but I just want to say thank you for the kindness you have shown my subjects. I know not if you did it out of fear or respect or to clear your guilty conscience, but it does not matter. You have shown the kindness of your race, and now I must show you mine.

“We are sending you back. You have had a trying time in our world, so I wish you all a long but peaceful life in yours.” With that, Celestia bowed her head and, in a flash of magic, the room lit up once more. Within the light, Twilight was just able to make out what appeared to be a city partially submerged in water before it became too painful to look and she glanced away.

Like before, the bright light produced by the spell only lasted for a second before fading, leaving behind no trace of the humans or the supply-filled boat.

As the magic flowing from Celestia’s horn faded, she let out a low groan before suddenly collapsing. Luckily, Terminal had moved her cushion beneath her seconds before, and it fluffed up slightly as she sunk upon it. She shot him a grateful, if somewhat exhausted, smile. Her mane, now once again devoid of its usual magical properties, hung in front of her eyes in long, pink strands.

“Thank you, Terminal,” she said, her voice rasping slightly.

Twilight stared at the spot where the humans had been a moment ago. All of the Terran humans that the guards could find, rounded up and sent home. There might have been one or two still out there somewhere unaccounted for, but as far as they knew, Max was now the only Terran human left in Equestria.

She wasn’t sure how this information made her feel. And how would Max feel about it? Would all this drama—would his interactions with his fellow Terran humans—cause him to want to change his mind about staying in Equestria? When he woke up, would he want to return to his old world?

Slowly, the fearful thoughts began to well up in her mind, but before the irrational part of her could get rolling, it was thoroughly and forcefully smashed by the part of her mind that was exhausted. What she needed right now was sleep; she’d worry about those thoughts later if they ever came up again.

Blinking as she emerged from her daze, she glanced over at Celestia. “Is… is it over?”

“Yes,” Celestia said, breathing heavily, “I do believe that it is finished.”

“Sooo,” Twilight said slowly, her ears perking, “I can go see Max?”

With a snort, Luna rolled her eyes, but the faintest hint of a smile touched her lips as she moved to sit beside her sister.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “You may now go and—”

Her words were drowned out by the throne room doors suddenly flying open. Several guards backed into the room, their spears pointed towards the door they had just entered.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Luna shouted as she jumped to her hooves.

“You highnesses, we might have a situation!” one of the guards called back over her shoulder. As she spoke, a mob of humans began to trickle into the throne room through the doors. “Trickle” was really the keyword, as there was no real ferocity about them. If anything, most of them appeared more curious than anything else. They chittered softly to each other, glancing around at the ponies, but never once moving in a threatening manner.

“More Terrans?” Captain Tempest asked in alarm.

The guard shook her head. “No, ma’am. They’re all Equestrian!”

Tempest’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Equestrian humans? What are they doing?”

“We’re not sure, ma’am,” called another guard.

“Have they shown any signs of aggression?” Celestia asked, eyeing the gathering humans curiously. A few returned her look with curious glances of their own, and several of them even approached her tentatively. Night Light moved to block their path, but Celestia shook her head. “No, let them come. If they aren’t being aggressive, then they’re fine. I’m interested in what they’ll do.”

One of the humans—a young female—placed her hands on the sun emblazoned on Celestia’s flank. Running her fingers through the colored fur, she began to chitter and squawk in almost a happy manner. She pulled her hand back and glanced up at Celestia, still chattering away.

“I’m sorry, little one,” Celestia said softly, a sad smile on her face, “but I can’t understand you.” She watched the human intently, trying to take in as much detail as possible; she wondered how she could not notice their intelligence sooner.

“I don’t think communication with them will be possible just yet,” Luna said stiffly. She had her own gaggle of humans around her, a few of which were carefully running their hands through her wings. One, a young male adolescent, traced the moon on her flank with a finger while he cooed softly.

Night Light snorted. “Well, looks like we’ll have to wait for Max to wake up in order to figure out what they want.” The words had no sooner left his mouth than the sea of humans began to part for a tall human that was making his way across the room. His body was muscular and covered in scars. A trio of fireballs were branded on the right side of his chest, spinning around each other. He had a pony slung across his shoulders, and a scowl on his face.

Celestia’s eyes widened as the human drew near. “Van—?!”

With a grunt, the human flung his cargo from his shoulder and deposited the pony none to gently upon the ground.

“Oh, yeah, that’s nice. Just drop me on my tailbone. Bucker,” Lyra grumbled as she sat up, rubbing her rump. Glancing over her shoulder, she glared up at the human that had carried her in. He glared right back, unlike the other humans who were giving her fearful looks and a wide berth.

“Lyra?” Twilight asked incredulously as said mare got to her hooves. “What… what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been foalnapped,” Lyra grunted, brushing herself off, “by a couple of humans. Not that I mind, really. They picked the perfect time. It’s carrot stew night at the asylum, and it always tastes moldy.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side, her brow furrowing. “But, what… what do they… why would they bring you here?”

“Buck if I know,” Lyra replied. “Let’s ask ‘em.” Before any ponies could respond, she turned around and asked, “Hey, Dumbnuts. Why’d you bring me here?”

The human growled down at her, his lips pulled back in a snarl.

Lyra rolled her eyes. “Fine. Psy… why’d you bring me here?”

The human grunted before crossing his arms over his chest. As he chittered, Lyra’s ear twitched as though she could hear words being said. When the human stopped ‘talking’, she turned and glanced to Celestia.

“Dumbnuts—” the human snarled “—fine, Psy here says that they’re here to collect what King promised them.”

The room fell silent as all the humans waited patiently for a response. The ponies however were staring at Lyra with wide eyes, their mouths hanging open in shock.

After a few seconds, Celestia closed her mouth.

“You… you can understand them?” she asked weakly.

“Yup,” Lyra replied impassively.

“For how long?”

Lyra shrugged. “For a while, actually.”

“And you haven’t told anypony this before?” Tempest growled. “That’s the kind of critical information we would need to know!”

Slowly, Lyra turned her head to stare at the Captain of the Guard; if looks could kill, Tempest would be nothing but dust and feathers. “I did tell ponies that I could talk to humans. I was put on a bucking watch-list. I tried to get a hold of a Princess three separate times, and each time I was practically thrown off the mountain by guards. I was placed in a bucking asylum for Maker’s sake. I tried to tell ponies… what’s your excuse?” Tempest took a step back, her ears folding against her head. Several of the nearby guards shifted uncomfortably, unable to look in Lyra’s direction.

Lyra just snorted before turning back to Celestia. “Yeah, I can understand humans. I could understand her human as well,” she said, pointing at Twilight, “when he passed by yesterday.”

“I see,” Celestia said, humming softly. She was silent for several seconds before continuing, “and you said that they are here to collect what this king has promised them? Might I ask who the king is?”

“It’s their nickname for Max,” Lyra said.

“They call Max ‘King’?” Celestia asked before shaking her head. “Nevermind. What is it exactly that Max promised them?”

Letting out a soft huff, Lyra turned back to Psy. “Hey, what is it that King offered you?” He started to grunt and chirp, and keeping her gazed locked on him, Lyra began to translate. “King said that if they helped save the ponies, that he’d talk to Sunb—” She paused, blinking twice. “Is… did you just call her… oh my gosh.” The corners of her mouth twitched upwards slightly. “This… that’s… I take it back. The idiot can do some stuff right.”

“What’s going on?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Lyra said a little too quickly. She cleared her throat before continuing. “Max promised to talk to Celestia about getting the human dens, as well as place to grow their packs. From the sounds of it, that might include giving them land.”

“They want land? What land could we possibly give them?” Luna whispered to her sister.

“Well, there are the Foal Mountains,” Celestia whispered back, uncertainty in her voice.

“Don’t those belong to the residents of Hollow Shades?” Luna hissed. “I believe they get their lumber from the trees upon the slopes.”

Celestia bit her lip. “Well… there’s always the Crystal Mountains to the north. We’d just need to get ahold of Cadance.”

The sisters were brought out of their conversation when a human female stepped forward, chittering quickly.

“What? Really?” Lyra asked, her eyes widening slightly. The human nodded, caused Lyra to hum. “Huh… wouldn’t have called that.”

“What did she say?” Celestia asked.

“Apparently some of the humans want to continue to live with their pony owners… but as equals?” Lyra directed the last part at the human, who nodded again.

Celestia stared at the human for a few seconds before her gaze slowly began to drift across the crowd before her. Though her expression was blank, any that knew her well enough could see that the gears in her head were turning. She was weighing her options, and trying to figure out what course would be best to take.

Her eyes eventually landed on a group of ponies standing off to the side.

“Shooting Star?” she called out.

The stallion perked upon being called. “Y-yes, your highness?”

Celestia smiled. “Come here, please.”

Shooting Star blinked but did as he was asked. Skirting around the sea of humans, he quickly made his way towards the cushion the Princess was perched upon. She waited until he was closer before continuing. “I have a special task for you, one which I think you’ll enjoy greatly, given your interest in humans. Ms. Heartstrings, this goes for you as well.”

“W-what task is that, your highness?” Shooting Star asked. Beside him, Lyra’s ears perked up, but she kept a look of disinterest on her face.

“I’ll go more into details in a moment,” Celestia said, “but simply put, you two will be working together. Ms. Heartstrings will be helping bridge the language barrier between us and the humans while you, Shooting Star, will be heading the effort to integrate humans into our society.”

The pair gave her identically confused looks, causing her to continue.“We need to know what the humans require to not only survive, but to thrive. We also need to be able to head off any conflicts that might arise between both our kind in the coming years. It’s a lot to ask of ponies to adjust their mindsets of what humans are to us, but we must. We can’t keep treating them like animals when it is now perfectly clear that they are not. That’s what you two will be working towards, with the help of the other researchers at the Human Research Facility.”

Shooting Star stared at Celestia with wide eyes, the weight of what she was asking for slowly registering in his mind. His ears splayed back, and he swallowed weakly.

Lyra, while not as worried, looked less than enthusiastic about the situation.

“Ignoring the fact that you’re asking a lot of us right off the bat,” she said dryly, “you’re just assuming that I’m going to help you. If it wasn’t exactly clear, I am currently checked into an asylum…”

Celestia opened her mouth.

“For being insane,” Lyra continued.

Celestia stared at her, waiting.

“Because I tried to tell ponies that humans were intelligent,” Lyra finished up with a small huff. “So, what’s my incentive here? What could you possibly do to make me want to actually help out here? ‘Cause… I’m not seeing it yet.”

Despite Lyra’s insolent tone, a small smirk touched Celestia’s face. “I’d be more than happy to discuss the terms of your employment, a royal pardon, and the especially large sum of bits that is coming your way for the terrible grief you’ve been subjected to, but first, there is one last thing I must take care of. Twilight!”

Twilight, who had been slowly nodding off, jerked awake when her name was called. Blinking, she glanced blearily over at Celestia, an ear drooping against her head. “Y-yes, Princess?”

Celestia gave her a warm smile. “Thank you for being here for the earlier events, but Luna and I can handle this. I do believe that there is a human you wish to see… and a bed calling your name, unless I am mistaken.”

Blinking owlishly, Twilight stared at Celestia. Slowly, a smile began to work its way across her muzzle. “Does… does that mean…?”

“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia said softly. “You are dismissed.”

The smile spread completely, and with an excited ‘squee’, Twilight half-ran, half-fluttered her way towards the throne room doors. The humans parted for her, many watching her curiously as she stumbled past. She threw open the doors and cantered quickly off down the hall, heading for not only her human, but a well deserved sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Equine, four, nine, twenty-three, six, twenty-two, twenty-six, twenty-three, twenty-three, eleven, three, twelve, eight, twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, eight, four…”

Melodic Wind crawled down the hall slowly on her belly, muttering softly under her breath as she went. Her eye was still swollen shut, and the good one glazed over. Cracked hooves clicked softly against the stone floor as she pulled herself slowly forward. Her featherless wings dragged uselessly along the floor. With how skeletal her body was, any pony that was passing by might mistake her for a moving corpse.

Still, no pony came across her. They were too busy with other things that were happening elsewhere in the castle. That’s how she was able to escape from the medical ward. A few guards had shown up and taken the doctors and nurses away. Something about treating special patients in the dungeon. She had taken advantage of the lack of supervision and slipped out of her bed and out of the ward.

There was work to be done.

She had a mission to complete.

“Equine, four, nine, twenty-three, six, twenty-two, twenty-six, twenty-three, twenty-three, eleven, three, twelve, eight, twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, eight, four…”

Reaching a set of stairs, she didn’t hesitate to descend them. With sickening ‘thwacks’, her chest hit against each step on the way down. The air escaped her lungs in soft, rasping gasps with each impact. Upon reaching the bottom, she laid there in a crumpled heap for but a moment before untangling herself.

Again, she began to drag herself along, all while repeating the same mantra under her breath.

As she neared the end of the hallway, a pair of white hooves suddenly stepped in front of her. She stared at them for a brief moment before trying to go around them, but was stopped by a red aura surrounding her. Slowly, her head was lifted by said aura until she found herself staring into a piercing pair of red eyes.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Vinyl asked, an eyebrow raising.

Melodic blinked her one good eye before beginning to mutter again, “Equine, four, nine, twenty-three, six—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vinyl sighed. “I figured you’d say something like that.” She stared down at Melodic for a few seconds before slowly cocking her head to the side. “Riddick always had an obsession with playing mind games. Always fascinated with… ‘sleeper agents’, he called them. Probably had something to do with that Ice War he was a part of. It only got worse when he became a draconequus and could affect ponies’ minds more easily… although I doubt I have to tell you that.” She gave Melodic a pointed look.

“—twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, eight, four…” Melodic mumbled, still staring into Vinyl’s eyes.

“Of course, there’s two major ways he likes to play with ponies’ minds,” Vinyl continued. “The first is to ‘discord’ them. Make them the exact opposite of who they really are. That method is easy to fix though. You just need remind them of who they really are, and the effects mostly disappear. A few might linger, but for the most part, the pony returns to normal.”

Melodic blinked once. “Equine, four, nine, twenty-three…”

“Unfortunately, the second way is much more… damaging, and permanent,” Vinyl said through her teeth. “He goes in there, and wheedles his way around. Makes you do what he wants, drives you mad with the desire to do what he wants, without even really knowing what the task is. Do you even know what it is he wants you to do?”

Melodic blinked again, slower this time. “...twelve, eight, twenty-two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four?” It was almost a question, one that caused Vinyl to laugh bitterly.

“Yeah, see? You don’t know what you want,” she said. “I’ve looked throughout the years, but I’ve yet to find a good way to counter this form of brainwashing. Well, that’s not entirely true,” she admitted. “There is a way to fix it. Death.” She stared down at Melodic, who paused in her mutterings just long enough to be noticeable. “Not the best option, but at the moment the only one most ponies have. It’s kind of a… last laugh for Riddick. You either complete what he wants you to… or die trying.”

Melodic opened and closed her mouth, but no words came out. Slowly, her ragged ears splayed back against her head.

Vinyl was silent for a moment before leaning down.

“Luckily, I’m not most ponies,” she whispered in Melodic’s ear.

Melodic locked gazes with her again, and for the first time, the tiniest of sparks began to shine in the dull orb.

“There is a way to help you, although there is a price,” Vinyl said, straightening back up. “You see, there is a race of ponies called sanguinarians, or as you’ve probably heard them called, vamponies.” She paused, and her eyes began to glow red, the whites turning pitch black. If Melodic was alarmed, she was unable to show it.

“Sanguinarians have several traits, some of which are blessings while others are curses,” Vinyl continued. “However, one very prominent trait is the fact that we are unaffected by mental magic. Mind control doesn’t work on us.” Pausing, she licked at the fangs that had emerged from her upper lip.

“If I turn you into a sanguinarian, like me, Riddick’s hold on your mind will be broken,” she said softly. “It’s not a fix-all, though. There will be some issues. Your mind won’t be one-hundred percent again, but you’ll at least be back in control once more.”

Melodic was listening closely, spitting out a random number every few seconds.

“There’s only one issue though,” Vinyl said softly. “You have to want it. I can only turn you if you are willing, if it’s something you agree to. Without your consent, there’s no chance of this working, and you’ll be stuck like this for the rest of your life. So, I ask you, young one… does enough of you still remain in there to hear and understand what I am saying?” Leaning down, she peered into Melodic’s dull yellow eye. “Do you have enough fight left in you to be free?”

Melodic stared blankly up at her for a moment before suddenly scrunching her face up. The muscles in her face twitched and spasmed as she continued to stare unblinkingly into Vinyl’s eyes. She opened and closed her mouth wordlessly before catching her lip in her teeth. With a growl, she bit down hard, drawing blood.

“Buck it,” she growled out from around her bleeding lip.

A large grin spread across Vinyl’s muzzle, exposing her fangs in all their glory. “Good answer.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Half an hour later, Vinyl wandered into the medical ward, Melodic draped across her back. The pegasus was unconscious, although she appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Her coat was now a noticeably darker shade of blue, and where once there was featherless wings, a pair of cobalt-blue leathery wings now resided. The fur around her mouth was bloodied and raw, and there was dried bloody tear streaks on her cheeks.

Moving carefully, Vinyl carried Melodic over to her bed and placed her gently upon it. She tucked her in, being careful with the skeletal mare. She groaned once as Vinyl pulled the blankets up, her unswollen eye fluttering open for a brief second, exposing a red iris instead of yellow. Vinyl just whispered softly to her, and Melodic soon was still again.

After getting Melodic situated, Vinyl took a step back. Eyeing the mare, she then sighed heavily and shook her head.

“Octavia’s gonna kill me,” she muttered under her breath before turning and walking down the ward towards the far end. As she passed by a nurse, she whispered in her ear before pointing towards Melodic. The nurse’s eyes widened, but she nodded and quickly moved over to check on the new sanguinarian.

Vinyl continued on her way until she came to one of the beds next to a large window. Stepping around it, she sat down in the chair that had been placed beside the cot. She leaned back until her head was resting against the wall. After a few seconds, she glanced over at the bed’s occupant.

Max breathed softly, his chest rising and falling gently with each intake of air. Bandages covered his face and neck, but most were for minor cuts and scrapes. A cast covered one of his legs, which were both dangling off the end of the medical cot.

As she watched him, he grimaced slightly before shifting in his sleep.

Vinyl hummed softly. “And what horrors are you experiencing, I wonder…”

Chapter 68: The Jail at the End of the World, Part 1

My consciousness stirred.

I opened my eyes with great difficulty, only to groan a moment later when they were immediately assaulted by harsh, bright light. Throwing an arm over my eyes, I tried to block the light, but the damage was already done. I was awake. Still, I opted to just lie there for a while as I tried to get my mind working again; the fog of sleep clung to me with a vengeance. My arm felt stiff, almost sore, as if I had slept on it wrong at some point in the night.

Actually, now that I took a moment to process it, my entire body was stiff and achy.

Why was that?

...

After a few minutes had passed, I tried to open my good eye again, but the light was still too bright. Squinting, I hissed in pain.

“Twilight, I know you like getting up with the sun, but it’s too early for this crap,” I muttered, squeezing my eye shut tight again. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point though. This wasn’t the first time Twilight had used the light of the rising sun to wake me, but it was by far the worst.

I felt horrible, like I hadn’t slept properly in ages. My entire body was tense and sore, and it took a great deal of effort to move. Despite the fact I just woke up, it felt like I hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, and right now I didn’t want to get up; I just wanted to go back to sleep, and stay that way for a day or two.

Probably longer.

I’d feel better after that... right?

As nice as that all sounded, the light currently shining on my face didn’t like that plan. Even through my eyelids it was painful, and I had to turn my head to relieve the discomfort, which in turn caused my neck to crack several times. The movement didn’t help though. The light demanded, quite clearly, that I awaken immediately and rise to greet the day…

...fuck the day. Night time was best time! Down with Sunbutt! Moonbutt all the way!

Groaning like an old rotting tree in a windstorm, I reluctantly pushed myself into a seated position, all while keeping my eyes shut tight the entire time.

“Twiiiiiilight,” I growled, running a hand through my long, shaggy mane of hair. The light was getting rather annoying. It had already managed to wake me up, but now it was just adding insult to injury. It was like those people that were always so damn chipper in the morning. What were they called again? Terrorists? I was going to have to have a conversation with Celestia about how bright she made her sun.

“Twilight, ‘m up. Shut the damn blinds already,” I croaked out.

Even as I spoke, something nagged at the back of my mind. Something important that I was missing; that I had forgotten. Something very, very important. However, my brain wasn’t able to work this early in the morning, so it still wasn’t awake enough to figure out what the problem was at the moment. It’d get around to it eventually, if it was important enough. Right now though, I had to focus on one thing at a time, and the first thing on my short list was the fucking light.

Speaking of which, my whining was met with silence.

Ugh… she’s probably already down the stairs, I brooded before sighing heavily. Gritting my teeth, I cracked my eye open again. My vision blurred due to tears of pain and the accursed light. Not waiting for things to come into focus, I swung my legs out from the couch and placed my feet on the ground. The minute my skin touched floor, I froze.

Instantly, I realized that something was definitely wrong.

The floor didn’t feel right. After living with Twilight for nearly a year, I had grown quite accustomed to her home. The floors were usually warm, with a wooden texture that scratched the bottom of my feet in a pleasing manner. It came from living within a tree that was kept alive by some form of magic. Right now though, my feet were touching cold, hard tile.

Alright, time to get real. Grinding my teeth, I wrenched my eyes open and gazed blearily around at my surroundings despite the discomfort that came with it. My pupil immediately shrunk as my eye adjusted to the bright light and I saw where I was.

What… what the hell…?

I was no longer at home. The warm comfort of the Golden Oak’s living room had been replaced by a small, cold cell. The circular, oaken walls had become four stone slabs, painted a dull, two-tone coat of grey and green with a stripe of white running around the room at roughly waist-height.

The walls seemed to close in around me as I stared at them, my brain trying to process what it was seeing. The cell was cold, tiny, and clinical, as if the ponies who had built it had decided to breed a hospital room with a supply closet. The only relief from the dismally bare walls was a metal door embedded in the wall opposite from where I was currently sitting. The door had a single slender opening in it, through which I could see nothing but the wall of what appeared to be a hallway outside.

Fear slowly crept into my belly as my gaze landed on the tough metal bars that were bolted over the gap.

This wasn’t the library.

This wasn’t home.

This… this was...

Quickly, I stood up, trying to keep my breathing steady and normal; panicking would do no good before I figured out what was going on. It was then that I realized that I hadn’t been sleeping on a couch, but on a small, rickety bed that was covered in a single thin white sheet. The pillow was in dismal shape, and had several feathers sticking out of the case. Absently, I ran my hand through my hair again, pulling out several stray feathers in the process.

A quick glance around the room revealed that the bed was the only furniture in the room with me; no sinks, no toilets, no chairs, no nothing. Of course, there wasn’t room for much else. The bed itself touched nearly three of the four walls, with barely a foot of space between the foot of the bed and the rightmost wall. The room wasn’t that tall either, and upon reaching a hand up, I planted my palm against the cold stone roof. My arm bent slightly, unable to extend to its full length.

Lowering my arm, I blinked upon touching my shirt. The material was scratchy and unfamiliar, and upon glancing down, I saw that I wasn’t wearing my regular clothing either. Instead of the hoof-made clothing that Rarity had created for me, I was wearing a plain green shirt that was slightly too big for me, as well as a pair of pants that were the same color as the shirt. They were made out of a thin, prickly fabric, and there were several holes in them.

As I picked at one of the holes in the shirt, my mind was abuzz with a hundred or so thoughts, with ‘what the fuck?!’ being one of the more prominent ones. I glanced around the room again, trying to see if I had somehow missed… something in my panic, hoping to find anything that might explain what was going on.

Nothing. I saw nothing.

Swallowing, I licked my lips nervously. Okay, Max. Deep breaths. Try and calm yourself down. Remember Twilight’s breathing exercise...

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in through my nose and, holding it for several seconds, I then exhaled through my mouth. I repeated the action several more times, and I could feel my heart rate slowly return to normal.

Okay, I thought, opening my eyes again, now let’s think about this logically. I racked my brain quickly, trying to remember what happened last night. A hazy memory slowly worked its way to the front of my mind.

Twilight and I had just returned from a weekend spent at her parent’s house. We had decided to hang out with Rainbow and Applejack during the evening, the latter two trying to outdrink each other. After a few drinks, an argument had broken out... something about who was better at bucking… or was it fuc—nope! Definitely bucking. I wasn’t sure who won, but sometime around midnight, Twilight and I had decided to head for home. I had to half-carry her because she had a little too much to drink. We had arrived home, I threw the mare into her bed, and then I collapsed upon the couch and had fallen asleep.

Wait...

I winced and held a hand to my head as a sudden burst of pain lanced through it. Why… why did I throw Twilight into bed and then take the couch? Aren’t we sleeping together now?

The memories… they felt weird—almost mismatched—like they didn’t belong together. The nagging sensation that I was forgetting something returned, and I struggled to recall what it was that I had forgotten, but to no avail. For the time being, it seemed that the memory was all I had to work with.

“Great,” I muttered under my breath. Absentmindedly scratching my head, I tried to figure out how I might have gone from the couch to this cell. It didn’t look like the inside of Ponyville’s jailhouse, so I wasn’t arrested for any drunken behavior… besides, why would the guards take me to jail anyways? They’d just take me to Twilight instead. So… if it’s not the jail or dungeons, where was I?

Unfortunately, no good explanation came to mind.

Either I drank more than I thought, or something weird is happening here, I thought, glancing around the room once more. Although, this isn’t the weirdest thing to happen to me.

“Maybe I’m still asleep,” I mused out loud to nobody in particular. Immediately I dismissed the idea; the pain from earlier cut the legs out from under that thought in a heartbeat. Although… Luna did have a few tricks up her sleeves when it came to messing with dreams. Maybe I shouldn’t rule out this all being a dream just yet.

But why would Luna do this?

With theories still pounding away in my head, I slowly lowered myself back onto the bed. It creaked loudly as it strained under my weight, several springs in the mattress making tiny snapping sounds. I ignored them though, and sat there with my head in my hands, trying to make sense of my situation. However, like Winona chasing her tail after I had tied a dog treat to it, my mind was a storm of thoughts and ideas, each racing around after the last in a chaotic mess that I could barely understand.

Why the fuck was my mind so fuzzy?

Grimacing, I forced my thoughts into some semblance of order. I needed to remain focused, as the last time that I had found myself in a similar situation had been when I was kidnapped and forced to fight to the death in a pit for the amusement of a group of demented ponies.

Of course, unlike that time, I didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger… yet.

That could easily change though.

The ideas continued to come as I tried to sort through them all: pony captors, changelings, scientists. I shivered at that last one, not wanting to relive that particular experience. The mare had gotten her samples, though I hadn’t been able to sleep for a week straight afterwards. Why she needed—

crack

Pain erupted in my head again, and I winced. The memory began to become distorted and blurred. Wait… w-was it a mare, or a griffon? I… I don’t… It wasn’t that bad. He… she… they only took blood, right? No matter how hard I tried to remember, I couldn’t piece together the truth and the memory began to fade alongside the pain. With my mind apparently working against me, I came to the only conclusion I could think of at the moment that made any sort of sense.

“I’ve got nothin’,” I sighed, falling backwards onto the bed. Resting my head against the wall, I stared at the door, waiting for something—anything—to happen. No point in getting worked up if I didn’t even know where I was or what was going on. My headache certainly didn’t help out either. So, I opted to just wait and see what happened. Where’s Pinkie when you need some entertainment?

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long for something to happen. After what felt like a few minutes, during which I amused myself by envisioning different images in the cracks on the far wall, a loud ‘click’ echoed around the room. The sudden noise snapped me out of my daydream and jerked me back into wakefulness. Lifting my head off of the wall, I looked around the cell, trying to see what had made the noise. Nothing of note stood out, and there wasn’t anything in the room that could have fallen.

I frowned, my eyes narrowing. I swear to god, if I start imagining noises, I’m calling it quits on this ‘sanity’ thing.

As soon as I had thought that, a deep chuckle filled the room, causing the walls and floor to vibrate. I was on my feet in an instant, arms raised and fists clenched as I glanced around for Discord. If he thought that he could catch me off guard, he had another thing… wait...

crack

Again pain came as my memories shifted about. W-why… why did I think that the laughter was from Discord? Wasn’t he currently a statue in the gardens at Canterlot? Did he escape, or —

The image of a blood-red moon floated to the front of my mind, causing me to wince before frowning. Why would I be thinking about that?

Before I could gather my thoughts, a sudden flurry of movement outside the door caught my attention. I tensed as the door shifted, groaning on its hinges. Here we go, I thought as a loud ‘clank’ echoed around the room.

The door was now unlocked.

As it swung open slowly, I got ready to fight, only to freeze when I saw who was standing there.

Or rather, what was standing there.

In the open doorway, framed by the light from the hallway, was a human male with a set of keys clutched in his hands. A white shirt fit snugly over his muscular body, as well as a pair of white pressed pants. The top of his head was covered in a short crop of black hair, and his cheeks were covered in a thin layer of stubble. He was big, which, from me, was saying something.

He stared at me with disinterest, only for his eyes to widen when he saw I was staring back. His relaxed posture tensed and he slowly returned the keys to his belt before his hand began to drift to something behind him. He looked almost like he was preparing for me to attack him or something.

He didn’t have to worry though.

The sight of the human set off a metaphorical bomb in my head. Memories exploded forth, rushing in to replace the gaps and holes that were present, as well as destroy any false memories that were present. The week of estrus, Canterlot, Twilight, the humans, Discord, Riddick; it all came flooding back. However, that still left me confused as to how I ended up in this cell in the first place. Even with my memories restored, the last thing I could recall was Riddick and I fighting in that weird, limbo-like place where he had...

My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered what had happened. That motherfucker had managed to get the axe from me. That son of a bitch! He chopped off my—

“Good morning, Max!”

A cheerful voice snapped me back to the present. The speaker was behind the man, and as I watched, a young woman in a doctor’s coat slipped past him and into the room. She had a large smile plastered on her face, and she appeared to be overly cheerful. Her brown hair was done up in a bun, although several loose strands fell about her face. She tucked them behind her ear as she moved to stand in front of me. The silent guard followed behind her, still eyeing me warily.

“I must say, it’s weird seeing you up this early,” the nurse continued with a giggle. “Normally we have to fight to get you to join the land of the living.” She laughed again at her joke, covering her mouth with a hand as she did so.

I stared down at her blankly, still trying to figure out what was going on. My head hurt, and her laughter wasn’t doing anything to soothe the throbbing headache.

Despite the lack of response, the nurse just continued to smile up at me.

“Now, I know that we’re starting the day a little earlier than normal,” she said in the same tone that a parent would use on a toddler, “but the doctor wants to see you. She wants to see how everything is going with your new treatment. We have high hopes for this one, after all.” At that, she stopped talking and just stood there, looking at me with that stupid, happy-go-lucky smile on her face. She seemed to be waiting for some form of response.

My eyes shifted towards the man looming over her shoulder. He was just watching me as well, his expression unchanged. His hand was still behind his back, holding something that I couldn’t see. Glancing back to the nurse, I eyed her for a few more seconds before saying the first thing that popped into my head.

“Who… who the fuck are you?”

This caused the woman to gasp, and she covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening in shock. Behind her, the man shifted his weight slightly, eyebrows raising up a few inches. Okay… not the response I was expecting.

“You… actually responded,” the woman breathed. She lowered her hand, revealing that the smile was back on her face. Beaming at me happily, she clapped her hands together. “This is great! That means the medication must be working already! This is certainly a faster effect than we originally anticipated. Oh, the doctor will be thrilled!”

I stared at her blankly. Medication? What the hell is she talking about?

Her smile slowly began to slip as the silence grew longer and longer.

“Who the fuck are you?” I eventually repeated, which only caused her smile to slip further.

“You… you don’t remember me?” she asked curiously, though I could detect a faint hint of concern in her voice.

Slowly, I shook my head, not taking my eyes off of her. I don’t remember seeing her with the other Terran humans. Besides, I thought the Equestrian humans and ponies were taking care of them. How did these two manage to get away? And for that matter, where are we exactly?

“Well,” she said slowly, placing a finger on her cheek, “the doctor did say that you may have some difficulty recalling things due to the medication. Hmmm.” She stared at me for a few seconds before her smile perked up again. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it at the moment. You should begin to remember everything soon enough, once your body gets used to the medicine, that is.”

There it was again. Medicine. What exactly did they have me on… and why?

“Now, the doctor will want to talk to you immediately,” the woman continued. “She’ll be able to clear up any confusion you may have right now. I was actually sent to check up on you, just to make sure you aren’t having any… adverse reactions to the medicine. So, just hold still while I check your vitals, okay? Once we’re done, we’ll get you fed and out of here to see the doctor.”

My eyes narrowed as I mulled over what she had said. If it was true that they were giving me medication, what was the purpose behind it? And where were they keeping me? Was I still in Canterlot? What had happened since I passed out? Was Twilight alright? And where was Riddick? I figured he’d be here almost immediately to gloat over his victory.

Maybe… maybe he was this ‘doctor’ that wanted to see me.

As I mulled over the situation, the woman approached me slowly, never taking her eyes off of me. The big guy tensed as she drew closer, but other than that he stayed where he was. Motioning towards the bed, the woman had me sit down on the edge of the mattress. With that, she set about with practiced ease. Lifting up my shirt, she slid a stethoscope underneath.

I flinched as the cold metal touched my bare skin. She moved it from one side of my chest to the other, then back again, all while listening to the various noises that could be heard. With that complete, she withdrew the stethoscope and we moved on to the next test.

As she moved to take my blood pressure, I decided that I needed some more information. Time to see what I can learn.

“Soooo… am I in a hospital?” I asked tentatively, deciding that I was going to start of simple and just play along for now. I’d get to the more troubling details after I figured out where the hell I was.

The nurse froze at the question, the smile no longer present on her face. Instead she wore a very concerned look that did nothing to help my mood.

“How much do you remember?” she asked slowly, taking the stethoscope out of her ears.

I raised an eyebrow at her, but remained silent. This seemed to only increase her concern.

“You really don’t remember anything?” she asked. “Nothing at all?”

I slowly shook my head.

She looked back at the guard, who just shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. With a heavy sigh, the nurse turned her attention back to me, a strained smile on her face.

“Well then, I guess introductions are in order… again. Um… I’m Nurse Harper, and this—” she motioned towards the man standing in the doorway “—is Abraham, one of the orderlies that works here.”

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure you have plenty of questions you’d like to ask, but you’ll just have to wait and ask the doctor later,” she said quickly. “We knew there would be some side effects, although we didn’t think that they would be this severe. In case of some memory loss, the doctor figured that it would be best to deal with all your questions personally. For now, be a good boy and stand up.”

I growled slightly when she called me ‘boy’. She was probably the same age as me, if not a few years older. Still, I did as she asked, and pushed myself up off of the bed.

As I stood, it became apparent just how much of a height difference I had with the nurse. The top of her head barely came up to my shoulder blades. She backed up slightly, the smile on her face becoming nervous. The orderly, Abraham, tensed again, ready to spring forward. I ignored both of them and stretched, cracking my back several times in the process.

As I stretched, Abraham reached for something I couldn’t see on the other side of the door. Pulling it into the room, I saw that he had a plastic tray in his hands. On the tray were two pieces of toast, a glass of water, and some pills.

I stared at the tray as he approached and handed it to Nurse Harper. She thanked him, and he returned to his original position in the door frame. Turning to me, the nurse smiled and held out the tray.

“Eat up,” she said, her tone still cheerful and annoying. “The sooner you eat, the sooner we can go see the doctor!”

Slowly, I lifted up my hands and took the tray from her. The toast was unbuttered and slightly burnt, the glass of water probably held three mouthfuls in it, and there were three pills, all different colors. As I eyed the tray, my stomach let out a low grumble, causing the nurse to giggle. I just rolled my eyes and sighed.

Grabbing one of the pieces of toast, I frowned as I studied it. I took a tentative bite only to immediately screw my face up in distaste as the burnt flavor hit my tongue. Forcing the bit of toast down, I reluctantly took another bite.

A few minutes later and I managed to finish the toast. Grabbing the glass of water, I moved to toss the tray onto the bed, but the nurse stopped me.

“You’ve got to take pills, hon,” she chided, scooping them up and holding them out to me.

The hell I do, I thought, staring at the colorful pills in her hand.

“What are they for?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of them.

“They’re for the pain,” she informed me, proffering the pills again.

I gave her a skeptical look. “Okay. Why do I need three different pills… for pain I don’t have?”

She was beginning to look nervous again.

“Hon, you have to take these pills,” she said weakly, her hand trembling slightly.

“And if I refuse?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

At that, the orderly took a step forward.

“Then Abraham here is going to have to force you to take them,” Harper said, inching away from me slightly.

I bristled at that. Opening my mouth to protest, I then paused and cast another look at Abraham. After eyeing his arms for a few seconds, I decided against it. He was bigger and more muscular than me, and I still had no idea where the hell I was. Even if I escaped these two, I wouldn’t know where the fuck to go.

Still, I was pretty sure that those pills weren’t painkillers, but that then left the question of what they were for. I didn’t think they’d try and poison me; they could have easily killed me when I was passed out.

After thinking about it for a moment, I grudgingly held out my hand and took the pills from Harper. She sighed in relief as I threw my head back and tossed the pills into my mouth. Raising the glass of water to my mouth, I half thought about hiding the pills beneath my tongue for a brief moment. Another glance at Abraham settled that thought and, with a large gulp, all three pills slid down my throat. I finished off the water and placed the empty glass upon the tray.

I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me, I thought as I licked my lips, trying to rid myself of the bitter aftertaste.

Harper raised an eyebrow, a smug look crossing her face. “Feeling a little better now?”

Careful, lady, I fumed. You’re already on my shit list.

“Yeah,” I growled. “Still confused as hell though. I don’t know where the hell I am, how I got here in the first place, or what is going on. And you won’t tell me shit. You can’t blame me for being paranoid.”

Harper gave me a warm smile, nodding her head. “Understandable. The doctor did say that this might happen. The first few days of a new treatment are always confusing.” She placed a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll take good care of you until you start to remember things again, okay?” Not waiting for an answer, she headed for the door. “Now, let’s go see the doctor, shall we? We can clear up any concerns you may have and then get this day started!” Stopping in front of the door, she motioned for me to follow her. Abraham stepped out into the hallway, his eyes constantly fixed on me.

Yeah. Fuck you too, buddy, I groused, resisting the urge to give him a one-fingered salute.

Harper followed him out, waving at me to follow her. I paused briefly, looking around at the cell. In the short time I had been awake, I had become rather attached to my little room…

...oh, who the fuck am I kidding? I hated this place already, but I was rather hesitant to follow this pair out into the unknown. Of course, by the look on their faces, I doubted that I had a choice in the matter.

Growling softly, I lowered my head and stepped out of the room and into the hall.

“Just stay close to me, hon,” Harper said, that damnable smile back on her face. I nodded weakly and we headed off down the hall, Abraham falling in step behind us.

As we walked through the winding corridors, I took the time to observe my surroundings. The hallways were painted the same color as the cell: dull gray above a moss green. Doors similar to the one on my cell lined the walls. As I walked by, I tried to get a glimpse of what was inside a few, but unfortunately we were moving too quickly.

I couldn’t help but feel a weird sense of déjà vu as I followed the nurse. Here I was, in an unknown situation, following someone blindly and hoping for the best. Where have I seen this before? I thought, a small smirk spreading across my face. Well, when I followed Sunny blindly, it led me to Twilight. Hopefully this will lead to similar results.

Or it’ll lead to your death, a tiny voice in the back of my head spoke up.

I nearly stumbled, a small groan reaching my lips as I closed my eyes.

I thought I got rid of you, I growled.

This just caused the voice to chuckle happily to itself. Not yet, my oblivious little friend. Not yet.

Luckily neither the nurse nor Abraham had noticed my near fall, or they just didn’t care. The three of us just continued to walk, nobody talking. The only noise that could be heard was sound of their shoes—and my bare feet—upon the white tiles.

Walking around a corner, I noticed that we were headed towards a door at the end of the hallway. Another orderly—a young man with blonde hair—was stationed by it, looking bored. As we approached, Harper pulled out some form of identification—a small card connected to a lanyard around her neck—and showed it to the orderly. After looking over it briefly, he pressed a button on the wall and the double doors unlocked with a loud click.

It seems I was right when I called them guards, I mused. This place was beginning to feel more and more like a prison. I couldn’t help but notice that the orderly was armed with a truncheon, pepper spray, and a Taser as I followed the nurse through the doors. A prison indeed.

The thought died quickly though as I got a look at the new hallway. I froze, a bewildered look crossing my face. Slowly, I turned my head and glanced back at the hall we had just left before returning my attention to this new one.

It was nothing like the previous one. For one, it wasn’t painted the same. It was a happy mix of white and light green, and there were no heavy iron doors in sight. It looked like a proper hospital now, and that bothered me. Why is this hallway different than the last one?

Glancing down this new hall, I couldn’t help the small smile that touched my face. A row of windows ran along one of the walls. For some reason the sight of sky outside filled me with relief, even if it was overcast.

My relief didn’t last long, however. Through the windows I could see the surrounding area, and it was not what I was expecting. Unlike the green rolling hills I was used to in Ponyville, or even the mountain side of Canterlot, the land outside those windows was brown and unhealthy looking. Scraggly trees dotted the landscape, devoid of their leaves. An old, dried up stream cut through some of the hills, the riverbed parched and barren. It was a horrific sight, and I could feel my heart plummet into my stomach as I continued to stare at the decrepit landscape. A single thought pushed its way to the front of my mind.

I was no longer in Equestria.

Someone coughed beside me, and I turned my head to find both Harper and Abraham staring at me.

“Are you okay, hon?” the nurse asked, looking at me curiously. I cast another brief glance out of the windows before nodding. Licking my lips, I fell in behind her again, and we proceeded down the hall.

My head was abuzz with new questions now. If I was no longer in Equestria, where was I then? Was I still on Equus… or did Riddick somehow send me back to Earth? I mean, he was the one that brought me to Equestria in the first place, so it stands to reason that he would be able to send me back, right? I thought about it for a few more seconds before sighing. With my brain beginning to hurt again, I pushed the questions from my mind for the time being. I’d most likely get answers here soon enough.

Instead, I glanced around at the surroundings as we walked. A junction in the hall was coming up, and as we passed, I glanced down it. The only sign of life was a janitor who was in the process of mopping the floor. He had on a dark red one-piece jumpsuit. His back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I could see that he had a shaggy mane of dirty-blonde hair. It looked oddly… familiar.

I didn’t have much time to observe him though before we passed the junction and were on our way.

The rest of the journey was uneventful: I followed Harper through a series of monotonous and indistinguishable corridors as we made our way further into the building. Seriously, all these corridors were the same! I swear we were just walking down the same corridor again and again. I pretty sure we’ve passed the same painting of the mountain lake at sunset several times now.

Soon enough we happened to pass by a sign near an intersection that read ‘Examination Rooms 101-113’. I tried to hold its location in my mind, but as soon as we walked around the corner, I was lost again. This entire hospital was an endless labyrinth of identical hallways and doors. Any hope I had of mapping out the building in my head was immediately lost due to the confusion, and the thin layer of fog currently smothering my mind.

I really shouldn’t have taken those pills, I groused silently.

Harper led me onward, the tense silence only broken by the sound of shoes on tiles, and the rare greeting of a passing orderly. Other than that, there was no sign of life anywhere in this building. Every single room we passed was empty, the beds made neatly and the curtains drawn back. That didn’t help my paranoia. Aren’t hospitals supposed to have, you know, patients? Where the hell is everyone?!

Finally, when I was about ready to snap and just make a run for it, Harper came to a stop suddenly.

“Ah, and here were are,” she said happily.

I blinked and glanced up, looking around at the surrounding corridor. Just like the ones before it, it looked the same as every other hallway in this godforsaken place. The only difference was the large pair of oaken doors we were currently standing in front of. A brass plate on the door clearly read Dr. T. Bright, MD.

Well, that… that might rule out Riddick being the doctor, I thought as I stared at the plate. But then… who the hell is T. Bright?

As I was musing silently to myself, Harper knocked on the door softly. A few seconds passed before a somewhat familiar voice answered. “Enter, please.”

I scrunched my face up in confusion. Where have I heard that voice before? It was a nagging sensation in the back of my head, an unknown word at the tip of my tongue. I knew who the voice belonged to… but I just couldn’t put a face or name to it at the moment. Before I could figure it out, Harper opened the door and ushered me inside the room.

It was a fairly typical office. Several wooden bookshelves rested along the covered walls on either side of the room, filled with a multitude of medical books. Several picture frames lined the walls, filled with photos or medical degrees. A large oaken desk sat at the far end of the room, covered in paperwork and books.

And there, standing behind the desk, was…

“Why, hello there, Max. It’s wonderful to see you up and about this morning,” Dr. Bright said, a smile on her face. “I hope you’re feeling better. You certainly look it, my dear.”

I didn’t respond. I… I couldn’t. I could only stare wide-eyed at the woman in front of me with equal measure wonder and fear.

She was tall, nearly my height, if not somewhat shorter. Lithe in nature, she carried herself with almost supernatural grace as she moved out from behind her desk. Long, wavy blonde hair cascaded down about her shoulders and fell down to the middle of her back. Part of her bangs hung in front of her face, covering one of her eyes, which were a brilliant blue color. The smile on her face was kind and motherly… and, when accompanied by the voice, could only belong to one person.

C-Celestia? The voice… the way she smiled, the hairstyle. It… it could only be one individual. But Celestia was a pony… and this was a human. What… what was… was I losing my mind? I just continued to stare, my mouth agape. My brain was currently slamming itself into the side of my skull, demanding answers that I just couldn’t give it. What the fuck is going on here?!

Oblivious to my distress, Dr. Bright gestured to a pair of chairs that stood in front of her desk.

“Please, have a seat,” she said. “I’ll be with you once I have a quick word with Nurse Harper.”

Dumbly, I nodded as she walked past me and into the hall, closing the door behind her. I could hear her muffled voice begin talking with Nurse Harper, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. Shaking my head, I tried to clear my mind. Things were getting weirder and weirder, and no amount of standing around was going to get me answers.

Casting a quick glance at the door, I slipped quietly over to the desk and began to look over the documents that were strewn across it. There were medical papers, letters, medical books, medical proposals, though nothing that I could make sense of and nothing that told me where I was.

Frustrated, I threw the papers back down on her desk and collapsed back into one of the chairs with an explosive sigh. Resting an elbow on the arm of the chair, I rubbed the scar that ran across my nose, thinking hard.

The fact that Dr. Bright was basically a human version of Princess Celestia and sounded exactly like the alicorn was troubling. Was this another game of Riddick’s, or was this something else entirely? I toyed with the idea that maybe I had been transported to yet another universe, but quickly threw that idea aside. Although it would fit the bill nicely, seeing as there appeared to be another version of Celestia here and all, but that didn’t cover why everyone here already knew who I was. If this was indeed a new universe, everyone would be wondering how the hell I showed up in the middle of the hospital.

Sighing heavily, I closed my eyes and rubbed at my temples. It was hard to think straight through the cloud that drifted just on the edge of my mind. It blurred thoughts and made it difficult to concentrate. I didn’t want to think; I just wanted to lay down and take a nap.

Luna, if you can hear me and this is all just a bad dream, can you get your flank in here and help me out? I asked mentally, staring up at the ceiling. I waited several seconds for something to happen, and lo and behold… nothing. Goddamn it, Luna.

The muffled voices outside ceased their conversation abruptly. The doorknob turned with a ‘click’, and the oaken doors swung open. Dr. Bright flashed me a quick smile as she reentered the room, alone. Closing the door behind her, she moved back behind her desk.

“Nurse Harper was just updating me on your current condition,” she said as she sat down in her chair. Leaning back, she crossed her legs, the smile still on her face. “We’re happy that we have you aware of your surroundings once more. Some temporary amnesia, while inconvenient, is expected with your new treatment, as I’m sure that Harper informed you. However, I find it troublesome that you are having difficulty remembering this hospital entirely, as well as the staff. Would you care to elaborate?” With that, she uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, picking up a pen off her desk. She looked around at the papers on her desk, a small frown on her face before she glanced up at me, her eyes narrowing.

I just raised an eyebrow.

Keeping her eyes on me, she opened up one of the drawers behind her desk and pulled out a notebook. Flipping it open to a blank page, she placed it on the desk and gave me an expectant look.

I said nothing and remained lounged back in the chair, resting my head on my hand with an eyebrow cocked.

“Max?” Dr. Bright ventured after several seconds. When I still didn’t reply, a concerned look crossed her face. “Max?” she repeated. “All you alright?”

“No, I can’t say that I am,” I said evenly. “I… I woke up this morning, in a room I didn’t recognize, with no memory of how the hell I wound up there. Then I was visited by two people who seemed to know me… yet I have no clue who they are. Then, not only did they not tell me why I’m in this place, but they made me take some mystery pills and told me everything would be explained later.” Taking a deep breath, I sat forward and glared at Dr. Bright. “Well, it’s later… and I want some answers. I was told that you would be able to provide them.” Dr. Bright nodded, and I reclined in the seat again. “In that case… let’s start off real plain and simple, okay? Why… the fuck... am I here? And where is ‘here’, for that matter?”

Dr. Bright was silent for a while, studying my face closely. After a few minutes, she sighed and placed the pen down on the notebook.

“Unfortunately, that isn’t an easy question to answer, Max,” she said softly, “and given your current mental state, I’m not too sure how well you will take this, but if you really want to know, I guess I can tell you.” She paused, appearing to consider her next words carefully before continuing. “The… the short answer is you are in Brookehaven Mental Hospital. You are sick, Max, and we’ve been taking care of you.”

“What… what do you mean ‘sick’?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.

Dr. Bright leaned back in her chair, chewing on her lip as she looked at me. “Well, to put it simply, you’re… well, you’re not well. We’ve been trying to make you better, but unfortunately illnesses like yours are rather hard to treat. A physical wound heals over time, bones can be set, blood replaced. Some things, however, are not so simple. In order for you to get better, you need lots of time and care.”

I scoffed and shook my head.

“You’re dodging the question,” I said. Suddenly my hand shot out and I slammed a fist down upon her desk, causing all the items on it to jump slightly. “Stop treating me like an imbecile and give me a straight answer! Why am I here?!”

Dr. Bright just met my angry glare with a calm glance. My right eye twitched as I felt my temper growing. I wanted her to at least look afraid, but no, she just looked like I was doing exactly what she expected me to do. That did not help my mood.

Closing her eyes and leaning back, she ran a hand through her hair, collecting her thoughts. Finally, she took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and looked at me. Her gaze looked tired.

“Max,” she said slowly, “over a year ago, you slipped and hit your head in an accident at your job. Thanks to the fall, as well as the subsequent head trauma, you are now suffering from severe dementia as well as bursts of paranoia. We’ve been trying to help you the best we can, but until recently, nothing has been working.”

I blinked, staring at her with a blank expression on my face.

“What?” I deadpanned. This just caused her to sigh again.

“Max, for over a year now you’ve been suffering from a number of strange and severe delusions created by a mental disorder.”

I couldn’t help it. I tried—I really did—to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t. Falling back into the chair, I laughed. I laughed hard. I laughed until my sides hurt and tears rolled down my face. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t think; I could only laugh. I didn’t know what I was expecting to hear, but it sure as hell wasn’t that. People have been telling me I’m crazy for years, but this takes the cake.

After several minutes I was able to calm myself down... kinda.

“Are… are you trying to t-tell me that I’m insane? Crazy?” I gasped, wiping a tear from my eye.

“Please don’t use those terms around here,” Dr. Bright said, a frown on her face. “We don’t like our patients thinking that they aren’t normal just because of their illnesses.”

“Please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “If I had a bit for every time I’ve been told I was crazy, I could retire today.” A troubled look came over her face briefly at something I had said, but it passed. Instead, she picked up the pen and jotted something down in the notebook.

Ignoring her, I continued. “Sorry if I don’t believe you, but really? That’s the best you’ve got?”

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she dropped the pen again before reaching down and opening one of the drawers on her desk. Rummaging around in it for a moment, she then pulled out a thick manila folder that was bursting with papers. She placed it on the desk before flipping the folder open and sifting through the contents. Upon finding what she was looking for, she removed a stapled document and slid it over to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, reaching out and picking up the papers. Pressure was slowly beginning to build in the back of my head, but I ignored it. Just another headache coming on.

“Those,” she said, motioning towards the documents in my hands, “are papers that were signed by your parents when we first took you into our care.”

I gave her a bemused look before glancing down at the papers. Right away I noticed that the words ‘BMH Patient Registration Form’ was printed across the top in large, block letters. Skimming down the page, a frown slowly spread across my face as I read. Upon reaching the bottom, I went back and double-checked every single line. Reaching the end again, I just stared down at my parents’ signatures. It seemed like ages since I had last seen them, but there they were, scrawled across the bottom of the page.

Slowly, I placed the document back on the desk. “They’re fake.”

“I’m afraid not,” Dr. Bright said with a shake of her head. “What would be the point in faking the documents anyways? I know it’s a lot to take in, especially with your amnesia, but trust me. This is the real deal.”

“I’m sorry if I find this rather hard to believe,” I huffed. “It’s just… a few days ago, life was normal and fine. When I woke up this morning, it was crazy and messed up. And now you’re telling me that I’ve been here for over a year, when I have no memory of this place. And—” I held up a finger “—that I have amnesia brought on by some kind of medication you are giving me. Is that all correct?”

“Yes,” Dr. Bright said, nodding her head.

“Bullshit,” I snarled. “You expect me to believe that? This is ridiculous. There’s no missing memories, no gaps that need to be filled. I am well aware of what was happening before I woke up in that cell. The only unanswered question I have is how the fuck I got in there in the first place. Who put you up to this? Riddick?”

“Riddick?” Dr. Bright parroted before frowning. She scratched that down in the notebook as well, muttering, “that’s a new one. I wonder if...” Trailing off, she glanced up at me again. “Is Riddick one of the, uh… ponies that you hang out with?”

I glared at her. “What’re you talking about?”

“You’re very talkative when you’re suffering from your delusions,” Dr. Bright said. “You mumble a lot, but we’ve managed to pick up a few names and ideas here and there about what you’re imagining. Like this, uh—” she turned to the notebook, flipping a few pages before stopping— “Ah, yes. Rainbow Dash, was it? And Primrose? Applejack. Fluttershy. Rarity. Ebony Rose. Sunny Breeze.” Eyeing the contents of the notebook for a moment longer, she then leaned back and gave me a half smile. “Really, if it wasn’t for the circumstances, I’d be impressed. You have a very creative imagination. Equestria, a land filled with magical talking ponies. You could make some good money off of that once we get your mind back together.”

“Shut up,” I muttered under my breath.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked.

“Shut up,” I repeated, this time loud enough for her to hear. “Laugh all you want, but unless the next few words out of your goddamn mouth are an explanation on how I got here, I’m leaving. Even if I have to fight my way out.”

When Dr. Bright didn’t say anything, I made to stand up. That’s when she moved. She reached a hand down into the folder and pulled out a small, square piece of paper. Keeping her gaze locked onto me, she tossed the paper onto the registration form.

Still glaring at her, I reached out and picked up the paper. Glancing down at it, I turned the object over in my hands, only to frown upon seeing that it was a photograph. A quick look at the picture caused my eyes to widen.

Three people looked up at me, frozen in time as the picture captured the moment forever. Two of them I recognized as my parents, staring up at me from the photograph with sad smiles on their faces. There was my mom with her dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, wearing the necklace her mother gave her before passing away around her neck. My dad stood next to her, with his short brown hair, blue eyes, and large glasses, and his face covered in stubble. They were exactly how I remembered them before I was thrust into Equestria.

It was the third person, however, was the one that caught my attention. Sitting there in a wheelchair, a blank expression on his face, was, well... me. I was staring at the camera, a look on my face that suggested that the lights were on, but nobody was home. Bandages were wrapped around my head, and it looked like I had several weeks’ worth of stubble on my face, gradually blending in with my mustache.

As I looked down at the photo in silence, my gaze slowly drifted to the building in the background of the picture. There, on top of a cliff overlooking a large, dark lake, was a massive white multi-story building with light-brown roofs that appeared almost golden in the sunlight. I lifted the picture closer to my face, squinting as I tried to make out more details. The sign above the door of the building was minuscule, but I could just barely make it out.

Brookehaven Mental Hospital.

My mind was racing as I stared at the picture. I was dimly aware of Dr. Bright saying something, but my ears weren’t working at the moment. The picture was all that mattered at the moment, and I was trying to figure out what I was seeing.

It’s… it’s me, no doubt about that, I thought, glaring down at my photographic-self, but I’ve never seen this place before. It’s not anywhere near where we lived. What town is it in? It had to be a trick. It was fairly easy to photoshop a picture; I had done it multiple times in the past. However, I had no clue how they could have gotten a picture of me in a wheelchair in order to do so. Plus, what would be the point of trying to convince me that I was in a mental hospital?

What were they trying to accomplish? What was the end game?

The throbbing in the back of my head had grown, and I could feel the blood pulsing through my veins. Closing my eyes, I lowered the photo and took a deep breath, trying to ease the pain. Why was my head hurting so much?

Upon opening my eyes again, I glanced over at Dr. Bright, only to find her giving me a concerned look, half-risen from her chair.

“Are… are you doing alright?” she asked softly, giving me a hard look. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but just keep calm, okay? Breathe. You’re safe here.”

I stared blankly at her for a few moments before reaching up and slowly running a hand through my hair, tugging on the long strands absentmindedly. Too much was happening… too many questions unanswered, and too many were still popping up. What kind of mind games was Riddick playing? Or, was he even behind this at all? I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Max?” Dr. Bright asked again, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Max, can you hear me?” She was beginning to look flustered, and her hand was straying towards a phone on her desk.

Blinking once, I nodded slowly before answering. “Yes.”

This caused her to sigh in relief, and she fell back in her chair.

“Oh, thank heavens,” she breathed. “I thought we had lost you again.”

“Again?” I asked, my eye twitching involuntarily. “What do you mean ‘again’?”

“We’ve had to explain all of this to you before,” Dr. Bright said, giving me a strained smile. “Let’s just say you didn’t take it that well the first time.” I raised an eyebrow and she continued. “You attacked three of the doctors and sent an orderly to the hospital with a few broken ribs.”

“My apologies,” I said, but the words had no real feeling behind them.

“Don’t worry about it, dear. She’s long since recovered and holds no hard feelings,” Dr. Bright said with a wave of her hand. “She says that it’s all water under the bridge as far as she’s concerned.” Another awkward silence fell over the room as we both continued to stare at each other.

As Dr. Bright obviously searched for something else to say, I decided that I should try and contact Luna again. Maybe, just maybe, this was all just a strange dream and she would be able to hear me this time.

...one could hope, right?

Luna, are you there? I don’t mean to sound needy, but I’m kinda in a pickle here. No reply came however, and I cursed. Goddamn it! What the fuck is going on here?! I returned my attention to Dr. Bright in time to see her open her mouth, possibly to ask me another stupid question about remembering something that never really happened. However, my stomach took that exact moment to make its emptiness known to the room.

As I glanced down, glaring at the treacherous body part, Dr. Bright laughed softly.

“I guess the food they gave you with your pills wasn’t enough, huh?” she asked, a small grin on her lips. Suddenly, her face lit up and she snapped her fingers. “Oh, I know! This might work to our advantage. How about we get one of your, um... friends to come take you to get something to eat? Maybe seeing a more familiar face will help your memories return, and possibly make you feel better.”

I froze and my body tensed. Friend? What friend could I possibly have here? All my friends are back in Equestria, wherever the fuck that is at the moment. I could tell that Dr. Bright was just trying to do something to make me feel more comfortable, however all she succeeded in doing was making my paranoia worse.

“Friend?” I asked, keeping my voice steady even as my heart raced. Just play along for now, and hopefully you’ll manage to figure out what’s going on around here. Who knows, maybe Twilight is working on a way to find me right now. Just gotta play along, and give her time.

“Who is this… friend of mine?” I asked. “I’m assuming it’s one of the patients?”

“No, actually,” Dr. Bright said with a smile. “She’s one of the doctors here. One of the few who has taken quite an interest in you, in fact. While it would be nice to see the other patients you’re close to, due to your recent condition, I think it would be best to wait to see them,” she explained. “Now, I don’t expect you to remember her right away, but hopefully just talking with her for a while might help bring back some of your memories. After all, you two have been rather close over the past year, and I think you share a special bond.”

Yippie, I snarked silently, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. I was supposed to be friends with one of the doctors here? I’d sooner have Winter Cold throw me a birthday party.

“So, when do I get to meet this doctor?” I asked.

“I actually paged her when you were in a daze,” Dr. Bright said, standing for her desk and heading to the door. “I wasn’t sure if we were losing you again or not, so I wanted her on standby.” Opening it, she stuck her head out into the hall. “Okay, you can come in now.”

“Really? A-are you sure? I… I don’t want to make his condition worse if he’s unstable. The last thing he needs is more stress on his mind,” someone said from the other side of the door. “I don’t want to make things harder for him than they already are.”

At the sound of the voice, I froze, my entire body stiffening. N-no… it can’t be. That… that voice…

By the door, Dr. Bright tsked softly.

“It’s quite alright, dear,” she said, pulling her head back in the room and motioning for the person outside to enter. “I’m fairly sure nothing bad will happen because of this. At least, nothing can get worse. Besides, if we don’t nip this in the bud now, he will constantly be at risk of relapsing. Better he meets you now, in a controlled environment, rather than by bumping into you in the hall.”

“A-alright, if you think it’s for the best,” the voice sighed, followed by the sound of footsteps. The whole time this was going on, my brain was tearing itself apart. There’s… there’s no way that she’s… she can’t be here...

Pushing the door open further, Dr. Bright stepped aside to make room. Craning my head around, I stared at the open door with growing horror. At the sight of the person standing in the doorway, a cold tightness gripped my chest and my breath caught in my throat.

There, in the doorway, was a human female. She was young, possibly only a few years older than me, though I was certainly taller than her by a good head. A long white coat covered her clothing, with a silver name tag clipped to the breast pocket. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was a doctor, though that wasn’t the part that scared me.

It was her face and hair.

She had long, straight brown hair that hung just below her shoulders. The bangs were cut in a straight line across her forehead in a frighteningly familiar manner. Another familiar feature were the twin strips of color that ran through the brown strands: one pink, the other dark blue. A few stray strands of hair stuck out at odd angles.

As her gaze landed on me, she smiled shyly.

“Oh… h-hi, Max,” she stammered as she adjusted a pair of glasses on her face. She paused, as if waiting for me to say something back. I didn’t though. I just sat here, staring at her in horror. This… this isn’t happening...

“Max?” the new woman asked, her smile slipping slightly. “Do… do you remember me? I’m… I’m Doctor Twila Sparks.”

Darkness slowly began to creep along the edge of my vision as the pressure in the back of my head grew to unbearable levels. I could feel myself trying to cling to my sanity, but it was slipping through my grasp the more I stared at this new human in the doorway. The hair, the voice, the way she looked at me. I had seen it all before, back when Twilight had transformed herself into a human for that brief moment in time. This woman... it was Twilight. What… what the fuck… I….

Both doctors were now giving me looks of concern. The new human glanced at Dr. Bright and bit her bottom lip before turning back to me. “If… if it helps, um… you like to call me ‘Twi’.”

With that, something deep within my mind snapped. My vision blurred and I felt as if the chair was being pulled out from beneath me. A loud roaring noise filled my ears as bile rose up in my throat. I slipped sideways, crashing to the floor where I just laid there, the whole world spinning around me. As the darkness closed in around me, smothering me, I heard a panicked shout, as though from a great distance, “Max!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

My consciousness stirred…

...and with it came a massive headache. It was the pounding kind of headache that made you nauseous with every little movement. I remained still for a minute or so until the queasiness subsided. Finally able to move without throwing up, I began to move.

“Ugh, fuck me,” I groaned as I pried my eyes open. It took them a few seconds to adjust to the light, but when it did, my gaze was met by a cold, gray ceiling. A quick glance around confirmed that I was back in the cell from before. The walls were just as lifeless as before, the room just as empty.

Sitting up on the creaky bed, I sighed heavily as I peered around. Welp, so much for it being a weird dream.

The memory of what had happened before I passed out surfaced, and I frowned. The human… she had sounded just like Twilight, and even acted like her somewhat, but that couldn’t have been her… could it? If it was actually her, then things had just gotten a lot more complicated. What the fuck was going on? The pain in my head began to grow again as I continued to try and work out something—anything—that could explain what was going on.

After a few minutes though, all I had was a headache and no answers to speak of.

Maybe… maybe the weird doctors were right? Maybe I was suffering from some delusion, and my time in Equestria was all a figment of my imagination. That could possibly explain my… situation...

My thoughts trailed off as I looked at the hand I had just lifted to scratch an itch on the right side of my face. Slowly, I held it up in front of me and stared at it. After a moment, I moved it left and right, continuing to stare at it unblinkingly. When it went left, I could see it clear enough, but when it went right… it entered the blind spot provided by my useless eye.

My blind spot…

Reaching up quickly, I brushed my fingers over the scar on my nose, following it across my face to the bottom of my right eye. While not as prominent as the scars on my back that the manticores had given me, there was still a small ridge where the scarred flesh was raised slightly.

I ran my fingers along the length of the scar once more before suddenly reaching down and pulling up the sleeve of my shirt. There, clearly visible against the skin, was the scarred bite mark I had received from the infected human. All the scars I had gotten in Equestria were still present on my body… so how did that translate to this scenario?

What could have caused the scar on my face and damaged my right eye? How could I have possibly gotten a human bite mark in this hospital? There’s no way I could have done it myself; the angle and position were all wrong.

There was only one explanation that made sense to me at the moment, and it was the one I was going to hold onto for dear life.

Equestria was real.

I had no clue how Riddick was able to pull this off, where he sent me, or why, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding a way back home and making sure Twilight and everyone else was okay. But… how to get started? Maybe I could—

A faint whistling sound suddenly caught my ear, causing me to pause. It was coming from out in the hall, and as I listened intently, the noise slowly grew until I could make out individual notes. Someone was whistling a song, and heading my way.

Tentatively, I approached the door and peered through the small gap. The noise was coming from down the hall, just out of my line of sight. I had to press my face against the bars in order to get a good enough angle, but upon doing so, I was just barely able to see who was coming. A confused frown touched my face as I saw it was the janitor from before.

He was slowly making his way down the hall towards me, walking backwards as he continued to mop the floor. Side to side he swayed, whistling softly to himself as he went about his work. Every few seconds he’d mumble something to himself before continuing his whistling. Oddly enough, he had no bucket for the mop, but that didn’t seem to concern him.

As I watched him, a weird tickling started in the back of my head. For some reason, even from the back, he just felt oddly familiar… but I couldn’t, for the life of me, put a finger on it. That, and something about him just felt… off.

I continued to stare at him for a few seconds before I noticed something else weird. He was mopping the floor, yes, but it appeared that the mop was putting on dirt, not taking it off. The floor was getting dirtier the closer he got to my door.

What… what is he doing? I mused as I watched him. I wasn’t completely sure, but in my experience that’s not how you were supposed to clean the floor. If he wasn’t careful, he wasn’t going to have the job for much longer.

As he drew nearer, I was finally able to hear what he was mumbling; he was singing to himself under his breath. It was a happy little ditty, and was sung to the tune of a somewhat familiar sea shanty.

Straining my ears, I was just able to make out the words.

“What do you do when you’ve gone insane?
Stumbling around with a broken brain?
Will your life ever be the same?
Awoken in the Asylum?

“Why do you cry those tears of dread?
Is it the pounding that’s in your head?
You should be glad that your sanity’s fled,
Trapped here in the Asylum.

“Who is it that you’re thinking of?
That filled your life with hope and love?
No divine help will come from above,
Down here in the Asylum.

“Where is this paradise you used to know?
Or was that land just all for show?
Sing the song; your tale of woe,
From deep within the Asylum.

“How could you have lost such a paradise?
Now trapped in a world of sin and vice?
Would you like some friendly advice?
Stay here in the Asylum…”

Finishing up the song, he laughed softly to himself before suddenly shuffling towards the wall and out of my view. I could still hear the sounds of him moving about, as well as the mop sliding across the floor, but I couldn’t see him anymore.

He remained out of sight for a long while, to the point where I was thinking about just giving up and returning to the bed. He was just the janitor anyways; it wasn’t like he could help me out. My mind made up, I started to turn around when suddenly a face appeared in front of the gap in the door, startling me.

“Well, look what we’ve got here,” he said with a grin.

I stumbled back, staring at the face in horror.

He just continued to look at me, grinning widely, his red eye twinkling with twisted joy, the sclera a nasty shade of pale yellow.

It wasn’t the red eye that alarmed me though.

It was his face.

Or rather, my face.

There, staring back at me through the small, barred-up gap in the door, left eye as red as blood, was my own face. A scar ran across its nose and cheek, leading to a milky right eye. Dirty blonde hair fell across its forehead and eyes, and a scruffy beard adorned its cheeks and chin. Yet, there were some details that were off. His grin was unnaturally big, and his teeth were definitely sharper than mine.

He watched me as I gawked at him, demented amusement on his face.

Well, this is a mind fuck, isn’t it? asked the little voice in the back of my head.

I said nothing; just continued to stare at myself.

And myself stared back.

Chapter 69: The Jail at the End of the World, Part 2 / The Light at the Edge of Insanity

“Hey… hey, anyone home? Hey, Jacko… wake up. Yooohooo!”

A light ‘tink’ing noise filled the air as my doppelganger tapped on the bars of the tiny window with his finger. As he did so, he just stared in at me, his head cocked slightly to the side and a smile on his face. He seemed highly amused by my startled reaction to his sudden appearance. His expression remained unchanged, even as he continued to tap, much like a child at an exhibit in the zoo, trying to get the animals to react.

I was unable to respond at this time though, as I was too busy trying to comprehend what the fuck I was seeing. After all the shit I had been through today already, I really shouldn’t have been surprised, but still… I was looking at myself. The face, the scar across the nose, the dirt-blonde hair and beard; it was my face.

It was like my reflection had come to life and stepped out of the mirror.

Well, almost my reflection. The red eye was certainly a new addition, as were the teeth. Other than that, he was my spitting image.

What was going on?

As my mind raced, the doppelganger continued to try and get my attention

“Aye, oh… boss, you in there?” he asked as he propped himself against the door. “I know you can hear me. I can hear those thoughts a rollin’ around in that thick skull of yours, but you aren’t focusing. You need to focus. Come on, I know it’s hard for you, but you’ve got to try.” He knocked on the door sharply with a knuckle. “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!”

The sound of him rapping on the metal snapped me out of my daze.

“What the fuck?” I said dumbly; it was the first thing that came to mind.

At my words, he seemed to brighten up. “Ah, finally. There he is.” He stopped knocking on the door, but continued to lean upon it as he gazed through the small window. “I was wondering if I broke you or not. That would have definitely put a damper on our first legitimate meeting if I had.”

I blinked owlishly at him before repeating. “What the fuck?”

The smile slowly slid off his face.

“Are you going to contribute anything intelligent to this conversation, or am I asking for the moon here?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Oh for the love of...” he sighed, rubbing his face with a hand. “I forgot… okay, tell you what. One more time, okay? Go on, say it. Say ‘what’ one more time. Meet your requirement. Fulfill your quota. You know you want to. Get it out of your system so we can move on with our lives.”

“...what?”

“There we go,” he huffed. “Okay, now that we’ve taken care of that, how about you start to act like a big boy and use your big boy words, got it? Get that brain working. I know it’s not a big one, but I have faith in you.”

Glaring at him, I ignored the insult and instead gave my head a quick shake to clear it. Pushing aside my uncertainty and confusion, I focused instead on the creature before me: the creature that looked exactly like me. Unable to think of a good way to respond to his previous statement, I instead opted for something else.

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, eyes narrowing.

“Ah! Now we’re making some progress, if only a little!” he said, clapping his hands together happily. “That’s a great question. I’m glad to see that you’re actually starting to try and figure stuff out, but it won’t help you in the long run. Alright, so… who am I?” He gave me a playful smirk, a long canine glinting in the dull light. “Well, as easy as it would be to tell you… would you care to take a guess first?”

I gave him a confused look, which he only answered with a wry grin, one eyebrow raising. His red eye twinkled with perverse glee.

...wait.

The red eye finally registered with me, and my own eyes narrowed.

“Riddick!” I hissed. Anger flashed through me, as did a wave of muted relief. There was the confirmation I needed; I wasn’t crazy. The fucker had finally decided to show himself, and while I didn’t know why he looked like me, that didn’t really matter at the moment. I knew that he had to be behind whatever insanity was going on here. Now, if I could just figure out what he was up to and how to beat him, I could get out of—

“Eeeeernt, nope! Sorry,” the doppelganger said, making a loud buzzing noise and derailing my train of thought. “I’m sorry, but that answer is incorrect. Try again!” His red eyes glinted in the gloom.

Giving him a deadpan look, I rolled my eyes before huffing. “Fine… Discord.”

“Wrong again!” came the gleeful reply as he held up his hands. “Nice try, but again, wrong answer. Wanna try one more time? Phone a friend? Third time’s the charm.” When I didn’t say anything, he sighed dramatically. “Really?” he lamented. “You don’t remember me? After all we’ve been through? I’m hurt… really, I am. We’re practically brothers, you and I.”

“What are you talking about?” I growled out.

This caused him to pause, and he gave me a odd look. “You seriously don’t remember me?” When I shook my head, he tsked. “Figures. After everything I’ve done—after everything I contributed to our journey—this is how you thank me. I, who have been by your side since you first arrived in the magical land of talking ponies. I’m your pal, Max. Your chum, your amigo, your confidant…”

Slowly, a large smile spread across his face, and he began to chuckle darkly.

From the deep recesses of my mind, something whispered, ‘...I’m that little voice inside your head.’

I jerked back, my eyes widening in shock. “What the…?!”

“Is it starting to make sense?” the doppelganger asked. He was smiling from ear to ear, a cheshire-like grin that looked completely unnatural being upon my face.

“No, not really,” I growled.

“Good,” he said with a smirk. “Making sense is just not fun. It actually makes my head hurt. Gets it so full of pressure that I just need to…” Trailing off, he reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair. Pulling hard, the top of his head suddenly flipped open, much like the lid to a chest. A burst of steam erupted forth for a few seconds before he released the hair and his head returned to normal.

“Ah, that’s better,” he sighed.

Taking a step back, I stared at him in awe. “What… how did you… what the hell are you?”

Impossibly, his smile seemed to grow.

“Now you’re starting to ask the right questions,” he said. “I’ll save you the trouble of playing Twenty Questions and just tell you, okay? I didn’t really ever have a name… but if you need to call me something, you can call me… Havoc. Think of me as your… spirit guide! I’ve been with you since day fucking one in Equestria. Remember?” Raising a hand, he began to tick off things on his fingers. “There was a desert, then a train ride in a cage, then we arrived in Canterlot, then we got sent to Ponyville, and then everything else that happened. We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we?”

“You’re lying,” I said. “You weren’t with me. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“No, really. It’s true,” he said as he scratched an ear. “I’ve been with you every step of your journey. Well, at least since you came to Equestria.”

“So, what? You weren’t with me on Earth?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said, shrugging. “My first memories were in the desert. Not sure why… or where exactly I came from, but I’m not complaining. I took a gander through your memories, and got a feel for the whole experience. Living’s nice. Glad I actually got around to doing it.”

“You’re insane,” I hissed.

“Hello, Pot. I’m Kettle,” came the response. “You may not have seen me, or even knew I was there, but I was. Always there, always watching your stupid ass. Cheering you on and booing you as well. Always trying to give you advice, trying to keep us alive, even if you didn’t listen to me. I tried, I really did,” he said, placing a hand on his chest. “I told you what to do, but you just wouldn’t listen to good advice. I mean, really?” he scoffed, giving me a condescending look. “Risking your life for three fillies and a dragon? You should have just left them to the manticores and saved yourself. You only made it out of there by the skin of your teeth.

“Sheer. Dumb. Luck,” he grunted, emphasizing his words with firm knocks on the door.

“Wait…” I said slowly, memories of that particular day drifting up from the depths of my mind. The hesitation I had felt just before grabbing the Crusaders and Spike and hightailing it out of there. It had only lasted for a second, but the sensation had been nearly overpowering.

Eyes widening, I gaped at him. “You’re… you’re that…”

“That little voice in the back of your head,” Havoc finished for me, nodding happily. “Always whispering words of advice. Always having to sit in the back seat and watch you blunder around. You see, I might have always been present, but I didn’t always have the… ability to be heard. I was rather weak, you see,” he tsked, shaking his head. “I didn’t have a body until we came to this world, and even then I was too weak… too worthless. I couldn’t really do much… that is, until Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

My brow furrowed. “Hearth’s Warming Eve? But the only thing that happened then was the potion that transformed me into a pony. And then into… a… wait. You’re… you’re that draconequus?!”

“We really should thank that zebra next time we see him,” Havoc said, ignoring me. “I might have only had a brief moment of freedom, but in that second of clarity, I caught a good look at that pretty purple pony princess.” His grin turned lecherous, and he wiggled his eyebrows at me. “All I can say is well done, boyo. Well done indeed. She’s a keeper, that one.”

With a growl, I walked forward until I was at the door. Grabbing the bars, I peered through the small window at my grinning clone. “Leave her alone!”

“Whoa!” Havoc held up his hands. “Easy, there. We’re the same body, friend. It’s not that weird.”

“What the fuck do you want?” I spat out.

Havoc gave me a cool look.

“What does any living thing want?” he shot back. “To live, eat, breathe—” there was a pause before his grin suddenly came back “—to get their dick wet. You know, the standard stuff. No point in existing unless you can have a little fun, right? And since I’m alive… might as well make use of everything offered. Really, is that so much to ask?”

“Probably not, but what the fuck does that have to do with the both of us?” I asked.

Havoc raised an eyebrow. “Kinda hard for me to have fun when you’re the one in charge. I was backseat driving, as it were. Not much control. I could only watch as you bumbled around. Now, however…” He knocked on the bars of the window with the handle of the mop. “You’re in there… and I’m out here. Don’t worry, Dad,” he said as he lifted up his hand, revealing a set of car keys dangling from his fingers. He winked at me. “I’ll bring it back with a full tank of gas. Eventually… maybe… not really.”

“Fuck off,” I spat at him.

“Oh, don’t be that way,” he huffed, giving me an affronted look. “After all, I set all this up for you!” Motioning around at the surrounding area, he did a little spin before continuing. “Isn’t this great? Your own little world, just for you.”

“Wait… so this is really just all in my head?” I asked.

“Well of course it is,” he said, rolling his eyes. “What? You thought you had somehow ended up back home on Earth again? Please. Don’t be ridiculous. What kind of idiot would believe that? No, we’re still on Equus… only, I’m the captain now.” Pointing first at his eyes, he then pointed at me. “Got it?”

“And how exactly did that change?” I asked, trepidation slowly growing in my chest. Is… is he insinuating what I think he is?

“Actually, yes I am,” Havoc chuckled darkly, as if hearing my inner thoughts. “We have dear old daddy Discord to thank for this, really. Without him, I’d still be locked away within your subconscious. He was kind enough to give us—well, me—a boost of power. A reversal of roles, as it were.”

“He did what? When?!” I yelped.

Reaching through the bars, Havoc tapped my forehead three times with a finger.

“Remember?” he grinned. “Right before we all got blasted by the Rainbow of Bullshit? He wanted us to do something to Twilight, if I recall correctly. Now… what was it he wanted us to do again?” Humming, he adapted a thoughtful expression for a few seconds before perking up. “Oh, yes.” His grin turned dark and lecherous again. “‘Make it slow, and make her scream’. That was it. Don’t worry, chap,” he said, patting my cheek before pulling his arm back through the window. “I’ll make her scream alright. Nice and long. And while I’m doing that, you can stay in here, methinks.”

“Sooo… what? You’re just gonna leave me in this place? This… imaginary world?” I asked, glancing around at the cell.

“Mmm-eeyup. That’s the plan,” Havoc said, nonchalantly scratching at his beard. “See, the way I see it, the problem Discord had with Riddick is the two of them were always fighting over who was in charge of the body. Made them unstable, a little off their rocker. Not us, though, oh no. We’re gonna put a stop to that nonsense immediately. That’s why I constructed this place for you. To give you a place to stay while I have my fun. A day care, of sorts.”

“A mental hospital?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Out of every place you could have picked, why pick a mental hospital? Why not my home or work... or, hell, I don’t know... an imaginary Equestria?”

“For three reasons, really,” Havoc said with a smirk. “Well… two. No, three. No… two. The first reason is because I remember your conversation with Luna. You’re scared of waking up to find out that everything that’s happened to you was, in fact, not real. What better place to stick you than this, hmmm?”

“And the second reason?” I asked in a low growl.

Havoc’s smirk grew into a sneer. Leaning forward, he moved until his face was practically pressed against the bars of the window.

“It amuses me to no end that you’ll be stuck in here… with the mad,” he hissed. “It might not be the real deal, but it still amuses me. And hey, just maybe… you’ll start to think like I do.”

“I highly doubt it,” I said darkly.

“One can only hope,” came the reply. He continued to glare at me for a moment before pulling back. “Anyways,” he said slowly, “you’ll get to hang out here with the human Twilight. I’m sure if you play your cards right, you’ll be able to tap that smoking hot ass soon enough. Don’t worry, I made sure that she’ll squeal just like the real one.” He winked at me. “Don’t worry about the pony one. I’ll take good care of her. Just gotta wrap up a few things here before we wake up again.” Holding up the mop handle, he waved it about, sending a cascade of dirty water flying everywhere.

I watched the brown water splash upon the tiled floor with a bemused look.

“What exactly are you doing, anyways?” I asked.

“Oh, just cleaning up a few things here and there,” Havoc said nonchalantly. “Tweaking something here, tidying up something there. You know, standard stuff.”

I raised an eyebrow. “But… that mop’s dirty.”

“So it is,” he hummed, holding it up to examine it. “Of course, it needs to be… considering what I’m doing. Oh, that reminds me… do you happen to recall when your sisters’ birthdays were? Either one of them?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “I don’t have any siblings. I’m an only child.”

Havoc paused, staring blankly ahead for a long while before a creepy smile spread across his face.

“Wonderful,” he breathed as he ran his fingers down the mop’s wooden handle. “Simply marvelous.” Without saying another word, he flung the mop over his shoulder and began to strut off down the hall, whistling happily to himself.

Pressing my face to the bars of the window, I called after him. “Wait! What the fuck did you do? Get back here, you fucker!” I pounded on the metal door with my hands, the sound echoing around the small cell like crashes of thunder. He didn’t turn around though; he just kept on walking, swinging the mop back and forth as he went.

Still pounding on the door, I continued to shout after him until my throat was sore and my hands were numb.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I was unsure of how long I beat against the door before giving up. My hands were bruised, to the point of almost bleeding. Unable to continue, I took up pacing around the cell in small circles instead, trying to figure out a way to fix my current predicament. Dozens of thoughts and ideas swirled through my head, but none of them were helpful in the slightest.

Eventually, even the pacing grew to be too much, and I took a seat upon the edge of the bed. Rubbing my face with my hands, I sighed heavily before collapsing back on the mattress, only to wince as a spring dug into my back. I didn’t readjust though, and for several minutes I just laid there, alone with my discomfort and my thoughts.

The sound of a door opening down the hall drew me from my daze. I wondered briefly if it was Havoc, returning to gloat some more, but a moment later the sound of multiple approaching footsteps caught my ear, putting that theory to rest. Letting out a sigh, I opened my eyes and made to sit up, only to freeze upon catching sight of the cell’s ceiling.

Or rather, the words now etched upon it.

FIGHT BACK

Carved into the stone ceiling, the words glowed a vibrant magenta. I stared up at them, confused. Fight back? Was this Havoc’s doing? It… it wasn’t likely, as he wanted me to play along, but then… who else could it be? I didn’t have time to contemplate it though before the door to the cell was unlocked with a loud ‘clunk’. As it swung open, the words faded from existence.

I cast one last bewildered glance at the bare ceiling before lifting my head to see who had opened the door. Dr. Bright stood in the doorway, a neutral look on her face as she eyed me. Behind her, I could just make out the towering form of Abraham, Nurse Harper peering around his arm.

Upon seeing me conscious, Dr. Bright clicked her tongue. “Awake again, I see. That’s… good. Now, the question is… are you still with us?”

“Unfortunately” is what I would have liked to say, but instead I winced and placed a hand to my head, feigning a headache. “What… what happened?”

This caused Dr. Bright to perk up. “Oh? So you are still with us. Excellent, that must mean the treatment isn’t a complete failure after all.” Clearing her throat, she stepped further into the cell. “As for what happened, you had a panic attack and promptly collapsed. You’ve been out for the better part of a day.”

Pushing myself up into a seated position, I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I considered my next move. I couldn’t exactly fight back now, as Dr. Bright could easily just take a step back and shut the door, locking me in. Still, I wasn’t sure how long I had to play along in order for Havoc to be convinced.

However, before I could come to a decision, it was made for me.

“Well, seeing as you’re awake, this makes things a little easier,” Dr. Bright said. Stepping back to the door, she motioned me to stand. “Come along, if you would be so kind. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

I remained sitting.

“Where are we going?” I asked slowly.

“To get you looked at,” Dr. Bright answered. “A quick check-up to make sure everything is alright, and then we can get the rest of your day on track. I’m fairly certain you’d like something to eat at some point in the next few hours, no?”

At her words, my stomach growled, but I ignored it. This was all in my head, so it wasn’t like I was actually hungry at the moment, right? Havoc sounded like he wanted my body for himself, so it would go against his plan if he let me starve in the real world. As long as I was in this place, things weren’t real… right?

Real or not, I needed to get out of this room, and it seemed that the only way that was going to happen was if I followed her.

Casting one last glance at the ceiling to see if the words had returned, I slowly got to my feet. Dr. Bright smiled as I did so, and gave me another wave of her hand. “Come along,” she said. “The sooner we do this, the sooner things can start getting back to normal. I am hopeful, though. The fact you are still conscious of the world around you is a good sign.”

I grunted in response, staring over her shoulder at Abraham. He’d be the biggest problem when it came to escaping. If I could get past him, it should be smooth sailing. As if sensing my thoughts, Abraham glared at me as I exited the cell. Ignoring him, I took the opportunity to glance around. Nothing appeared to have changed; the hallways were still a dull mix of gray and moss-green.

The sound of a throat being cleared drew my attention.

“This way, please,” Dr. Bright said with a wave of her hand. “We have a lot to do and very little time to do it. Nurse Heart is preparing the examination room as we speak.”

“Really?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow, “but, you didn’t know I was awake until you walked in.”

“That’s what this was for!” Nurse Harper chimed in. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that she was pushing an empty wheelchair along. “We were going to push you along if it came to that.”

“Swell...” I muttered under my breath.

With that, our group moved down the hall, Dr. Bright leading the way. We moved in silence, nobody talking and the only sound being the squeaking of the unneeded wheelchair. As I walked, I tried to ignore the gritty feeling against the bottoms of my feet. The floor was covered in dirty mop water, although I appeared to be the only one to notice it. The others just continued on, oblivious to the fact their shoes were splish-splashing with each step and the bottoms of their pants were getting wet. I could practically feel Abraham breathing down my neck with each step, a constant reminder of his looming presence behind me.

As we rounded a corner, I saw that we were heading towards the security door that separated the two different wings of the building. Like last time, an orderly was stationed beside it, propped up at a small desk. Upon seeing him, an idea started to form in my head. It wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, but it’d have to do for now.

The guard glanced up as we drew near, giving Dr. Bright a brief nod before pushing the button on the wall that unlocked the double doors. Right when the large doors opened enough for a person to slip through, I made my move. Aware of the fact that Abraham was still present behind me, I leaned forward ever so slightly before whipping my head back and driving the back of my skull into his face.

crunch

My head swam from the force of the blow, a dull ringing filling my ears. However, I was rewarded by the sound of the large orderly hitting the floor, followed by a howl of pain. Ears still ringing, I raced forward even as Dr. Bright and Nurse Harper cried out in alarm. I made sure to hit the button for the doors as I ran past, causing them to begin to close behind me. It wouldn’t stop the orderlies for more than a few seconds, but hopefully it’d buy me enough time to get a decent head start.

Dashing down the hall, I searched desperately for any indication of a possible way out. An exit, a stairwell, an elevator; something! Unfortunately, I also had to focus on keeping my balance on the wet floor in order to stop myself from slipping and falling.

With the sound of yelling behind me, I took a left, then a right, then another left before spying a pair of double doors at the far end of the hall with an emergency exit sign above them. Silently giving thanks, I put on an extra burst of speed, trying to use the slippery floor to my advantage.

Upon reaching the doors, I threw them open, raced through…

...and promptly crashed straight into a concrete wall.

I collapsed to the floor in a heap, the wind thoroughly knocked out of me. Where the fuck did that come from?! Gasping for breath, I tried to roll over onto my back, only to receive a sudden kick to the gut for my trouble.

Doubling over in pain, I barely had time to register what had happened before the boot slammed into the side of my head this time. As my assailant continued to kick at me, I covered my head with my arms, trying to protect myself.

Peering through a gap in my defense, I saw that it was myself who was kicking me.

I was beating myself up.

“Why. Can't. You. Just. Play. Along?!” Havoc snarled out, emphasizing each word with a brutal kick. He stomped down hard on my stomach before kicking me bodily into a creaky old bed frame. Through it all, I just laid there—dazed and confused—trying to figure out how I was back in the cell again.

“This is what you get for being a little bitch,” Havoc huffed before spitting at me. “I knew you were stupid, but this truly takes the cake! This is all in your head, boy! Did you honestly think you could escape? Where were you going to run to, hmmm? The amygdala?”

I answered by shooting him the bird, only to cry out as he crushed my hand under the heel of his boot.

“Now, let’s try this again, shall we?” he sneered as he made his way towards the door. Opening it, he stepped out into the hall before glancing over his shoulder. “And try to behave this time, capische? It’s not going to be good if we have to chat face to face again.” Without waiting for an answer, he slammed the door and the lock thunked into place.

I laid there for a few minutes afterwards, catching my breath and nursing my wounds. Though it appeared that he didn’t leave any real, visible damage, the pain was still present. It felt like he had broken my hand, but I was still able to move it about with no issues.

Eventually, I managed to pull myself up off the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. Rubbing gingerly at my wrist, I glanced up, only to do a double take upon noticing what was etched across the far wall. The magenta letters were back, and though they were just words, I could practically feel the exasperation behind them.

NOT LIKE THAT

Staring blankly at the words for a moment, I blinked and shook my head before standing up abruptly.

“Well, sorry,” I growled, pointing at the words. “You didn’t exactly give me much to work with. ‘Fight back’? Well, that’s exactly what I did, and look what happened! That isn’t my fault, it’s yours!” After a moment of contemplation, I added, “and I don’t even know who you are.” As I watched, the words slowly faded, only to be replaced by different ones a moment later.

BE PATIENT AND WATCH

“Watch? Watch for what?” I asked, annoyed. “Another ass kicking?”

LOVE CONQUERS ALL

Upon reading this, I threw my arms into the air. “Why the fuck does everything need to sound like a fucking fortune cookie?! Fuck! For once I’d just like a straight answer!”

SOON

The words faded into nothingness as a low ‘clank’ echoed down the hall. Once more the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard.

Running a hand through my hair, I sighed heavily as I mulled over my situation.

“Just play along,” I grumbled. “Be patient and watch. Fight back. Don’t fight back. I fucking hate this shit.” I was silent for a moment before glancing up at the ceiling. “Alright, fine… fuck it. We’ll try it your way, whoever the fuck you are. But if this doesn’t work, I’ma do it my way instead.” At this, for some strange reason, I suddenly felt a faint feeling of… appreciation? Gratitude? I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t have long to wonder what it meant, for at that moment the door to my cell was unlocked.

Just like before, Dr. Bright entered the room alone. However, this time she gave me a cold look, her eyes flashing bright red for a brief moment as she glared at me. Involuntarily I shivered, the look causing my heart to beat a little faster in my chest.

“Now… are you going to be compliant this time?” she asked with a sneer. When I didn’t answer right away, her eyes narrowed dangerously. Reaching a hand into one of her coat pockets, she slowly pulled out a large syringe. “We can do this the easy way… or the hard way. It’s your choice.”

Swallowing thickly, I eyed the needle, unsure of what real effects a fake drug would have on me in this strange place. Sure, it might have been all in my head, but Havoc had already proven that he could force me to feel pain, hunger, and exhaustion. I had no doubt that duplicating the effect of a drug was well within his abilities. The last thing I needed was to be drugged up within my own mind.

Besides… I really, really hated needles.

“Well? What’s it going to be?” Dr. Bright asked, an eyebrow raising as she waved the syringe back and forth.

Not taking my eyes off the swinging needle, I slowly stooped into a mocking half-bow before motioning towards the door. “Ladies first.”

As if a switch was flipped, her eyes returned to normal and her face brightened, a smile returning to her lips. The syringe disappeared into her pocket once more, and I tried really hard not to think about the thing bouncing around in there, threatening to poke out of the fabric at any moment. It could possibly jab her in the leg…

Nope, not gonna think about it.

“Right!” she said happily, clapping her hands together. “Now, how about that check-up? The sooner we get it over with, the sooner things can progress for the better!” Stepping back, she pushed open the door and motioned me through it. “Come along, Mr. Williams. We have a busy day ahead of us… oh,” she added, almost as an afterthought. “I brought along someone that might make your day a little more… bearable.”

“What are you talking about…” I began to ask, but trailed off upon stepping out into the hall. There were three people already waiting for me. The massive Abraham stood of to the side, his muscular arms crossed over his chest as he glared down at me. Standing beside him was Nurse Harper, a small smirk on her face. As for the third person…

“H-hi, Max,” Twila said, a shy smile on her face as she waved at me.

At the sight of her, I froze, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. She looked the same as before, except that her hair was done up in a bun this time. Regardless, she still bore too much of a resemblance to Twilight for my liking.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, eyeing her with some contempt.

“W-well, I’m, uh… I’m your personal doctor,” she stammered, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose. She pushed them up before continuing in a stronger voice. “I’m the one overseeing your general health and rehabilitation. Dr. Bright is only to observe and make sure the new medication is working as intended.”

“Even though she was the trigger for your latest episode, I thought it would be best for her to be here,” Dr. Bright said. “We can’t have you fainting every time you see your personal caregiver, now, can we?” A smirk crossed her face, her eyes flashing red, and she leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Play your cards right, and maybe I’ll let you have some ‘personal’ alone time with her in your cell later, hmmm?”

I said nothing, but rolled my eyes.

“Now then, let’s be off!” With a clap of her hands, Dr. Bright turned and walked off down the hallway. I watched her go for a moment before glancing back at Abraham. He glared at me, his eyes flashing red, before jerking his head in the direction Dr. Bright was headed.

“Alright, alright… I’m going,” I muttered, resisting the urge to give him the bird. With a sigh, I turned and followed after the retreating doctor, the other three bringing up the rear.

As we walked, Twila fell in step beside me. She moved along quietly, her eyes locked onto the floor, though she didn’t seem to notice that it was covered in dirty mop water. I tried to ignore her as best I could, focusing instead on memorizing the layout of the building. While I was playing along for the time being, that didn’t mean I couldn’t try and plan something for the future.

We were rounding a corner when I felt someone try and slip their fingers about mine. The sensation caused me to flinch, and I looked down to see that Twila was attempting to subtly hold my hand. A blush adorned her cheeks, and she smiled faintly, still not looking at me.

“It’s good to see you’re beginning to improve again,” she whispered. “I… I was worried that we’d lost you completely.” She gave my fingers a light squeeze, her thumb rubbing the back of my hand.

I frowned, and pulled my hand from her grasp, inching further away. This caused her to blink, and while she didn’t frown, the smile left her lips. She sighed softly—almost longingly—before moving to walk in front of me instead. “I understand. You still need time to adjust. I’ll be here if you need me, though.”

We approached the door between the different wings of the building again, and for a third time the guard stood up to let us in. This time however, I noticed that the guard wasn’t the same as before. This one was female, and her hair was cut short and dyed rainbow.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Ramirez,” Dr. Bright said as she reached the door. “Mind letting us through?”

“Depends. Is this guy gonna try and run again?” the guard asked, and I grunted as Rainbow’s voice came from her. Should have known.

“No, I don’t think so,” Dr. Bright answered.

“He was suffering from a panic attack earlier,” Twila added helpfully. “He’s calmed down now though, so we should be good.”

“See to it that he stays that way,” Ramirez growled, glaring at me. “I still have scars from our previous tussles.” Unclipping her ID card, she swiped it, unlocking the door. As the doors began to swing open, she turned back to Dr. Bright. “Need me to follow along to keep an eye on him?”

“No, we should be fine,” Dr. Bright said, waving a dismissive hand. “I don’t foresee any more problems popping up. He should be more… docile now.”

“If you say so,” Ramirez grunted, returning to her chair.

“If all these people are mental projections from Havoc, does this count as him talking to himself?” I muttered under my breath, only to yelp in pain when Abraham slapped the back of my head.

“What the fuck was that for?” I growled, rubbing my head.

“Stay in character,” he growled.

“Fuck you,” I shot back, only to get another cuff upside the head. “Ow! For fuck’s sake, give it a rest! I’m still getting used to this!”

He raised his hand again, but stopped when Dr. Bright called out. “That’s enough, Abraham. He’s just a little crabby. He did only wake up a little while ago, after all.” She smirked, before nodding her head towards the open doors. “Come along, Mr. Williams. We mustn’t dawdle.” With that, she walked through the door.

Twila gave me a concerned look before heading through as well.

“Worst NPC ever,” I muttered under my breath before following them, well aware that Abraham was staring intently at the back of my head. I could hear Nurse Harper giggling softly as well, which only made me even more annoyed.

As our group moved down the new hallway, I glanced out the windows again. The same depressing landscape greeted me as before, and I sighed softly. You could have at least tried to make this place somewhat appealing, asshat, I thought.

A low, rumbling chuckle echoed around the hallway. I could have, but where’s the fun in that?

I was about to shoot back a snarky reply that was probably going to get me smacked again by Abraham, but the retort died off as something caught my eye. Though Twila was still walking down the hall as if nothing was happening, a faint purple glow had surrounded her right hand. Faint lines of magic ran around her fingers and knuckles, pulsing softly with an inner light.

Staring dumbfounded at her hand for a moment, I shook my head before quickly glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed the spectacle. None of them appeared to have though, which I found extremely odd; her hand was glowing bright enough to cast a lavender glow on the walls of the hallway.

Thoroughly confused, I returned my gaze back to the strange sight. This wasn’t Havoc’s doing. I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew that, but I did. It just felt… different, almost like how you can tell different individuals apart by how they present themselves. It just didn’t feel like Havoc.

Before I could think about it too much though, Twila’s hand twitched. Fingers curling into a fist, she lifted her hand and pointed down a side hallway she had just walked past. This time, the strange movement caught everyone’s attention, and our group slowed to a stop.

“Dr. Sparks… what are you doing?” Dr. Bright asked, giving Twila a confused look.

“I… I don’t know,” Twila replied, staring at her hand in wonder. She tried to lower the hand, but it remained firmly in place, pointing down the side passage. Reaching up with her other hand, she tugged and pulled at the glowing appendage, but it refused to budge.

As the others tried to figure out what was going on, I glanced down the hall Twila was pointing at. At first I saw nothing out of the ordinary—doors, posters, a few potted plants—but then my eyes landed on a window at the very end of the hallway. There, emblazoned brightly on the pane of glass, was a symbol I vaguely remembered. It was a golden, circular emblem with five gem-shaped inlets arranged around the outside, forming a five-pointed star with the sixth gem in the center.

As my gaze landed on it, the emblem flared brighter, as if calling out to me.

I glanced back to Twila’s hand just in time to see the words NOW appear on the back of it. For but a moment, I hesitated, but then before any of them could stop me, I turned and tore off down the hallway, heading for the glowing window.

Their shouts echoed down the hall after me, but I ignored them. My bare feet slapped against the wet floor, and I gritted my teeth as bits of stone and dirt dug into my soles. Still, I pressed on. It was too late to stop now. The die was cast; it was time to see what was going to happen.

As I neared the window, I realized that I had no clue what I was doing. Did I keep running? Did I just have to touch the window? I wasn’t sure of what my next move should be, but luckily I didn’t have to decide.

When only a few meters were between me and the window, the words JUMP flashed across the glass. I reacted without thinking and, closing my eyes, I leapt at the window, slamming my shoulder against it at full speed. It shattered instantly, and I fell out, down into a seething black abyss. The entire asylum was suspended on an island of rock in the middle of… nothingness.

I might have made a huge mistake, I realized as I watched the building and the island growing smaller and smaller above me. A horrific, earsplitting roar echoed through the void, and the entire building shook and trembled as Havoc screamed. “You fucking cheater!”

“Fuck you, I do what I want!” I screamed back, even as the asylum disappeared from view.

Down, down I drifted through the inky blackness of the void. Without any point of reference, I couldn’t tell if I was truly falling, or if I was standing still. Up became down, and down became up. A sense of vertigo overtook me.

“What the fuck was I thinking?” I muttered as I floated about. “Follow the directions from an unknown source, Max. What could go wrong, Max?” Alone and lost, I floated in the nothingness, contemplating my own stupidity.

The abyss slowly encroached, smothering me from all sides. Whispers reached my ears, the words so faint I couldn’t even hear what was being said. I lifted my hand in front of my face, but was unable to see it. The darkness was absolute, and slowly panic began to well up in my chest. Yes, I had wanted to get out of the asylum, but not like this. I had no clue where I was, and I had no clue how to get out of this situation. For all I knew, I just made the situation worse. All because some stupid entity told me to jump out the window.

“‘Be patient and watch’!” I shouted into the darkness. “‘Love conquers all’! I fucking trusted you, and look where that got me!” Tears began to well up in the corner of my eyes, and I gritted my teeth. “ Goddamn it. I… I just want things to go back to the way they were. Back before all this bullshit drama. I want… I want…” I trailed off as I felt myself slowly fading into the emptiness.

“I wish I could see Twilight one last time,” I mumbled as the darkness consumed me—

...

A piercing light erupted out of nowhere, burning through the darkness and banishing the shadows in a burst of white. Gasping in pain, I lifted a hand to shield my eyes, dimly noting that I could see once more. Light flooded the world around me, followed quickly by an eerie calm.

Blinking away tears, I lowered my hand and glanced around. I was standing on a white plane that extended out in all directions indefinitely. Far above, the sky was a swirling, chaotic mess of pitch blackness: the void being kept at bay.

As I looked around, a feeling of déjà vu settled over me.

“I… I know this place,” I mumbled, my brow furrowing. “I’ve been here before…” I mused on the feeling for a long moment before I became aware of another presence. It wasn’t that I heard something approaching; it was just one moment I was alone, and then the next I felt… something appear behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and a shiver ran down my spine.

Slowly, I turned around, unsure of what I’d find.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > ??? < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I stared down at the human before me.

His back was to me, and he was gazing at the world around him in equal parts confusion and awe. I took a moment to watch him, a faint smile crossing my lips. This was a meeting that had long been coming, and now, here at the end of all things, we would finally be able to meet face to face.

All that stood between us was a thin barrier between worlds.

My wings ruffled by my sides as I took a single step forward, pushing apart the world and making room for myself right behind him.

He stiffened as I crossed the Veil between the different Planes, clearly sensing my presence. I heard him swallow audibly before, with some trepidation, he turned slowly to face me.

Placing a warm smile on my face, I flared my wings wide and greeted him.

“Hello, little one…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hello, little one…”

I stared up at the figure before me, my eyes wide in shock. It was clearly an alicorn, but it was so much larger than even Celestia. Standing nearly thirteen feet tall and with a wingspan that easily reached twenty feet, this being was one of the largest I had ever seen. From the sound of its voice, as well as the curves of its body and the soft features on its face, it was easy to tell that this was a female.

However, the size alone was not the only startling feature the alicorn boasted. Her coat was a bluish-purple color, and appeared faceted, almost like she was made of crystals. Yet as she moved, I could see muscles rippling beneath her fur. Her mane wafted in an unseen breeze, slowly shifting through various colors such as cyan, orange, pink, purple, and blue. A large disc of light hovered above her back, slowly rotating counterclockwise.

As I gaped up at her, a pair of brilliant yellow eyes watched me with barely concealed amusement. She chuckled softly, though the noise echoed in the silence of the empty plane.

The sound snapped me out of my daze and, after giving my head a good shake, I took a cautious step back.

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “Is… is this another trick?”

“A trick?” the alicorn asked, tilting her head to the side. “No… this is no trick. I am here… with you.”

I stared at her for a moment before glancing around. “Where’s Havoc? He’s going to jump out and start monologuing any moment now, isn’t he?”

“The Chaosbringer?” The mare blinked, and her mane took on an orange hue. “No, he’s not here. He can’t reach you here. Besides, he’s back where he belongs.”

“Back where he…?” I started to say as I glanced back at her, only to pause when I processed what she had said. “Wait, does… does that mean that I’m…”

“Back in control? Yes,” she finished for me, a warm smile on her muzzle. “Your body is yours once more.”

Blinking, I glanced down at my hands, flexing my fingers. I didn’t feel any different than I had earlier, but… there was something about the way she had said that. It just felt like it was the Truth, with a capital ‘T’.

I felt like I could trust her word, but did not know why.

A frown crossed my face and, pulling my eyes from my hands, I glanced up at the alicorn once more.

“Who are you?” I repeated.

“I’m… not entirely sure,” the mare admitted sheepishly.

At this I gave her a deadpan look. “How can you not know who you are?”

The mare’s mane flared, shifting to a deep crimson color as her eyes narrowed.

“It’s easy for you to be all judgemental,” she said with a sniff. “You’ve been alive for but a splash of water in the sea of time. What you have to remember is barely a drop compared to what I have experienced, so forgive me my inability to recall what others used to call me.” She was silent for a moment, her mane slowly changing to a soft pink before she spoke again. Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper. “It’s been a long time since I had someone to talk to. Names mean nothing when there is no one to use them.”

I was unsure of how to respond to that. On one hand, that sounded somewhat depressing, but on the other hand, the way she said it… She didn’t sound sad. If anything, she sounded contemplative, almost like she was trying to figure out where she left something. It was almost like she had simply… misplaced her name, like someone might misplace their glasses..

Suddenly, I got the impression that I was in the presence of an old, old being.

Trying to repress the shiver that was threatening to run down my spine, I glanced around at the barren white landscape. “Where are we exactly?”

“Hmmm?” the mare hummed, my words snapping her from her thoughts. She blinked once before glancing around as well. “What was… oh! We’re in your, hmmm… ‘mind’ is the word, I believe. Or perhaps ‘soul’ would be a closer analogy. This is a representative of your being.”

“If this is my soul,” I asked, slowly turning in a circle as I eyed the vast nothingness, “then why is it so… empty?”

“It’s not,” the mare said simply, her mane shifting to orange again. “You’re just not able to comprehend—to understand—all the things that it’s telling you.”

I looked back at her. “And you can?”

“Mostly,” she said. “I don’t see everything, though.” Her mane’s color slowly shifted to purple. “Some creatures like their privacy, and I’m more than happy to allow them that.” She paused, before her mane shifted to pink and she added in a soft voice. “You have a very… interesting being.”

Silence fell over the plane as I stared at the tall figure before me, the gears in my head turning. A lot had happened recently, and I hadn’t had a good chance to process it all: Canterlot, the Equestrian humans, the Terran humans, Discord, the asylum, and now this. It seemed like it was just one thing after another, and even though I wasn’t really physically here at the moment, I still felt exhausted.

After a long moment of silence, I sighed before glancing up at the mare, craning my neck back to peer up into her bright yellow eyes.

“Alright… let’s say I believe you for a second,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “How did I get here?”

“The Chaosbringer trapped you here, imprisoning you within your own mind,” the mare said, “and I helped to set you free.”

I nodded my head slowly. “That brings me to my next question. What is an alicorn doing in my, um… mind? And an unknown one, at that. I thought Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight were the only alicorns in existence at the moment, so really… who are you?”

“An… an alicorn?” The mare blinked before glancing down at her form, lifting first one hoof, then the other as she studied herself. After a moment, she looked back at me, a curious glint in her eyes. “Is… is that what you see? An alicorn? Strange, I would have thought you’d see a different form.”

It was my turn to blink. “What?”

“This,” the mare said, gesturing with a wing to herself, “is not what I am. This form is what your mind has made of it.”

I blinked again. “What?”

The mare giggled. “Most creatures like you tend to have trouble seeing my true form, so their mind, in a desire to protect itself, instead makes them see a form that’s, hmmm… easier to process. Each race sees me differently, and I was so sure that you would have seen something more along the lines of a human or something from your old world. Not an alicorn.”

“So, if you’re not an alicorn… what are you exactly?” I asked, my eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“I’m…” the mare began, only to trail off into silence. Cocking her head to the side, she stared at me, as if trying to determine something from my face. “I’m, well… the ponies seem to be able to comprehend the form closest to my actual one, so I guess… I’m a tree.”

“You’re… a tree?” I scoffed, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head happily. “Well… not exactly, but a tree is as close to my real form as you’re going to get.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment before repeating. “A… tree?”

“Yes, a tree,” she said as she tilted her head to the side.

“Like, grows out of the ground... has roots and branches… tree?”

“Well, like I said, not exactly the same,” she said. “I didn’t grow… but I do have roots and branches. A tree, little one. You asked me what I was, and that’s the closest representative I could find.”

“That…” I said slowly, “is a load of bullshit!” As I shouted the last word, the mare jumped in surprise. I glared up at her as the cry echoed around the plane before fading into the unnatural silence. “It’s been a long fucking day, alright?” I growled out. “If you’re not going to take this seriously, that’s fine, but don’t fucking bullshit me with some stupid ass answer. There’s no way in hell that you’re just a goddamn tre—”

The world shifted suddenly. One second the alicorn was there, the next she was gone and something else took her place. It… it was all wrong. The being before me was vaguely tree-shaped, but it wasn’t a tree. I couldn’t tell what about it was wrong, but it just… wasn’t a tree. It was a feeling, just in the back of my head, that I couldn’t explain. I could see the being, but at the same time I couldn’t really see it.

I didn’t want to see it.

The thing loomed above me, far taller than its alicorn counterpart had been. Its bark was the same color as the alicorn’s fur, and faceted as well. Large branches waved about in an unseen breeze, and I was dimly aware of the fact that they weren’t actually branches, but were instead writhing tentacles. Five of the larger ones had eyes at their tips, each one a different color: pink, blue, orange, purple, and red. And at the center of the large conglomeration of tentacle-like branches was a giant, unblinking eye that stared down at me with three separate pupils.

I observed the creature for but a moment, just long enough for my mind to begin to process what it was seeing, but then the world seemed to shift again. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, staring up at the twisting ‘sky’ high above.

After a few seconds, the mare’s face appeared above mine. She had returned to her alicorn form, and was now giving me an upside down look of amusement. “Do you believe me now?” she asked, her mane becoming blue.

Pushing myself up, I paused when I felt something wet beneath my eyes. Upon touching a cheek, my fingers came back bloody.

“W-what… what are you?” I asked breathlessly.

“I am me,” she said. “An old being, one who has seen much, yet still not enough. I’m not entirely sure, but I do believe that the most recent name given to me by the creatures of this world would be, hmmm… Harmony?” She was silent for a moment, mulling over what she had said before nodding. “Yes, that seems about right. Harmony. That is my name at the moment.”

“H-harmony?” I blinked up at her. “You mean, like… the Elements of Harmony?”

“Is that what they called my children?” the alicorn asked, her voice thick with amusement. She stared off into the distance, chuckling softly to herself. “The Elements of Harmony… I like it.”

I stared at the massive alicorn in wonder as she tittered at whatever humor she had found in the Elements of Harmony. After a few moments, I managed to find my voice again. “W-what are you doing here? What do you want from me?”

Turning her golden gaze upon me, her mane shifted to a warm lavender hue.

“I’ve been waiting a long, long time to finally speak with you again, little one,” she murmured softly, though her voice still echoed throughout the plane.

I gave her a bewildered look. “You have… wait, again? We’ve spoken before?”

“Indeed, we have, though the conversation was rather one-sided at the time,” the mare hummed. “It was in this place… and you were upon Death’s door. I did all in my power to keep you from slipping into the Void, and luckily, you managed to pull through with the help of the medical care given to you by ponies.”

“‘Death’s door’…?” I muttered, my brow furrowing. I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out what she was talking about. My eyes widened when it suddenly dawned on me and, spinning around, I pointed at the alicorn. “A-after the pit fight! There was this moment of… white. That was you!?”

“So you do remember,” the mare giggled. “I was curious. You were rather out of it at the time, so it would have been understandable if you hadn’t fully recalled our, hmmm... previous encounter.”

Reaching up, I ran a finger over the scar on my face before moving my hand down to paw at my shirt, and the large scar that resided beneath it as well. A shiver ran down my spine as I recalled the horrific night. I could almost feel the blade slashing at my flesh again.

“Don’t think about it too hard, little one,” Harmony said quickly, drawing my attention. “While usually harmless, memories in this place can have some… interesting side effects.”

I gave her a confused look before glancing down at my chest, only to yelp in surprise. A splotch of blood was slowly beginning to spread across the front of my shirt.

“Breathe,” Harmony cooed, and I did as instructed. Closing my eyes, I took a deep, shuddering breath, before glancing back down at my shirt. The blood was gone, and the shirt was clean and dry. Lifting my shirt, I double-checked the scar just to make sure that everything was normal.

“You… helped me,” I said slowly as I lowered the shirt. Glancing up at the alicorn, I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment before continuing. “Not… that I’m not grateful for what you did, but why? Why did you help me instead of just, you know…”

“It wasn’t the first time that I’ve helped you, little one. I’ve been assisting you as best I could since you first arrived in this realm,” she answered. “I’ve… not been able to reach you using standard methods, so I had to, hmmm… improvise.”

“Improvise?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Before answering, Harmony laid down upon her stomach, folding her legs beneath her chest. Despite this, my head still only came up to the bottom of her neck. Her mane slowly took on a pinkish tint.

“I’ve been trying to contact you since your impromptu arrival,” she said. “However, I don’t have as much influence on the world as I’d like. I tried to speak with you in your dreams for the first few months, but Discord and your own inner Chaosbringer hindered my attempts.”

“You were responsible for those dreams?” I asked, my eyes widening.

She nodded her head. “I’ve found that the barrier between us was at its weakest whenever you were between the dream world and the waking world. I tried to get your attention several different times, but, unfortunately, it, hmmm… didn’t work.”

“You tried to talk with me during dreams?” I gave her a bemused look. “That… seems like a bad idea. What if I hadn’t remembered the encounter, or just played it off as a weird dream?”

“Well, I tried a more direct method while you were awake, but the action seemed to scare you more than anything else, so I ceased that line of attack.” She sighed heavily, her mane slowly shifting through her full array of colors. “And it took so much energy to carve those words into the wood.”

“Carve… words in the wood…” I began to repeat before it clicked. “‘Help them’,” I breathed, staring up at the smiling alicorn. “It… it was you. You wrote that in my closet!”

“Yes, although it did little good,” she chuckled softly, mane shifting to a light blue hue. “You wouldn’t go back down into that room for a long time after. I decided after that to keep all attempts to contact you contained to a more, hmmm… relaxing mental state? Yes.”

“But what was the point behind it?” I asked. “Why ‘help them’? Help who, exactly?”

“Ponies… and humans,” came the reply as she made herself comfortable on the ground. “It was my hope that you’d connect the two races. Bring them closer together. Bridge the gap. Make light of their differences. A creature that could be a part of both worlds, and bring them together as one.”

Staring at her, I opened and closed my mouth until I eventually found my voice.

“B-but… why me? Why choose me for that task?” I asked. “Surely there was someone else more, um… competent that you could have found.”

Harmony was silent for a moment, eyeing me with a look that I couldn’t identify. Licking her lips, she glanced briefly down at the ground before her before looking back up at me.

“Why you?” she repeated softly. “I wish I could say something profound, like your heart was the purest, or that you were always destined to be a hero. That fate had chosen you to be the, hmmm… catalyst of things that were going to happen. I wish I could tell you something that might make it sound so much better than it really is, but, truthfully… I chose you because you were the last human Discord pulled through the Veil into this world.

“My… ‘magic’ can’t affect the world as much as I’d like,” she continued. “Discord has much more influence upon the, hmmm... mortal plane than I do, so I had to wait until his power had waned slightly. This means that I had to wait until he transported the very last human—when his power was at its lowest—to act. That just so happened to be you.

“As he was pulling you through, I acted.”

“Acted.” I gave her an uneasy look. “What did you do to me exactly?”

She hummed softly. “As you were passing through the Veil, I attempted to saturate you with my magic in order to, hmmm… claim you? From Discord. Unfortunately, without a proper catalyst, my magic is less effective on mortals than his, so instead of overpowering his chaotic magic, our two powers combined and merged.”

“Merged? Wait… is that why…?” I began, reaching up to rub at my neck.

She nodded sadly. “Yes. His magic prevented mine from working as I originally intended it to. Discord’s magic prevents the other races of this world from, hmmm… understanding you. That was almost the end of it, but luckily my magic… my magic allowed you to understand them instead.” A smile touched her muzzle, her mane shifting to pink. “The barrier of language was breached earlier, and you were able to see what truly was going on. With that, I had hoped that you’d be able to do what I could not.”

“Wait, hold on,” I said, scrunching up my face. “Why couldn’t you have done more to help out? I mean, if you were able to make it so I could understand ponies, why couldn’t you have made it so that ponies could understand humans? You’re basically a god, right? Why didn’t you do more?”

I stumbled back with a yelp as Harmony suddenly surged to her hooves. She glared down at me, her mane bright red and lashing about as if in a mighty gale. Red lightning crackled about the halo above her back.

“I’ll tell you what,” she growled, her eyes flashing with anger. “How about you throw yourself off the top of a mountain and will yourself to fly before you land, hmmm? Or stick your head in a river and develop the ability to breathe. I didn’t do enough? I saved your life, human. Twice, to be precise.”

Cowering back, I tried to put some distance between me and her. I only made it a few steps though before a large pair of wings surrounded me, pulling me against a surprisingly soft chest.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she murmured, and I felt her body vibrate as she spoke. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that her mane had softened to a pink color. “I didn’t mean to shout. It’s just, there are, hmmm… limitations within the universe. Restrictions that creatures must abide by. Even for individuals such as myself. I can tinker with a few variables in the mortal plane, but in order to really influence the outcome of events, I need a catalyst of some kind.”

I tried to wiggle free from my feathery prison, but her grasp was too strong. And upon looking down, I realized that I should probably not try too hard, as it was a good four foot drop to the ground below.

Unable—and maybe now unwilling—to escape, I was forced to hang there as she stared absently off into the distance. “I’ve been trying to help Discord’s, hmmm… estranged children myself, but by its nature alone, Discord’s influence blocks mine. I could do virtually nothing to help them. That is, until that little unicorn stumbled upon one of my older shrines in the desert.”

“The fucking nutjob,” I muttered under my breath.

“Yes, her!” Harmony chirped happily, nodding her head. With me still pressed against her chest, she settled back down on her stomach, tucking her legs beneath her like a cat. “Though only a crack, she opened the way for me to begin to lay the, hmmm… foundation I needed for the humans of Equestria. It was very minute, but with her help, I was able to begin to, hmmm… educate the poor things.”

Pushing against her chest, I looked up at her with bewilderment. “Wait… you’re the reason the humans started getting smarter?”

“Of course,” she nodded happily. “I’ve been trying to help them since they first broke free of their confinement, but sadly I had no, hmmm… means to do so. However, with the help of the unicorn, I was able to start integrating them into the world. They began to learn, to grow, to become more than they were.

“It wasn’t enough, though. They were still blocked from the other races by Discord’s power,” she continued, a small frown on her face. Glancing down at me, the frown became a soft smile, and she nuzzled the top of my head. “Then you came along.”

I gave her a bemused look. “What the fuck did I do?”

“You did everything, little one, even if you didn’t know you were doing it,” she cooed, nuzzling my head again. Due to the size difference, however, it felt more like I was a teddy bear than anything else. “You distracted him long enough for my children to be of use. Because of you, Riddick’s Chaosbringer is no more. His influence on the humans is gone, and I’m able to begin my work.”

“What work?” I asked. It was starting to get a little annoying asking all these questions, but I got the distinct impression she hadn’t had much in the way of company for a while.

“Why… fixing the humans, of course,” she hummed.

At her words I stiffened, my entire being going on alert. That sounded a little worrisome. “Fixing” someone usually entailed something… dark: mind control, mental breaking, stuff like that. I really hoped that wasn’t the case, though. I had to fight one god-like being already today, I didn’t want to have to fight another so soon.

Swallowing thickly, I slowly asked, “What is there to fix?”

“Hmmm, not much,” she replied. “In fact, fixing might not be the right word. Improving them, perhaps. I’m using your genetic structure as a baseline, really.”

“What are you fixing?” I repeated again, a bit stronger this time.

“A few things,” Harmony said. “Right now, my magic is gradually beginning to influence their genetics. I’m attempting to get their, hmmm… baselines closer to that of yours. Extended lifespans, so that they might have more time to grow and live. Increased body temperature so that Discord’s parasitic spores won’t be an issue. In a sense,” she giggled, glancing down at me, “I’m making them like you.”

Blinking up at her, I tilt my head to the side. “Wat?”

“I’m trying to make the Equestrian humans more like you, or, hmmm… your species, as the case may be,” she explained. “I’m finishing what Discord started, all those years ago. His children were, hmmm… unfinished, so I’m using my children to finish them. It’s slow work, but I’m hoping that we’ll be able to see the improvements within a few generations or so.”

“Are… are you saying it’s going to take a few decades for the rest of the world to see that Equestrian humans are intelligent?” I asked.

“Oh, by Existence, no!” she said. Her wings flared, finally releasing me. I stumbled back a few steps before regaining my balance. As I brushed myself off, she continued. “That would take too long! I’m just talking about the physical changes. The mental ones are happening right now and much faster. I don’t have to wait for the humans to sire offspring to tweak things. My, hmmm… magic will allow for humans to communicate with the other creatures in the world. It might take a few months though for my magic to seep into the void that Discord’s magic has left.”

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but she placed the tip of her wing against my lips, silencing me.

“That’s enough of that,” she said softly. “I know you might still have questions, but I cannot answer them all.”

“Then answer just one more and that’ll be it,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

She was silent for a moment before nodding. “Very well. One last question, little one. Ask.”

“You claim that you wanted me to bring the two races together,” I said. “Well, does that mean that, um…” I trailed off, my throat tightening as I tried to work up the courage to ask my question. Harmony watched silently, a small smile on her lips.

Eventually, I found my voice again. “Does that mean that Twilight and I are only together because of you?”

“No,” she answered, her smile widening. “You did that all by yourselves. I had no involvement over what you two feel.”

“But, at one point I was having misgivings about staying in Equestria,” I pushed. “Back when Celestia said she could have sent me home. Did you have anything to do with me choosing to stay?”

“No, little one. I don’t have the power to influence free will,” Harmony said softly. “I can provide a nudge here or there, but in the end, it’s entirely up to you to decide what will happen.”

“And if I had decided to return home?”

“Then I would have used my powers to make sure you arrived back on your old world safe and sound,” she answered. “However, I didn’t need to do that, as you decided to stay here, with Twilight.”

“So… you didn’t…”

“No, I promise you. You are with Twilight because you chose to be… and that is truly magnificent.”

At that, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“And speaking of her, it’s about time for you to wake up,” Harmony hummed, getting to her hooves again. “You’ve been asleep for far too long, little one.”

“Wait… I have?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “How long have I been unconscious?”

“Hmmm, I believe it’s been about a week.”

“A week!?” I gaped up at her. “I’ve been out of it for a week!?”

“Indeed,” Harmony said with a smirk. “About time for you to go join the world of the living again, no?”

I nodded my head in agreement. “What… what do I need to do?”

“Just stand there and leave it to me.”

I did as she said, looking around the white plane as she approached me. Strangely, even though I still couldn’t see the edge of the ‘world’, it felt like it was collapsing in on itself. The twisting black-and-white sky above felt closer, and the edges of the plane seemed to be closing in. A quick glance down at myself showed that I was slowly fading from the world as well.

Looking back up at the approaching alicorn, I asked softly. “Will… will I remember any of this?”

“I’m… not entirely sure,” she admitted. “It will most likely seem like a hazy dream for you, just on the edge of your consciousness.”

“Well then, I guess this is, um… goodbye?”

“Yes, goodbye for now,” she said with a smile. “Thank you for all you’ve done, even if you didn’t know what you were doing. I…” She paused and giggled, shaking her head. “I couldn’t have done it without you, and as such, I’m gifting you a little, hmmm… surprise. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.”

I blinked up at her. “A surprise? What do you mean?”

Her smile turned into a large smirk. “That… is for your mate to tell you.”

I didn’t push the issue, instead glancing down at my body. It was almost completely gone now, and I looked eerily like a ghost vanishing into the light.

Glancing back up at Harmony, I gave her a half-hearted smile. “Before I go, I just want to say thank you… and I’m sorry.”

Her ears perked. “Sorry? Whatever for, dear child?”

“Because Discord, er… Riddick was the first experience of humanity you had.”

To my surprise, she giggled and shook her head.

“No, he wasn’t,” she said. “That honor goes to someone else. Someone you might know, as she bore the same last name as you. Megan Williams.”

“Megan Williams?” I muttered, bewildered. “The only Megan I know in the family was my grand-aunt, but she went… missing. Wait! What—?!”

In flash of light, the world collapsed, and I was flung into the darkness once more.

Author's Note

Harmony personified.........................☑
OC alicorn............................................☑
OC draconequus.................................☑
Add more cliches/tropes to story.....☑
Finished story......................................☐

Chapter 70: The State of the World and Those Who Live There In

—In the week prior

“I… I just can’t work with her, Princess! S-she’s just so… so arrogant, and insufferable, and lazy!”

“Well, excuse a mare for wanting to relax a little after the world’s been taking a massive shit on her for the past few years.”

“A-and crass, and rude, and she c-can’t follow simple rules!”

“‘When it comes to learning, a good teacher must know all the rules; a good pupil, all the exceptions’.”

“...”

“Yeah, I went to the School for Gifted Unicorns too, motherbucker.”

“W-well, at least act like it, you pigheaded mare!”

“I have the degree! I’ll act as I please!”

Seated upon her throne, Celestia stared down at the pair of arguing unicorns in front of her, a bemused look on her face. Shooting Star was clearly agitated, with his mane in a tangled mess and dark bags under his eyes. Lyra, on the other hand, just wore her usual look of disinterest.

This wasn’t the first incident; the pair had been butting heads ever since they started working together. The first clash had come shortly after they had been assigned to their task. Shooting Star had wanted to start by figuring out what the humans needed in order to integrate into Equestrian society: supplies, resources, land, and the like.

Lyra had found a cushioned couch somewhere in the palace… and promptly took a nap.

When Shooting Star had found her, he had attempted to get her to help.

He would have had an easier time filling a leaky bucket with water.

Similar episodes had transpired on and off the past couple of days, with the pair often at each other’s throats about topics as simple as what type of foods the humans would need, and where to get said food. They would continue to argue until it eventually devolved into a shouting match, with both unicorns stomping off in a huff.

Even now, they each were nearing the end of their proverbial rope. Noses pressed together, they continued to shout insults at one another—and would have continued to do so, had Celestia not finally decided to step in.

“Enough.” One word—barely louder than a whisper—was all it took for silence to fall over the throne room once more. Standing, Celestia began to descend the steps of the dais, all while speaking to the pair. “I realize that these are not ideal circumstances for either of you, and it is clear that your personalities clash with one another. However, I’m not asking you to be close, or to even be friends. I’m asking you to put aside your differences and work together to improve a species’ way of life.”

Reaching the bottom of the dais, she glanced between the two ponies. Shooting Star at least had the decency to look somewhat ashamed; Lyra, not so much. She stared up at Celestia, a small frown touching her muzzle.

Celestia returned her look. “Ms. Heartstrings. I know this past year hasn’t been as kind as it should have been.”

“You can say that again,” Lyra muttered under her breath.

Celestia continued as though she hadn’t heard. “I’m sure you’d like nothing better than to go home, and put this whole mess behind you. Unfortunately, at the moment you are the only pony we know of that can understand the humans. That means you are our main translator for the time being, unless we’re able to find another with similar abilities.” She raised an eyebrow. “Would you happen to know if there is another, similarly gifted individual we could call upon?”

Lyra was silent for a moment as she chewed on her tongue. “I know a zebra that miiight fit your description, but I refuse to work with him due to our personal history together.”

“Refuse to work with him, or just don’t like the idea of it?” Celestia asked. The look Lyra gave her was all the answer she needed. “Then I suggest you start cooperating with your partner here,” she said, motioning with a nod of her head to Shooting Star. “The sooner you finish your work, the sooner you’ll be able to leave this palace and Canterlot behind.”

Lyra opened her mouth—

“Besides, you’re still technically enrolled in the mental hospital here in Canterlot,” Celestia added. “One of the nurses has even stopped by the palace to ask about your return.”

—only to close it again. She stared up at Celestia a look of mute disbelief on her face.

“Are… are you blackmailing me?” she asked eventually.

“No,” Celestia said softly. “I’m just reminding you of how much your quality of living has improved. The chefs here at the palace cook what you want, you have the best living conditions currently available, and you have the freedom to be as obstinate as you like. Certainly better than the mental hospital, no?”

“Well… when you put it that way,” Lyra huffed. She stared at the floor in front of her for a moment, her face twisted in a grimace before sighing. “Okay, okay… fine. I’ll help out. However—” she held up a hoof “—there is just one thing I need before we make this happen.”

“And what might that be?” Celestia asked.

“I need someone to fetch my lyre from Ponyville storage,” Lyra muttered, her ears splaying back and a small blush touching her cheeks. “It’s… been awhile since I’ve last been able to play it.”

A small smile slowly spread across Celestia’s muzzle. “I’m sure that can be arranged. I’ll be heading down there shortly, and I’ll have one of my guards retrieve it for you. Is that acceptable?”

“I suppose that works,” Lyra said, an ear twitching. “Just make sure they’re careful with it. And I swear, if Bon Bon’s done anything to it…” She trailed off, muttering darkly to herself.

“Well then, I’ll leave you two to your work,” Celestia said.

“T-thank you, Princess,” Shooting Star said with a bow of his head. “I’m sorry we took up your precious time with this.”

Making her way towards the newly-replaced throne room doors, Celestia called back over her shoulder. “It was no trouble at all, Researcher Star. Just make sure to not let it consume your work again. We need to help one another, even more so now, after the events that transpired here.” She turned her head back around, but not before catching a snippet of the pair’s hushed conversation.

“So, shall we get going then?” Shooting Star asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah… sure,” Lyra replied. “Actually, tell you what. Let’s go get a pizza… and then get to work. No sense dealing with humans on an empty stomach.”

“C-can… can we get one from the pizza place on Saddle Drive?”

“Well, duh! Where else are we going to get decent pizza in this town?”

A smile on her lips, Celestia exited the throne room, allowing the doors to close quietly behind her. The four Royal Guards positioned on either side of the entryway quickly fell in step behind her as she made her way down the hall. There were still some clear signs of spellfire upon the walls and floors, but the cleaning staff had done a remarkable job thus far, and the halls of the palace were beginning to look like new once more. There were certain parts of the castle—mainly the ones Discord had demolished in an attempt to get to Twilight and her friends—that would take longer to repair, but all in all, Canterlot Castle was slowly returning to normal.

Turning the corner of the hall, Celestia blinked in surprise as she almost bumped face first into Luna, who was headed the other direction. Both sisters backpedaled, their wings flaring slightly, causing Luna to nearly drop the folders she had under one until she caught them in her magic. Their guards just eyed each other, the four Royal Guards studying the four Lunar Guards with muted wariness. While it might have been only the Battlemages affected by the ex-Archmage’s mind control, the events were still enough to cause some tension between factions in the Guard.

“Sister,” Luna said softly, blinking up at Celestia. “Forgive us. We didn’t hear your approach.” Adjusting the folders, she placed them back under her wing.

Celestia shook her head. “No, it’s my fault, Lulu. My mind was elsewhere and I didn’t hear you coming.”

“Ah…” Luna nodded her head. “Fretting over your trip to Ponyville, are you?”

“I’m not fretting,” Celestia said. “Just wondering how they will take the news.”

“The same way they’ve always taken it,” Luna said with a small smile. “With compassion, excitement, and perhaps a party to celebrate, should Pinkie have her way.”

“Perhaps,” Celestia said with a sigh. “I just hope I’m not doing more harm than good. As of late, I seem to only be able to make the situation worse when it comes to anything that concerns Max.”

Luna smirked. “Well, considering the events that have transpired here these past few days, I think the cat’s already out of the bag. Ponyville will find out now sooner or later. Might as well be sooner, don’t you think?”

“I suppose,” Celestia said, humming softly. She stared off into the distance for a moment before glancing down at her sister. “Are you off to your task as well?”

“Yes, we are,” Luna sighed tiredly. “Tempest won’t get off our back until it’s taken care of.”

“Well, in that regard I wish you luck, dear sister,” Celestia said, leaning down to give Luna a quick nuzzle, which was returned. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be off. I would like to get to Ponyville before it gets much later.”

“Have fun, dear sister,” Luna replied, “and please, try not to spend too much time eating cakes and drinking tea.”

“I don’t partake that much,” Celestia said as she headed off down the hall, her guards following loyally behind.

“Of course not,” Luna huffed under her breath. “You just have the biggest flank in Equestria for some other reason.” Shaking her head—but smiling all the same—she turned and headed off in the other direction.

Moving through the halls, Luna made her way down towards the barrack offices. They were all empty—doors open wide—save for one at the far end of the hall. It was towards this one that Princess Luna headed.

Stopping in front of the closed door, she glanced at her entourage. “Please, wait here. We won’t be long.” With that, she opened the door and stepped inside, making sure to close the door again behind her.

The room was bare, save for a table in the middle, beneath a flickering light. Three ponies were seated on the far side of the table, away from the door, and they glanced up when Luna entered.

Avera, Ebony, and Primrose were all covered in varying degrees of bandages. Avera had the least, a few bandages covering her body, with her wing bandaged and taped to her side. Ebony was in a similar state, though she had a few more bandages across her face and neck.

Primrose was clearly in the worst shape, her chest swathed in a thick layer of bandages. She had an IV stand with her, a collection of blood packs and IV bags running down to her forelegs and neck. There were dark bags under her eyes, and her breathing was labored.

They all moved to stand as Luna walked in, but she waved them down with a wing. “Please, there is no need.” Taking a seat in the empty chair across from the trio, she removed the folders from beneath her wing and placed them down upon the table’s surface. A tense silence fell over the room, broken only by the sound of shuffling papers as Luna began slowly leafing through the folders’ contents.

After a few minutes of this, the tension appeared to become too much for Avera, an errant twitch crossing her features. “Oh, get on with it,” she grunted. “Don’t drag this out. We all know what’s going on.”

Luna blinked before glancing up from the paperwork. She gave the trio an unreadable look before sighing. “Very well then.” Sitting back in her chair, her expression took on a cold, calculating appearance.

“First Lieutenant Avera Noctus of the Coming Dawn,” she said slowly. “Major Ebony Rose of the Battlemages. Primrose, Captain of the Lunar Guard. You are all here today to answer for the allegations brought against you by Captain Tempest Barrage. They are as follows.” Lighting up her horn, she lifted several pieces of paper into her magic and began to read off of them. “Inability to protect your charge from attack during your first day on the job.” Before any of the trio could respond, Luna placed the paper off to the side.

“That charge is being overlooked, as you didn’t have proper time to prepare or become familiar with your charge and the surrounding area,” she said.

The trio blinked owlishly at her as she moved on to the next paper.

“Next is the charge pertaining to the events at the Gala,” Luna continued, “in which you all left your charge unattended, resulting in his near kidnapping by Prince Blueblood. However, given the circumstances as well as a request from Duchess Vinyl Scratch—an ex-Captain—that too is being overlooked.”

The trio exchanged looks with each other, a sliver of hope beginning to blossom. However, it was quickly dashed by Luna’s next words.

“Then there is the incident with the infected human,” Luna said, holding up the paper in question. “You not only left your charge unattended, it resulted in him getting bitten by an infected human. The only reason he is still alive is due to his higher core body temperature.”

“He had been with Rainbow and Pinkie,” Avera muttered under her breath.

Luna cocked an eyebrow. “Are they trained guards?” When Avera shook her head, she continued. “Then they are not substitutes. One of you should have gone with him, regardless of who else was with him.

“Regardless, that’s not the end of Tempest’s list. She also has noted that you allowed your charge to illegally enter a human show, allowed him to enter the Everfree Forest mere days after being attacked by an infected human, as well as a few other infractions that we personally believe she included for pettiness’ sake,” Luna mumbled, giving the papers a bemused look. “That includes your behavior… however, the Lunar Guard tends to be a little more relaxed than their Solar counterpart, so we guess we can overlook that as well.”

“So, are… are we getting out of this?” Avera asked, somewhat hopeful.

Luna peered up at her from over the top of the papers.

“Were it just one of these charges on its own, that’d be more than likely,” she said. “However, with all of them combined, plus the charge of accepting a bribe from a civilian, I’m afraid not.” Placing the papers back on the table, she gave them all a hard look. “With all these charges against you three, I’m afraid that punishment is in order. Originally, Tempest wanted me to court martial you all—” Ebony and Avera flinched “—however, given your service record and the help you provided during the attack on Canterlot a few days ago, your punishment will be more lenient.”

“A-and what might that punishment be?” Ebony asked, her voice cracking slightly.

“You are all hereby relieved of active duty and shall be receiving an Other Than Honorable discharge,” Luna said cooly. “You will still receive your benefits, but you will not be allowed to reenlist in any military position within your respective branches.”

This was met with silence for a moment before Avera slammed her hoof on the table. “Great,” she growled. “All those years of service, wasted. Just bucking great.”

Ebony stared at a spot on the table in front of her, her expression blank.

The only one that didn’t look too put-off by the news was Primrose, who bore a look of indifference.

“It was time to move on, anyways,” she rasped.

“Maybe for you,” Avera growled, “but I was hoping to have a steady job for a little while longer. In case you don’t remember, I was a thief before becoming a guard. I don’t exactly have experience in any other field.”

“Then put the experience you have to work,” Luna said as she stood up from the table. Reassembling the folders’ contents, she slipped them back under her wing before glancing at the trio again. “I can think of a certain noble that might be interested in hiring a group of bodyguards. You might want to look into that.”

“That… might work,” Primrose muttered.

Ebony continued to stare forlornly at the table.

“A noble?” Avera scoffed, cocking an eyebrow. “Why would a noble want to hire a group of discharged guards? How do we even know she’ll hire us?”

“You won’t know unless you ask him,” Luna said as she moved to the door.

Avera opened her mouth again, only to be cut off as Primrose shoved a hoof against her muzzle. Breathing heavily, she shook her head before glancing back to Luna. “And where… can we find this... noble?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Luna said with a smirk. Opening the door, she began to exit the room, but not before calling back as she did so. “Just report to the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville. I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to see you all again.” Giggling at the shocked looks on the trio’s faces, Luna stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind her.

Turning around, she paused upon seeing Tempest standing there, a scowl on her face.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she grumbled.

“As we recall, you left the decision up to us,” Luna replied, “and as such, we have taken care of it.”

“They need to be punished.”

“And they have been. As we’ve seen fit.”

“But—”

“Good day, Captain.” With that, Luna turned and walked off down the hall, her guards shadowing behind her, and leaving Tempest alone.

As she walked, Luna mumbled softly to herself. “We’ll have to remember to talk to Whippoorwill about promoting a new Captain. We’re thinking… Lieutenant Dark Knight might be suitable.”

“Um, excuse me, Princess,” one of the guards spoke up, “but Lieutenant Dark Knight and Tempest don’t really see… eye-to-eye, as it were. They’d be constantly butting heads about decisions in the Guard.”

“We know,” Luna answered without turning her head or slowing her pace. “It’s about time that Captain Tempest is reminded that she is the captain of the Solar Guards, not the Lunar ones.” She was silent for a moment before adding, “We’ll also have to have Whippoorwill remind Tia to promote Sergeant Stacker, now that Avera has been dismissed and Ivory is deceased.” With a sigh, she shook her head. “Too many promotions for unfortunate reasons.”

The group slowly made their way back down the corridors, heading back towards the main part of the castle. They passed several groups of maids, who were working hard at cleaning the remnants of the fight. Several humans were helping with the heavy lifting. There was a slight tension in the air, but for the most part, the ponies’ gazes were more curious than anything as they eyed the humans. Word was getting around now about the humans’ intellect, and the news was being met with generally one of two responses. Acceptance and wonderment, or pigheaded refusal to entertain the idea that humans were anything but mindless animals.

Unfortunately, most of the nobles were in the latter category, but there were a few exceptions, such as Fancy Pants and his supporters. It had been an uphill battle trying to get the nobility to agree on new laws concerning humanity, and one unfortunate alicorn had drawn the short straw when it came to that task.

Speaking of which…

Luna’s ears perked as the sound of raised voices reached her from around the next corner. Hearing it as well, her guards tensed, readying themselves. She waved them down with a wing before venturing out to see what was going on.

Outside the doors to one of the assembly rooms, a group of ponies were gathered. Several members of the SAS were standing guard, watching the events transpiring before them with stoic expressions, although Luna could see twitches of annoyance flicker across their faces. A Royal Healer was present as well, her eyes hidden behind the signature blindfold mask that was a part of her uniform.

And in the center of the group, Twilight Sparkle was in the process of chewing out a noble, who looked as if her words were going in one ear and out the other.

“...for the last time, the Crown will be paying to repair all damages, but it will not be spending money on improvements to your home,” Twilight growled. “If you want a third pool added to your property, you’ll be paying for it yourself!” The noble opened her mouth to offer a rebuttal, but was stopped when Twilight continued. “And should you continue to press this matter, I shall have no choice but to have you detained until further notice!”

Glaring at Twilight, the noble then huffed before turning and stalking off, her nose held high in the air.

Muttering under her breath, Twilight sat down and rubbed at her temples. “Unbelievable.” Strands of her mane stuck out in odd directions, and she had dark bags under her eyes.

“Having fun?” Luna asked with a smirk as she approached.

Ears perking, Twilight glanced around. “Oh… hi, Luna. I didn’t know you were still awake. And to answer your question, no, I’m not having fun.” Sighing, she struggled to her hooves again, her splinted hind leg giving her some difficulty. “How Princess Celestia has dealt with this for so long without going crazy, I don’t know. I’m trying to work out laws and policies that will help everypony adapt to the integration of Equestrian humans into our society, but the only thing the nobility wants to do is find ways to profit. There’s nothing noble about them,” she added in a growl.

“Yes, it’s sad to see the state that Tia allowed the noble houses to fall into in my absence,” Luna said. “It used to be that a pony was only granted titles and lands for great deeds they performed for the Crown and country. Now, it’s a bloodline trait, with nopony earning their title anymore. It’s passed on, much like one might pass on a sweater or family heirloom.”

“More like a pair of dirty socks,” Twilight grumbled. “It didn’t help matters that I couldn’t find a good position for my leg while sitting. It’s been bugging me all day. Tomorrow, I’m probably going to just say ‘screw it’ and bring a cushion in to lie on.”

“And if any of the nobles complain about decorum?” Luna asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Then I’ll offer to break one of their legs, and then they can deal with it as well!” Twilight snapped. “I’m trying to keep a cool head, Luna, but these ponies… they’re just so… so… pretentious, it’s not even funny!” Gritting her teeth, Twilight closed her eyes and, taking a deep breath, began her breathing exercise.

“I’ve had more success working with Pinkie Pie on an issue,” she muttered.

“There’s no need to lie for our benefit,” Luna said good-humoredly.

“I’m not lying,” Twilight grumbled before returning to her breathing.

Luna watched her repeat the action several times before the approach of the Royal Healer drew her attention away. She glanced down at the unicorn, unsure of where she should focus her gaze, as the mare’s eyes were hidden behind the ornamental blindfold mask. Why Celestia had made that part of the Healers’ standard uniform, she didn’t know.

“Your majesty,” the Healer said, her voice soft. “Based off of what I’m sensing, I would like to request that Princess Sparkle’s duties be delegated to something less stressful. I’m concerned for her mental and physical well being.”

“No, no… I can handle it,” Twilight said. “I… I just need to take a breather. My leg’s a little stiff, but nothing I can’t handle. I’m fine, really.”

“With all due respect, your highness,” the Healer said, turning her head in Twilight’s general direction, “this level of stress isn’t good for you mentally or physically. You are exhausted, your body is not able to focus on healing itself, and when was the last time you ate?”

Twilight puffed out her cheeks, but looked away.

“As I suspected,” the Healer sighed. “This environment isn’t a good place for healing. And that’s not even considering what ramifications it’ll have on your foal, so I really must insist.”

A stunned silence fell over the hallway at the Healer’s words. Several of the members of the SAS—those who were closest to Night Light—stiffened, their eyes widening. Both Twilight and Luna locked gazes, their mouths hanging agape.

“M-my foal?” Twilight stammered. “But… I-I don’t have a foal!”

“Not yet, but you are currently in the very early stages of pregnancy,” the Healer said. “The signs are all there. The other Healers and I noticed it after all the excitement, when all the Princesses were being examined. It’s faint, but your body is already starting to redirect some of your natural magic towards your womb. This only happens when a mare’s egg is in the process of fertilization and implantation.”

“B-but,” Twilight muttered, her brow furrowing, “the only male I’ve been with is…” She trailed off and her eyes widened in stunned realization.

“Interesting,” Luna murmured, rubbing her chin with a hoof. Glancing down at the Healer, she inquired. “Shouldn’t it be too early to tell if she is indeed pregnant? Estrus ended only a few days ago, after all. We thought it took longer for the signs to show.”

“Like I said, it’s very faint, but we can still detect it,” the Healer answered. “Her body is preparing itself, channeling magic where it needs to go in order to support life in her womb. Of course, there’s still the chance the egg might not take, but I highly doubt it. Nine times out of ten, when the womb is saturated with the mare’s magic, the pregnancy takes. The greater amount of magic, the greater the chance of success, and given who this particular mare is...” The Healer trailed off and shrugged her shoulders.

“Very interesting,” Luna hummed. She was silent for a moment before corners of her lips began to twitch upwards. “Who will be more excited about this news, we wonder? Tia, Cadance, or your mother? Our money is on Tia.”

“I’m… pregnant?” Twilight mumbled, staring off into the distance. She lifted a hoof and tentatively touched her stomach. “Pregnant?”

“Well, we have seen stranger things happen before, although this is certainly up there,” Luna said softly before turning to the SAS guards assembled around them. “We think it would be for the best that Princess Sparkle lay down for a bit. Would you mind escorting her to the medical ward? It’s where she’s taken up residency, if we recall correctly. At least, until her human can be moved to a private room.”

“Right away, Princess,” one of the guards said with a salute, before nudging Twilight with her hoof. “This way, ma’am. Come with us.” Still in a daze, Twilight did as instructed, following the guard as she lead her down the hallway, towards the medical wing. The other SAS members brought up the rear, escorting their colonel’s daughter to her destination.

Luna watched them go, a conflicted look scrunching up her muzzle. She was silent for a moment before glancing down at one of her guards. “Go and post some more guards around the medical bay. The last thing we need right now is the media catching wind of this before Tia. We’d never hear the end of it.” The mare saluted before hurrying off to do as she was told.

To the remaining three guards, Luna motioned with her wing. “Come. We have one last stop before—” she yawned, her jaw cracking in the process “—we can turn in for the morning… evening… whatever.” Turning, she meandered off down the hall once more.

It took a bit longer to reach their destination this time, as it was in a completely different section of the palace. As such, the guard Luna had dismissed earlier to bolster the medical bay’s watch had managed to catch back up before they arrived.

Stopping in front of the door, Luna knocked three times before pushing it open and entering. Her guards took up position around the door, but none followed her inside.

The room was in disarray, dozens of tables filling the already crowded space. Upon the tabletops were the disassembled remains of the Terran humans’ armor and weapons. An entire three tables were devoted to just the large suit of full armor that had been found, the metal charred and warped by spellfire. A chalkboard beside it had a basic sketch of what appeared to be a diagram of how to assemble the armor.

Luna took a moment to glance around at the chaotic mess before calling out. “If this is a bad time, we can always come back later.” There was a loud squawk, followed by the sound of something metal being dropped before, with a whirring noise, Dr. Mac Griffon wheeled himself out of a side room on his motorized wheelchair.

His appearance was disheveled, with clumps of feathers sticking up in odd directions and black circles beneath his eyes. It was clear he hadn’t slept for awhile, yet he greeted her with a wide smile.

“Ah, Princess… I wasn’t expecting you so soon,” he chirped, readjusting his glasses.

“We managed to finish our other errands in a prompt manner, and thus are here ahead of schedule,” Luna said, stepping further into the room.

“Good, good,” Mac Griffon said with a nod. Clicking his talons on the armrests of his chair, he slowly spun in a circle, his gaze drifting over the sea of scrap. “Truly remarkable what they were able to build, especially given their lack of resources.”

“Please do not take this the wrong way, my dear doctor,” Luna said, “but if you could get to the reason you requested our presence, we’d be most appreciative.” Again she yawned, placing a hoof over her mouth. “Excuse us, but we’d like to wrap this up so that we might soon find the comfort of our bed.”

Mac Griffon blinked before nodding his head again. “Very well. If you’d follow me please.” Turning, he wheeled himself back into the side room he had just emerged from. “They are in here.”

“‘They’?” Curiosity piqued, Luna followed after him.

The side room was smaller than the main one, and filled with half-a-dozen or so filing cabinets. Dozens of papers were stapled to the available wall space, each covered in sketches and scribbles of various designs, most of which looked oddly similar to Max’s odd device.

And there, seated in the middle of the room, Mac Griffon waited. As Luna entered, he pointed upwards with a talon, motioning towards the ceiling.

Luna glanced up, only to do a double-take.

“Well… we were wondering what had happened to them,” she said softly as she eyed the new additions to the ceiling.

A handful of red pods dotted the corners of the room, each one filled with a pony suspended in the glowing goo. Though unconscious, their limbs twitched and jerked weakly, and their eyelids fluttered. Nestled amongst the pods, one of the Doctor’s changelings peered curiously down at Luna. It tilted its head to the side, chirping softly before fluttering down to land in front of her.

“We had thought that they had perhaps escaped the city in the confusion,” Luna hummed, “but it’s clear now that they didn’t.” She eyed the podded forms of Darkflare and his diminished gang for a moment longer before tsking softly. “Well, that’s one less thing we need worry about. We’ll be able to call the guards back from the search.”

“What are you going to do with them? Put them in the dungeons?” Mac Griffon asked, wheeling his way up beside her.

Luna shook her head. “The dungeons were severely damaged in the attack. Many cells have holes in them now, or are missing doors and bars. Neigh, leave them where they are for the time being. This should serve as a good enough prison until other lodgings can be prepared… besides,” she added, glancing down at the changeling at her hooves, “they’ll provide a nice meal for our friends here.” She rubbed the changeling’s head, earning a happy chirrup from it.

“That will work out marvelously,” the griffon chirped. “For whatever reason, these two buggers have been hungrier than usual lately. A steady, stationary source of food will do wonders. Kinda hard to feed when most of the staff is distracted with cleaning and repairing.”

“We shall send two of our Lunar Guard up to keep an eye on them,” Luna said as she made towards the door. “Though they may be in the pods, we don’t want them getting away before they can stand trial. We are sure our sister will want to see to their sentencing personally.”

“Speaking of which,” Mac Griffon called after her. “Where is yon bonnie sister? I had originally sent for her seeing as I was sure you’d be asleep.”

Luna paused in the doorway. “She’s taking care of something that probably should have been done a long time ago.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Standing atop a wooden stage erected outside of the town hall, Celestia couldn’t help but smile as she looked around. It was clear that Ponyville was still recovering from the vines that had nearly consumed the small town. Scaffolding and ladders where everywhere, and many buildings—though the holes had been patched over—were still in need of a fresh coat of paint. Debris and refuse were scattered about in large, organized piles.

What made her smile though were the ponies currently milling about the streets. Despite the hardship they had just faced, the residents of Ponyville were as cheerful as ever. They chatted happily with one another as they worked, laughter and song occasionally breaking out amongst them. Earth ponies moved through the crowd, heavy loads upon their backs and shoulders. Unicorns lifted beams and planks of wood into the air, where pegasi would hammer them securely into place.

Even those that could not work due to age—be it too young or too old—helped out in other ways. The scent of cooking food filled the air as soups, sandwiches, and a variety of other simple foods were prepared and served to those that were fixing buildings. Foals ran through the crowd, dispensing water and other supplies.

Humans were in the mix too, though it appeared that the citizens of Ponyville had yet to hear about their newly-revealed sapiency. Using pulleys and rope, the humans helped lift loads too heavy for the local unicorns.

Celestia’s smile grew even wider when she spied a light purple unicorn foal resting upon a human’s shoulders, a hard hat that was entirely too large covering the filly’s head. From her seat upon the human’s shoulders, she directed him about as they carried baskets filled with freshly baked muffins through the crowds.

The ponies of this town never cease to amaze me, Celestia thought as she continued to watch the activity. They were all working together in such perfect harmony that she didn’t want to break the flow. Sadly though, she needed to. Important matters needed to be addressed, and this was a discussion that was long overdue.

Sighing softly, she moved forward and tapped her hoof against the edge of the platform. It wasn’t loud, but it still somehow managed to catch the attention of almost every pony present. Pausing in their tasks, they slowly began to gather around the platform.

Celestia waited until most of the town had arrived before beginning to speak. “Mares and gentlecolts, I apologize for stealing you away from your tasks, but I have a few things I must discuss with you. I know these past few days have been rough, for both Canterlot and Ponyville. I’ll try and keep this brief so that you may resume returning your fair town to its former glory.” This caused many of the gathered ponies to puff out their chests in pride.

Celestia had to resist the urge to giggle at the sight.

“Many things have been brought to my attention during this conflict,” she continued. “A few of them, in retrospect, I should have seen coming. We should have seen coming.” She paused long enough to glance down at a small group of humans that had gathered near the back of the crowd. “Our way of life is changing. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. That’s for all of us to decide in these coming months.”

The gathered ponies blinked up at her, and a gentle murmur slowly ran through the crowd.

Celestia waited for it to settle down before continuing. “To be honest, a situation like this has never happened within my living memory, and as such I’m not entirely sure how to properly address it. It concerns both us ponies, as well as the strange and mysterious creatures we call ‘humans’.” Many ponies turned to look at the growing pack of humans gathering behind them before returning their attention back to Celestia as she spoke once more.

“You may find what I’m about to say hard to believe at first, but I assure you that every word I speak is true,” she said. For a moment she fell silent, as if gathering her thoughts. “I suppose the best place to start would be the beginning.” Glancing around at the sea of ponies before her, she inquired. “You are all familiar with Princess Twilight’s human, correct?”

Many ponies nodded, and several whispered conversations broke out.

“Well,” Celestia said slowly, and silence fell over the crowd once more, “this story starts about a year ago, on the day I sent him to live with Twilight…”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Seated on the plush sofa, Vinyl Scratch stared out of the large bay windows that took up most of the wall. Through them, she could see the entire Equestrian countryside splayed out before her. There was Ponyville, nestled snugly between the Everfree and White Tail Woods, with Saddle Lake looping lazily around it. To the north, she could see the white clouds and rainbow falls of Cloudsdale, the mobile city hovering high in the sky. And further west—just barely visible deep within White Tail Woods—was the small hamlet of Oakvale.

The sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon, casting a fiery orange blaze across the land. She could feel the sun’s warmth, the dying sunlight bringing forth her inner vampiric glory. Blackened eyes stared wearily across the land as Vinyl drank deeply from a tankard filled with her own special brew of homemade cider.

She remained like that for a few minutes before a soft ‘click’ signaled the front door opening. Ear twitching, Vinyl continued to stare out the window as the door swung open. She didn’t have to turn to see who it was; the scent, the sound, and the presence was enough to inform her who had just entered the house.

Octavia hummed softly as she moved further into the house, each step accentuated by the rustling of items shifting in bags. About halfway across the room she paused, and a soft gasp escaped her lips. “Oh, Vinyl. You surprised me.” She was silent for a moment before asking, “Honey, what’s wrong?”

A frown crossed Vinyl’s face. “Why do you think something’s wrong?”

“You’re up early,” came the simple reply.

“I’m not up that early,” Vinyl said softly before taking another sip from the tankard. Even though she couldn’t see her, she could practically hear Octavia rolling her eyes.

“Vinyl, please. How long have we lived together?”

“Eight years, right?”

“Nine, actually,” Octavia said, “and I can count the number of times I’ve caught you up before the moon on my hooves.”

“That’s not true,” Vinyl pouted.

“Vinyl, dear, my little DJ-HonE,” Octavia tutted softly. “You put the ‘stereo’ in ‘stereotypical’ when it comes to vamponies. If I didn’t know better, I would assume that you’d turn to ash in sunlight with how zealously you avoid it. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

With a soft sigh, Vinyl flopped her head back, turning it slightly to peer back at her marefriend. Octavia was standing in the hallway, a pair of saddlebags filled with groceries across her back. Upon seeing Vinyl looking at her, the gray mare gave her a weak smile. There was no fear in her gaze, despite for the black eyes and long fangs currently adorning Vinyl’s face.

Vinyl stared at her before laughing softly. “It never ceases to amaze me that these eyes never scare you.”

“It’s because I can see the love in them,” Octavia said softly.

Vinyl studied her face for a moment before letting out a sigh. She lifted her head, returning her gaze to the window, and the countryside below.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said softly. “My mind won’t rest.”

“You’re thinking about what happened a few days ago?” Octavia asked, moving around the couch to stand in front of Vinyl again. The setting sun cast a halo around her head as she positioned herself between it and Vinyl.

Vinyl nodded. “That, and some other things.” She paused long enough to drain the rest of her tankard. Smacking her lips, she looked up at Octavia. “I’m tired, Tavia. I’ve lived a long life, longer than most anything alive can claim. But I’m starting to feel worn out… wrung out… like I have no energy left. I’m just so… tired.”

Octavia said nothing, and when Vinyl glanced up, she was startled to see tears in her marefriend’s eyes.

“Are… are you saying you’re tired of living?” she asked in a trembling voice.

“What?” Vinyl yelped, jerking back. “No! I’m not tired of living! Buck no!”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Octavia wiped her eyes with the back of a hoof. “Don’t scare me like that,” she chided. “You sounded, well… like you were done with living.”

“No,” Vinyl repeated. “I’m not tired of life. I’m tired of politics.” Running a hoof through her mane, she took a deep breath. “Most of my life, I’ve lived in the center of the nation’s politics. Be it in Dream Valley, the Everfree, Canterlot, wherever. I’ve kept myself close to the seat of power in order to always be in the know. At first it was fine, but now… now it’s just tiring to deal with the squabbling and the flank kissing.”

“So, what are you thinking?” Octavia asked.

“I’m leaving,” Vinyl said. “I’ve already decided. I can live without having the latest info on everything. The world can manage itself without me for once. I’m leaving Canterlot, and I don’t think I’ll be returning for a while.”

Octavia hummed softly, her head cocking slightly to the side. “Where are you thinking of going? Manehatten? Baltimare?”

“Ponyville,” Vinyl said softly. She gave Octavia an apologetic look. “Sorry about dropping this on you all of a sudden. I know how much you love Canterlot. I’ll come visit on the weekends and holidays, and of course I’ll continue to pay my half of the bills—”

“Nonsense!” Octavia said, waving a hoof about. “There’ll be no need for you to visit me.”

“W-what?” Vinyl blinked up at her. “Why?”

“Because I’m going with you,” Octavia said before turning and heading for the kitchen. “While Canterlot is indeed a beautiful city, you have the right idea, my dear. It’s high time for a change of scenery. One can only take so much of the city life before one begins to feel crowded. The openness of the countryside will be more than welcome. Besides, this will work out for the both of us.”

“Why’s that?” Vinyl asked, giving her a confused look.

Glancing over her shoulder, Octavia smirked. “Because my new future duet partner lives there as well.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hold still, please.” Peering through the ophthalmoscope, the nurse flicked the small light on before staring first into one eye, then the other. She alternated between the two for a moment as a small frown slowly spread across her muzzle. After a moment, she turned off the light and lowered the scope.

“Anything?” she asked softly.

Sunny blinked her eyes a few times before shaking her head. “N-nothing.” Propped up against the headboard of the infirmary bed, she stared blankly ahead. The left side of her face was still bare of fur, though the skin was no longer red or inflamed. Her mane had lost its usual frizziness and instead was now cut short. The corners of her lips and edges of her nostrils were still chapped, leaking a small amount of clear fluid. Overall, most of her injuries looked to be healing admirably.

Then there were her eyes.

Scarred, pink skin surrounded the eye sockets, and what little fur was left was charred and brittle. Her violet eyes, once vibrant and animated, were now dull and lifeless. The whites were now a dull pink, and the pupils shrunken to pinpricks. They barely reacted to any outside influences, only twitching back and forth whenever Sunny attempted to look around.

“Nothing,” Sunny repeated. Blinking, she winced and her sightless eyes darted to the right for a moment before returning to stare straight forward. “Are… are you sure the light was on?”

The nurse stared pityingly at her for a moment before holding up the ophthalmoscope once more and flicking on the light.

There was no reaction.

“Anything?” the nurse asked, despite already knowing the answer.

Sunny was silent for a moment, concentrating hard as she tried to detect any changes. Finally, her ears splayed back. “No… nothing.”

“There’s no change then,” the nurse said, lowering the scope. She ran a hoof through her mane before sighing heavily. “I’m sorry, Ms. Breeze, but it appears that treatment isn’t working. I’m afraid the damage to your eyes is just too severe.”

Sunny swallowed thickly. “So, does that mean I’m…” She trailed off, leaving the question unfinished.

“I’m afraid so,” the nurse said sadly. “Sorry, hon, but at the present, there’s nothing more we can do.” Silence followed her words as Sunny continued to stare blankly forward, her bottom lip trembling slightly.

“I am sorry, Ms. Breeze,” the nurse said, “but I must continue my rounds. The doctor will be by shortly to discuss long term plans with you. Call me if you need anything else.” She placed the call button in Sunny’s lap before moving on to her next patient.

Sunny sat there, numb to the world. She could faintly feel the sun on her fur as it streamed in from a nearby window, but she didn’t register the warmth. The softness of her bedding, the gentle beeping of machinery, and the soft murmur of distant voices—she was aware of all of it, yet they were muted, almost as if in a dream. Only one thing made it through the shocked haze that covered her thoughts.

She was broken.

The greatest physical loss a pegasus could suffer was, without a doubt, their wings. However, sight was a close second. To be unable to see meant that one could not navigate the skies with ease. Which direction were you going in? How far below was the ground? Was there a tree or building or mountain in your way? Without sight, it was nearly impossible for a pegasus to fly again without help.

What would she do? Unable to fly, she could no longer find work as a pegasus. She’d no longer be able to find work at all, actually. What pony in their right mind would want to hire a blind pegasus?

“What am I going to do?” she muttered, tears painfully welling up in the corners of her useless eyes.

“Sounds to me like you should wait for the doctor before deciding that, ma’am.”

Sunny jumped. She had forgotten that Stacker had been present, seated in a chair beside the bed. In the days since she had regained consciousness, he had hardly left her side. He’d talk with her, update her on what was going on in the days after the Canterlot Incident, and tried his best to take her mind off of her injuries.

“But, the nurse said they couldn’t fix my eyes,” Sunny muttered. “What could the doctor possibly do?”

“Come up with a plan to help you recover,” Stacker said. “Offer a list of ponies to help you get used to life again. Assign a caretaker to help you until you’re comfortable living on your own.” He shifted in his chair, causing Sunny’s ears to twitch.

“What am I going to do about a job?”

“The Crown will pay for disability until you find something.”

“But, what about—”

“You’ll be fine, ma’am,” Stacker said kindly. “Sure, things won’t go back to normal, but we won’t up and abandon you. You were injured in service to the Crown, and we look after our own.”

“Where am I going to live?” Sunny sighed as she settled uneasily back on her pillows.

“With me,” Stacker said. “My lodgings are here in Canterlot, so you wouldn’t have to move far. Unless some new threat pops up, the Coming Dawn is getting an extended break, so I’ll have some time to help you get accustomed to your surroundings. That is, if you’d like.”

Sunny stiffened, her sightless eyes widening. She was silent for a moment, and a faint blush spread across her face, easily visible on her bare skin. A smile touched her lips. “I… I’d like that very much.”

Suddenly, the mattress shook slightly as the scarred human crawled out from underneath it. Fighting back a yawn, he proceeded to crawl into bed with Sunny, lifting her up carefully and placing her down in his lap.

As the human worked on getting Sunny situated, Stacker’s smirk grew. “And it looks like we already have a seeing eye human for you.”

Sunny tilted her head, her sightless eyes trying to peer up at the human currently holding her. After a moment of considering, her smile grew as well. “I think… I’ll call you Defender.”

The human chirped happily.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Melodic Wind awoke.

It was a decision that she immediately regretted.

Her every sense was too sensitive. Somepony had done her the courtesy of stuffing cotton firmly in her ears, but even then the noise around her was almost deafening. The beeping of machines, the harsh clip-clop of hooves in the corridor outside, the scritch-scratch of mice somewhere nearby—she could hear it all. The sheer volume of the sounds was enough to make her head spin, and—despite the efforts of a second pair of cotton balls stuffed up her nose—the pungent, sterile scent that was currently filling her nostrils wasn’t helping. She had experienced hangovers more pleasant than this.

Still fighting off the shackles of unconsciousness, Melodic smacked her lips, only to pause at the odd, coppery taste that coated her cheeks. A quick exploration with her tongue led to the discovery of two small tubes located in the corners of her mouth. A slow drizzle of a thick liquid dripped from them every few seconds, providing her with a taste she had become accustomed to over the past few months of her abuse. Unlike before though, she didn’t gag at the odd flavor, but instead swallowed instinctively—almost greedily.

She practically purred as she lapped at the inside of her cheeks, trying to get at as much of the liquid as possible. A sudden prick of pain brought her back though, and she winced as she caught her tongue on a particularly sharp tooth. Tentatively, she nudged the new fang with the tip of her tongue, only to flinch as she poked herself again.

Where did you come from? she mused lethargically. Pondering on this for a few drawn-out seconds, she realized with a start that she was actually thinking normally again. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she didn’t have someone else whispering in her head. No more numbers, no more words, no more orders; all that remained was her own thoughts. Her mind was peaceful and quiet once more. It had been so long since she had her mind to herself; she had almost forgotten how good it felt. Tears welled up in her eyes, only to be quickly absorbed by something.

As the haze over her mind finally lifted, the aches and pains of her body came rushing in to take its place. One of her eyes was still swollen shut, and the side of her face felt bruised and stiff. She had almost no energy left in her body, her muscles having long since atrophied. The air around her felt cold, the warmth of the blankets draped over her a welcome luxury, although the soft material felt odd against her wings. Her new wings.

As if from within a deep well inside her, the memories returned, murky and choppy. The white unicorn, the offer, the promise, the red eyes, and then… the pain. Dear Celestia, for a brief moment it had felt like her entire body had been crushed and lit on fire, but then… silence.

She was free.

The sound of somepony sighing next to her snapped her back to the present. The sigh itself had been soft, but thanks to her new hearing, it had been as though somepony had blown right into her ear. Said ear swiveled about to face the source of the noise, and the feeling of the cotton balls shifting around sent shivers down Melodic’s sides.

There came another sigh—just as painful as the first—before a voice spoke up. It was young, and had a slight lisp to it. “When isth sthissy gonna wake up?”

Melodic’s heart skipped a beat.

“I don’t know, hon,” another voice said softly, this one older and more feminine. The sound of it caused another skip. “It might still be a while. The nurses say that she’s very sick. She needs to rest so she can get better.”

“She’s lucky to be alive, if what they say happened to her is true,” said a third voice, deep yet soothing. More tears sprung to Melodic’s closed eyes.

“But… but she isth gonna wake up, right?”

“The nurses seem to think so,” came the reply from the female, though it sounded as if the speaker was fighting back tears. There was a quiet swallow, although she heard it plain as day. “Remember, honey. She’s been through a lot. She might be a little different if…. when she wakes up.”

“Doesn't matter,” the young voice pouted. “She'sth still my sthissy.”

Despite her groggy state, Melodic was still able to recognize the speakers, especially the younger one. The annoying nickname he called her, the lisp that came from his two missing front teeth. There was only one pony in Equestria that could be, and the realization was enough to bring more tears to her eyes.

She had to see him.

With great difficulty, Melodic cracked her unswollen eye open. At some point, somepony had wrapped a white cloth around her head, covering her eyes. It was just thin enough that she could still observe her surroundings, though everything appeared as though it was in a muted white fog. However, the material was thick enough that it stopped the light from hurting her eye too much, something that she was grateful for.

It took her eye a second to adjust, and even then everything was blurred. Lifting her head slightly, she caught sight of three white-ish blobs gathered around the edge of her bed, splashes of yellow and red accenting them. One was smaller than the others, and was actually seated at the foot of the bed.

As she watched, the smaller blob squirmed slightly before whining out, “I’m booored!”

One of the other blobs shifted, almost as if to chastise the smaller blob, but Melodic beat them to it.

“You’re always bored, booger breath,” she rasped, her voice little more than a wheeze.

All three of the blobs stiffened, one of the larger ones let out a soft gasp before the smallest one suddenly barreled into her with a cry of “Sthissy!” The other two blobs quickly followed suit with cries of their own, clinging to her as they cried. Melodic cried with them, her blindfold quickly taking on a crimson tint as her tears soaked into the fabric. She clung to her little brother, refusing to let go even when a couple of healers arrived to see what all the fuss was about.

She continued to cling to her little brother, even after the healers had left. A pair of Night Guards arrived a little while later, their eyes glowing red. They took her parents off to the side where they talked quietly with them.

Even as unconsciousness began to claim Melodic again and she slowly drifted off to sleep, she clung to her brother, and for once, after so long, she was happy.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Making her way down the hall, a lone Healer sighed softly to herself as she went. It had been a long week for her and her sisters, but things were beginning to wind down now. They had been overwhelmed at first by the sheer number of injured ponies flooding into the medical wing. It had taken them some time, but now most of the ponies that they were tending to were in stable condition.

While some were still bedridden due to their injuries, plenty were well enough to be released. This not only freed up a lot of bed space—as the medical ward was now spread throughout half a dozen different rooms at least—but it also meant the Healers had less patients to look after, so they could focus their attention on those few cases that were much more severe.

In fact, it was to one of these severe cases that she was now currently headed.

Rounding a corner in the hall, she slowed to a halt outside of one of the rooms the Healers had commandeered. Her horn lit up, and the door swung open, allowing her entrance. The room had once been an office of some kind, but all the desks and shelves had been removed. White sheets were pinned over the windows. They allowed in some of the sunlight from outside, but kept it at a soft, comfortable level as to allow those inside to rest easily.

Medical beds ran around the circumference of the room, their equipment set up beside them, ready for use. Several of the beds stood ready, their sheets cleaned and pressed, although many of them had been stripped bare, their occupants having already been released. Only two beds still remained occupied.

She made her way over to the closest of the two, the muted sunlight glinting off of her ornamental blindfold mask. It contained a unicorn mare with a light gray coat and white mane. An abnormal amount of medical equipment surrounded her, tubes and wires covering her stomach and upper body. Tape with glowing runes surrounded a hole in her chest. Bits of stone still clung to parts of her body, shifting and grinding against one another as she breathed weakly.

Stopping beside the bed, the Healer checked the mare’s vitals with a quick spell from her horn.

“Still stable,” she said softly. “Condition is improving, yet she is still weak.” She paused, her horn glowing brighter for a moment before fading. “Wound has closed by one centimeter. Flesh around the wound appears healthy. No infections, no decaying. All is going well.”

Lifting the clipboard located at the foot of the bed, the Healer made several notes on it, writing elegantly despite her blindfold mask. She checked the machines as well, marking down a few more notes before returning the clipboard to its original place. Beneath her mask, her muzzle crinkled slightly as she gave the mare one last look over before turning her attention to the only other patient in the room.

His breathing was strained slightly, but that was to be expected, given his bruised ribs. A plethora of bandages covered his form, and a custom-made cast adorned his right leg. Unlike his roommate, he only had one attachment: an IV that ran down to his right forearm.

As the Healer approached, she picked up his clipboard and began flipping through it. There was a few new notes from the previous Healer, but no there were no changes in his overall condition. Pushing more magic through her horn, she moved to scan the patient.

Before she could, his eyes snapped open.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I wasn’t entirely sure when I woke up.

There was no real defining point, no slow transition between unconsciousness and wakefulness. I was not eased into the waking world slowly—grudgingly—like usual. There was no struggling to return to the dream realm, no fighting off the inevitable pull of consciousness. There wasn’t even a sudden shock, like when one was awakened by an alarm clock.

None of that happened.

One moment I wasn’t there…

...the next, I was.

My return to consciousness might have been sudden, but my memories did not follow suit. A cloud hung over my mind, muddling my thoughts. I could recall everything up to Discord and being blasted by the Elements, but after that… it was confusing. It was like trying to recall a dream that, even as you tried to remember it, it slipped through your grasp. Certain parts and pieces stood out perfectly, while the majority was just a haze of colors, sounds, and feelings.

I lay there, staring up at the strange ceiling as my memories swirled about inside my head. Discord, Riddick, Havok, the Asylum… there was something else too, but it was elusive. Every time I tried to recall it, the memories darted away, almost as if they did not wish to be remembered. All I could truly remember about the events after I escaped the Asylum was a massive tree… yet it wasn’t exactly a tree either.

Why did thinking about it make my head hurt?

I puzzled about it for a few more moments, until it felt like I had most of my memories sorted out as best as I could manage.

Then, I sat up.

The first thing I noticed upon moving was that I wasn’t as stiff as I thought I’d be. Sure, my limbs felt sluggish, but there wasn’t any of the normal ‘pop’s or ‘snap’s that usually accompanied my movements after sleeping for a while.

The second thing I noticed—more from the startled squawk she let out than anything else—was a pony that was currently standing beside my bed. She had on a strange metal mask that covered her eyes and the top half of her muzzle. Weird designs were etched into the silver material, and her horn poked out of a hole located in the top of the mask.

Ignoring the weird mare as she attempted to get me to lie back down, I threw back the blankets. I started to swing my legs out of bed, only to pause upon seeing the cast around my right leg.

“Where did you come from?” I muttered, my brow furrowing as I stared down at the cast. Eyeing it for a few more seconds, I shrugged before lowering the cast-covered foot to the floor. Tentatively, I put some weight on it, only to wince. While not excruciating, it was still painful to stand on the leg without some support. A quick glance around and I grabbed an nearby IV stand, using it as a makeshift staff.

I took a few experimental steps, testing out my mobility. While not exactly idle, I could move about with minimal discomfort. It’d do for now.

The mare had dashed in front of me and was now frantically trying to get me back in the bed. I pushed her aside and headed for the door.

There was someone I had to find.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Twilight Sparkle! You are looking much better, my friend!”

Twilight paused in the middle of the hallway, a blush touching her cheeks. Her wings fluttering, she turned to see both Princess Celestia and Luna making their way down the corridor towards her, a trio of guards in golden armor following behind them. The sunlight streaming through the windows that lined the hall glinted off the sisters’ regalia, and their coats shone brightly.

“Thank you, Luna,” she said with a weak laugh. “I guess I was more overworked than I thought.” She ran a hoof through her mane, and while not as pristine as the royal sisters’ appeared, it was certainly better than the rat’s nest it had been earlier in the week. “I just needed a few days to relax. I should be able to return to my duties this afternoon.”

Luna nodded while not-so-subtly elbowing her sister in the side.

Celestia had the decency to blush.

“That won’t be necessary, my faithful student,” she said softly, “and I must apologize to you. I was so wrapped up in trying to put the pieces of Canterlot back together again, that I hadn’t even considered the strain that had already been placed upon you. I shouldn’t have had you dealing with the nobles by yourself.”

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but Luna beat her to it.

“And?” Luna asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“And... I should have given you more time to relax and recover, especially after everything that’s happened to you,” Celestia added with a sheepish grin. “While it is true that my sister and I were affected by the events as well, we had needed only to rest until our magic returned. You suffered much more physical and mental wounds than that, yet were performing so admirably that it hadn’t even crossed my mind. That is no excuse, though.”

Luna closed her eyes and stuck her nose in the air. “And as such?”

Celestia cuffed the back of her sister’s head playfully. “And as such, we shall be taking on the responsibilities that were tasked to you. Your only concern now is your health and wellbeing, which I don’t think you’ll be able to find here in Canterlot. Besides, I’m sure your friends in Ponyville are anxious to see you.”

“You’re sending me back to Ponyville?” Twilight asked, blinking owlishly.

“Yes, we are,” Luna said. “While not an order, we both believe you will be happier there. You are welcome to stay in Canterlot if you’d like, but you’ll have no more royal duties, so it might be a bit boring.”

Twilight fidgeted slightly. “While I was wondering when I could go back… what about Max? I can’t just leave him here.”

“He will be transferred to the hospital in Ponyville,” Celestia said. “He is in stable condition, and according to our Healers, there’s nothing left to do but wait for him to wake up.”

“I don’t know…” Twilight mumbled, nibbling on her lip.

“You don’t have to decide right away,” Luna hummed. “Come, let us head to the dining hall. We believe it is almost time for lunch, is it not?”

Celestia nodded her head. “It is indeed, and I believe the cooks have prepared a delicious pasta salad for us. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Glancing down at Twilight, she motioned with her head. “Would you like to accompany us?”

“Wha…?” Twilight wha’d, blinking up at Celestia. “Oh, um… I was actually headed to the library to pick up a new—” She was going to say ‘book’, but her stomach took that moment to growl loudly in an attempt to remind the mare she had forgotten breakfast.

A large blush spread across her face, and she laughed weakly. “I suppose I could do with some food.”

“Splendid!” Luna chirped. Unfurling her wings, she draped them over both Celestia and Twilight before stirring them down the hallway, towards the dining room. The guards had to hurry to keep up. “Make haste, fellow princesses! We must get there before all the pasta is gone!”

“B-but I thought the cooks always made our meals separate from everypony else’s?” Twilight asked, trying to keep her hooves beneath her even as Luna all but pushed her down the hall.

“They do,” Celestia sighed good-humoredly.

“Oh.” Twilight paused. “Then what is the hurry?”

“What’s the hurry?!” Luna yelped. “Twilight Sparkle! Everypony knows that the best way to heal the body is to stuff the stomach! Besides, a mare in your condition should not be skipping meals! You need as much sustenance as possible!”

Celestia—who had up until then been going along for the ride with a look of mild humor on her face—perked up at that. “Oh? ‘A mare in her condition’? I hadn’t realized her leg was bothering her still. Why didn’t you tell me, Twilight?”

Luna’s head swiveled around and her gaze bore into Twilight with eagle-like intensity which caused the younger mare to ‘eep’. “You haven’t told her yet?”

“Told me what?” Celestia asked, glancing at Luna.

“Heh… it might have… slipped my mind?” Twilight offered weakly.

Celestia glanced at Twilight. “What slipped your mind?”

“It slipped your mind,” Luna deadpanned.

“I was going to tell her!” Twilight defended. “There just hasn’t been a good time for it yet!”

“Not this again!” Luna huffed. “We are not dragging this out like you dragged out telling your mate how you felt!”

Twilight gave her an affronted look. “I wasn’t planning on doing that! I just haven’t gotten around to telling her yet!”

Luna began to speak, but fell silent when a white wingtip touched her lips. The same happened to Twilight. The group stopped moving, and Celestia stepped in front of them. This allowed the guards to finally catch up.

“Now then,” Celestia said softly. “No more back and forth. What were you going to tell me, Twilight?”

Blinking, Twilight opened her mouth before pausing. She glanced at Luna, who just shrugged, before returning her gaze to Celestia. Licking her lips, Twilight began, “Princess Celestia. I’m not sure how, but I’m pre—”

CLANG

A loud clatter noise made all three princesses jump and the guards spring to attention. It continued, something clank-clank-clanking down the hall towards them. Turning, they peered down the hallway in the direction the noise was coming from. The guards moved around them, taking up position in front of the alicorns. Horns began to glow, but the magic fizzled out when the source of the disturbance rounded the far end of the corridor and came into view.

“Max!” Twilight cried out.

Celestia and Luna blinked. “What the…?”

Down the hallway, the human came, clutching an IV stand as though it were a staff. With each limping step he took, the base clacked against the marble floors. Several of his bandages had come loose, and his breathing was labored, each breath seeming to cause him some level of discomfort. Still, he pressed on, his gaze fixed on the alicorns further down the corridor.

“He’s awake?” Luna asked dumbly.

“Oh dear,” Celestia mumbled as the human stumbled slightly. “He really shouldn’t be up and about just yet.” As she spoke, a Healer came dashing around the corner after the human.

“Princesses! I’m so sorry!” the mare called out. “I tried to get him back into bed, but he wouldn’t listen!”

“It could be he didn’t understand,” Celestia said. “Did you try hoof language?”

The mare nodded even as she hurried to catch up to the human. “Yes, but he won’t listen!”

“We best take care of this quickly, before he hurts himself… again,” Luna said softly. The group moved forward—Twilight taking the lead—heading to intercept the wayward human. Before the Healer or the Princesses could reach him though, there came another clatter from an adjacent hallway and three ponies sprung out.

Two of the ponies—guards with emblems signifying lower rank on their armor—seized the human and dragged him to his knees. The third pony—a noble unicorn with white fur and red mane—lunged up and, none too gently, grabbed the human’s head and shoved a thermometer into his ear. A few seconds later, it beeped and the stallion held it up triumphantly. “Ah-ha! Just as I suspected!”

“Silver Stream,” Twilight growled, her eyes narrowing. She quickened her pace.

Ignorant of the approaching ponies behind him, Silver waved the thermometer around, a sneer on his face. “I knew it! This human is one of those freaks that attacked Canterlot! Hiding under the princesses’ very noses! No longer, though!”

As Silver gloated, one of the guards holding down the struggling human glanced over his shoulder. His eyes widened upon seeing the approaching princesses. His partner, confused at the reaction, peered around as well.

Silver remained oblivious.

“You can’t hide any longer, freak,” Silver sneered. “Once I expose you and you are dealt with properly, the princesses will thank me for my service. I might not know what your plans were concerning Twilight Sparkle, but she’ll no doubt thank me for exposing… and where do you think you two are going?” This last part was directed at the two guards, who had released the human and were currently backing away.

“Um, sir?” one of them said nervously, nodding pointedly down the hall.

Still hanging off the human, Silver turned around. Upon seeing the approaching alicorns, all of whom had various looks of displeasure on their faces, his face paled, which was rather impressive, seeing as his coat was already pristine white. “P-prince—ack!” He was lifted off his hooves when the human suddenly stood up again, using the IV stand to support himself.

Silver flailed about until a hand grabbed his throat. It pulled him off the human’s shoulders, and he found himself eye to eye with an annoyed looking human. “N-now, see here you—urk!” The hand tightened around his throat.

Still glaring at him, the human growled softly. “Get your fucking hooves off me, you damn dirty pony.”

Twilight almost tripped over her own hooves. He… he spoke! And I could understand him!

Giving Silver one last shake, Max then dropped him. He bounced roughly upon the hard marble, collapsing into a pile off to the side.

Luna eyed him with barely concealed contempt as she drew near. “Lieutenant,” she said, calling to one of the three guards accompanying her, “kindly take this one to the holding cells. My sister and I will deal with him later.”

“What about these two, ma’am?” the lieutenant asked as she motioned towards the two nervous-looking guards.

“We’re assuming that he told you that it was urgent you did as he said?” Luna asked cocking an eyebrow. “At least, we hope that he tricked you into following him, and you didn’t, say… accept any bribes.”

“He, uh… s-said the lives of one or more of the princesses were in danger, ma’am,” one of the guards replied shakily.

Luna eyed the pair critically. “Very well,” she said slowly. “Off with the both of you.”

Nodding, the two guards scampered off down the hall.

“That was certainly interesting,” Luna said as she watched them going. Turning, she joined Celestia and Twilight as they finally reached Max. The Healer was inspecting the human, her horn glowing as she scanned his leg. She breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering that his wounds hadn’t worsened.

“And what, pray tell, are you doing out of bed?” Luna asked.

“I can think of a reason,” Celestia said slyly, glancing down at Twilight, who was staring up at the human in a mixture of delight and worry. She moved forward, wings spread, when he stepped forward, obviously waiting for a hug… that never came.

All parties blinked as the human sidestepped around Twilight, completely ignoring the ‘hug pls’ look she was giving him, and moved to stand in front of Celestia instead. He stared into her eyes, his face expressionless.

Celestia returned the gaze, an unsure look crossing her face.

“Max?” Twilight asked softly, her face a mask of confusion.

Luna just watched on, bemused.

Their looks of curiosity and uncertainty quickly turned to shock and alarm when Max suddenly reached up and slapped Celestia full on in the face.

Interlude: Sunbutt, part 5 ☼

A/N: A continuation of Interlude: Sunbutt, part 4.

~ Sunbutt ~

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Side Story: Part Five: Closets and Rainbows and Awkwardness, Oh My! < < ~ ~ ~ ~

This was getting ridiculous.

I raced down the hall, my bare feet pounding against the marble floor. It hurt to run, and the only benefit I gained from not having my sandals on was the fact I could take corners without slipping and sliding. My lungs burned as I gasped for breath and a painful stitch had formed in my side, but I didn't slow my pace.

Behind me, the horde of humans drew closer.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Rounding the corner, I had to spin quickly to avoid colliding with a maid who was walking in the opposite direction. She yelped and jumped against the wall just in time to not be trampled underfoot as the other humans stampeded by. I would have called back an apology, but I didn't have the breath left to do so.

Got to find a place to hide. Got to find a place to hide! My eyes flicked back and forth, frantically searching for some means of escape. Every window I passed looked more and more enticing as my desperation grew. Sure, it would be equivalent to jumping out of a third story window, but I would rather deal with the bruises, broken bones, and the scolding Twilight would inevitably give me than have to face whatever horrors would happen if all those horny male humans caught up to me.

My saving grace came as I rounded another corner and saw a second-story balcony looking down upon the hallway, with two pillars positioned on either side. Pausing long enough to tear down a banner depicting Luna's cutie mark, I wrapped it around the right pillar and began to shimmy up it Mulan-style. Upon reaching the top, I wasted no time in pushing off the pillar and making a grab for the lip of the balcony's handrail.

I barely managed to grab it with the tips of my fingers.

Grunting in pain, I struggled to pull myself up, over the railing. It took a few tries, and when I finally managed, I promptly collapsed upon the floor of the balcony. "Oh, thank god!" Trying to catch my breath, I was interrupted by the sounds of grunting and groaning coming from below.

With trepidation, I rolled over and peered between the gaps in the railing. "Oh... come the fuck on!"

The male humans were scaling the pillar as well, albeit slower than I had. Unable to replicate the same feat I had managed, they were instead clawing their way up slowly yet steadily.

Growling to myself, I staggered to my feet and began running again just as the first of the humans was pulling himself over the railing. I didn't have to go far though, as when I sped around another corner, I spied a broom closet off to the side.

Ripping the door open, I tumbled inside and closed the door as quietly as I could just as the first human was rounding the bend. I held my breath, my ear pressed up against the door, listening as the horde raced by. Several of them bumped into the door, causing me to wince as it bounced against my head. Still, none of them thought to check the closet, and a moment later, there was nothing but silence outside.

I waited a few more seconds before exhaling loudly. "Oh, thank god." Slumping against the door, I turned around...

...only to have to choke back a scream as I came face to face with a stallion. The closet was so small that we were practically nose to nose. The only reason I could think of that I didn't notice him before was the fact I was attempting to avoid the monstrous sausage party outside.

Raising my fist, I was just about to punch this unknown pony and run, when he gave me a weak smile. "Heh... um, hi?" The raspy voice—while male—combined with the locks of rainbow mane that fell in front of his face caused something to click in my head.

I squinted, peering at him closer. "Rainbow?"

He blinked once before his gaze moved to the scar on my face. "Max?"

We were both silent for a moment before it clicked for both of us. "Luna!"

"She's going to pay for this," I growled under my breath.

"Oh yeah," Rainbow grunted, shifting on his back hooves slightly. His chest brushed against mine. "We're going to get her back so good for this. I haven't been able to leave this closet all day because of this!" He paused and cocked his head to the side, blinking. "Wait... why are you hiding?"

"A bunch of male humans wanted to have some fun with me," I grumbled, which caused his eyes to widen and a blush to touch his cheeks. "Hopefully it wears off soon." What he said finally register with me, and I gave him a curious look. "Wait, why can't you leave this closet?"

He winced and glanced away. "Well, uh... you see... I..." He shifted about uncomfortably, and I felt something warm and stiff suddenly poke the underside of my breasts through my shirt.

Rainbow stiffened and his blush intensified.

I gave him a deadpan look. "I'm sooo not helping with that."

::part one ~ part two ~ part three ~ part four ~ part five::

Chapter 71: Life Returns To Normal… or as Normal as it Can Get

Okay, so… that wasn’t one of my better ideas…

The world spun as I stared up at the ceiling high above me. Within the confines of its cast, my leg throbbed from the sudden jostling. A wet sensation against my skin informed me that several of my stitches definitely had broken open. However, my biggest concern at the moment was my still-smoking chest. A circular hole was scorched into my shirt, and while there were luckily no burns on my skin, it still felt like I had just been kicked by, well… a horse.

As I laid there, groaning softly in discomfort, the sound of quick hoofsteps reached my ringing ears. A moment later, Celestia’s concerned face appeared above me. “Goodness me! Are you alright?” Her eyes drifted down my body, only to widen in alarm. “Oh… oh no!”

There were more hoofsteps, and the masked pony appeared beside me.

“Of all the asinine things you could have done,” she grumbled under her breath. Her horn sparked to life, and my shirt was tugged upwards. I felt the material stick to my skin for a moment before being gingerly peeled off. “Yeah, there it is. Your stitches broke.” A jolt of pain flashed up my side as she prodded me with a hoof.

“Hold still. I need to patch you up,” she said before rummaging around in her robes. A moment later, she produced a needle and thread. “We really should be doing this back in the medical ward, but I doubt you’ll cooperate enough for that.”

Trying to ignore the sharp, pinching sensation as she stabbed the needle into my side over and over again, I instead peered dazedly up at Celestia. “You… you didn’t happen to see the carriage that ran me over, did you?”

This caused Celestia to blink. “Carriage?” She glanced down at the Healer. “Is he having hallucinations?”

“He very well could be,” the Healer tsked. “He went flying a good distance. Could have possibly hit his head on the floor and concussed it. It’d be just his luck. If you’d be so kind, Princess, could you please check his pupils for me? If they’re different sizes, we might have a problem.”

Celestia began to lean down to peer into my eyes only to stop suddenly. “But… his right eye is completely milky.”

“It was a joke,” I grunted, waving a hand, only to wince when my side twinged in pain at the movement. Falling silent for a moment, I turned my head to the side to look around. “Wait… just how far did she blast me?”

“A good twenty feet or so,” Celestia answered, straightening up again. “Although, you did slide a few feet as well.” Slowly, her head tilted to the side as she studied me. “May I asked… is there a reason you slapped me?”

Turning my head, I looked up at her. There was no sign of redness on the cheek I had struck; if anything, it seems my hand suffered more damage than her face. It throbbed with the feeling of pins-and-needles—the tingling sensation that you get after a particularly awesome high five.

I thought about her question for a moment before closing my eyes. “Yes, there is, although it’s probably not the best reason.”

“May I ask what the reason is?”

“Well, it’s a lot of things, actually,” I said softly. “A lot of little things that have slowly been adding up. Some minor, some a bit more major. Many of them might even seem stupid, but a few of them… well, a few of them are a little darker. A little more deserving than the others. They all have something in common though.” Resting my head against the cold marble, I glared up at her. “You really need to cut the habit of interfering in other people’s lives.”

Celestia’s ears splayed back. “If you’re still upset about me using the Elements on you, I—”

“No, it’s not that,” I huffed. “As much as it sucked, it did fix my muteness problem. And without it, things might have turned out worse than they did. Honestly, it was probably for the bes—oi!” Lifting my head, I poked the Healer in the side, causing her to flinch backward. “I realize you’re trying to help, but stabbing my lungs isn’t helping! Watch the fucking needle.”

“Might I remind you, you are the one that made it so I have to do this,” she shot back.

“Whatever,” I grunted before flopping back down. I was silent for a moment before looking back up at Celestia. “No, I’m not talking about the Elements. Or having Night Light watch me. Or trying to dictate my love life with Twilight. Or whatever else there is that I’m forgetting. No, what I’m talking about someone else’s life.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Who is this individual?”

“His name is… was Paul,” I answered. “Paul Riddick.” After what he had told me, I didn’t expect the name to mean much to her, and sure enough, I wasn’t surprised when a look of confusion crossed her face.

“I… have no memory of such a name,” she said with a frown.

“I’m well aware,” I sighed. “It’s really complicated, and I don’t have all the details, and it might have happened a long, long time ago, but I still think you deserve a good slap for it regardless. Especially considered what you did to him, and what it led to.”

“Might I ask,” Celestia said slowly, “why it was you who slapped me, and not this Riddick? If I wronged anypony in any way that deserved such an action, I would hope that they would bring it up with me themselves.”

I laughed, although it came out as a croaking wheeze. “I highly doubt any of your ponies would confront you even if you walked up and burned their house to the ground.” Celestia winced, but I continued. “Besides, I had to do it because he is no longer around to do so himself.”

“What do you… mean…” Celestia began to ask, only to stop. Blinking, she raised a hoof to her eyes and rubbed them, only for the hoof to come away wet. As she stared at it, a few more tears leak from her eyes and trickled down her cheek to drip off her chin, barely missing my face as they fell to the floor.

Celestia gasped softly as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks, unbidden. “E-excuse me, I… I don’t know what’s come over me.” Rubbing at her wet cheeks again, she laughed weakly. “I have no memory of that name, s-so why… why does it sadden me to hear that he is gone?” She rubbed at her eyes harder. “Why… can’t I remember?”

“Like I said, I don’t know the details,” I said. “Something-something magic related. If I understand correctly though, it’s because he didn’t want you… or anyone for that matter… to remember him.”

“Didn’t want me to remember…” Celestia murmured before a look of understanding came over him. A sad smile touched her face. “Ah, mental magic then. I see. So that means that… Discord was… but that would mean…” The smile turned into a frown of concentration as she fell silent for a moment. “It’s no good. I can almost remember, but it darts away like a dream. You’ll have to tell me the full story when we have time,” she eventually sighed before drying her eyes with a wing tip.

I shook my head. “It’s not my story to tell. If you want the full story, you’ll have to ask Vinyl Scratch. From the sound of it, it’s mostly her story as well.”

“Dutchess Scratch?” Celestia paused, before nodding slowly. “That makes sense, given her nature. Mental magic doesn’t work on sanguinarians, and she’s been around for as long as I can remember. I shall make sure to speak with her as soon as I’m able.”

“Great,” I grunted before glancing down at the Healer. “Hey, you! Yeah, you! You done yet?”

“Much to my pleasure,” she said, tying off the thread before snapping it with her magic. “That should hold, but please refrain from reopening it again before it heals completely. That means take it easy. No running, no fighting, no slapping princesses.” Even though that weird mask of hers was blocking her eyes, I could still tell she was glaring at me.

“It’s not my fault,” I defended. “I love taking things easy. I’m one of the laziest fuckers you can find. Drama just seems to find me.” Reaching out, I fumbled around for the IV stand before sitting up. I made to struggle to my feet, only to pause as I saw what was happening just down the hall. “What the…?”

A guard and another Healer were straining to hold Twilight back, even as she struggled to get at Luna, a look of rage upon her face. Her horn sparked and glowed as she fought to get at the other alicorn.

On the other side of the hallway, Luna was being restrained by another pair of guards. Wings flared wide, she panted and heaved as she tried to break free to get at the younger Princess.

Hooves flailing, the pair screamed at each other.

“—JUST GOT OUT OF THE MEDICAL WING AND THE FIRST THING YOU DO IT TRY TO SEND HIM BACK?!” Twilight shrieked, her wings flapping as she tried to go over the ponies holding her back. The guard had to flare his own wings to stop her from launching herself into the air.

“Princess, please! This isn’t helping your stress levels!” the Healer called out, her masked askew.

“OF COURSE WE BLASTED HIM!” Luna roared back, a guard holding doggedly onto her neck as she tried to pry him off with magic. Only the guard’s enchanted armor kept him locked on. “HE JUST WALKED UP AND ATTACKED OUR SISTER! WHAT DID YOU EXPECT US TO DO?!”

“W-w-we need backup!” the guard stuttered as he fought with Luna’s thrashing mane.

“ATTACKED HER?!” Twilight retorted, struggling to free her wings from the Healer’s magic. “IT WAS A SLAP! IT WASN’T LIKE HE CAME AT HER WITH A SPEAR OR AXE! HE BARELY TOUCHED HER AND YOU BLAST HIM ACROSS THE ROOM!”

“WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN OVERZEALOUS IN LEAPING TO OUR SISTER’S DEFENSE, BUT LAST WE CHECK, IT IS STILL AGAINST THE LAW TO STRIKE A PRINCESS!”

“HER DEFENSE?! SHE’S PRINCESS CELESTIA! I HIGHLY DOUBT THE SLAP EVEN HURT!”

“ARE YOU SAYING IT’S OKAY TO HIT A PRINCESS?!”

“WELL, I’M ABOUT TO HIT YOU!”

I watched the pair continue to fight for a few seconds before a soft golden aura surrounded my body. It lifted me into the air before gently setting me back on my feet. The IV stand drifted into my hand as Celestia moved to stand next to me.

“Do you think we should do something?” I asked her.

“It would probably be best if we defused the situation, yes,” Celestia said, nodding her head. However, neither of us moved. We just stayed where we were, silently watching the spectacle. By now, the two alicorns had gotten close enough that they were just barely able to reach each other. They were now flailing their hooves about rapidly, lightly bapping each other’s faces as they continued to shout and scream at one another.

Twilight twisted her head about, and I caught a quick glimpse of a familiar collar that she had around her neck for some reason. Almost immediately, my hand went up to my own throat. Wait a minute… that was… My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered something rather important.

“Celestia,” I said slowly, not taking my eyes off the fighting pair.

Her ear twitched when I spoke, and she tilted her head slightly in my direction. “Hmmm… yes?”

“Where are the Terrain humans?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her stiffen slightly. She was silent for a moment before…

“After everything that happened, we… we felt that sending them home to their world was the best course of action.”

“You what?!” I yelled, turning to glare at her. My shout was loud enough to make her wince, but apparently not loud enough to break through the chaos that was happening just down the hall. Gritting my teeth, I hissed at her. “You sent them home?!”

“Of course,” she said, giving me an even look. “They were forced to come to our world against their will, so it’s only proper that we return them to their own world.”

“Well, yeah,” I grunted, “but not if they have no idea what you were doing! For all they knew, you were going to blast them into oblivion!” By now we were practically nose to nose. Off to the side, the Healer looked like she was debating whether or not she should get between us.

“Please, give us a little more credit than that,” Celestia snorted, hot air washing over my face before she leaned back. “Yes, the language barrier was a complication, but we were able to overcome it and communicate that we were sending them back home. Many of them were actually eager to return.”

My eyes narrowed. “And were you able to explain the dangers of what was going to happen? The fact that they might end up in the middle of the arctic or desert or forest or even the fucking ocean?!”

Her ears folded back, but she kept her cool look. “I would think given the choice between staying in this world and going back to theirs, they’d have chosen the latter of the two,” she sniffed.

“That’s not the…” I banged the IV stand on the floor. “That’s not the fucking point, and you know it!”

“And what, pray tell, is the point?”

“You didn’t give them a choice!” I growled. “Despite you claiming that you understand just how dangerous the process is, you didn’t give them a fucking choice in the matter. You never do. Instead, you do what you think is right without thinking about someone else’s wishes.” She opened her mouth to interrupt, but I waved a hand. “For once, look at it from a different perspective! By sending them home, you gambled whether or not they’d end up somewhere relatively safe! You had nothing to lose, but they didn’t know the risks! Can you say for certain that, if they had actually known what the dangers were, some of them might not have agreed to it?”

The faintest hints of a frown touched the corners of Celestia’s mouth. “Perhaps not, but need I remind you that, should they have decided to stay here, there would have been consequences for them? I understand it’s not entirely their fault, however ponies have died, and many more have been injured, because of the Terran’s actions. Miscommunication or not, my subjects would demand that I punish the humans justly for said transactions. Would you have me tell every family that has lost somepony that the killer was set free, simply because ‘they did not know better’?”

Leaning against the IV stand to take pressure off my leg, I crossed my arms and glared at her. “And need I remind you that quite a few of your ponies are responsible for this clusterfuck as well? You can’t blame just the humans in this.”

“I don’t, and said ponies will be punished accordingly,” Celestia replied. “Regardless, my point still stands. My subjects would cry for justice, and I am not sure if I could deny them it.” She paused for a moment, before cocking her head to the side. “Tell me. If it were up to you, would you have made them stay here and face the crowds and accusations, anger and mistrust on both sides, knowing that their only true crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or would you send them home so that, even should they face hardships and uncertainty, they might have a chance to see their friends and families again? I know you chose to stay, but would you say the same for them?”

My eyes narrowed. “I’d like to think I wouldn’t make a decision that would affect someone else without asking them first. We don’t know what their answers could have been, and now we’ll never really know, will we?”

“No.” Celestia shook her head. “We most certainly will not.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and took a deep breath. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she had a point. At the end of the day, it was probably for the best to send all of the Terrans back to Earth. After everything they had experienced here in Equus—all the horrors and cruelty—I highly doubted any of them would be overly eager to stay.

It didn’t matter though; it was already taken care of.

Celestia watched me, her lips pressed in a tight line. However, I could see no anger in her gaze. Instead, there was some sadness, some exhaustion, some determination, and a whole lot of stubbornness. She was so certain that her way had been the correct course of action, and nothing I said was going to be able to change her mind. My mother would have called it ‘bullheadedness’.

Strong-willed, my father would counter.

We continued to stare at each other for a moment longer before, with a sigh, I gave. My expression softening, I slowly shook my head before raising a hand. She blinked once before a small smile touched her lips and, turning, she presented her cheek to me.

Reaching out, I patted it gently. “You’re a good pony, Celestia,” I said softly. “Just, please… in the future… refrain from helping me unless I ask for it, okay? I’ve had enough drama to last me for a while.”

Celestia nodded her head. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“That’s all I can hope for then,” I said before straightening up. “Right, I think that’s enough of that.” IV stand in hand, I thunk-thunk’d down the hallway towards the still-squabbling pair of ponies. They didn’t notice me approaching until I set the stand down in front of them with a resounding ‘clunk’.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I grunted. “You guys will have to finish this little spat later. Ah-buh-buh-buh—” I held up a finger, cutting Luna off before she could speak “—no. Later. You can kill each other later, but as of right now, I have plans that require Twilight to be alive.”

“Plans?” Celestia asked as she followed behind me. “You just woke up. What plans could you possibly have?”

“Well,” I said as I adjusted my grip on my makeshift crutch, “step one is going to be grabbing this pony.” Twilight squeaked, her eyes widening, as I hooked an arm under her and hefted her into the air.

The Healer behind Celestia let out an indignant squawk. “No heavy lifting!”

Ignoring her, I tucked Twilight under my arm before continuing. “Step two is that I’m going to take this here pony to the nearest bed, preferably not in a crowded room. Then, as per step three, I’m going to rut her into a quivering, twitching pile of mind-numbing mush.”

Twilight stopped her squirming and squeaked again, a faint blush touching her cheeks. The guards gave me incredulous looks, while both Princesses looked at me like I was crazy. The Healers just both groan and rub their heads.

“After that, I’m going to find the strongest whiskey… rum… whatever I can find and, while drinking it, continue railing on this pony—” I squeezed Twilight, causing her to squeak for a third time “—until she’s nothing more than a puddle of pure ecstasy that can’t remember her own name. And then… I’ma pass out. That’s my fucking plan.”

Silence fell over the hall. Blushes touched multiple faces now, and all the ponies with wings now had them extended.

“So, any complaints or comments?” I asked after a moment, glancing around.

The Healer that had patched me up earlier frowned. “I thought I told you to take it eas—”

I cut her off. “No? Good!”

Luna snorted once before opening her mouth as well.

“No? Good!” I repeated, a bit louder and with more force this time. She glared at me, but slumped back and instead took up position next to a slightly amused looking Celestia. The bigger alicorn sighed softly and shook her head.

“Right, we’re off!” Turning, I limped off down the hall, my gait awkward as I tried to balance Twilight against my hip all while not aggravating my broken leg.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Warm late afternoon sunlight shone through the stained glass windows as Twilight and I made our way down the winding corridors of the palace. Flashes of reds and blues and greens and purples dances across the marble walls and floors, painting our skin and fur in a rainbow of shimmering light.

I hadn’t been completely honest with Celestia earlier. While some good strong whiskey and a nap sounded amazing right now, I also found myself oddly restless. Despite having just woken up only a few hours ago, I felt like I had been in bed for weeks. I needed to walk around, even if the soreness in my leg was slowly started to grow. I’d have to take a lot of pain pills later, but it was worth it given the current circumstances.

Twilight had migrated from her place under my arm and was now lying across my back, her head resting atop of mine and her wings draped across my shoulders like a shawl. She swayed with me as I limped, putting most of our combined weight on the IV stand, which she had morphed and twisted into a more comfortable cane-shape with her magic.

We got a couple of strange looks from the guards we passed, but we were left pretty much alone. Which was fine for Twilight, as she had taken up an activity which worked best without interruptions. The same activity she had been having me do for that last twenty or so minutes.

“Say something else,” she said with a tired giggle.

I smirked slightly before humoring her. “Something else.” This earned me a soft swat on the back of my leg from her tail.

“You know what I meant.”

Chuckling softly, I rolled my eyes before giving it some consideration. “Library.”

“Mmmm,” Twilight hummed into my hair. “Another one.”

“How about… alfredo.”

“And?”

“Parmesan.”

“More please.”

“Novelty,” I continued. “Basalt. Sesame. Trigger. Alpine. Manicotti. Gumption. Hmmm… biscuits.”

“Why are most of the words you pick food-based?” Twilight asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, and she had to shift a little to stay comfortable. “What can I say? I’m hungry.” This caused her to huff softly.

“Fine, we can stop by the kitchen to grab you a quick bite to eat.”

“My mare!” I grinned, giving a small fist pump so as to not jostle Twilight too much. As if listening in on the conversation, my stomach took that moment to grow loudly. The noise caused me to glance down at my belly, and, with slowly dawning horror, I realized that I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I had last eaten anything. Days? A week? Sure, IVs could keep someone alive for a good long while, but there was nothing quite like a belly full of good food.

Plus, I was kinda off the IV right now, so, yeah…

Above me, I felt Twilight shake her head against mine. “You are insufferable sometimes, you know that?” She hummed softly for a moment before motioning with a hoof. “Now, hurry up. I could use something to eat as well.” This time, her stomach was the one that growled.

I slowed my pace. “You know what… I’m actually not feeling it anymore. I think I’ll just go—ow! What was that for?!”

“No teasing. Now take me to food.”

“You bit my ear!”

“I told you, I’m hungry. Now hurry up.”

“Motherfucke—OW!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Huddled behind the corner, Flash Sentry took a deep breath to steady his nerves. His heart was hammering in his chest with enough force that he was almost certain that it would give away his position. It had taken a long time for this moment: years of planning, months of observing, weeks of preparation, several promotions and transfers—as well as a drunken night with one of his commanding officers—in order to get him to where he was now.

Everything had come down to this very moment. Now, all he needed to do was simply walk around the corner, bump into Princess Sparkle, deliver one of his patented one-liners, and she’d be putty in his hooves.

They didn’t call him ‘Waifu-Stealer’ in school and Basic for nothing. There was nothing quite like snatching an available mare up, banging her, and then flexing in front of the stallion that had been interested in her. Dozens of conquests had been conquered so far in his campaign, but now he was after the finest game.

If he got Twilight Sparkle, newest Princess of Equestria, he’d be set for life.

He had been planning to pull the heist off last week, back when estrus was still in full swing. Not only would mares be more receptive to advances, but he might have even gotten lucky enough to seal the deal with a foal in her belly.

Then that whole fiasco with Discord and the humans happened, and he thought he had lost his chance. But no—Twilight was still in the castle, and it was now or never.

Flash’s ears perked as a feminine voice came from around the corner. It took him a moment, but he quickly identified it as his target. Good, she was on her way. Checking his reflection in the window one last time, he steeled himself, straightened up, and stepped out from behind the corner…

...only to walk face first into a human’s crotch. Both parties stumbled backward, and the human was barely able to keep himself from falling by leaning heavily upon a cane. Flash, however, fell right on his plot, his nostrils suddenly filled with the deep, heated scent of male.

“Are… are you alright?” a voice asked.

Glancing up through watering eyes, Flash saw his intended target staring down at him from atop the human’s shoulders, a concerned look on her face. The human himself bore a look of discomfort, a hand over his crotch. Flash couldn’t be sure, but he swore he heard the human mutter a gruff “Mother fucker” under his breath.

Realizing that the Princess was still giving him a look of worry and that now was the time to strike, Flash opened his mouth to deliver his planned response… but his tongue failed him. He could only stare up at the human as his nostrils flared. Slowly, a red hue spread across his muzzle.

“Well, um…” Princess Sparkle exchanged uncertain glances with the human. “Please be more careful next time?” She gave the human another look, but he only shrugged before stepping around Flash and continuing down the hall.

Flash could only sit there and watch them go, a dazed look on his face. His eyes were riveted to the human’s backside until he limped around another corner and was lost to view. The heated scent still lingered in his nostrils, and he felt his wings twitch as he inhaled again. He blinked twice before his eyes narrowed.

I must have him!

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It didn’t take us long to get food from the kitchen—although I had to stand by the door while Twilight placed the order, as one of the cooks had immediately grabbed a spoon and attempted to attack me with it when I had entered. I remembered him from before, so made sure to order something with lots of melted cheese on it, just to spite him and his stovetop. Most of the cooks gave me wide-eyed looks while they worked, especially after Twilight asked me a question and I answered.

Now, pushing a food-laden cart down the hall, I made my way slowly towards the bedroom we’d been using before everything went south. Twilight had taken to walking beside me this time, favoring her injured leg as well. I had offered to allow her to ride my shoulders again, but she had declined.

We walked in silence this time, the squeak of the cart’s wheels the only sound. There was nothing more that needed to be said though, and the silence was comfortable. Twilight stayed close, her wings brushing against my legs every once in a while as if to assure herself I was still there. I returned the favor—bumping her with my hip when my gait allowed it.

It was getting late when we finally neared our destination, both of our injuries slowly our pace considerably. Approaching the room, we passed by an open balcony that faced out into the garden. I slowed the cart to a stop as a light noise reached my ears. Curious, I pushed the cart to the side of the hall before stepping out onto the balcony and looking down. Twilight joined me, and we both peered down into the garden. It didn’t take long for us to find the source of the sound.

Sitting by a small fountain, a harp clasped in her hooves, Lyra swayed slightly as she plucked away at the strings. Her eyes were closed, and her ear twitched in time with the notes. They weren’t fast or sporadic but instead were slow and steady, each note holding with it a strong presence, yet not drowning out the previous note nor encroaching upon the following one.

She wasn’t alone either. Around her were gathered a dozen or so humans. They kept a respectful—or maybe fearful—distance from her. Despite the distance, they still seemed to be entranced by the music. They were all seated in the grass except for one of the humans who stood off to the side. Even at this distance, it was easy to see the scarred chest and the three fireball brand.

The humans appeared to be entranced by the harp, many of them swaying in time with the music. A few light chirps drifted upon the wind, but for the most part, the humans were quiet as they watched Lyra with rapt attention. If she was uncomfortable with their presence, she didn’t show it, flawlessly moving from one song to the next without missing a beat.

A few minutes passed with Twilight and I just standing there, watching, when Lyra suddenly opened her eyes and looked up. Almost as if she knew we were there, her gaze met mine—her shimmering golden eyes staring into my brown one with such intensity I flinched. She was still for a moment before her gaze softened and she gave me a small nod before returning to her music.

I was just getting ready to turn around and head back inside when a faint glint in the distance caught my eye. Blinking, I peered out over the garden and over the garden walls. Ponyville was just visible in the distance, nestled snugly between the gently rolling hills below. It was too far away to see anybody out and about, but I could make out a few of the buildings. The clocktower caught the last rays of the setting sun, reflecting it out like a lighthouse.

As I stared down at the little hamlet below, I unexpectedly felt tired. My limbs, already stiff and sore were suddenly heavier than they had been moments before. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me, and I sighed heavily.

Twilight’s ear twitched and she looked up at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I said, giving her a weak smile.

However, she was unconvinced. “Are you sure? That was a pretty big sigh right then.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m fine, really?

“...”

“What? What’s with the look?”

“Max, I’ve known you long enough to know that something is bothering you. What’s wrong?”

“...”

“Max?”

“I… I’m just tired. That’s all.”

“Well, we can relax when we get back to the room. It’s just around the corner. We’ll get back there, have some of this food, and then you can rest. Okay?”

“No, not like that. I just… I want things to go back to normal again.”

“Oh…”

“This has just been so… so chaotic lately. Things have felt strange and drawn out. It just… I… I’d like to go back home… back to Ponyville. To relax. If that’s alright with you?”

Twilight smiled. “I think that can be arranged.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

The gentle rumble of the train beneath my seat began to lessen as we pulled into Ponyville’s station. From the front of the train, the whistle blew loudly, signaling our arrival. Before the note had died down, the sound of ponies moving around the cabins could be heard as they collected their items before disembarking.

Running my hand through my hair, I double-checked to make sure my short ponytail was still in place. As I tugged on it softly, I thought to myself, I really should get a haircut soonish. It’s almost summer, and all this hair is going to get real hot, real quick. I mused on that for a moment before filing it away for a later date. Instead, I watched as Twilight moved around the cabin, gathering up what little we had brought along.

She was still limping, but not as bad as she had been yesterday. Fresh bandages adorned her injured leg—although the Healer had told her she could take them off and leave them off next time she bathed. Despite us having gotten up early to catch our train, her mane was neatly combed, her coat freshly brushed, and she had a fresh air about her. She was more energetic than I had seen her in a while.

“It’s just post-estrus hormones,” she had told me with a blush when I had pointed it out earlier.

Fussing about, Twilight finished packing the last of her books away and cleaning up our snack garbage before turning her attention to me.

“You ready to go?” she asked with an eager smile, which I returned.

“You know it. I’m just waiting for the train to stop moving before I get up.”

She gave me a concerned look. “Is your leg hurting again?”

“It’s a little sore,” I said, “but other than that, it’s fine. With my luck though, we’d stop suddenly and I’d fall over, and I’d rather not deal with that. So… I wait.” Clasping an actual cane in my hands, I tap the rubber ferrule against the floor. “Besides, we aren’t in a hurry. We’re already here.”

“True,” Twilight hummed. She eyed me thoughtfully for a moment before smirking. “Say another word.”

I gave her an amused look. “Kumquats.”

This caused her to titter happily.

There came another whistle blast, followed by the sharp squeal of brakes. I swayed slightly on my seat as the train came to a sudden stop. Twilight stumbled a little, and I reached out a hand to steady her.

“See?” I said. “Would have been flat on my ass.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, you were clever for once.” She blew a raspberry at me as I gave her the finger. Her smile returned though as she helped me to my feet. “Come on, you. Let’s get off before the train starts moving again.”

“Here, here,” I said as I followed her sway flank out the cabin door and into the hall. It took some maneuvering—so few ponies had disembarked that ponies were already getting on—but we managed to make our way to the door. Twilight fluttered down onto the platform with ease, leaving me to deal with the ladder.

I gave it one look before saying ‘fuck it’ and jumping down onto the platform as well, landing one-footed on my good leg, my cane helping to keep me upright.

Twilight glared at me.

“Hey,” I shrugged. “I made it, didn’t I?”

“The Healer said to take it easy.”

Rolling my eyes again, I lifted up my shirt to show my stitches were still intact. “Ta-da.” I lowered the shirt. “Relax, Sparklebutt. I’m fine.”

Twilight huffed before turning and making her way towards the edge of the platform. The fact that she slowed down enough to allow me to catch up should that she wasn’t really angry. Together, we climbed down the steps and slowly made our way down the path towards Ponyville.

As we walked along, I took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh country air. The smell of spring was heavy on the air—grass wet from dew, flowers in full bloom, and the warm breeze carrying with it the fresh scent of baked goods. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed that smell until just now.

“Pinkie’s really outdone herself today,” Twilight said, her nose in the air as well. “Cherry and cinnamon. That should be interesting.”

“Bagels or muffins?” I asked.

“Oh, definitely muffins,” Twilight answered.

“Really? What makes you so sure?”

“Muffins are basically naked cupcakes. And do you really think Pinkie would miss a chance to make cupcakes?”

“...yeah, you’ve got a point,” I said, scratching my beard before mumbling. “Morning cupcakes. Mupcakes? Cupfin? Muffcakes? Actually, scratch that last one.”

“The only difference between a muffin and a cupcake is she can’t frost the former until after lunch.”

“Nah, she totally made frosting for them. She just ate it instead of putting it on them. That’s why she’s always so hyper so early in the morning.”

“ I thought that was the coffee.”

“Oh please! Have you seen how much sugar she puts in her coffee?”

“Goodness, yes. Would you like a little coffee with your sugar?”

We laughed softly at the mental image—one that wasn’t hard to imagine, given that we’ve seen her eating her ‘coffee’ with a spoon before. Wiping a tear from my eye, I blinked when I realized we had wandered into town during our conversation. That in and of itself wasn’t strange: it doesn’t take that long to go from the train station to town. No, what was surprising was the number of looks we were getting from the ponies that were out and about.

Or rather, the number of looks I was getting.

It seemed like everyone was staring at me. However, none of them appeared angry or anything like that—thankfully. In fact, most of the ponies had looks of wonder and awe. I even saw quite a few slowly breaking out into smiles. Still, being the sudden center of attention was a little disconcerting.

“Hey, uh… Twilight?” I said softly, causing the ponies nearest us to gasp.

“Hmmm?” Twilight’s ear twitched and she looked up at me curiously. It didn’t look like she had noticed yet.

I motioned at the slowly approaching ponies. “They’re… uh, they’re all staring.”

She frowned before glancing around, her eyes widening in surprise as she too saw the gathering ponies. “Um, h-hello?” Both of us blinked as many of the ponies returned her greeting with warm ones of their own.

“Hello, Princess!”

“Nice to see you again, Twilight!”

“Welcome home, Sparkle!”

“Someone tell Pinkie! Maybe she’ll throw a party!”

As the ponies cheered and pranced about, I glanced around the crowd. All of their faces were familiar to me now—even if I didn’t know them all by name—but certain ones stood out more than others. Red Heart tsked and shook her head as she studied my cast and bandages. Ditzy fluttered about upside down, a happy smile on her face as she waved her hoof with enough force to shake her entire body. Aloe and Lotus gave me warm smiles from their place near the back.

I looked to Twilight to figure out what was going on, but she looked just as confused as I felt. Luckily, we were saved by the mayor, who was making her way through the crowd.

“Good morning!” she called out as she reached us. “Sorry about the sudden mobbing, but everypony has been eager for your return.” The crowd swelled at her words, and a few more ponies called out greetings. Several pegasi were now circling above us, apparently only halfway through their weather duties.

“I can see that,” Twilight said, more than a little flustered. “What’s brought this on?”

The mayor gave her a sheepish grin. “Princess Celestia visited earlier this week while we were working on rebuilding the town. She, ah... filled us in on some things.” Her eyes drifted to me. “A lot of things. I can’t believe we didn’t see it before, but looking back now, it all makes sense.”

Returning her look, I raised an eyebrow.

She was quiet for a moment before clearing her throat. "S-some of what she told us is a little hard to believe, so I guess most ponies here are just hoping to see if it’s true or not.” As if this was the cue they had been waiting for, ponies in the crowd began to cry out again, this time directing their attention to me.

“So, is it true? Are you really intelligent?!”

“Have you really been intelligent this whole time!?”

“Can you understand what we are saying?”

“This is so cool!”

“Of course Twilight gets the weird human!”

“So, if you’re intelligent, can you talk?”

“Hey, yeah! Can you talk?!”

“Yeah! Go on and say something!”

The shouts came—mostly from excited-sounding fillies and colts—and I gave Twilight a look. She just rolled her eyes though, a smile on her face, and motioned for me to get on with it. I sighed good-naturedly. Planting my cane into the ground, I straightened up, threw my arms into the air, and declared loudly, “Omelette du Fromage!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

With a soft creak, the front door to the Golden Oaks Library swung open. The smell of old parchment filled my nose as I stepped over the threshold, Twilight close behind me. As she went about removing her saddlebags, I peered around.

The windows were open, allowing in a warm breeze that played gently with the curtains. A few stray books littered the circular table in the center of the room, and the pony bust stared at us with unseeing eyes. The desk off to the side of the entrance was relatively clear, but the dropbox had quite a few numbers of returned books in it.

The room wasn’t as dusty as I thought it’d be, but then again, according to Twilight, Spike had been taking care of things by himself for the past week. He had originally flown back with her to Canterlot, but had returned to Ponyville when it had become obvious that they were just waiting for me to wake up.

My eyes settled on my old pillow bed that rested just below an alcove in the wall, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Right where I left you,” I muttered.

“Hmmm, what did you say?” Twilight asked as she hung up her bags.

“Nothing,” I said. “Just happy to be home again.”

Twilight nodded. “Understandable. It feels like ages since we were here last, even though it’s only been a few weeks.”

“Yeah, it feels like it’s been months since you pushed me out the window due to your estrus,” I said with a nod.

Twilight twitched.

“Excuse me?!” she yelped. “I did not push you! You jumped out the window of your own accord!”

I opened my mouth to offer a rebuttal, but a sudden clatter from the kitchen caught our attention. A soft ‘thump’ could be heard, followed by the sound of pattering feet. A moment later, Spike came waddling through the archway, his eyes wide.

“Twilight!” he cried upon seeing her.

“Spike!” Scooping him up, Twilight nuzzled the little drake happily. The two hugged each other for a few seconds longer before breaking apart.

Spike turned his attention to me. “Hey! You’re finally awake! How are you feeling?”

Lifting a hand, I waved it back and forth. “I’ve been better. Also been worse. Can’t really complain.”

“Whoa.” Spike took a step back. “Dude, it’s so weird to see you speak.”

I smiled. “Sometimes it feels weird to be able to speak again.” Limping over, I bent down and extended a hand to him. “Alright, now we can do this properly. Hello, Spike. I’m Max the human.”

The drake blinked owlishly up at me for a moment before smiling. He grabbed my hand in his claws. “Hi, Max. I’m Spike the dragon!”

We continued to shake hands for a moment before a sharp whistle came from the other room. Spike’s eyes widened in alarm and he gasped. “Oh no! The tea!” Turning, he rushed back into the kitchen, waving his arms wildly.

As the sound of clattering and cupboard doors opening came from the kitchen, I remained crouched down. Twilight took advantage of this by slowly sauntering over. “So, we’re home now.”

“It looks that way,” I said, running a hand over her back, causing her to shiver.

“These past few weeks have been really busy,” she continued. “Dealing with estrus, the chaos in Canterlot, Discord, the Terran humans, the vines in Ponyville, the recovery.” She paused, a faint blush touching her cheeks. “Us.”

“Us,” I said with a nod. We stared at each other for a moment before, as one, we both leaned in. Our lips met, and I could feel Twilight melt as she hummed happily. The scent of lavender filled my nose as I pushed back against her. This was a good moment, and there was nothing that could possibly ruin it right no—

“Oh, come on! Use some tongue!”

The sudden shout caused Twilight and I to yelp into each other’s mouths, our eyes snapping open. We broke away from each other quickly, her wings twitching as if she was about to take flight. Looking around, I shot a glare at the three smirking faces that were staring at us from the open basement door. “What the fuck?! What are you guys doing here?”

“Uh, did you forget? We live here as well,” Ebony said.

“The way Twilight was sucking on his lip, I’d forget about us too,” Avera snickered.

“Juicy…” Primrose rasped weakly.

“Bunch of perverts, the lot of ya,” I grunted, giving them the finger.

Avera blew me a kiss. “Love ya too, tall stuff.”

“Weren’t you guys in trouble or something?” I asked.

“It’s complicated, but Luna cleared it up,” Primrose croaked. “Long story short, we work for you now, not the Crown.”

I had been scratching at my beard but paused upon hearing that. Slowly, a grin spread across my face. “Really?”

“Eeyup.” Ebony nodded. “We work under you. Well… maybe ‘work’ isn’t the right word? We’re still your guards, we just aren’t technically ‘guards’ at the moment?”

My grin continued to grow.

“What’s so amusing?” Avera asked.

I rubbed my hands together. “You’re all my bitches now.”

Ebony’s ears splayed backward. “Oh dear.”

“Fantastic,” Primrose runted.

“Alright, I got the tea!” Spike said as he waddled back into the room, a tray set for tea in his claws. He paused upon seeing the three newcomers. “Wait… when do you guys get back?”

“Seriously?” Avera gave him a weird look. “Dude, we’ve been here for the past three days!”

Spike shook his head. “What? No you haven’t! I would have seen you!”

“Dude, I’m telling you. We’ve been here for three days. Count ‘em, three.”

“There’s no way!”

“You were singing Songbird Serenade all day yesterday when you were cleaning,” Primrose rasped. “And the day before that, you were having a pretend conversation with yourself in which you wooed Rarity in dozens of different ways. Each one more absurd than the last.”

Spike gaped at them for a moment before suddenly dropping the tray, sending teacups and plates clattering every which way. Ignoring them, he pointed an accusing claw at the trio. “You’re the reason food has been going missing!”

“No dude, remember? You said it was totally a ghost,” Avera snickered.

“WhhooooOOOOooo,” Ebony added, waving her hooves about.

“That’s not funny!” Spike huffed. “I had trouble sleeping because of that!”

“WHHoooOOOooo!”

“For Celestia’s sake,” Twilight mumbled, facehoofing. “This is getting ridiculous! Are there any more surprises we should know about?”

There came a sudden clatter from the upper balcony that caused all of us to look up. At first, there was nothing to see, but then a familiar face appeared between the railings. Blue eyes blinked innocently down at us, her poofy brown hair cascading about her shoulders. She had thrown out her tattered clothing and was now wearing one of my old shirts.

“What in the…?” Twilight breathed, staring up at the human.

Wrapping her fingers around the balusters, Pyresteed pressed her face against the wood before letting out a soft chirp.

“Alpha?” she murmured.

Shaking my head, I could only laugh as I looked down at Twilight.

“You just had to ask.”

Epilogue: The Road Goes Ever On and On...

“Remind me again. Why am I doing this?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and huffed in annoyance. “I told you. Princess Celestia requested a written record of recent events for the Archives. With the whole revelation about Equestrian humans being intelligent as well as the fiasco with the Terran humans, she felt it would be in everypony’s best interest to have a report detailing all the events that transpired over the past year.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, I got that part.” With a groan, I collapsed into the desk chair. Setting the cane aside, I massaged my leg, trying to work the kink and soreness out of it. “I just don’t get why she wants me to write it. Doesn’t she have a pony that would be better suited for this?”

“She does, and Crimson Quill is currently in the process of interviewing various ponies of interest,” Twilight said, walking up beside me. Stacks of papers floated in her magic, and she carefully placed them at the top of the writing desk, making sure that each stack remained neat and straight. “However, since most of those are in Canterlot, and given your unique circumstances, the Princess thought it would best if you wrote about your own experiences.”

Resting an elbow on the writing desk, I leaned on my hand and frowned at her. “Okay, but we still have a problem. I’m not a writer.”

“I’m sure you’ll do perfectly fine,” Twilight said as she magicked over several eagle quills and full ink wells.

“Compared to a professional, it’s going to read like shit. Probably have lots of errors too.”

“Crimson Quill has a team of editors and proofreaders that look over her work. I’m sure she’ll have them touch it up before she includes it with her own report,” Twilight countered. “You’re providing a… rough draft, so to speak.”

I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“From the beginning of course!” Twilight chirped. She finished arranging the items on the desk before lifting my hand in her magic and placing a quill in between my fingers. “There! That should be everything you need to get started. Now, I need to step out and pick some stuff up from the marketplace, but I shouldn’t be too long. You just concentrate on getting started, and I’ll bring you some lunch later, okay?” Without waiting for an answered, she turned and trotted off.

“Nobody’s going to want to read this shit!” I called after her, but she didn’t turn. Waiting for a few seconds, I then slumped back in the chair and sighed. “Stupid ponies, trying to make me write and shit. Probably complain about the quality and content.” My brow furrowed. “Oooh, they better not bitch about how long I take either.”

Falling silent, I twirled the quill around in my hands while I stared out the window just about the desk. Twilight had opened it earlier to allow some fresh air in. Even now, a warm breeze was creeping in, ruffling through my hair and bring with it the smell of spring.

I watched as ponies on the other side went about their days—mares and stallions shopping, working, and chatting while foals raced up and down the flower-lined streets. Pegasi zipped by overhead, dragging clouds around as they went about with their weather duties. Off in the distance, there was a group of humans gathered around the fountain.

A soft click drew my attention as the front door closed. A moment later, I heard Twilight through the window, greeting passersby as she trotted into town. She glanced back as she walked, and upon seeing my watching her, gave me a warm smile before moving around the corner of a building and being lost to sight. I continued to stare at the point where she had disappeared, my eye not really seeing what it was staring at—I was too lost in thought.

I stayed that way for several minutes before a loud thud from the basement brought me back. Turning my head slightly, I listened to the soft ruckus that was coming from below, but I couldn’t make out what was going on. Judging by the laughter I was hearing though, I assumed it was nothing bad.

They’re a bit louder than normal today, I thought as another thud sounded, this one making the floor vibrate slightly. A tittering chirp came from behind me, and spinning around in the chair, I eyed Pyresteed. She was asleep, lying strewn out on the floor in a patch of sunlight. Her hair was about her face in a messy halo-like tangle, and her shirt was pulled up over her stomach. Doing my best to ignore the fact she still wasn’t wearing any pants or underwear or something, I instead watch as her chest rose and fell gently with each breath.

There came another vibration from below, and she stirred slightly. Her brow furrowed, and her head rolled about for a moment before she settled down again.

Note to self… get her a bed as soon as possible, I told myself as I swiveled back around to face the desk. Eyeing the blank piece of paper situated in the center of the table, I hummed. “From the beginning, huh? Alright… let’s see…” Uncorking one of the ink wells, I inked up the quill and placed the tip against the top of the page.

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.’

I paused, staring down at the words for a few seconds before a smirk threatened to spread across my face. Tapping my fingers on the desk, I tried to hold in my laughter.

“We’ll save that for a later date,” I chuckled as I slide the page off to the side. Picking up a fresh piece of paper, I smoothed it out and picked up the quill again. After making sure it had enough ink on it, I placed tip to parchment again and, with a flourish, began to write. It looked like chicken scratch, but the words were still there.

‘The smell of grease filled my nostrils as I leaned over the hot grill. Sweat dripped from my brow as I hurried to remove the finished meat, placing it its proper tray. Throwing the grease-covered spatula on the top of the grill, I walked over and shoved the meat-filled tray into the heated slot with the other meat. After setting the timer, I turned my attention back to the grill...’

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Author's Note

Well, this is it. I can't believe it. It feels like a lifetime ago that I put pen to paper and began writing the prologue. And how it has grown. I never once thought, when I first published this monstrosity, that it would go on for as long as it did... or get as popular as it did.

I still don't understand it.

To say this story was a joy to write would be an understatement. To say it was a pain to write would be one as well. These past years have been filled with ups and downs, cliches and tropes, hatred and love (and a whole lot of booze). I know there is a lot of things this story did wrong, but I hope that it did a few things right in the end.

I'm not the best writer by any means, but I'd like to believe that I have improved over the course of this story. I'd like to thank everyone who was willing to give me a chance, who gave me honest critique and helped me improve my writing, and who were willing to help make this story what it is today. To Malefactory, Captain Croissandwhich, Tired Old Man, Katherine Kerensky, Aussie Hard-Dick, Holy Macintosh, and many, many others who helped edit this story (through google docs, the comment section, or private messages).

I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting. I'm sure that other authors have something profound at the ends of their stories. I've never been real big on that, so I guess I'll just stick with another thank you. To everyone who came along for the ride, and the comments that kept me going.

Thank you all for taking time out of your lives to read this horrible excuse for literature I vandalized the site with.

Until next time and the next story...

Your Human and You
20th Jun 2013 — 28th Feb 2019

So long, and thanks for all the laughs.
:twilightsmile:

Prologue: Standing in Your Grave

The smell of grease filled my nostrils as I leaned over the hot grill. Sweat dripped from my brow as I hurried to remove the finished meat, placing it its proper tray. Throwing the grease-covered spatula on the top of the grill, I walked over and shoved the meat-filled tray into the heated slot with the other meat. After setting the timer, I turned my attention back to the grill.

“Regular meat is up,” I said loudly, trying to be heard over the other noises in the grill area. My manager, Charles, looked back at me from his position at the beginning of the assembly table.

“We need more nuggets down, Max,” he said. He had a thick Asian accent that made it almost impossible to understand him sometimes. It didn’t help that he was also fairly soft-spoken.

“They’re going down,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to clean most of the excess grease off of the grill. Giving up on getting the grill clean at the moment, I turned and opened one of the freezers located in the grill area. Pulling out two bags of nuggets, I tore a hole in the plastic and emptied both bags into a fry basket. I dipped the basket into the fryer and hit the timer. As the chicken nuggets began to cook, I glanced out at the lobby.

It was full of customers; the line at the cash registers was wrapping itself around the inside of the restaurant before heading out the door. The line of cars in the drive-thru lanes indicated that they too were similarly packed. As I looked out at the sea of people, I groaned inwardly.

“Another typical Friday in Hell,” I muttered under my breath, wiping my forehead with the back of my arm.

“I’ve got an order for twenty five cheeseburgers coming up!” one of the order-takers in the drive-thru yelled, covering her headset’s microphone with her hand. The entire kitchen staff, myself included, groaned aloud at that.

“You’re going to have to park them,” Charles called out before turning back to me. “Max, I need regular meat down right away.”

“On it,” I said, already heading to the proper freezer. Opening the lid, I reached down into the frozen depths, only to find it empty. Cursing, I straightened up.

“Charles, we’re out of regular meat!” He looked back at me and swore to himself in Korean. Pulling a ring of keys out of his pocket, he tossed them over to me.

“Head back to the freezer and grab a case,” he growled. I caught the keys deftly. As I hurried out of the grill and towards the back of the store, I heard the order-takers call back another big order.

“Who the hell orders seventeen Big Macs?” I grumbled, picking up the pace. Reaching the freezer door, I began flipping through the keys, looking for the right one. I found the bugger, jammed it into the lock, and twisted. Yanking the door open, I hurried inside. Glancing around, I shivered as the cold air of the freezer hit my skin, freezing the sweat on my arms and face. As my breath fogged the air in front of me, I hurried from box to box, looking for the one that I needed. Locating the required meat, I picked up the box and proceeded to head back out of the freezer. Putting my back to the door, I pushed against the frozen metal. The door swung open and I stepped backwards.

“What the fuck?!” I cried out in alarm as my foot fell through nothing. It felt as if the floor had just disappeared out from underneath me. Dropping the box of meat, I flailed my arms around as I tried to regain my balance. I remained suspended in the air for a brief moment before falling backwards. There was an immediate flash of blinding light and I closed my eyes in pain. As the light subsided, a burning sensation tore at my throat, causing my eyes to water. It felt like I had eaten a handful of habañero peppers.

As I coughed from the burning sensation in my throat, I tumbled through the air, my arms and legs flailing uselessly. I grunted in pain as I landed on my back with a thud. Blinking tears from my eyes, I tried desperately to regain my vision. Reaching my hand out to push myself up, I felt my fingers slowly sink into something coarse and warm. As my sight returned to me, I glanced down. My jaw dropped as I saw that I was currently lying on a pile of sand. Looking around quickly, I saw that I was surrounded by sand as far as the eye could see. Somehow, I had gone from the back of a McDonald’s to the middle of a fucking desert.

What the hell?! I said, or at least tried to say. As I opened my mouth to speak, a spike of pain ran through my throat, causing me to gag slightly. Rubbing my neck with a hand, I swallowed before trying to speak again. I was met with the same result: a spike of pain followed by a dull, burning sensation. For whatever reason, I was now mute as well.

Great, now I’m stuck in the middle of a desert, and I’m mute. How the fuck did this happen? I thought, holding my head in my hands. My eyes widened suddenly as I realized what I had thought.

Wait… I’m stuck in a bloody desert! I stiffened as I realized how screwed I was. I was in the middle of some unknown desert with no food, water, or anything that could be considered useful whatsoever. All I had on me was my work shirt, my McDonald’s visor, my car keys, my wallet (which was surprisingly lacking in the money department), and my cell phone.

I facepalmed as I remembered I had my cell phone on me. Dumbass, you have a means to call for help. As I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket, I gave silent thanks to Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the poor little Chinese kid who had been forced to make it. I may have found myself suddenly mute, but at least I could still send text messages.

Turning on my phone, I held it up and waited for it to load. Finally, it fired up and the lock screen flashed across the surface. I glanced at the upper right-hand corner of the screen. I cheered silently as I saw that I had 82% battery life left. I hadn’t wasted it playing games before work earlier. Thank God for little miracles.

Now, let’s see if we can get a signal out here. Holding the phone up higher, I watched as the phone searched for a signal. Come on, baby, don’t let me down. It continued searching for several more minutes before a message saying “no signal” appeared on the screen. I stared up at it in horror.

No signal! Are you shitting me?! God damn it, Verizon. The one time that I ACTUALLY need you, and you failed me spectacularly. Dejected, I returned my phone to my pocket. As I sat there, depressed, I suddenly became aware of the scorching sun beating down upon me. Sighing heavily, I stood and brushed the sand off of my legs. Might as well get moving. Don’t want to roast out here. Glancing around, I saw sand, sand, and more sand. There was sand everywhere, in all directions. Not a single sign of life. No animals, no vultures circling in the distance, no rocky outcrops sticking out of the sand. There weren’t even any cacti anywhere. Just sand. Not knowing what else I could do, I picked a direction and started walking.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I now know what it feels like to be the meat I cook on the grill. The cruel sun beat down on me as I walked, slowly roasting me alive. I hadn’t ever sweated this much before in my life. At least the sweat meant I was still slightly hydrated. I hadn’t had anything to drink recently; my last beverage being a Red Bull several hours before ending up in this hellish landscape.

My visor rested low over my eyes. I was trying to protect them from the relentless attack of the sun, but it was pretty much useless. It wasn’t even a proper hat. It was basically a thin strip of black fabric with a visor attached to it. I don’t even think that McDonald’s thought the hat would be used for anything besides looks when they were designing their uniforms.

Sand continued to fill my shoes with each step I took. The gritty texture was starting to get very, very uncomfortable. It was almost like I wasn’t wearing shoes at all. Oh, enough of this bullshit. Sitting down, I quickly unlaced my shoes. Ripping them off of my feet, I held them in my hands, examining them.

…eeeeewwwww! The bottoms of the shoes were coated in a mixture of sand and grease. Trying to swallow down the bile rising in the back of my throat, I tossed my disgusting shoes as far away from me as possible. It wasn’t that big of a loss on my part; they were provided to me by the McDonald’s corporation. My sandy, sweaty socks soon joined the shoes. Standing, I grimaced as the sand shifted between my toes. Grumbling, I tried to ignore the sensation as I continued on my way.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Have you ever reached the point where you’re pretty sure that you’ve totally lost it? I think I may have passed that point about three hours ago. It may have just been the dehydration, or my imagination, but I felt like the sun itself was watching me, laughing at my attempts to survive. I pulled my visor down lower over my face. I didn’t quite feel like having a staring contest with the big ball of fire in the sky.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. Turning the black, leather object around in my hands, I stared down at it with a blank expression. Cracking it open, I glanced into its empty insides. Grunting in annoyance, I closed the wallet and chucked it as far as I could get the fucker to go. It was pretty much useless to me now, as it had only my driver’s license and my debit card in it. Besides, I really needed to throw something, and the phone was clearly more valuable.

Oh God, I’m bored out of my mind! There was nothing to do in this desert except walk. I was possibly in a life-threatening situation, but I needed something to take my mind off of what was happening to me. Normally I would sing to myself, but thanks to my newfound muteness, that was out of the question. If only there was some way to pass the time…

I stopped mid-step and facepalmed. Of course I had a way to pass the time. I had an iPhone in my pocket that had over two-thousand songs on it. I wasn’t one of those weird people who had over ten-thousand songs loaded onto their phone, but it had enough to be satisfactory. Fishing around in my pocket for my new best friend, I pulled out my phone with a smile plastered on my face. Already hearing the music in my head, I turned the device on and proceeded to unlock it. As I looked for the music app, I happened to glance up at the battery icon.

35% power? How the hell is it that low already? I was horrified at the rate I was losing power. It didn’t make sense; I hadn’t used the phone since I found out that there was no… signal… here…

Oh shit. I cringed as I realized that the phone had been searching for a signal the whole time I had been walking. No wonder the battery had been drained so much. I quickly turned the dying phone off and returned it to my pocket, the smile no longer present on my face. I continued on my way, more sober than I was a few minutes ago. The universe was apparently out to screw me today.

As I walked along, the sun continued to watch me, mocking my torment.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

I could feel my skin slowly beginning to burn as the sun beat down on me relentlessly. I trudged along, dragging my now blistered bare feet through the endless sea of burning sand. I had stopped sweating hours ago, and the inside of my mouth was bone dry. I licked my cracked lips, trying to relieve the pain. I was almost completely out of energy, and I had barely any strength left as I pulled myself up yet another sand dune. The sun was starting to set, casting a blood red hue across the sand. I had been wandering around the desert for what felt like hours, but I couldn’t tell if I had made any progress towards finding help. No, I mustn’t give up hope. Surely I was nearing some kind of shelter. Maybe an oasis, or a cave, or a sinkhole, or something useful.

I was snapped out of my daze when my foot struck something hard. I cried out as I fell flat on my face. Coughing and spitting, I sat up and clawed the sand from my eyes. My toes throbbed in pain. Glancing behind me, I spat more sand from my mouth. What the hell did I trip over? My eyes widened in horror as I saw the culprit.

Sticking out of the sand, still covered in a disgusting mixture of sand and grease, were my work shoes. I had tripped over my own goddamn shoes. Despair filled me as I realized that I was back where I had originally started; I was basically going around in circles! My scream of frustration echoed across the barren wasteland, unheard by any living creature. All that I achieved was to sap what little strength I had left.

The sun was only a few centimeters from the horizon, making my shadow long. Unable to muster enough strength to stand, I just sat there with my head in my hands, crying silently. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I sighed heavily, utterly defeated. I was going to die out here, in this hellish desert, and there was nothing I could do about it.

As the sun drew nearer to the horizon, I simply sat there, alone with my thoughts. I was exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and covered with burns. I was stuck in a desert somewhere, with no way of getting any help. I had a phone that didn’t have any service and was almost dead, as well as a set of car keys to a car that wasn’t currently present. I had nothing that could help me in any way possible. I groaned into my hands. I used to be in the Boy Scouts! How the hell was I not prepared for a survival situation?

…

Well, in my defense, I don’t think we ever covered being magically transported to a different location on any of our scouting events.

I fell backwards into the sand, staring up at the darkening sky. None of that mattered now, I guess. I was going to die out here no matter what, and no one would ever find my body. I sighed again and, closing my eyes, I let darkness claim me as the sun finally set beneath the horizon, plunging the desert into night.

Author's Note

Welcome to the ride...

Chapter 1: Descent into Hell

I was brought back to the world of the living by someone throwing a bucket of ice water in my face. Sputtering and coughing, I jerked awake. Blinking water from my eyes, I looked around, trying to get my brain working again. As I wiped water from my face with my hand, I noticed that I was no longer in the desert. While I could consider that a very good thing, my new environment was much more intimidating.

I was currently in a large, dark room that was filled with metal crates and cages. It looked like some form of shipping compartment. The ground I was lying on was metal and cold. I could feel it vibrating softly beneath my body. Whatever this place was, it was moving, and fast. I was instantly reminded of a train.

Shifting my legs underneath me, I sat up slightly. Upon doing so, I became aware of the fact that I was completely and utterly naked. My uniform was gone and I was now wearing only my birthday suit. Automatically reaching down, I covered myself with my hands, a blush spreading across my face.

Great, I go from frying outside in the desert to being buck naked in a dark, enclosed space. At least I was out of the harsh sun, even if I had no clue how I got there. I blinked as a thought entered my head, causing me to frown slightly. Am I dead? Did I die and go to some weird afterlife? Looking around at my surroundings again, my frown deepened. If that’s the case, then the Church has some major explaining to do, because this wasn’t the white fluffy happiness they promised.

“It seems to be slightly disoriented.”

“You would be too, if somepony woke you like that.” The sound of voices behind me snapped me out of my daze, and I quickly turned towards the noise. Looking around for whoever spoke, my eyes fell, not on another human being, but upon two small horses right behind me. I noticed that one had an empty bucket by its hooves. I found that extremely odd, but pushed the feeling aside.

As I looked at them, I felt my frown return. They looked almost like horses, but there was something off about them. To begin with, they weren’t very big. At first I thought that they could be foals, but they were actually full grown when I took a closer look. They stood about four feet tall, from the ground to their heads, and both of their coats were a dark, steely gray color; their manes a midnight black. They also had an image tattooed onto their flanks: one mare had a picture of a red rose with thorns, and the other a shiny pearl.

Their ‘faces’ were also off: their cold, icy blue eyes were seemingly too big for their heads. The entire structure of their face was more akin to that of a human than a horse, but they still looked equine in appearance. I couldn’t really explain it very well, it just looked... wrong, and the more they stared at me, the weirder I felt.

“He’s better looking than most of the dregs we find wandering the desert,” one of the horses said, leaning in towards the other and speaking in a hushed, feminine tone. My eyes widened in shock at that. They’re speaking… they’re actually talking! As my brain tried to process what it was seeing, the other horse replied.

“Most definitely.” As they spoke, they never took their eyes off of me. I just sat there, staring at them, agape. Talking horses. I’m sitting in a metal room with talking horses. It was official: I was dead, and this was some weird, twisted plane of limbo. I opened my mouth to say something to the freaky duo before me, but no sound came out. Instead, pain lanced through my throat, causing me to wince. Great, apparently my newfound muteness followed me into the afterlife. Just what I fucking need. As I sat there, grumbling about my misfortune, one of the horses straightened up and nickered softly.

“Alright,” she said, quickly turning and trotting towards one of the cages. “Enough standing around. Let’s get him caged up and stored with the others.” I perked up at that. What? Caged up? Others? What is she talking about? I stared at them in confusion, trying to understand what exactly was going on. My eyes widened in shock as the forehead of the mare standing by the cages started to glow. As light slowly emanated from it, I looked on in awe. Is... is that a horn?

I didn’t have long to stare, as I was quickly lifted into the air by some unknown force. Struggling in vain, my wrists were quickly bound together by thick strands of rope, and a cloth gag was shoved forcibly into my mouth before wrapping tightly around my head. Afterwards, I was deposited, none too gently, into an awaiting cage.

Still fighting off the dizziness that accompanied my sudden movement, I felt the cage being lifted into the air. As the cage moved, I tried to reorient myself into a more comfortable position, but unfortunately the cage itself was too small. I was now stuck upside down, with my ass in the air.

The cage dropped to the ground with a loud thud, which caused the entire cage to reverberate as metal hit metal. I grunted in pain as the back of my head slammed into the steel floor of the cage. Once the stars stopped dancing in my vision, I forced my head up slightly and glanced around at my new surroundings.

I was sitting at the end of a row of cages, each one with a human in it. The one right next to me contained a man. His wrists were bound, his mouth gagged, and he was naked as well. Unlike me, however, he was sitting upright. Lucky bastard. I squinted my eyes and took a closer look at him. There was something wrong with the way he looked, but I couldn’t quite put but my finger on it just yet. Something about the nose, or maybe the eyes. I didn’t really care though; at the moment it was just a relief to see another human here beside me, wherever here was.

Looking down the row of cages, I saw that each human was in the same situation: bound, gagged, and naked. Some were just sitting there, staring off into the distance, others were smashing their shoulders up against the bars of their cages, their cries muffled by their gags. It reminded me of something that a feral animal would do when trapped, not an intelligent human. What’s going on here? I could see that some of the humans were male, and others were female. Wait… female. Naked females.

Great, now I’m blushing with my ass in the air. While I was lying there, extremely bothered, another horse entered the compartment and approached the first two. By the look of its build, I would hazard a guess that this one was possibly male.

“Pearl, Rose, how is our new addition doing?” he asked, glancing over at me. Unlike the first two horses, his coat was a deep red color, and his mane was black. He stared down at me with cold, icy blue eyes that seemed to freeze my very soul. I stared back up at him, swallowing thickly through the gag. I don’t like where this is going…

“So far, so good,” one of the mares (Rose, if I’m going by the picture on their asses) said, flipping her mane out of her eyes. “He didn’t attack us on sight, so that’s a plus. In fact, he seems kind of docile.”

“He should fetch us a decent price once we reach Canterlot,” the other one, Pearl, said, leaning down to look in the cage at me. “It’ll probably help that he’s better looking than what we usually find.” I just stared up at her with a blank expression, trying to register some of what was just said. D-did she just call me good looking? I didn’t know what she was comparing me to, but a looker I ain’t. I was that anti-social kid that was getting facial hair and acne in the 5th grade, and it had followed me all the way to college. If I’m one of the better looking humans they’ve seen, then they couldn’t have been looking very hard.

My gaze drifted over to the male human next to me as I mused. I scrunched up my face as I studied his appearance. I’ll admit, he wasn’t the best looking bloke I have ever seen, but then again, I wasn’t one to go around judging others' appearances. He might be considered decent looking to someone…

…okay, I was lying through my teeth. He had a face only a mother could love. He was UGLY with a capital U-G-L-Y!

“He’s also quite muscular,” a fourth voice chimed in. “By the looks of it, his muscle tone is decent.” Tearing my gaze away from Mr. Ugly beside me, I glanced around for the source of the new voice. Another mare floated over, hovering in the air thanks to a pair of wings on her sides. I rolled my eyes and groaned slightly. She was a pegasus. You know what? I’m actually not that surprised anymore. Unicorns and magic and pegasi, oh my!

Wherever I was, it most certainly wasn’t Kansas. Or home for that matter. Hell, I didn’t even think I was on Earth anymore. As the mare approached, I craned my neck to get a good look at her. Her coat and wings were blue, almost borderline darkish in color, and her mane was yellow.

At the pegasus’s words, a round of snickers broke out among the other horses. She huffed and rolled her eyes at her companions with an annoyed expression.

“What? I like the look of his muscle structure,” she said, ruffling her feathers.

“Yeah,” the red unicorn stallion snorted. His laughter hadn't quite met his eyes. “I bet you have your eye on one particular muscle.” At that, the other two burst into laughter as the pegasus mare glared at them, blushing heavily. Her wings were starting to stiffen slightly. I, however, with all my intellect, didn’t understand what they meant. One particular muscle? What are they talking about…?

…oh

…Oh God! My face went bright red and I groaned inwardly as I realized what they were talking about.

“Anyways,” the pegasus said, flapping her wings to loosen them while she continued to glare at her companions, “I came to inform you that the conductor said we’ll be arriving at our first stop shortly.”

“Alright, let’s start getting ready then!” the stallion said, a wicked smile spreading across his muzzle. I felt an icy chill run up my spine, causing me to shiver. I have a really bad feeling about this.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It was around twenty minutes before the train came to a stop and things began to happen. At least, I think it was twenty minutes. It’s kinda hard to tell when you’re locked in a cage with your ass in the air.

During that time, several more unicorns had entered the compartment, bringing a crate of materials with them. Placing the crate on the ground, they began walking down the row of cages, taking some humans out of their cages, while leaving others alone. Mine was one of the cages they ignored, passing by without even glancing in at me. I wasn’t sure if that was a potentially good thing, or a bad thing.

Grouping the selected humans in the center of the compartment, the unicorns waited until they had all the humans they needed before beginning to herd them out of the room. Any unruly human met the end of a long stick that looked horrifyingly like a cattle prod.

When the last of the humans were escorted out of the compartment, the group of unicorns approached the cage next to mine, which contained Mr. UGLY-face. Ripping his cage open, they pulled him out with their magic and into the middle of the room. He struggled the entire way, but it was pretty much pointless. I could see no way for him to stop whatever was going to happen to him. I cast a glance at the red unicorn stallion, and I felt fear well up inside of me. I swallowed, my throat suddenly very dry. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but that look in his icy eyes told me that it wouldn’t be good.

“Alright,” he said, glancing over the other unicorns. “This last one is a special order for one Ms. Stardust.” Rose walked up out of the darkness, a clipboard held aloft in her magic.

“It says here that she wants him marked,” she said, consulting the papers on the clipboard with an uninterested air. The way she said ‘marked’ made me shiver slightly. I could feel my heart rate increase, and I tried desperately to calm myself. I watched as they lowered the poor soul to the floor. Thankfully, due to my position, coupled with the lip of the cage, I was unable to see what was going on. However, nothing prevented me from hearing it.

One of the unicorns, a green mare, lifted the lid off of the crate they had brought in. Reaching down, she pulled out a short, iron pole. There was another piece of metal attached to one end of it, shaped like some sort of hollow star. It looked almost like a branding iron. My eyes widened as I realized what they were about to do. Oh no, oh no, oh hell no! I began to struggle weakly against my bindings. Pearl shot me an amused look.

The green unicorn’s horn glowed brighter and the end of the brand began to glow white hot. Approaching the prone man just out of my field of vision, she held the branding iron high in her magic. My eyes snapped closed as she lowered the brand quickly, but I could not block out the resulting noise.

A horrible hissing noise filled the air, followed by the smell of burning flesh. A muffled cry of pain echoed around the compartment as the poor soul tried to scream through his gag. There was another hiss, followed by another scream. I cringed as I realized that they had branded him twice.

Slowly, with great trepidation, I opened my eyes. The other humans around me were silent, huddled in the corners of their cages, shivering in fear. I could hear the now branded human whimpering quietly, his body still lying just out of my field of vision.

This isn’t happening, I thought. There is no way this can be real. It has to be a dream, a nightmare, anything but reality! There is no way that this can get any worse!

“It also says here that she wants him to be neutered,” Rose said, eyes drifting to the bottom of the clipboard, a small smile touching her lips.

My last statement was not a challenge, Universe. It was not a challenge! The unicorn mare returned the branding iron to the box, before pulling out what appeared to be a small pair of garden shears. As they glinted in the low lighting, I stared in horror. There is no way in Hell those should ever be used for neutering ANYTHING!

I immediately shut my eyes again, not wanting to bear witness to the horrors that were about to take place. I was struggling hard not to vomit with the gag in my mouth.

The sounds of hooves echoed around the compartment, followed by an eerie silence. The tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it… okay, maybe that was a bad choice of words given the current situation.

The silence continued for several more seconds, accompanied by the soft sound of something moving. A small whimper echoed around the room as they moved him into a better position. The sound of metal scraping on metal could be heard as the unicorn opened the shears. I screwed up my face, trying hard to block out the sound, but to no avail. A brief pause followed, then a sudden swish and…

I didn’t see it happen. I never want to see it happen. But the sounds that echoed around the metal prison as those unicorns forever took away what made that wretched soul a man, followed by that bone chilling scream, will forever haunt my darkest nightmares.

It was in that moment that I knew that I had definitely died. Only I wasn’t in paradise, nor was I in limbo.

I had died and gone to Hell.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

After they had hauled the poor soul away and finished cleaning up after the procedure, the rest of the unicorns hosed the remainder of us humans down with freezing water. I hardly noticed the temperature, however, as I was still in shock over what had happened.

Just the other day I was at work, trying to make enough money to go to college. Now I find myself in this hellish land. What could I have possibly done to deserve this fate? I mean, I didn’t live by the Bible, but that doesn’t mean I was a jackass either. I was kind, generous, and polite (only if they deserved it). I treated others with respect and loved my parents deeply.

My parents. That was another thing. If I was truly dead, I felt bad that my parents would have to deal with the funeral. No parent should ever have to bury their own child. But on the other hand, what if I hadn’t died and was just missing in this strange new land? How long would they search for me before they gave up hope? Was I stuck here? Could I ever get back home?

Home. That was another thing in an endless list of things. This was clearly not Earth, as it was made abundantly clear by the talking horses, magic, and the (from what behavior I've seen so far) stupid humans. But if this wasn’t Earth, then where was here?

All these thoughts buzzed through my head as tears slowly rolled down my face. The train lurched into motion and continued on its way.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

For the next several days, the same thing would happen over and over again. The train would stop at some unknown location, then the unicorns would return and choose a handful of humans before escorting them away. It was always the same group of unicorns too. This caused me to believe that they were all probably part of a large group of horses that captured and sold humans. Some of the humans would require branding, and others were required to be neutered orspayed. I’m not even going to go into the details of that particular process, but believe me: it was notpretty. The unicorns would sometimes bring more humans on as well, stuffing them into the many empty cages that were stacked in the compartment.

It may have been luck (or not), but they never bothered me during these events. It seemed that they had other plans for me. What those plans were, I had no idea, but I was not looking forward to them.

After completing the procedure, the unicorns would then hose all the remaining humans down with a blast of frozen water and the train would be on its way again. At first I didn’t understand why they were spraying us with the icy water, but after a few days I finally understood. Let’s just say that it had something to do with the fact that there was no bathrooms in the cages. At least I had the common sense to do my business in a corner of my cage, having, thankfully, managed to right myself. Most of the other humans, however, just did their business on themselves. Each time I saw this, I shuddered and cringed in disgust. Am I really the smartest human here?

The horses fed us once a day, if we were lucky. At least, I think it was once a day. It was hard to tell when there was no accurate way to determine if it was night or day. I spent most of my time deep in thought, or sleeping, so I had long since lost sense of time. The “meal” consisted of half of a piece of slightly moldy bread, as well as a few mouthfuls of water. The lack of nutrition hit me hard. For the first couple of days my stomach swelled up due to the lack of food, and by the sixth day I was losing weight quickly.

It was after the eighth day that I began to feel extremely weak. I started having small fits of dizziness, and I would sometimes black out for short periods. I needed something to eat. My stomach was constantly growling at me, threatening to start consuming itself. It wasn’t all bad, however. At least my burns from the desert were slowly starting to heal.

The horses left us alone for the most part, outside of the feedings, and loading and unloading the humans. Even so, I only saw the first four horses I had met whenever we were moving. The others would only appear when it was time to unload the next batch of humans.

The two female unicorns (both of whom, I had learned through eavesdropping, were twin sisters) and the red unicorn stallion tended to just make sure that we were “fed” and cleaned. Other than that, they pretty much left us to our own devices. There were one or two odd instances when one of the sisters would pull a human male out of his cage and carry him off somewhere for several hours, before returning him to his cage. The human always looked exhausted afterwards, and I tried hard not to think about what was happening when they were gone. Luckily, they never showed real interest in me, or if they did, they hid it well.

The blue pegasus mare, on the other hand, seemed to take a special interest in me. Since I had first arrived, she had spent more time around me than any other human. In between feedings and the exoduses she would just rest upon the top of my cage. As she sat there, she would chat with me. The entire conversation was one-sided, but she didn’t seem to care. As she talked, she would use the same tone of voice and mannerisms as humans back home would use with a cow or horse. Not only was this slightly calming, it also pretty much confirmed that the humans on this world were no more than animals to these horses.

I also didn’t mind the conversations so much, as it gave me a chance to study her up close. Her coat was a lovely shade of blue, almost a mix of cyan and sky blue. It had a soft texture to it, very similar to horses back home, only softer. I had startled her when I had first reached through the bars to stroke her, but when she saw I wasn’t going to hurt her, she had let me run my fingers through her coat. She seemed to enjoy the feeling immensely, because it soon became routine: she would fly down onto my cage, I would reach up and give her a quick scratch, and she would talk to me about random stuff.

She also had one of those weird tattoos on both her flanks. It appeared to be a sun, hidden partly behind several wispy clouds. I had ran my fingers over it and found that it had the same texture as the other fur around it. It appeared that the only difference between the mark and the rest of her body was the color. What the tattoo signified, or how she actually got it, I had no clue but it did look kind of cool. The way it blended perfectly into the blue fur on her flank was almost hypnotic.

Her mane and tail were a bright yellow color. They both had a kind of wind-tossed look to them, tangling and swirling around her head and shoulders. In fact, it looked like she hadn’t touched a brush or comb in days. She probably didn’t mess with them much, as her mane would just become messy again the next time she was flying through the air.

Her eyes were a bright violet color and appeared to glow slightly, even in the dimmest of lights. They seemed to glimmer and sparkle as she talked, a smile on her face. All things considered, she was actually very pretty, as far as talking horses went.

It was through these “conversations” that I learned the pegasus mare’s name was Sunny Breeze, but most of her friends called her “Sunny.” She had been the one who had found me passed out in the desert when she was out scouting for more humans in the earlier hours of the morning, before the sun had risen. She had then carried me back to her “benefactors:” the red stallion and the twins.

As the days went on, I soon realized that Sunny appeared to be very taken with me, which was fine with me because she would sneak me extra pieces of bread. On rare occasions she also managed to get me small pieces of apple when no one was looking. If it wasn’t for her help, or the company she provided, I would have gone crazy aboard that horrid train.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

It had been around two weeks since I was brought aboard the train by Sunny when we finally reached our final destination. I was awoken from a dreamless sleep by the sounds of doors opening and closing. I was dimly aware that the floor wasn’t vibrating anymore. It took me a second to realize that that meant the train had come to a stop somewhere. I sat up and wiped the sleep from my eyes with my bound hands. As I did so, the sound of multiple hooves drew nearer. Curious, I turned my head, searching for the source.

I watched as twenty or so unicorns entered the compartment. They were a mixture of the usual gang, with a few new faces mixed in. They began to open the cages, one by one, and herded the humans out. They were taking everyone. Most of the humans struggled against their bindings, but were quickly silenced by a prod from a taser stick. There was a small handful of humans, however, that went willingly.

When the unicorns finally reached my cage I was ready for them. They opened the door and I hurried out and joined the rest of the humans. I might not like how we were being treated, but I was not about to get shocked by the horses. I figured that if I behaved well, they shouldn't have a reason to hurt me, right?

As we waited for the other humans to join the herd, I stretched, groaning as my limbs cracked and popped. It felt good to be able to stand and walk again after spending two weeks stuck in that small cage. My hands were still bound, but at least my gag had been removed. Sunny had determined that I did not need it, and was convinced that I wasn’t going to bite anyone. I was not about to prove her wrong.

Speaking of the mare, I thought, looking around the compartment quickly. I spied her hovering near the ceiling, eyes scanning the crowd of humans as she kept a close eye on them. Her eyes fell upon me, and a small smile touched her face before her gaze moved on.

Eventually the unicorns finally gathered all the humans into the center of the compartment. They hosed us all down one last time. I shivered as the freezing water washed over me. Shaking the water off of me, I spat out some of the liquid that had gotten into my mouth. Once the unicorns were satisfied with how we looked, they hit us with a blast of warm air from their horns, drying us instantly. Once that was over, they herded us forward, out of the compartment and into the blinding light of day.

Chapter 8: We Need To Talk / Questions and Answers, part 2

+Twilight, we need to talk+

I watched as Twilight mouthed the words as she read them, her eyes wide with shock. She read the message several more times before finally looking up at me. Her mouth opened and closed as she searched my face. Violet eyes met brown for the briefest of moments, then she snorted and backed up a few feet. She chuckled nervously to herself as she looked around.

“Nice try, Rainbow Dash, but I’m not going to fall for it!” she called as her eyes darted around, searching the dark corners of the room for the prismatic mare. This wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for, but I wasn’t going to give up now that I have started.

“Come on out Rainbow,” she continued, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof. “This isn’t funny!” Sighing, I leaned over and bopped her lightly on the nose. She squealed loudly and backpedaled. One of her back hooves got snagged on the rug, causing her to flop down on her back, wings flapping against the ground and legs swinging wildly in the air.

Quickly and awkwardly getting back on her hooves, she spun to look at me. I simply tapped a finger on the paper and presented it to her again.

+Twilight, we need to talk+ Her eyes darted between the words and my face, her wings still spread wide. She rubbed her temples with her hooves and began to pace.

“This can’t be happening,” I heard her mutter to herself. “This can’t be happening. This is a dream. This can’t be happening.” I waved my hand to catch her attention. Shaking my head, I point at the words one more time. She stopped pacing and just stared at me. I could tell the gears in her head were turning, and turning fast. I could almost smell the smoke.

“You’re intelligent? You can understand me?” she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. I nodded once, never breaking eye contact with her. She swallowed loudly, wings rustling at her side. Chewing on her lip, she studied me intensely again, trying to process what was going on. Finally she spoke again, with just two words: “Prove it.”

Reaching down, I grasped a quill in my hand. Dipping it in the ink, I tapped the excess off. Placing the tip on the parchment, I scratch out one word.

+How?+ She seemed taken aback by the word; I don’t think she expected that. She blinked owlishly at me.

“Um, w-well… I-I-I… uh, w-who and what are you?!” she stammered, pointing a hoof at me. Dipping the quill back in the ink, I comply.

+My name is Max, and I am a human+ As I finished writing, she grasped the parchment in her magic and floated it over to her. Reading what I had written, she snorted once and flung the paper back at me.

“Horseapples,” she growled, glaring at me. “Humans aren’t intelligent enough to understand ponies.” Quickly picking up the paper, I dipped my quill in the ink for a third time.

+And yet we are having this conversation, aren’t we?+

“Y-yes, b-but… but, humans can’t… shouldn’t...” One of Twilight’s eyes started twitching and her right ear flapped wildly. Running a hoof absentmindedly through her mane, she took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm herself.

“Okay,” she said, exhaling heavily. “Okay, let’s just calm down and think a second. We can figure this out. There has to be a logical explanation, just think. Think. Think!” As she muttered to herself, I wrote out a quick message and passed it to her.

+Would you like a glass of water?+

“That might help a little, actually...” Twilight began before she snapped her mouth shut and her eyes widened. “Stop that!” She crumpled up the paper and chucked it at me. Ducking to avoid the projectile, I raise my hands in the air defensively and shrugged.

Twilight groaned and placed her head in her hooves. Slipping quietly into the kitchen, I opened up the cabinets and found a clean glass. Filling it with some cold water from the kitchen sink, I quickly returned to the main room. Twilight still had her head in her hooves, muttering to herself.

“This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.” Approaching her slowly, I offered the glass of water. Grasping it in her magic, she sighed and took a sip.

“Thank you--” she said, turning towards me. I nodded and grinned at the mare. Her eyes grew wide again and she sputtered.

“STOP THAT!” I ducked as the half-full glass of water flew over my head and shattered against the far wall. Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms and stared at her.

This isn’t working out as I imagined. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I walked over to the crumpled up piece of paper. Bending down, I picked it up and smoothed it out. I picked up the quill and scratched out another message before passing it back to Twilight.

+I’m trying to work with you here, but you aren’t helping+

“I’m not helping?” she shrieked indignantly. “I’m not helping?! You shouldn’t even exist! There is no way that any human in Equestria should be doing what you are doing right now!”

My eyebrows shot up at this.

Equestria? Is that the name of this place? Well, that doesn’t really help… me… now. I froze as an idea entered my mind. It’s crazy. No, it was stupid and crazy, but it just might work. Grabbing the quill, I quickly wrote out the one sentence that might just turn this in my favor. Finishing the sentence, I turned and thrusted the paper into Twilight’s face.

She grasped it in her magic and reads what I had written.

+I’m not from Equestreea Equestria+

You could have heard a pin drop a half mile away. Twilight’s eyes grew bigger and bigger until I thought they were going to pop out of her head. Her magic failed and the paper fluttered to the ground. Her wings, previously returned to her sides, slowly began to spread again. Her mouth opened wider and wider until it about touched the ground. The gears in her head ground to a stop. Her entire body was frozen.

Then her brain restarted itself, and she was able to speak again.

And she did.

“WHAT?!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

If a month ago you would have told me all of what was going to happen to me, I would have called you crazy. But now, there I sat, sipping coffee with my owner as she came down from her self-induced panic attack.

I sipped at the black liquid and shivered. I didn’t much care for coffee back home, but the coffee here tasted a little better. Didn’t mean I liked it any better, but it wasn’t for me. The coffee was for Twilight. She seemed to calm down the minute she ingested the hot beverage. A couple of cups later she was actually able to think straight and continue our previous “conversation.”

“So, let me get this straight,” she said, pouring herself another cup of coffee. It was currently three in the morning and we were in the kitchen. Twilight was sitting across the table, eyeing me occasionally. I was just sitting there with a stack of papers, a quill and inkwell in front of me, and a cup of crappy coffee in my hands.

It had taken me a couple of tries to get the coffee maker working, but when I did the expression on Twilight’s face was well worth the effort. I don’t think she could even fathom a human being able to work such an advanced machine. Well, advanced for their world that is.

“You say that you aren’t from Equestria.” Given her current state, I felt it best to keep answers short and precise.

+Yes+ She glanced at my answer then proceeded to drain her cup and fill it again. I sipped my drink as I waited for the next question.

“H-how?” she finally asked, looking across the table at me. I raise my eyebrow at that. Placing my mug on the table, I grabbed the quill. Dipping it in the ink, I began writing out my tale. The only noise that filled the kitchen was the sound of a quill scratching on parchment.

Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat as I continued to write. I don’t think she could get her head around everything that had happened in the past few hours.

After several silence-filled minutes, I finished writing. Sliding the paper over to Twilight, I picked up my mug once again and sipped it. Shakily, she picked it up in her hooves and began to read.

+I’m not entirely sure how I arrived here. One minute I was at my work, then the next thing I know I'm smack-dab in the middle of some goddamn desert. To make matters worse, I found that I was no longer able to talk. Don't ask me why; I can't, for the life of me, tell you.

After about a day of wandering in the desert, I lost consciousness due to lack of water. I was found by a group of ponies and placed in a cage aboard a train. After two weeks of riding in horrible conditions I arrived in a large, white city. It was there that I was found by Princess Celestia. She thought I would make a good gift for you, so she bought me, cleaned me up, shipped me off and I arrived here. The rest of the story you already know+

“If you are intelligent and can understand us, why haven’t you tried to communicate before now?” Twilight asked, looking up from the paper. Grabbing another sheet of paper, I once again dipped the quill in the ink. I could tell writing like this was going to get old, fast.

+My own stupidity. Plus, I wasn’t completely sure what would happen to me if I was able to convince someone that I was smarter than most humans. I didn’t want to be dissected or anything like that+

“What would ever cause you to think that we would do that?” Twilight asked, scrunching her face up in confusion. I blushed a little as I wrote my response.

+Mostly stories from my world+

“That’s the only reason?” Twilight looked over at me, cocking an eyebrow. Shaking my head I reached over to pluck the paper out of her hooves. A quick flash of quill over paper, and I slid it back over to her.

+There was also the fact of how I was treated during my two week train trip+ At this, Twilight’s head shot up, ears alert, as she looked at me.

“Does this have anything to do with Fluttershy saying you were malnourished?” I nodded, frowning at the memory. An awkward silence filled the kitchen. Twilight fidgeted as she tried to think of something to say. I sat there, unable to talk, waiting for the next question.

“W-what made you change your mind?” she finally asked. Hanging my head, I wrote out the response.

+I read your letter that you were going to send to Princess Celestia+ Reading this, Twilight looked up at me, eyes ablaze.

“Then why did you act like that all week if you were intelligent?!” The ferocity in her voice caused me to flinch, and I hung my head lower, regret clear on my face.

+... reasons...+

“Explain.” It wasn’t a request, it was a demand. Running my hand through my hair, I picked up the quill.

+It wouldn’t really matter. They’d just be excuses for how I treated you+

“Humor me,” Twilight said icily, her steely gaze locked on me. Sighing, I place quill to parchment once again.

+I was frustrated. I went from being treated like an intelligent creature to being treated like nothing more than an animal. It was also something of a self defense measure. If someone thinks you are stupid and unintelligent, they’ll tend to treat you like you’re stupid and leave you alone. Be treated like an animal long enough, and you will become one. I got lost in the act, and for that I’m sorry+ Twilight glanced back and forth from me and the paper for several seconds before putting the paper down.

“I guess I can understand,” she said hesitantly. Sighing, she poured more coffee into her cup. “If I ended up somewhere where ponies were treated like animals, I think I’d be frustrated and upset too.” She looked up at me with a firm gaze.

“But that didn’t give you the right to treat me like that! It was completely unaccepta--” I slid a piece of paper over, cutting off her rant.

+I know, and although it probably doesn’t mean much, but I am sorry for that. I should never have done that, and nothing I say will ever make it right, but could you ever forgive me?+ Twilight stared at the piece of paper for a moment before looking up at me.

“I’m sitting here, having a conversation with a human,” she said, shaking her head, a small, strained smile on her face. “I think I can find it in myself to forgive you.”

+Thanks+ A slight pause, then I slid another note over to her.

+Does that mean you believe me as well?+ Twilight sighed heavily and laid her head on the table.

“Everything seems so unreal. I’m sitting here, having a conversation with a creature from another world, who happens to look just like one of the dumber creatures in Equestria. This shouldn’t even be possible, yet here we are...” she said, trailing off with a shrug.

+For what it’s worth, I believe that I am the same as your world's humans, only smarter+

“So, there’s a universe out there with intelligent humans in it,” Twilight said, mostly to herself. Leaning back in her chair, she sipped at her coffee and stared off into space.

We sat there in silence for a long time, both of us content to simply sit there with our thoughts. This conversation didn’t start like I had planned, but it had ended better than I thought. Twilight was taking it better than I thought she would, but there was still one question standing out in my mind, and I just had to know the answer.

+So, what happens now?+

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side.

+Are you going to tell anyone about me, or… what?+ Twilight turned her gaze to the window, staring out at the stars as she chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. Finally, she shook her head.

“No, no, I’m not going to tell anypony else about this just yet,” she said, turning back to me.

+Why?+

“Well, while it’s true that you wouldn’t get dissected, there are still some scientists up in Canterlot who would have a hayday with you, and I don’t think you want that.” That seemed reasonable to me, but that still didn’t answer my intended question.

+So, what do we do now?+ Twilight stared at the paper for several seconds, running a hoof through her mane. It needed a good brushing, but I don’t think she noticed, or cared, at the moment. She continued to stare at the words, her silence starting to make me nervous.

Finally she looked up at me, and gave me a small, but genuine smile.

“How about we start from scratch.” She picked up the letter she had originally intended on sending to Celestia. With a quick flash of magic, the paper was torn in two. As the two halves fluttered to the kitchen floor, Twilight held her hoof out across the table. Her eyes met mine; brown gazed into violet.

“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Would you like to be my human, as well as my friend?” Smiling, I reached out and grasped her hoof. Shaking it up and down, I nodded. Releasing her hoof, I grabbed my quill.

+Hello, Twilight. My name is Max, and I would be happy to be your human and friend+

Chapter 32: The Grand Galloping Gala, part 2: Black Pawns Released

*I apologize in advance for the horror you are about to experience.

The scream was still echoing around the gardens as we both leapt to our hooves (or in Max’s case, feet) and glanced back towards the palace.

~That sounded like it was coming from the ballroom~ Max signed, his eyes narrowing. His bad eye seemed to glow eerily in the moonlight as he stared up at the palace.

Another scream filled the air, followed by another, then another. Whatever was going on in there, it wasn’t good. Then, through the screaming of ponies, another sound could be heard: a terrifying shriek like that of a banshee. The very sound sent shivers running down my spine. I immediately recognized it, having heard it once before.

It was the scream of a human.

Beside me, Max’s whole body tensed, his muscles coiling under his skin. His jaw clenched, and a soft growl reverberated from deep within his chest. ~Come on!~ With that, he was off up the path, heading back towards the double doors that led back into the palace. With a gulp, I took off after him, trying not to trip on the hem of my dress.

Why did something have to happen now? I silently asked, trying to fight back my frustration. My ears splayed back against my head as I ran. I was this close to telling him. This close to telling him the truth! Shaking my head, I hurried to catch up with Max.

“Given your track record, shouldn’t you be running away from the screams?” I asked as I caught up with him. “It seems like whenever there’s trouble, you get hurt.” He just glanced at me as he continued to thunder down the path, his feet pounding against the dirt road.

~I do not~

“Fighting with Rainbow, the timberwolves, the human fighting ring, the manticores--” I shot him a glare, still remembering his stupidity with that little act, “--the little stunt you pulled on Nightmare Night, Lyra. Face it; when there’s trouble, you get hurt. It’s like you have Derpy’s luck, or something like that.” Somehow, Max managed to huff, even as he ran, tilting his head away from me.

~Our friends might be in trouble~ he replied, not slowing down. ~That’s reason enough for me to risk it~ I smiled slightly at the determined look on his face and shook my head. My dumb, rash human, I thought, a glimmer of pride slowly welling up in my chest.

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

As we approached the doors, the sound of screams and shrieks grew louder. It was when we reached the doors that I realized that there were several different humans screaming, instead of just one. What the hay is going on in there? Pushing a burst of magic through my horn, I grasped the door handles in my magic and flung them open. The screaming instantly grew louder, causing my ears to splay backwards as I winced in pain.

As we both stumbled in, looking for the source of the screams, we paused, shocked at what we saw. The entire ballroom was in chaos, ponies running to and fro, terrified looks on their faces. Nobles were shoving and pushing each other, trying to be the first ones to get out of the doors that lead to the main part of the castle. Royal Guards were trying to keep order, but were having a hard time making themselves heard over the shouts and screams. Luna’s Lunar Guards were mixed in with the Royal Guards, their lavender armor standing out against the golden ones.

I could see the girls all grouped around Princess Celestia, trying their hardest to get the nobles to calm down, but to no avail. Rainbow and Applejack looked ready to buck somepony’s lights out, but were restraining themselves. Fluttershy was hiding behind Rarity, who was using her magic to keep the nobles from trampling them in their panic, a disgusted look on her face. Pinkie Pie just looked hurt and confused, her normally poofy mane hanging limp.

Princess Luna was hovering near the center of the room, shouting at the nobles to calm down, but even with her Royal Canterlot Voice she could barely be heard above the wailing.

And there, amongst all of this chaos, was the source of the horrific screams. Scattered throughout the room the humans that had been brought with their owners were now lying on the ground, clasping at their throat as they shrieked. Several of them were still on their feet, staggering around, attacking anypony who got too close. Several ponies looked like they had been hurt already; one in particular was lying unconscious on the floor, blood slowly pooling around her.

A human lying nearby, a young female with short brown hair, was convulsing on the marble floor, her mouth foaming slightly as she clawed at her throat. The decorative fog, disturbed by her movements, gave the whole thing a horrific look, like something out of a nightmare.

“What the hay is going on?” I breathed, taking a step back from the flailing human. I glanced up at Max, who was just watching the scene before him with a horrified look on his face, his good eye darting back and forth from human to human. “Have you seen anything like this before?” Numbly, he shook his head, unable to take his eye off of what was happening.

“Twilight!” a voice called out. I turned to see Ebony running up, a relieved look on her face. “Thank Celestia, you found him!”

“Yeah, he was in the gardens,” I said loudly, trying to be heard over the shrieks of the humans. Waving a hoof at the mass of writhing bodies, I asked the unicorn, “What’s going on?!”

“We don’t know,” Avera said, zipping down from the ceiling to hover near Max’s head. “Everything was going fine, and then suddenly a human started freaking out and attacked one of the nobles--” she gestured at the motionless pony in the middle of the room “--At first we thought he was just reacting to what he thought was a threat, but when the guards tried to escort him and his owner out, he just collapsed. It looked almost like an advanced infection, but then another human started to do the same thing, and then another, and another, and soon all of them were doing it.”

“Maybe there’s something--” I started but was interrupted by a loud gurgling sound coming from right beside me. Startled, I whipped around, only to scream when I saw the source of the noise. “MAX!”

My human was clutching at his collar, gagging and retching, his eyes wide. He struggled to stay on his feet, his whole body convulsing horribly. His tongue lolled from his mouth, drool falling to the floor as he stumbled. A large vein was pulsing on his forehead, looking ready to burst.

No, no, no! I started pushing magic through my horn to try and to protect him, but the instant I did so a sharp shock ran through my horn, causing the spell to fizzle out. I tried again, but met the same result. A quick glance at Ebony showed that she was having the same problem. What’s going on?!

Avera moved to help, but Max jerked away from her. Fighting to stay standing, he fumbled with his collar, his eyes clenched shut in pain. Finally his hands found what they were looking for, and with a twist, he wrenched the latch open and tore the collar off, flinging it to the floor.

As soon as his neck was free from the collar, Max collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. I squealed in fright, instantly moving to his side. I breathed a small sigh of relief as he sat up, rubbing at his neck. I moved to nuzzle his side, and he draped an arm around me. I could feel his whole body trembling, his heart pounding against the inside of his chest. Every so often, his body would spasm weakly.

“What was that about?” I asked him as I rubbed a hoof against his chest, trying to help calm him down.

“Look,” Ebony said, pointing a hoof at the now discarded collar. The piece of leather was lying on the floor, blue sparks crackling up and down the length. Every now and then the collar shook slightly as a particularly large shock ran through the leather.

“What the buck?” Avera breathed, scrunching up her face in confusion. Reaching a tentative hoof forward, she pulled in back sharply with a hiss when a large spark leapt at her. Shaking her head, the pegasus leapt into the air with a flap of her wings. “Hey!” she shouted, trying to catch the attention of several nearby Lunar Guards. When they glanced over at her, she pointed at the sparking collar. “Something’s up with their collars!”

The guards gave her a confused look before their eyes fell upon the sparking collar. Their eyes light up with realization.

“Get their collars off of them!” one of the guards shouted, her gruff voice ringing out through the ballroom. All around the room, Lunar and Solar Guards descended upon the humans, ripping the collars off. Within a couple of minutes, all the humans had stopped thrashing around and were now lying on the ground, gasping for air.

By now all of the nobles had cleared out of the ballroom, leaving only the guards and the humans. The only sound that could be heard was the ragged breathing of the humans, as well as the hoofsteps of the guards.

“Some owners,” one of the Lunar Guards said, rolling a trembling human onto her side. “Didn’t even stick around to help their humans.”

“It’s okay,” I murmured, holding onto Max’s arm with a wing. “Let’s get you onto your feet.” Ebony slid under his other arm, and together we managed to lift him up. He stood with a groan, sagging against me slightly on unsteady feet. Sighing heavily, Max rubbed his neck, a pained expression on his face. I felt a twinge in my heart at seeing him in pain.

“Take it easy there, tall stuff,” Avera said, hovering next to his head. “Don’t strain yourself until we can get you checked out.”

I glanced over at Princess Celestia, who was directing some of the royal guards that were bringing water to the humans. Feeling my eyes on her, she looked up and glanced over in our direction. Our eyes met for a brief second and she tilted her head towards a side door that led to a private sitting area.

I nodded once, before turning my attention back to Max.

“Come on,” I said, gently leading him towards the door, picking our way around the prone humans. He stumbled slightly and I placed a wing against his back. His entire body was shaking, but if it was out of fear, the adrenaline coursing through his system, or because of the horrible shock he had just gotten, I didn’t know.

Reaching the door, I swung it open with a push of my hoof and eased Max on through. Once inside, Max collapsed into a chair, groaning softly as he sunk into the cushion, his eyes closed.

“Trouble just seems to follow you around, doesn’t it?” Avera asked jokingly as she settled down beside him. Without opening his eyes, Max raised his hand and lifted his middle digit towards Avera. She blinked, a confused look crossing her face. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Even though my human was hurting, I couldn’t help but giggle at the look on Avera’s face.

“So, it seems I was right. Do you regret not running in the opposite direction?” I asked Max. This resulted in me becoming the target for his middle finger. I just laughed softly, shaking my head as I ran a hoof over his arm. “How are you feeling?”

~Sore~ He replied, not opening his eyes. He moved his hand back up to his throat, grimacing as he did so.

“Here, let’s check you out,” Ebony said, moving to stand in front of Max. Standing up on her back hooves, she leaned in to get a closer look.

As she gently pulled his hand aside to check his neck, the door to the room opened again. I tensed up slightly, but relaxed when I saw who it was. Princess Celestia, Luna, and the girls all slipped in, all with looks of concern on their faces.

“How is he, Major?” Princess Celestia asked, glancing over at Max.

“His neck is slightly burnt from the collar,” Ebony said, using her hoof to gently lift Max’s head so she could get a better look. I winced when I saw the red band of skin around his neck. “Nothing too serious, thankfully; a minor first degree burn. Some muscle spasms every now and then, but those should pass.” She placed an ear against his chest, listening for a few seconds before backing off. “Heart sounds normal, it doesn’t seem to have been affected by the shock.

“He also has some bruising around his jaw, but I’m not sure if that was due to the collar or something else.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, fluttering over to stand next to Ebony.

“He looks good overall, considering what happened,” Ebony said, falling back down onto all fours and stepping away from Max. “He’ll be sore for a couple of days, but he should be fine.” Relief flowed through me at those words. Thank the Maker.

“Okay. does anypony know why exactly the collars were acting up like that?” Rainbow asked, glancing around at the other occupants of the room. “Last I checked, collars weren’t meant to do that.”

“They aren’t,” Princess Celestia said with a frown. “It would appear that somepony placed a large magical field over the ballroom. Any collar within the field would suddenly become electrified and shock the wearer. It also affected horns when magic was attempted.”

“But who would do such a thing to all those humans?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes tearing up slightly. “What could they possibly gain from hurting all of them?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie said, her mane still straight. “All they did was ruin a perfectly good party!”

“We’re not exactly sure who did it,” Princess Celestia said, ruffling her wings slightly. “Whoever it was, they would have to be an incredibly talented magic user in order to single out only the collars and horns. Nothing else was affected by the field. That kind of precision is extremely difficult to manage, considering each collar could be made out of different material.

“As for why, at the moment we can not say,” she said, hanging her head slightly. “But right now our guards are looking into it. Hopefully they will be able to find some answers. Also, once I can find the Archmage, we’ll get him and the Academy on the case as well.” A gentle murmur of understanding ran through the room as everypony digested that information.

I sidled up closer to Max, nuzzling his arm. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Princess Celestia smile slightly, along with Rarity smirking. I didn’t care, especially when Max started scratching my ear again.

“Look on the bright side,” Avera suddenly said, turning to look at Max and giving him a big grin. “At least none of the nobles tried to jump ya!” Slowly, Max turned his head until he was glaring at Avera. I whined softly when he stopped scratching. Dangit, that felt good!

~You’re wrong about that~ he told the pegasus.

“Oh…” Avera’s smile vanished and her ears drooped. I could only look up at my human in confusion. Wait, what is he talking about--

“We are sorry the night turned out like this,” Luna said, interrupting my thoughts. “We wanted this night to go perfectly for all involved, but it appears that that won’t be the case.” She hung her head, a defeated look on her face.

“Come now, Luna,” Princess Celestia said softly, draping a wing over her sister. “It wasn’t all that bad, it certainly wasn’t your fault.”

~Yeah~ Max signed, smiling slightly, although it looked more like a grimace. ~There were some parts that I enjoyed~ When I looked up at him to ask what he meant, I saw that he was eyeing a bruise on the back of his hand as he signed. It was already turning a nasty shade of purple.

Ebony saw where he was looking as well, and she tsked, shaking her head.

“How did you get that bruise?” she asked, sounding slightly annoyed as she eyed the injury.

~I punched Blueblood~ he replied with a smirk.

“You did what!?” I shrieked, looking at him in horror. “What possibly possessed you to do that?!”

~He was trying to kidnap me to his bedroom, so I defended myself~ Max shrugged, still eyeing the bruise as he signed. ~I regret nothing~

“He… but, what… I--” I tried to formulate words, but was unable to. The very thought that Max had been in trouble when he was by himself upset me greatly. You just had to abandon him, didn’t you Twilight. You could have paid closer attention to him, you stupid, stupid mare!

“Uh, somepony want to fill us in?” Rainbow huffed, crossing her forelegs in front of her chest.

“Max punched Blueblood,” Ebony deadpanned, earning a gasp from the others. Max held up two fingers, his smirk growing. “Twice.”

“WHAT?!” Suddenly, Rarity was right in front of Max, a crazed look in her eyes. Rearing up on her hind legs, she grabbed his face with her hooves, bringing the two of them nose to nose. Max hissed in pain as her hooves hit his bruise.

“Why?” Rarity breathed, staring into his eyes. “Why didn’t you do that somewhere where I could have seen it?!”

“I did hear about that,” Princess Celestia said as Ebony and Avera worked on pulling Rarity off of Max. “And I must say that I’m thoroughly disgusted by my nephew’s actions.” Turning to look at Max, who was now eyeing Rarity with a wary expression, Princess Celestia gave him an apologetic look. “I can not express how sorry I am for what happened. I realize he has an… unhealthy fascination with you, but I didn’t think it would go as far as kidnapping. Had I known that he was going to try something like that tonight, I would have had him locked in his room for the evening.

“Needless to say, there will be repercussions for his actions. He shall be stripped of his rank, as well as half his wealth, and he shall be placed under watch. He will not be going anywhere without an escort to make sure he behaves himself.”

“Somepony’s been grounded,” Rainbow whispered to Applejack, who just snickered behind her hoof. I ignored them, however, instead focusing on my human. Avera sidled up to him and leaned in close.

“You’re not going to let this stand, are you?” she asked in a hushed whisper. Max just smirked, nodding his head slightly.

~You have no idea~ he signed softly, trying to not draw attention to himself. I decided that I would have to keep a closer eye on him in the near future.

“Half his wealth seems to be letting him off easy, Tia,” Luna said, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “How about all of it, and we shall put him on a monthly allowance from the Royal Treasury; just enough for him to live by. He will have to get a job in order to pay for any and all… pleasures that he wishes.”

“Very well,” the princess said, nodding her head. “All of his wealth it is.” Lowering her head, she turned her attention back to Max. “Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?” Max just yawned, scratching the back of his head before he replied.

~Personally, I just want to get something to eat, go back to the room, and go to sleep~

“I think we can arrange that--”

BLAM

Everypony jumped as the door to the room flew open. Ebony and Avera were both in front of Max in an instant, taking up defensive stances. Princess Celestia and Luna wheeled around, their horns alight with magic. They calmed down when a Lunar Guard rushed in.

“What is the meaning of this?” Luna asked, her gaze stern. The guard stopped before the two princesses, saluting.

“Apologies for interrupting,” he said, his tufted ears splayed backwards. “But, unfortunately, we have a situation.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Melodic Wind < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Not many ponies knew it, but the dungeons within Canterlot were unique. Unlike the rest of the palace, which had been crafted painstakingly by horn and hoof, the dungeons weren’t made out of marble and gilded paint; they were carved out of the stone of the mountain itself. While Canterlot, in all its glory, was no more than eight hundred years old, the caves that made up the dungeons were at least two thousand years in age.

Buried deep within the mountain Canterlot was perched on, no natural light reached the ponies, and other creatures, unlucky enough to find themselves imprisoned there. In order to reach the dungeons, one had to travel down a long set of stairs carved into the stone. Darkness surrounded the steps, only broken by the occasional red torch. The fact that one side of the stairs dropped off into a massive chasm just made it more perilous.

Once you reached the bottom of the stairs, you had to cross a bridge that spanned over a large natural underground lake, the bottom of which was too deep to reach without assistance from magic. Even then, nopony had ever dived into the lake. Dark creatures lurked in the still waters; large fanged fish with glowing lures on their heads, massive eels with rows of sharp teeth, and large jellyfish with stingers thirty feet long that glowed eerily in the dark. There were even rumors going around the guard that something lived down there that had long black tentacles and large, glowing green eyes the size of a grown pony.

Despite the creatures living in the deep, the cavern the lake was located in was a sight to behold. Large crystals grew from the walls, evidence of the crystal caverns deep beneath the dungeons. Long stalactites, many of which were six or seven feet in length, hung from the ceiling high overhead, covered in luminescent moss that glowed softly in the darkness, the uneven patches giving the illusion of the night sky.

Once you managed to cross the lake, you reached the actual dungeons themselves. Made from several long tunnels, the cells of the dungeon were basically small holes in the rockwall, with iron bars covering the entrances. Each cell contained a small bed, a hole in which to do one’s business, and a small light source in the form of a tiny gem embedded into the ceiling of the cell.

All that wasn’t what made them unique, however.

What made them unique was the fact that the entire cave complex had been carved out of the mountain by the humans that had lived there before ponies had arrived to build the large mountainside city. It had been during the building of the palace that the pony construction workers had stumbled upon the humans and their cave. After domesticating the humans, the ponies had taken over the cave system and turned it into Canterlot’s dungeon.

Over the years, hundreds of members of the various universities scattered around Canterlot tried to get permission to descend into the caves to study the system. Some wanted to explore, some wanted to study a naturally formed human habitat, and some wanted to study the wildlife living within the lake. All were turned down due to the nature of what the caves were being used for.

Hundreds of professors, explorers, and splunkers would give their hooves to be able to spend one day in the cavern. However, only the scum of Equestria would ever bear witness to the cave’s beauty.

The irony of that fact was lost on Corporal Melodic Wind.

“The one night of the month I requested off, and I end up down here,” she grumbled, resting her head on her hoof as she sat on one of the stone platforms surrounding the entrance to the dungeons. Leaning her back against the cavern wall, she gazed out at the massive lake with a bored expression on her face, her spear held loosely in her wing.

Dangling her back hooves off the edge of the platform, she sighed heavily, “Figures they planned the Gala the same night as my little brother’s birthday.” She could see it now: her entire family gathered around the kitchen table, singing happy birthday as her little brother bounced happily in his seat, a large grin plastered on his face; his enthusiasm causing smiles to spread across the table.

His first birthday since getting his cutie mark, and it was the first birthday she couldn’t be there with him. Instead, she was stuck in The Pit, on guard duty.

“I didn’t even get a chance to get him a birthday present yet,” Melodic huffed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She had been planning on getting him that Wonderbolt poster he had been eyeing, she had even been saving up her bits just for it, but due to the amount of work she had taken on over the past few weeks, she hadn’t gotten a chance yet.

Eyeing the clock just above the entrance to the dungeons, Melodic noted that it was currently nearing ten o’clock. Right about now, her brother was probably getting ready for bed, exhausted after all the excitement of the evening.

“Happy Birthday, bro,” she said, a feeling of melancholy falling over her. Absentmindedly, she brushed some dust off of her blue coat. Unlike the rest of her family, all of whom were covered in white fur, Melodic Wind had been born with a coat of the most lovely shade of aqua blue. It was this blue coat, combined with her abnormally large wings, that had earned her the nickname ‘Blue Heron’ amongst her fellow guards.

A low growl suddenly echoed around the cavern, causing Melodic to blink in surprise. Perking up, she looked around, trying to locate the source of the noise. The lake remained still, no ripples from something breaking the surface. It took her a few seconds to realize the noise was coming from her stomach.

Blushing heavily, she clambered to her hooves. Stretching her large wings, she jumped from the platform and drifted down to the floor, alighting gently. Flicking her mane out of her face, Melodic turned and trotted into the dungeons, keeping her spear clasped in her wing. Almost immediately, she turned and slipped into a small doorway just on the inside of the tunnel entrance.

Inside was a small living area designed to house the guards that were on duty at the time. There was a mini fridge that held different types of food and drink, a small countertop and sink, as well as a cooking stove. A table stood in the center of the room, a couple of decks of cards thrown across the surface, remnants of the last poker game played there. A small alcove in the back of the room held several beds, as well as a small bookshelf.

This same living space could hold up to four guards comfortably. Tonight, it was just Melodic.

Trotting over to the fridge, Melodic swung the door open and glanced inside.

“Figures,” she huffed, looking at the sparsely filled shelves. “As usual, the boys ate everything, and left nothing good for me.” Grabbing a small oatcake, she shut the door with a click. Well, it’s not as good as birthday cake, but it’ll do. Biting into the stale treat, she turned and head back out towards her original spot.

“It’s so boring down here,” she grumbled, sulking as she exited the tunnels and re-entered the cavern. “Why can’t anything exciting happen?”

“Well, my dear,” a deep voice chuckled from beside her, making the pegasus jump. “Speak of Discord, and up he shall walk.” Melodic yelped, dropping her oatcake as she spun around, bring her spear up.

“Celestia fuck me,” she growled, holding a hoof to her chest. She glared at the elderly stallion who emerged from the darkness. “How can somepony as old as you be so quiet?” The graying unicorn just smirked, his blue eyes dancing with mirth as Melodic lowered her spear.

“It comes with experience.”

“Experience my right flank,” Melodic grumbled, bending down and picking up the fallen oatcake. Brushing it off, she eyed the treat before shrugging and taking another bite. Meh, she thought, chewing slowly. Tastes about the same.

Still chewing, she turned and gave the new stallion a bemused look, “So, what’s the Archmage of all ponies doing down here in The Pit, especially with something like the Grand Galloping Gala going on upstairs?”

“Well, it was a toss up between spending the night with the cold, unfeeling scum of Equestria, or coming down here and visiting these fine ponies,” the Archmage said, scratching at his goatee, the smirk still on his face.

“And you chose down here, why?” Melodic asked, cocking an eyebrow as she tried not to smile.

“Work, unfortunately.”

“Work?”

“Princess Celestia put me in charge of interrogating the unicorns captured in Ponyville,” the Archmage explained, examining his hoof with disinterest. “Since I’ve had just about enough of the nobles and their scheming for the night, I decided to get started on it immediately. Better sooner rather than later.” Taking another bite of the oatcake, Melodic eyed the unicorn before her.

“Let me get this straight,” she said, chewing slowly. “Instead of hanging out at the Gala, you came down here to see the dangerous prisoners?” The Archmage nodded. “And, under the orders of Princess Celestia, you are allowed to see these prisoners whenever?” Another nod. Swallowing, Melodic ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought.

“Got any proof?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. The Archmage laughed softly, a smile touching his muzzle. Lighting up his horn, he pulled a scroll out of a pair of saddlebags across his flank.

“I believe you will find this satisfactory,” he said, levitating the scroll over to Melodic. Clasping the scroll in her hooves, she unrolled it and quickly skimmed through the content. Reaching the bottom of the scroll, she tapped on the signature, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Everything seems in order,” she said finally, handing the scroll back to the Archmage. Reaching a hoof into her armor, she pulled a large key out of one of her hidden pockets. Shoving the rest of the oatcake into her mouth, Melodic turned and headed back into the tunnel.

“I’ll let you in,” she called over her shoulder as the Archmage followed her, “but don’t expect them to be as fun as the nobles.”

“I suspect that nothing could be as fun as the Canterlot nobles,” the Archmage chuckled, shaking his head. Walking past the living quarters, Melodic took the stallion deeper into the tunnel, where a massive iron gate rested. Grabbing the padlock in her hoof, she slipped the key into the keyhole and twisted, unlocking the gate with a click. Grabbing the iron bars in her hooves, Melodic pulled on the gates, groaning loudly. They swung open slowly, creaking loudly as the rusted hinges moved.

Once they were open wide enough, Melodic motioned for the Archmage to enter, slipping in behind him and closing the gate with a loud clank.

“So, you know which of the bad boys you want to talk to first?” she asked, slipping the key back into her armor. She turned and started heading deeper into the tunnel. Nodding, the Archmage fell in step behind her.

“I was hoping to talk to the leader. Darkflare, I believe his name is.”

“Darkflare it is.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Golden Ingot < < ~ ~ ~ ~

When did my life go so wrong? Golden Ingot thought, lying on the small, uncomfortable bed within the cell. Staring at the rocky ceiling above him, Golden tapped his hoof against the wall absentmindedly, a small frown on his face.

His originally pristine golden coat and mane were now matted and ragged looking, his mane hanging in front of his face in dirty locks. His manicured hooves were now cracked and chipped. He looked nothing like the rich earth pony that had lived in Ponyville only months ago.

Stupid unicorns, Ingot growled, glaring at the small light gem in the ceiling, which provided his cell with a dim red light. This is all their fault! My life was going perfectly until they started to intervene! Golden could still remember the first time a unicorn had ruined his life; it was forever burned into his mind and caused his blood to boil.

Born to an influential family in Vanhoover, Golden had been raised by the harbor, in sight of the ocean, and the ships that sailed it. His father, a wealthy earth pony, owned a large fishing company. His mother had passed during his birth, dying from a weak heart, forcing his father to raise him. A family stallion, his father did just that.

From an early age Golden had been taught how to run the business, even when going to school. He had even earned his cutie mark working for his father, managing the expenses of the fishing fleet.

When Golden had become a young adult, his father had fallen ill with a rare disease that could be treated only by a doctor in Manehatten. Unable to move his father due to health concerns, Golden had sent for the doctor, begging him to come immediately. The unicorn had taken his merry sweet time responding to Golden’s pleas, and by the time he had arrived in Vanhoover, it had been too late; his father had passed, in excruciating pain.

With the death of his father, Golden had inherited ownership of the fishing company, as well as all of its employees. For three years Golden had managed to run the company smoothly and without complications. For three years profits had grown, and everything had been good and stable. For three years, Golden had actually been content.

But that all changed when the unicorn arrived.

Under the guise of an up-and-coming fishing company, the unicorn and her helpers had slowly, yet steadily, begun to encroach on Golden’s fishing grounds. Using their magic, her workers had managed to bring in twice as many fish as Golden’s, as well as twice as big. At first it had been simply a minor annoyance; a stinging blow to his pride, nothing more.

But as the months continued, Golden’s business saw a steady decrease in sales, as well as the amount of fish that were being caught. By the end of the year, the business that Golden had grown up with, and inherited from his father, went bankrupt. It had been Golden’s displeasure to have to fire over fifty workers, most of whom were relying on him for income for their families.

It had been even worse to sell his father’s business, one of the few things his father had left him after his death, to the unicorn that had destroyed him.

With nothing left for him in Vanhoover, Golden Ingot had packed up his dwindling fortune, and left.

Traveling from town to town, looking for a new profession, Golden’s travels soon took him to Appleloosa. Arriving at the frontier town, Golden Ingot had used what little remained of his fortune to buy an old mine from an aging prospector. Hiring a young colt to work for him during the summer, Golden had delved into the earth, searching for fortune.

After several months of finding nothing, Golden had literally struck gold. It may not have been the rarest element in Equestria, but there was enough there to make him, and his young helper, very rich. Soon, Golden had a growing mining company on his hooves.

As the years went by, Golden Ingot’s fortune continued to grow, as did his love life. Within five years, Golden was happily married to a loving wife called Dusty Withers. For the first time since being driven from Vanhoover, Golden was happy. He had a loving wife, a steady income, and plans for a foal in the near future.

And then it had all crumbled down around him.

A group of unicorns, sent from Canterlot, showed up in Appleloosa one day. Immediately they had staked a claim on the Macintosh Hills, carving them up as they searched for gold, claiming it was for the Royal Treasury. With the help of their magic, they had been able to locate and mine the gold faster than Golden could even hope to.

Once again, within a year, Golden’s fortune was slipping, as was his relationship with his wife. They would constantly argue about what needed to be done, all while the company was slowly going broke. Unwilling to stand by his side anymore, Dusty had left him, taking half of his money, as well as their unborn foal, with her. Heartbroken and alone, Golden had signed his company over to the unicorns and had left town.

Similar experiences followed him wherever he went; Manehatten, Baltimare, Canterlot. Everyplace he went, unicorns drove him out. Down on his luck, barely any bits to his name, Golden Ingot had gone to the last place available to him: Ponyville.

It had been there that he had settled down for the last time, it had been where he had started his shipping company, and it had been where he had lived for the past twenty-five years, up until a few months ago.

Where did everything go so wrong? Sitting up in the bed, Golden closed his tired eyes and ran a hoof through his long, greasy mane. Scratching at the nape of his neck with a dirty hoof, he sighed heavily. Lowering his hoof, Golden scrunched up his face, ears perking up. In the distance, echoing down the tunnel, came the sound of hoofsteps.

Slowly slipping out of the bed, Golden approached the bars of his cell, his ears straining. The two sets of hoofsteps grew louder as whoever was walking down the tunnel grew closer.

Who could that be? Golden Ingot wondered, leaning to try and see further down the passage.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Archmage < < ~ ~ ~ ~

As they walked down the tunnel, Melodic Wind glanced back at the aging unicorn behind her, a smirk on her face, “So, anything interesting going on up at the Gala this year?”

“Oh, the usual,” he replied, waving a hoof airily. “Nobles trying to gain favors with one another, attempting to earn bits and higher positions of power. I even had Winter Cold trying to convince me to hoof her some bits for a weather project she was working on. Something about some new spell that will reduce the need for pegasi in other weather factories across Equestria.”

“Did you agree?” Melodic asked, a concerned look on her face.

“Buck no,” the Archmage said with a snort. “Do you realize the outcry that would cause in the pegasi community alone? I would have hundreds of families sending me angry letters for just suggesting such a thing! Besides,” he added, a large smirk spreading across his face, “she doesn’t even have enough magic to perform the spell she wanted. It would be nothing but a waste of bits.” This earned a laugh from Melodic.

“A noble wasting bits?” she chuckled, swishing her tail. “Who’s ever heard of such a thing!” The Archmage chuckled humoredly, before he sobered.

“How much more of a walk do we have?” he asked coolly, trying to hide his annoyance. “I don’t mean to complain, but I’m not as young as I once was. These old joints of mine can only take so much.”

“Not much further,” Melodic said, glancing into a passing cell. “It should be right about… here!” With a cheerful grin, she moved to stand in front of the cell in question. Keeping a neutral face, the Archmage moved to stand next to her.

Gazing into the darkened cell, the Archmage almost had to squint to see the stallion inside; almost. The crimson unicorn glared up at the pair from his spot on the bed, his black mane hanging in front of his face in long, thin strands. His icy blue eyes cut through the darkness, almost glowing in the gloom of his cell.

As the pair watched him, he growled before lowering his head and looking away.

“Aw, come on now, Darky,” Melodic cooed at the stallion, a teasing smile on her face as she tapped the bars of the cell with her spear. “Don’t be that way! This is, after all, your first visitor in weeks. I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about.” Turning to look at the Archmage, Melodic nodded her head at the imprisoned stallion. “You need any help with him?”

“No,” the Archmage said clippedly.

“You need anything else from me at this time?” Melodic asked, scratching her chin.

“No,” the Archmage said again, not taking his eyes off of the stallion in the cell. “Your services are no longer required.”

“Okay then, if you need me, I’ll--” The Archmage’s horn lit up, and Melodic yelped in surprise and pain as her head was smashed against the rock wall of the tunnel. The pegasus was unconscious before she hit the floor, blood flowing from a large gash on her forehead.

With a burst of his magic, the Archmage reached into the fallen guard’s armor and pulled out the cell keys.

“That, my dear,” he said as he stepped over the downed mare. “Is why you should always wear your helmet when on duty.” Walking up to the cell, he rested a foreleg against the cold steel as he leaned on the bars. The stallion inside had returned his attention to the front of his cell during the commotion. He looked at the Archmage coolly as the two of them eyed each other.

Finally, the older stallion spoke, his voice barely above a whisper in the silent tunnel, “Darkflare, what am I going to do with you?”

“Hey,” growled Darkflare as he clammered to his hooves. “I did what you asked me to do!” Stretching his tense muscles, Darkflare rolled his shoulders, working the kinks out of his neck. Stepping forward, he made his way to the front of the cell where he leaned against the bars as well, staring the Archmage in the face. “Which is more than you can say for the others you hired. They all ended up either getting killed by enraged humans, or murdered by the guards raiding their hideouts.”

“You didn’t do everything I asked,” the Archmage said, his eyes narrowing.

“I did enough,” Darkflare snarled, tilting his head to the side.

“You sold humans on the side, as well as ran those fighting rings. That went against what I asked you to do, and ended up being the reason you got screwed over in the end.”

“Bits are bits,” Darkflare said with a unconcerned shrug. “You weren’t complaining when you got a cut.”

“The fact that you singlehoovedly funded this operation off of your… winnings is the only reason we’re having this conversation.” Jingling the keys in front of Darkflare’s face, the Archmage smirked. “Ready to get back to work?”

“Do I have a choice?”

The Archmage chuckled, shaking his head, “No, you really don’t.”

Inserting the key into the cell’s lock, the Archmage gave it a quick flick with his magic, and the bars unlocked.

“Finally,” Darkflare huffed, pushing the cell door open and stepping out into the tunnel, treading on Melodic’s wings as he exited. With a pulse of his magic, the Archmage freed Darkflare’s horn from the magical inhibitor that was clamped around its base. “You have no idea how aggravating it’s been being confined to such a small space for so long.” The Archmage’s eye twitched slightly and he glared at Darkflare.

“At least you weren’t turned into a statue,” he said coldly, causing Darkflare to pause.

“Please,” he said, waving a hoof at the elderly stallion. “Who do I look like, Discord?” Huffing, the Archmage turned his attention away from Darkflare, focusing instead on the key suspended in his magic. His brow furrowed slightly as he concentrated on the key. Pushing a little magic down his horn, there was a brief flash of light. When the magic faded, a duplicate key was floating next to the original.

“Here,” the Archmage said, tossing the cloned key at Darkflare. “See to releasing the others.”

“Just our original crew?” Darkflare asked, catching the key in his own magic with a bored expression on his face.

“See if you can round up any more volunteers,” the Archmage said with a smirk.

“And if they refuse?”

“Then take care of them,” the Archmage said evenly. “One way or another, there will be nopony left here when we leave.” An evil smirk slowly spread across Darkflare’s face.

“Yes, sir.” With that, the freed stallion turned and slipped down the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness. The Archmage watched him go, a blank look on his face. Sighing heavily, he sucked on his tongue as he thought. After several minutes, the Archmage shook his head, sighing again. The things I do...

Slowly turning his head, he glanced into the cell across from Darkflare’s, a small smile slowly spreading across his muzzle. Trotting forward casually, the Archmage peered through the bars at the pony on the other side.

“Now, what are we going to do with you, my little pony?” The pony inside the cell shrunk back, trembling slightly. This just caused the Archmage to chuckle darkly. Let’s see if we can add another piece to the board. “Well?” he asked the pony again.

“W-what do you mean?” Golden Ingot asked, swallowing nervously.

“What do I mean?” the Archmage asked, feigning surprise. As he looked at Golden, his eyes wide, the Archmage’s ears twitched as they picked up the faintest sound of music.

It started low, almost non-existent, before beginning to grow. Slowly, the deep sound of a pipe organ began to fill the tunnels, the beat coursing through the Archmage’s body. He could feel his heart beginning to beat in time with the organ, his body becoming one with the music.

“What I mean is you now have a choice before you, my dear boy!” the Archmage cried with a dastardly smile, “And it’s time for you to choose what your future holds!” With that, the music swelled, echoing down the tunnel and causing the very rocks to vibrate. Words leapt unbidden into the Archmage’s head, and his wicked smile only grew as he stared down at the cowering pony before him.

Opening his mouth, the Archmage sang!

“♫ You can continue living your sorry life the way you’ve been, and you can hope that you’ll get ahead in the end ♪” Twirling the key around in his magic, the Archmage couldn’t help but sway on his hooves to the beat of the music. “♫ You can be a goody two-shoes and follow every law, but that would only prove to be the final straw ♪”

With a flick of his magic, the Archmage inserted the key into the cell’s lock. There was a click, and the cell door swung open, in perfect time with the music.

His smile growing large, the Archmage slipped into the cell with Golden, throwing a foreleg over the stallion’s shoulders. The earth pony flinched at the contact, but couldn’t find it within himself to move away.

“♫ I, on the other hoof, can offer you more, Gems and power and bits galore! ♪” Still keeping a leg draped across Golden, the Archmage flicked his other forehoof through the air. A stream of bits flew from it, scattering through the air like golden rain. They clattered onto the floor, only adding to the mystical music.

Golden’s eyes followed the bits as they fell, an almost hungry look in his eyes. The Archmage saw this, and couldn’t help but laugh. This will be easier than I thought! Grabbing Golden’s shoulder with his hoof, the Archmage spun him around, flinging him out of the cell in the process.

As Golden staggered around, his eyes rolling in his head, the Archmage exited the cell, kicking the door shut behind him. Not missing a beat, the Archmage continued where he had left off, “♫ So why would you continue to struggle through strife, when I can offer you a better life? ♪”

Shaking his head, Golden blinked a couple of times, trying to get his eyes to settle. Turning to look at the Archmage, he fell back with a yelp as he found himself face to face with the elderly stallion.

“♫ So join with me, and you shall be free, of this dreaded hypocrisy! ♪” the Archmage sang as he looked down at the stallion at his hooves. The music died down slightly, cellos and contrabassoons taking over for the pipe organ. Reaching down, the Archmage grabbed Golden by his hoof and hauled him to his hooves.

The stallion staggered slightly, trying to get his bearings. Huffing, the Archmage shoved him down the tunnel, in the same direction Darkflare had headed. They continued down the darkened tunnel; one pushing, the other stumbling. The red torches along the wall flickered, casting an evil red glare over the pair as the flames seemed to loom around them.

As they walked, the music began to swell again, the pipe organ roaring back to life. The Archmage took that as his cue to continue. Pushing Golden into the wall with his shoulder, the elderly stallion grinned at the terrified pony.

“♫ Now, come on, boy; are you in or out? Are you going to be a coward or be devout? ♪” Golden gagged as the Archmage’s body pressed into his neck, cutting off his air supply. Stepping back, the Archmage let the stallion fall back to the floor gasping for air. Lowering his head, the Archmage continued to smirk as he eyed the prone stallion. “♫ Are you going to head back to your damp, dark cell, or will you come with us and help rebel? ♪”

Golden staggered to his hooves, rubbing at his neck gingerly. The Archmage leaned forward, grabbing onto Golden’s shoulders with both forehooves as he spun the stallion around. Staring Golden in the eye, the Archmage couldn't help but laugh at the fear he saw there. “♫ Come put your faith in me, and soon you’ll see, that you’re living in the lap of luxury! ♪”

Golden stared back at the Archmage, his mouth open slightly as he breathed heavily. His eyes flicked to something over the elderly stallion’s shoulders, and he frowned, an uncertain look flashing across his face.

Turning his head, the Archmage looked over his own shoulder. His eyes narrowed and he snarled at what he saw. Some moron of a guard had hung a picture of a smiling Celestia in the empty spaces between two cells. Why they would pick this particular spot, the Archmage didn’t know, but it didn’t matter; he would fix that soon enough.

Turning to look back at Golden, the Archmage gave him a villainous grin.

“♫ You won’t have to fear these morons anymore--” Without taking his eyes off of Golden, the Archmage reached up and grabbed a hold of the picture. With one strong pull, he tore the picture down, tearing the painting to shreds “--All they ever do is make life a bore! ♪” Tossing the torn piece of painting aside, the Archmage threw a hoof over Golden’s shoulders ferrying him away from the now empty picture frame.

“♫ You won’t have to listen to those Royal pests; I promise you, that I’ll come through, and make your life the best! ♪”

Reaching the end of the tunnel, the pair came to what appeared to be an intersection. Spinning the earth pony around, the unicorn glared down at him with a knowing smirk. His grin spread as the organ slowly grew in tempo and volume. A unseen choir joined in, their voices as deep and resonating as the pipe organ. The flames of the torches in the intersection seemed to flare to life, creating pillars of red flame that licked at the ceiling.

Taking a step forward, the Archmage seemed to tower over Golden, like a dragon before a lamb.

“♫ So, come on, you deluded soul!” the unicorn snarled, baring his teeth at the earth pony. “Stop acting like a scared, little foal! Just grow a pair, and join the team! I promise you, once we’re all through, you’ll be able to do almost anything! ♪” The choir and organ swelled to an almost deafening roar, bits of rock and dust falling from the tunnel’s ceiling.

The Archmage didn’t notice; he only had eyes for the pitiful excuse for a pony that was sniveling before him. Growling, the Archmage took another step forward, the torch flames flaring as he did so. The music had reached the peak of its crescendo.

“♫ Make a deal with me, and you shall be free, to do everything you’ve ever dreamed! All it will take, is one little shake, and I can set you free! ♪”

Everything froze; the flames of the torches died down to embers, barely producing any light. The music and the choir dying out instantly, the only sound filling the tunnels was the soft sound of a violin. Golden’s brown eyes stared up at the Archmage’s ice blue ones. They seemed to glow in the semi-darkness, creating a disconcerting feeling within Golden.

Slowly, with the tension building, the Archmage held out a hoof to Golden Ingot, offering it to the earth pony like one might offer a hoof to a drowning pony. Golden stared at the hoof, his ears splayed back as his mind raced. Flicking his eyes up, Golden swallowed nervously, licking his suddenly dry lips. Slowly, tentatively, he reached out his hoof…

...and clasped the Archmage’s, giving it a trembling shake. The smile that spread across the Archmage’s face could have given foals nightmares for the rest of their lives.

“Excellent…” he hissed, as the torches flared back to life, the organs rumbled, slowly beginning to crescendo again. Now, along with the cellos and contrabassoons, drums began to beat along with the other instruments. The choir, starting low, slowly began to increase their pitch as the Archmage’s smile grew.

“Now then, Darkflare…” Out of the darkness, the unicorn emerged, a dark smirk on his face. Behind him, other ponies began to materialize as well. They were composed of mostly unicorns, both mares and stallions, with a few pegasi thrown in. There was a surprising lack of earth ponies.

A strong, unpleasant smell hit Golden’s nose, causing him to gag. He recognized it from his time working at a blacksmith’s in Manehatten. It was the smell of burning flesh.

The Archmage turned to look at the new ponies. Running an appraising eye over the group, he nodded before glancing at Darkflare. The Archmage smiled, baring his yellowed teeth.

“Rally the troops,” he hissed.

“Pearl! Rose!” Darkflare called over his shoulders. The two sisters appeared, smirks adorning their faces. “Get this rabble moving!” As the freed prisoners surged forward with a shout, heading back up the passageway towards the entrance to the dungeons, the Archmage reached forward and pulled Golden along. The drums pounded as the herd of ponies moved down the tunnel.

Glancing at Golden out of the corner of his eyes, the Archmage sneered, “♫ Now you see, dear boy, life’s not too hard to live! All you need to know is when to take and give! ♪” Golden glanced around at the ponies around him, the majority of which were unicorns. The nervousness in his eyes was clear to see. I know just what to do to make him feel better, the Archmage thought, his smile growing. If I can take them from ponies, I can give them as well! “♫ Now, I can tell you’re spirits are down and need a lift, so how about this fabulous gift? ♪”

The Archmage’s horn lit up, his magic flashing through the tunnel. A cheer went up from several of the unicorns as the music swelled again. Golden felt a sharp pain flash through his head, and he gritted his teeth in pain. As soon as it had come, it had left, leaving Golden with a strange tingling sensation across the top of his head.

As the magic faded, Golden blinked, trying to clear the stars in front of his eyes. As his vision cleared, Golden caught something just on the edge of his vision. Glancing up, he nearly stumbled when he saw what the Archmage had done. Golden could only gape, in awe and fear, at the horn that was now growing out of his forehead.

The Archmage had just changed him into a unicorn!

In a daze, Golden Ingot could only stare up at the new appendage in shock, pushed along the tunnel by the wave of unicorns. He turned to look at the Archmage, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

“♫ Now, now,” the Archmage sang, waving a hoof through the air. “There’s no need to thank me; it’s what I do! Consider it a present, from me to you! Now come along, boy; it’s time to start life anew, and bid your sorry old one a heartfelt adieu! ♪”

The horde stopped suddenly as they reached the end of the tunnel and the large metal gate that rested there. The freed prisoners gazed up at the gate in confusion, unsure of what to do. One of the unicorns stepped forward, her horn lighting up as she reached for the gate with her magic.

The moment her magic neared the gate, however, she winced. Her magic fizzled and died, leaving the gate untouched. The Archmage tsked, shaking his head as he stepped forward. Can’t use chaos magic; Tia will recognize it immediately. We’ll need to do this the old-fashioned way. Drawing upon his vast reserves of magic, the Archmage began the process of weaving together a very complicated spell.

With a grunt, he forced a large blast of magic through his horn, ripping a large portal open in front of the gate. Slightly winded, he turned and smirked at the wide-eyed ponies behind him. Gesturing at the flickering portal with a hoof, the Archmage said smugly, “Olly olly oxen free.” With a cheer, the horde surged forward through the portal, and out of the dungeons. Caught up in the crowd, Golden was pushed through the portal with the rest of the ponies. The Archmage just smiled, waving a hoof at him as he looked back through the portal, the fear and confusion clear on his face. We’ll have to see if we can’t use him somehow, the Archmage thought as he lowered his hoof.

Darkflare was one of the last ponies to pass through to freedom. As he approached the portal, he looked back at the Archmage, a dark grin on his face. His horn lit up, and Melodic’s unconscious body was suddenly draped across his back.

“I’ll be taking this with me,” he chuckled before disappearing through the portal. With that, the Archmage found himself alone in the dungeons. He stood there, staring at the swirling portal before him, breathing harder than he would have liked. It appears I’m rustier than I thought. He could hear the ambient music around him slowly beginning to die. With a flick of his horn, the Archmage severed the magic keeping the portal open. As it vanished, he turned and unlocked the main gate to the dungeons.

As the large, rusted gate swung slowly open, the Archmage glanced back down into the depths of the dungeon. He could still smell the scent of burning flesh on the air, and a thin layer of smoke was slowly beginning to waft up from the darkened tunnels. The Archmage stared into the darkness, his eyes unfocused.

“♫ Now, Tia, did you really think you’ve won this game? Nothing you do can smother this flame. You can’t trap me with the same old trick; that’s the part of the joy of being so chaotic...♪” The drums died down, and the other instruments slowly began to die with them; the song was coming to an end.

“♫ Ever since I came here, I’ve had to fight, to try and have the ponies see things in a different light. Now, it’s time for Harmony to be upturned...♪” As the Archmage trailed off, the music died; the choir was silenced. Thus ended another moment of the music of harmony. Silence fell over the tunnel as the Archmage stood motionless.

Sighing heavily, the Archmage’s eyes narrowed.

“Then we’re all going to watch this world die and burn…” he muttered darkly.

The sound of approaching hooves caused the Archmage to perk up, his ears swiveling around behind him. It seems that my distraction has run its course. The approaching ponies paused as they entered the dungeons, no doubt eyeing the lone unicorn.

Eventually, one of the new ponies spoke up, “What are you doing down here, Archmage?” Turning his head slightly, the elder unicorn glanced over his shoulder. Princess Celestia stood in the entrance to the dungeons with a group of guards behind her. As the Solar Princess continued to eye the Archmage, the guards slipped by him and hurried deeper into the tunnels.

“Princess Celestia,” the Archmage said, nodding at the princess before turning his attention back to the tunnels. There was a brief moment of silence before Celestia moved to stand next to him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked again, her voice soft. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“When the humans at the Gala started acting up, I sensed a large magical field come to life down here,” the Archmage lied, not looking at the princess. “By the time I arrived, however, it was already too late. Whoever was here had already disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” Princess Celestia asked, still looking down at the unicorn beside her. He motioned around at the surrounding area with a hoof.

“Check the magical residue,” he said quietly. The princess continued to stare at the Archmage for several seconds before her horn lit up with a soft golden light. It pulsed quickly before Celestia’s eyes widened and a small gasp escaped her lips.

“A mass-teleportation portal?” she breathed. “It’s fresh too; we just missed it!”

“It disappeared right when I showed up,” the Archmage replied, nodding his head. “I was just fast enough to see the last prisoner escape. The portal closed seconds later.”

“And who was this pony?”

“I believe it was the one called Darkflare,” the Archmage said, finally looking at Princess Celestia. “The one your student caught in Ponyville.”

“Damn,” the princess swore, stomping her hoof. “Damn it all to Tartarus.” Snorting, she turned to look at the Archmage. “You didn’t happen to get any info from him before he escaped, did you? Did you interrogate him at all yet?”

“No, I haven’t had time to come down and talk to him yet.”

“Of course you haven’t,” Celestia muttered, rubbing her temples with her hooves; she looked stressed. Like she should be, the Archmage thought smugly. Breathing deeply, Celestia lowered her head and groaned softly. “Why did this have to happen tonight of all nights?”

“Your Majesty?” Both Celestia and the Archmage turned to look at the guard that had emerged from the depths of the tunnels. He looked like he was about ready to be sick, but managed to salute nonetheless.

“Yes, my little pony?” Celestia asked, forcing a smile onto her face.

“Ma’am, we’re still searching the cells, but by the looks of it half the prisoners are missing, and the other half--” he swallowed, a queasy look on his face. “The other half appear to have been torched in their cells.”

“Torched?” Celestia asked, her ear twitching slightly. The guard just nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak. Celestia closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Go find Luna and inform her of the situation,” she eventually said, her voice quiet. The guard saluted once more before hurrying off, back towards the surface and out of the dungeons.

The minute the guard was out of earshot, Celestia started swearing explosively. Wheeling on the Archmage, she glared down at him.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where Darkflare is going, or what he’s up to?” she asked, her voice tense. Unperturbed, the Archmage just shook his head. Celestia groaned loudly.

“Look on the bright side,” the Archmage said, a smile playing across his lips. The Solar Princess glanced down at the stallion, a confused look on her face.

“Bright side?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “What bright side?”

“You have a team of experts out there right now, tracking down the remainder of Darkflare’s original group, those who remained free,” the Archmage explained. “They are currently cracking down on Darkflare’s hideouts with the help of an ex-member. They are essentially stripping the enemy of their resources, as well as anything that Darkflare can use against us.”

“I guess,” Celestia said, a small smile spreading across her face.

“Speaking of which,” the Archmage added. “Have you figured out what that artifact was Second Lieutenant Pyre sent you?”

“No,” Celestia sighed, glancing back down the tunnels. “We haven’t seen anything like it before.”

“Well, obviously you aren’t trying hard enough,” the Archmage chuckled softly, his tone teasing. His eyes however, were narrowed, and he was giving the Solar Princess a calculating look.

Instantly Celestia wheeled around, snarling as she glared down at the stallion, her eyes blazing with inner fire.

“WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME THAT I’M NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH?!” she roared, her voice causing the cave to tremble. The Archmage stumbled backwards, his ears splayed against his head. As her voice echoed around the cavern and tunnels, Celestia glared down at the Archmage, her face a mask of rage.

And then, just as suddenly as it came, her anger was gone. A look of shock and horror fell upon Celestia’s face, and she staggered backwards, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Oh,” she choked, raising a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, I’m… I’m so sorry, my little pony. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s alright, princess,” the Archmage said, rubbing his ear with a hoof. “It’s just the stress speaking.”

“No, it’s not alright,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I shouldn’t have yelled at anypony like that. I don’t know where that came from!”

“It’s fine, princess,” the elderly stallion said again, running a hoof through his mane. It was taking all his might not to smirk at the moment. “It’s been a long night, and we both have a lot of things on our minds. You just finish up with your guards down here, and I’ll go get the Battlemages. We’ll start working on a means to find Darkflare, or at least prepare for whatever he might have planned. You and I can discuss this later, okay?” The Solar Princess nodded, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Very well,” she said, nodding her head. “Keep me posted.”

“I’ll just leave you to it then,” the Archmage said, before bowing. Turning, he exited the tunnels and slowly began to make his way across the massive lake, leaving Princess Celestia and her remaining guards behind in the dungeons that had become a tomb.

Author's Note

So, I tried something new and attempted to add a moment of musical harmony to the story. As you are now no doubt aware, I can't write songs worth a damn…

Interlude: Aftermath and Blood Money

“I can’t believe you,” Twilight grumbled, her eyes narrowed.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t really, what with Rainbow and Applejack holding down my arms and legs respectively. Lying flat on my stomach, each of the mares held me down as Twilight used her magic to examine the wound on my side. A towel was placed under my stomach to prevent blood from staining the wooden floor of the library.

Now, the pair wasn’t holding me down because the injury was severe. If that had been the case, I’m pretty sure that they would have (hopefully) taken me to the hospital. No, the reason they were holding me down was that when I had been removing my armor, Twilight had gotten a glimpse of my injury.

She had taken one glance at the blood before a dark look had passed over her face. She had more or less ordered the girls to hold me down. Not wanting to risk her wrath, they had done so quickly and without argument. I had tried to get free, but while I might be able to take on Rainbow or Applejack by themselves, as a team, I stood no chance.

“Do you like being in pain? Is that it?” Twilight continued. “Do you enjoy getting injured doing… stupid things? Is it not bad enough having a blind eye, or a limp? You have to get even more scars?!”

As she scolded, I could feel her magic oozing deep into the claw marks, and I squirmed at the sensation. I could feel the edges of the wounds being pushed open as she searched for anything that could have been left within the wound. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, having the already tender and raw skin stretched even further.

Pain raced up my side as her magic located something. Immediately, it surrounded the foreign object and began to slowly extract it. I hissed in discomfort at the feeling and gritted my teeth. With one final tug, the object was pulled free of the wound, leaving only a dull ache behind.

Before I had time to recover, Twilight shoved the thing in front of my face.

“You see this?!” she snarled, waving the object around with her magic. It took me a second to realize that it was the tip of a bloodied timberwolf claw. It had apparently broken off and gotten stuck in there like a large splinter.

“You could have gotten a horrible infection because of this!” she snarled, practically shoving the claw up my nose. “Is that what you wanted?!” She gave the claw one last shake before tossing it across the room and into a trash bin.

From her spot at the table, Avera snorted loudly, rolling her eyes.

“We would have pulled it out of him,” she said, rubbing her bandaged muzzle with a hoof. She winced, beads of red appearing on the white bandage as she pulled her hoof away.

Twilight’s head whipped around and she glared daggers at her. If looks could kill, Avera would be nothing more than a stain on the wall. “You be quiet! This wouldn’t have happened if you had just stayed in the library instead of prancing through the Everfree Forest like a herd of foals!”

“That’s what I said,” Ebony spoke up, only to wilt seconds later under Twilight’s glare. She ducked her head and went back to fiddling with a cracked hoof.

As Twilight went back to searching through the claw mark, Rainbow leaned down and whispered in my ear, “So, you had another run in with the timberwolves?” I nodded, staring at the wooden floor beneath me, and she laughed quietly. “Nice! Did ya fight the alpha again?” I turned my head to look up at her and smiled. Her ears perked up and she smiled as well. “Awesome!”

“Don’t encourage him!” Twilight suddenly scolded, swatting the back of Rainbow’s head with a wing. Her magic pulsed and I grunted as it suddenly dug deeper into my wound, causing pain to lance down my side. “It’s bad enough that his guards go along with his stupidity, he doesn’t need us to as well. Speaking of which...” I felt her twist around beside me, turning to face Fluttershy, who had regained consciousness a while ago.

“What were you thinking, sending him into timberwolf territory during the spring?” Twilight asked, causing the shy mare to ‘eep’ in surprise.

“I… I n-needed some Rabbit’s Paw,” Fluttershy squeaked out, tears in her eyes. “Angel has Flash Fur Fever, and I needed it for his medicine. Zecora wasn’t home, and the timberwolves wouldn’t listen to me.”

“So, you paid Max to go get it?” Twilight asked incredulously. She paused before adding, “Where did you even get half-a-million bits?”

“I’ve b-been saving up the money my parents send me,” Fluttershy mumbled. “They t-tend to be quite generous. It’s my emergency fund for if something happens to one of my animal friends. When Angel’s fever grew worse this morning, I grabbed the bag and raced over... here…” Her voice got quieter and quieter as she trailed off, hiding behind her mane as Twilight continued to glare at her.

After several seconds, Twilight sighed and closed her eyes. “Why didn’t you just ask one of us for help? Hay, I’m sure that Applejack and Rainbow would have been willing to get the flower for you.” The mares in question nodded in agreement.

Fluttershy shrank further into her mane. “I-I didn’t want to inconvenience you girls,” she whimpered. “You w-were all so busy with Winter Wrap Up, and I didn’t want to cause any trouble.”

“So you decided to have Max do it instead?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow. I spasmed again as Twilight pulled another piece of timberwolf claw out of my side. God damn it, that hurts!

“He’s dealt with timberwolves before,” Fluttershy answered lamely. “I thought that he could deal with them again to get the f-flower. I didn’t think he would get this hurt, though. If I had known...” She whimpered, blinking back tears.

“Yeah, well… he did,” Twilight said, eyeing the piece of claw coldly before tossing it over her shoulder.

“Hey, back off,” Avera said, glaring at Twilight. “She didn’t do anything wrong. We accepted the job, so it’s our fault, not hers.”

“Oh, I know it’s not entirely her fault,” Twilight snarled, glaring at Avera. “In fact, I’m thinking that I might just have to contact Luna about the incompetent guards she’s assigned my human." All of my guards froze instantly at her words, their eyes widening.

“W-what?” Ebony stuttered, her ears splaying backwards.

“Well, it’s obvious that you can’t do your jobs properly,” Twilight snarled, sneering at them. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Rarity and Pinkie Pie exchange nervous glances. On top of me, Applejack and Rainbow shifted, clearly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken.

I didn’t like it either, but for different reasons. I knew Twilight had a point. However, I didn’t want to see my guards get in trouble. They may have originally just been guards assigned to me by Luna and Celestia, but during their time here, I had grown attached to them. Enough so that I considered them more akin to friends than guards.

And I kinda didn’t want to lose three of the few friends I’ve made here in Equestria.

“Hey, he’s alive, isn’t he?” Avera asked, pointing a hoof at me. I winced as Twilight’s magic seemed to jerk suddenly.

“Oh, so that’s all that matters to you? That he’s alive?” Twilight asked, her wings flaring. “It doesn’t matter if he’s paralyzed from the neck down as long as he’s alive! You’re only concerned about doing the bare minimum needed to get your paycheck!” This caused Avera to sputter, opening and closing her mouth wordlessly.

“That's not true… and uncalled for,” I heard Primrose tsk softly.

Twilight ignored her, or just didn’t hear.

“He may just be a job for you,” she continued, her voice raising into a near shout, “but he’s more than that to me! He’s important to me!” She stomped her hoof for emphasis. Unfortunately, it came down on my injured side, hard.

I snarled as pain exploded up my side, stars bursting in front of my eye as my vision blurred. My legs spasmed hard enough to cause Applejack to topple off of me with a startled yelp. I gritted my teeth as my side continued to throb, my breath coming in ragged gasps.

As the agony slowly dulled, I became aware of the fact that the entire library had fallen silent. Cracking open an teary eye, I glanced up, only to find Twilight staring down at me, her eyes wide in shock.

Slowly, tears began to build up in the corners of her eyes. “No, no, nonononono!” Chanting to herself, she rubbed the area around the claw marks tenderly with her hooves, careful not to touch the wound itself. Her magic instantly backed off, slipping gently out of the wound as she continued to rub.

“I… I didn’t mean to… I’m s-sorry, I—” The tip of her hoof brushed too close to one of the open wounds, and I hissed as pain flared up again. She backed off, and just sat there, staring at the floor tearfully.

Rainbow got off of my arms as I pushed myself into a seated position, wincing at the pain as the muscles in my side moved. I sat there, staring at Twilight, who refused to look at me, instead choosing to look at her hooves.

After several seconds of tense silence, Rarity awkwardly cleared her throat.

“Well,” she said, slowly inching towards the door, her eyes darting back and forth. “I’d love to stay, but I must… go check on Sweetie Belle!” With that, she dashed out the door and into the night.

“Y-yeah, and Ah gotta see tah Applebloom,” Applejack said, hot on her heels. She paused at the door, glancing back at Twilight. “Ah’ll, uh… Ah’ll see ya tomorrow, ‘kay, Twi?” Twilight said nothing, which Applejack apparently took as an answer because she quickly slipped outside without further ado.

Pinkie Pie, her hair less poofy than it normally was, just looked around at the tense faces before, with a sigh, she got up and followed the others out the door.

Rainbow stared after her, a bemused look on her face. She blinked before glancing around the room.

“Um,” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, “I think I’ll just be goin’ as well. Gotta get up real early tomorrow to deal with any wayward clouds.” She took several quick steps towards the door only to pause. Glancing back at Twilight, she bit her lip, an ear flicking against her head. With a sigh, she turned and gave the alicorn a quick nuzzle before rocketing out of the open door like a missile.

Twilight absentmindedly touched her cheek where Rainbow had nuzzled her, but other than that she remained still. Slowly, her hoof lowered, as did her head, her face now hidden beneath the bangs of her mane.

Eyes darting back and forth, Fluttershy stood and made to follow Rainbow, but I held out an arm, stopping her in place. She gave me a curious look as I stood up, wincing as my side twinged. Walking over to the table, I ignored my guards’ looks as I picked up the large bag of bits with a grunt. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as I turned and presented the bag to her, silently asking her to take it back.

I was originally going to give her only half of it back, but after all the stuff that had just happened, I didn’t really feel like I had earned it, injured or not. Truthfully, I felt like an ass.

“Oh… oh no, I-I couldn’t,” she said, shaking her head and taking a step back. “N-not after what you went through to get these.” She motioned towards her wing, were the flowers were currently stored, safe in her feathers.

I frowned, offering the bag again, and she shook her head more forcefully, all the while backing up. As soon as her back hoof hit the threshold, she turned with a squeak and bolted, running along the ground as to not disturb the flowers. The door slowly closed behind her, leaving myself, the guards, and Twilight alone (Spike raced to his room as soon as Twilight had ordered Applejack and Rainbow to hold me down).

I stared at the closed door for a moment before, with a sigh, I dropped the bag of bits onto the floor with a loud thud. Turning, I looked down at Twilight, who was still staring at the floor, her eyes hidden behind her bangs.

I stopped in front of the mare, watching as she shivered slightly, her wings limp by her sides.

“Come on, gals,” Primrose grunted, pushing herself up from the table. She headed to the basement door and opened it, motioning down the steps with a wing. She gave me the briefest of looks before disappearing into the depths. Ebony limped over, wincing as she began to descend the stairs. Avera stared at Twilight for a few more seconds, her expression blank, before, with a sigh, she got up and followed after her fellow guards, shooting me a sideways glance as she passed.

“Sorry,” she mouthed, her ears splaying backwards. I nudged the bag of bits towards her and, grabbing it in her mouth, she took it with her into the basement.

The basement door clicked shut behind her, leaving me and Twilight alone with ourselves.

~I’m sorry~ I signed after several seconds of silence.

Twilight’s head jerked up and she gaped at me.

“N-no,” she cried, shaking her head frantically. Swallowing, her eyes shifted to the side as her ears splayed backwards. “No,” she said in a calmer manner. “I… I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, or the others for that matter. It wasn’t right of me. I just… it’s just…” she shuddered, more tears coming to her eyes.

“I just don’t like seeing you hurt,” she whimpered, lowering her head again. “When I saw the blood… I just.. something within me… snapped.”

Sighing, I knelt down and quickly pulled her into a tight hug. She squeaked as my arms wrapped around her, but she quickly melted into the hug. Sighing, she rested her head on my shoulder before returning the embrace, careful to avoid my injuries.

“Thank you,” she whispered in my ear, giving my cheek a quick nuzzle.

I smiled, nodding my head ever so slightly.

There was a pause.

“...you're still in trouble, though.”

...fuck.

Chapter 54: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I stared up at the building before me, my mouth hanging open in shock. It was so vastly different from the other buildings surrounding it that I couldn’t help myself. Unlike the neighboring buildings—which, with their marble exteriors and golden trim, looked like they belonged in Canterlot—this particular building would look more in place in Ponyville.

The walls were dark purple and textured, with strange, twisting designs etched in a lighter shade of violet against the rough surface. Colored lights hung from the eaves, casting a blue glow downwards onto the ground below. The main entrance was a large archway made of black marble that led to an iron door. The marquee over the door bore the words “Mystic Melody Club’ in large letters, superimposed over a large vinyl record. Despite the fact that it was only four in the afternoon, the building’s lights were on, and a line was already forming outside the door. Two bouncers stood near the entrance, managing the row of ponies. Every so often, one of them would check a clipboard he had with him before allowing another pony to pass by and enter the building.

Even while standing in the street, I could hear the faint ‘thump’ of music coming from the building, the cobblestones beneath my feet vibrating ever so slightly. Whenever the door opened, a wave of sound issued forth, although the music was too jumbled for me to make out any lyrics.

I rubbed the back of my neck as I continued to stare up at the club before me, resisting the urge to laugh. It was definitely not what I had been expecting from a pony that lived in Canterlot.

Ponies walked around me as they went about their day. A few shot me curious glances as they passed, but most just ignored me, walking along with their noses in the air. Occasionally, a few high-class ponies would shoot the club disgusted looks before hurrying along, harrumphing loudly.

Well, this is the place, I thought as I glanced up at a nearby street sign. This was the address that Octavia had given me, and the club was called ‘Mystic Melody Club’, although I still didn’t have a clue as to why Vinyl, who I had only met twice for only brief periods of time, wanted to see me.

Running a hand through my long hair, I pulled it back and put it into a short, messy ponytail. I tugged on it gently to make sure it wouldn’t come undone before moving towards the bouncers.

They glanced up as I approached, their bodies tensing. The one with the clipboard eyed me cautiously.

“Shoo,” he muttered, waving the clipboard at me as one would swat a fly. “Get outta here, buddy.”

I stopped in front of them and crossed my arms over my chest, giving the clipboard a bemused glare. The black shirt I had on was one of the few that didn't have Twilight's cutie mark on them, so to the bouncers, I looked like some random human from off the street.

“I told you to get,” the bouncer said again, a little more force in his voice. He was putting on a brave face, but I could tell that I was making him nervous by the way he kept licking his lips. “There’s no food here, so go on!” He moved forward to chase me off, but his partner stopped him with a hoof on his shoulder.

“Hold up,” she said, eyeing my face closely. Pulling a slip of paper out of a pocket on her vest, she gave it a quick glance. “I think the boss is expecting him, actually.”

“What?” the stallion said, giving her an incredulous look. “You can’t be serious!”

“Yup, here it is,” the mare said, showing the stallion the slip of paper. “Scar across the face, blind right eye, weird behavior.” She motioned towards my face with a hoof. “This is him.”

The stallion glanced back and forth between me and the piece of paper, chewing on the inside of his cheek anxiously.

“I didn’t know you could order humans to come and help you with your heat,” he grunted.

This caused my eyes to widen, and a spike of alarm flared in my chest before disappearing as the mare slugged him in the shoulder, her ears splaying back and holding an affronted look on her face.

“It’s not like that,” she tsked, rolling her eyes. “Besides, you know that the boss doesn’t use humans like that.” She continued to glare at her partner for a few more seconds before slipping the piece of paper back into her vest. Turning back to me, she gestured with her hoof. “This way, fella’. Come on, heel!”

Really? Snorting, I gave her a bemused look instead, but did as she asked.

As the mare held the door open for me, one of the ponies standing in line—a slightly overweight stallion with a bad haircut—shouted out in a whiny tone, “Hey, why does a human get to go in right away, but we can’t!”

The mare didn’t miss a beat.

“Because he’s on the list,” she answered, “and you’re not. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with my friend here. I’m sure the two of you can work something out.” She motioned towards her partner, who was now eyeing the whiny stallion, his lips pulled back in a silent sneer.

The stallion gaped at the both of them, before turning his gaze to me. He glared at me, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Returning the glare, I lifted my hand and gave the bastard the bird, before moving forward and entering the club.

It was like stepping into another world.

The minute I walked through the door, I was enveloped in near darkness, only interrupted by bursts of illumination from conveniently placed bulbs around the room. Black lights illuminated everything, causing a psychedelic burst of swirling colors as ponies danced wildly about on the dance floor. What were normally already colorful coats were alight in neon greens, oranges, yellows, blues, and reds beneath the black lights, glow sticks wrapped around necks, legs, tails, wings, and horns. Several fog machines positioned in the corners of the dance floor were belching out large clouds of white vapor. Strobe lights blinked through the layer of mist, illuminating the condensation every color in the spectrum.

As all of this was going on, music roared loudly through massive speakers positioned around the dance floor, the very air seeming to reverberate with the beat; it was like a giant heartbeat was pulsing through the building. On the wall opposite of the door I had just entered, a large balcony loomed over the crowd, several speakers dangling below and around it. A gray unicorn stallion sat behind a large turntable, bobbing his head in time with the music. His mane flicked back and forth with his head, the strip of neon red shooting through the black hair seeming to glow in the black lights. A pair of dark sunglasses covered his eyes.

Lifting a hoof, he adjusted something on the turntable and the music suddenly got louder, causing the sea of ponies to cheer and scream. This caused the stallion to grin and pump his hoof in the air as the lyrics were belted out through the speakers around him.

“Clawed out eyes, broken horns, Cutie Marks on the ground bleed,

Slice ‘em up, dice ‘em up, terrors of the town,

Mares scream, let ‘em run, nopony left to plead,

We’re gonna burn this motherbucker down!”

Wincing at the volume of the music, I continued to stare at the scene before me until I felt a firm tug on my pant leg. I glanced down and saw that the bouncer who had escorted me in was trying to get my attention. Her ears were pressed firmly against her head, trying to block out as much sound as possible. She shouted something up at me, but the words were lost in the deafening roar. Something she seemed to realize, because she scrunched up her face in annoyance before motioning with a hoof that I was to follow her.

She led me across the dance floor, shoving her way through the sea of ponies as we headed towards the far wall. We skirted around the edge of the dance floor, avoiding the dense mass of bodies that made up the center. The bouncer had to fight to make any headway, but I was able to make it through the crowd with general ease. Most ponies just stepped aside when they saw me approaching, looks of confusion or worry crossing their faces before they lost themselves to the music again.

As we made our way across the room, the music continued to blare out loudly.

“And the darkness thrums while the Nightmare hums

Why do you lie there, bitch?

Drink blood out your neck 'til your heart goes numb

Why do you cry there, bitch?

I've got a human army, and you can't harm me

Why do you lie there, bitch?

Your best bet now would be to try and charm me

Why do you cry there, bitch?”

Finally reaching the far wall, the bouncer led me towards a small door right underneath the balcony the DJ was on. He waved to the bouncer as we drew near, and she returned it with a smile. The door itself was rather plain, made out of a dark wood. It had a 'staff only' sign nailed it, as well as two eighth notes etched into the wooden surface.

This close to the speakers, the sound was nearly deafening, and I covered my ears with my hands in an attempt to save my hearing. Each 'thump' from the subwoofers was enough to nearly push the breath from my lungs, and I found myself struggling to breathe.

Reaching the door, the mare pulled a card on a lanyard out from within her vest. Waving the card in front of a small, clear crystal embedded in the wall beside the door, the gem glinted yellow for a brief second before glowing green. The door suddenly swung inward, and if it weren't for all the sound currently assaulting my eardrums, I figured I probably would have heard a 'click' as it unlocked.

Slipping the card and lanyard back into her vest, the mare turned towards me and motioned with a hoof towards the door, shouting something that I couldn't hear. Eager to get out from beneath the deafening speakers, I quickly hurried through the door.

“Vinyl Scratch to Bass Effect, here to wake the dead,

Everypony flees now that the terrors have been spread,

Towns full of corpses, try to get out with your life,

Try to avoid the carnage and avoid the strife.

Look, you want meat? Maybe something to bite?

Bring your human over and get ready for a fight,

Cracked bone, split skull, spilt organs, you can suck it,

Now my human ain't—“

Like a switch being flipped, the minute I stepped through the door, all sound ceased. The music, the singing, the cheering, all of it stopped. Glancing over my shoulder, I could still see the ponies milling about in a mindless swarm, but it was like someone had muted the world. I noted that the edges of the doorway were glowing with a dim golden light.

Beside me, the bouncer sighed happily. “That's better. Now I can actually hear myself think.” She closed the door, blocking my view of the dancing ponies. Turning back to me, she clicked her tongue loudly. “Alright boy, heel.”

I gave her a deadpanned look, but she was already off down the hallway. Sighing softly, I shook my head before following after her.

We passed by several rooms, one of which looked like a small kitchen, before the bouncer came to a stop outside of a door with two eighth notes on it. I nearly tripped over her because of her sudden stop, but managed to save myself at the last minute, earning me a raised eyebrow from the mare. She eyed me for a few seconds before lifting her hoof and rapping on the door. Without waiting for a reply, she pushed it open and motioned for me to enter.

“Go on,” she said, clicking her tongue. “Get!”

I glared at her, growling softly before huffing and slipping through the open door. It closed behind me and I could hear her retreating hoofsteps as she headed back down the hallway.

The room I had just entered was a small lounge, several couches and seats filling the cluttered area. The lighting was soft, the lamps tinged a light red, almost pink in color. As I moved further in, my sandaled feet sunk into the plush carpeting. Truth-be-told, the whole room had a college-bachelor feel to it. A mini-fridge rested beneath a small counter built into the wall, complete with sink and liquor cabinet. Empty pizza boxes were strewn across a coffee table. The far wall, though, was the most impressive. Almost the entire thing was covered in posters, sheet music, and song lyrics.

And there, lying splayed out on an old, over-stuffed bowl chair—sitting like a queen upon her throne—was Vinyl Scratch. She had on a large pair of headphones, and was bobbing her head to the beat of whatever music she was listening to. Her messy mane hung in front of her eyes, which were concealed by her shades.

She perked up when I entered, a smile crossing her muzzle. Lifting the headphones off her ears, she let them hang from around her neck. I could faintly hear the music playing from them.

“Hey, hey, hey, there he is! Just the human I wanted to talk to,” she said before her smile turned into a smirk. “So, how did the date go last night, brony? Tavia wouldn’t tell me any of the details.”

I stared at her for a few seconds, chewing on the inside of my cheek, before shrugging. Taking a shot in the dark, I signed, ~It went very well, actually. Please thank Octavia for me~

As I signed, Vinyl’s smirked disappeared, replaced instead by a blank look. She stared at me, her ear twitching, before she slowly tilted her head to the side. “Yeah, totally no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but sick beats, man!”

I gave her a bemused look and folded my arms over my chest with a huff.

She laughed weakly, rubbing the back of her head. “Heh, hold on. I think I have some scratch paper around here somewhere…” Wiggling around, she began to rummage around behind the bowl chair. This position put her flank in the air, and I averted my gaze as her tail flicked back and forth.

After a few seconds, she straightened up, a crumbled piece of paper and a broken pencil in her hooves.

“Alright, now we’re in business!” she cheered. Turning around, she levitated them over to me.

I took both the paper and pencil, and quickly scratched out the message before showing it to her. She had to lean forward to read it, adjusting her glasses further up her muzzle as they slipped down.

“Oh, yeah, I’ll definitely thank Octi for ya,” she grinned, leaning back in her chair. “You must have made an impression on her. It’s not often she does private performances, and for free too.”

I handed her the paper as I took a seat on nearby couch. +She said you wanted to talk to me+

“Wow, impatient much?” Vinyl grumbled, her ears splaying off to the side of her head. She scrunched up her face, her muzzle crinkling slightly. “I mean, the bestest, most awesomest DJ in all of Equestria wants to personally meet you, and you just want to get it over with? Where’s the fun in that?”

Rolling my eyes, I motioned for her to continue.

“I mean, it’s not every day you meet an intelligent human, right?” she said, tossing the paper back to me.

+You didn’t seem that enthusiastic when Octavia introduced us the first time+ I scribbled on the paper before tossing it back at her.

“Well, yeah. I was half asleep!” Vinyl snickered. “You try being excited when you first wake up in the evening.” Her glasses slipped down her nose and she pushed them up again. “But I am interested in you,” she continued. “That’s why, when Tavia said she was going to be playing for you, I asked her to give you that message. I needed to get a closer look at you.”

Spreading my hands out wide, I gave her a pointed look.

“Yeah, yeah. You impatient bastard,” she said, shaking her head. She was silent for several seconds before suddenly perking up. “You want some pizza?” she asked, motioning towards a box on the table in front of her. When I shook my head, she just tsked. “Suit yourself, dude. More for me!”

Leaning forward, she reached for the pizza box but it was just out of reach. Apparently forgetting that she had magic, she struggled, wiggling her hooves as she tried to reach the box. Rocking back and forth, she gave one last lunge forward and grabbed ahold of the box with a cheer. The sudden movement caused her glasses to slide down her muzzle. They slipped off the end of her nose, tumbling to the carpeted floor.

She sat there, staring blankly in front of her with the pizza box in her hooves. Blinking owlishly, her eyes slowly drifted over to me and her lips parted slightly. “Oh.”

I stared back at her, eyebrow raised as I studied her eyes. They were deep blood-red color, a much darker shade than Primrose’s.

“What?” Vinyl asked as I continued to stare at her. “What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?”

Lifting my hands, I made fangs with my fingers and wiggled them about. Her eyes widened and her ears perked, before she slowly began to relax again.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot one of your guards is a sanguinarian as well,” she said softly as she leaned back in her chair. Propping the pizza box up in her lap, she grabbed a slice. “What was her name again?” she asked as she took a bite.

+Primrose+ I tossed the crumpled up paper over to her. It was immediately surrounded by a red aura as she caught it with her magic. Smoothing it out, she looked at what I had written.

“Primrose, huh?” she said, rolling the name around her mouth. “It sounds familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve heard it before.” She mulled it over for a moment before shrugging and taking another bite of pizza.

+You two haven’t met before?+

“Nope,” Vinyl said between bites of pizza, “at least, not to my memory.”

I raised an eyebrow before scratching out, +Really? Because, she was scared of you. Why is that?+

Vinyl stared down at the paper, chewing slowly. An expression I couldn’t place flit across her face, and she sighed heavily.

“Because the pup should always fear the alpha,” she said in an even tone. Upon seeing my confused look, she sighed again and rubbed the bridge of her nose with a hoof. “Look, kid… I don’t know how much your guard has told you about us sanguinarians, or how much she knows herself, but we tend to have long lives. Like, really long lives. To the point where we have to move and change our names or ponies start getting suspicious. And the longer we live, the stronger our presence is to other sanguinarians. Judging by your guard’s scent, I’d say she can’t be more than three centuries old, if that.”

+How old are you, exactly?+ I asked.

“I’m old, boy,” Vinyl sighed. She suddenly looked tired. There was a weight behind her eyes that I hadn’t seen before, and I suddenly felt very small in comparison. I twitched slightly, a sudden feeling coming over me, like I was in the presence of something that was very, very much older than I was. I had never felt like this before, even with Celestia.

Closing the pizza box, Vinyl placed it back on the table before continuing. “I know I might not look it, and might not act like it, but I’ve been around for a long, long time. I was present for Luna’s return, I witnessed the Great Griffon Wars, the Dark Ages, the genocide of the Kelpie, the destruction of the Flutter Ponies. I was there for the banishment of Nightmare Moon, as well as Discord’s fall. I was alive even before Discord first arrived here in Equestria.”

As she talked, her accent slowly changed to one I hadn’t heard before. It was subtle, just barely audible in her voice, but still there. It was hard to describe, almost like a strange combination of Olde English and Russian, and even then I was sure I was missing something.

I continued to muse over her accent for a few more seconds before my mind finally caught up with what she had just said. Eyes widening, I gave her an incredulous look. +I thought Nightmare Moon’s banishment happened over a thousand years ago!+

“One thousand and three,” Vinyl confirmed with a nod. “Ages ago. I was known by a different name back then. It was a different time, with different beliefs. Back before humans were discovered.” She trailed off, her eyes glazing over as she stared down at the table in front of her.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, and I shifted in my seat and coughed lightly. Picking up the paper and pencil, I scratched out a quick message before tossing it towards the zoned-out unicorn. It bopped her on the nose—causing her to blink in surprise—before falling into her lap. She looked at it blankly for a few seconds before picking it up and unfolding it.

+This is all interesting and all, but what does it have to do with me? Why are you interested in me?+

She continued to stare at the note for several more seconds before sighing heavily and closing her eyes. Her ears folded against her head.

“Does the name ‘Riddick’ mean anything to you?” she asked softly. When she opened her eyes and glanced at me, I shook my head, motioning for paper. She levitated it over to me, and I scratched out my question.

+No. Who is it?+

A brief look of sadness and longing passed over Vinyl’s face before she was able to mask it with a blank expression. Staring at the table in front of her, she was silent for but a moment before exhaling loudly.

“Just a faraway word, just a faraway thought. Just a faraway someone I knew,” she sung softly under her breath, so quiet that I could barely hear her. “Just a faraway place, just a faraway dream. Just a promise I thought to be true.”

I gave her a bewildered look before reaching out and picking up the scrap piece of paper.

+What?+

“...nothing,” Vinyl muttered. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. She did this several more times before opening her eyes again and glancing over at me. When she spoke, her voice was stronger than it had been before. “As I’ve said before, I’m old, and during that long life I have seen much that many might find strange, weird, or extraordinary. For instance, did you know that you aren’t the first intelligent human I’ve met?”

I froze, my eyes widening in shock as my jaw dropped. My mental capabilities screeched to a halt as my brain tried to process what I had just heard. Fumbling with pencil, I tore a hole in the paper as I quickly scratched out, +WHAT?!+

“Yeah,” Vinyl said with a nod, a smirk working its way across her muzzle. “I’ve met one before. He too was pulled into our world by forces out of his control, although he claimed it was because of a science experiment gone wrong. He was inventing something for use in, what was it called… the Ice War? No, that’s not right. It was something about cold. Anyways, something went wrong with his experiment and he somehow ended up here in Equestria, same as you.”

+And you didn’t think to tell anyone this!?+ I wrote when I could finally stop my hands from trembling long enough to write something. For the longest time I had assumed that I was alone in Equestria, the only intelligent human in this world. I was fine with it, really. I had friends here, and Twilight. However, if what she was saying was true, Vinyl had met someone else from Earth: another intelligent human. Although, I had no idea what the “Ice War” was. Did she mean the Cold War? That had ended back before I was born. Does that mean the other human had arrived years ago?

Wait, no. I was getting distracted. First things first.

Tossing the paper over to Vinyl, I tried to calm my nerves as she unfolded it. She read the question I had written, and then snorted loudly.

“It happened over a thousand years ago, back before Luna became Nightmare Moon,” she said, rolling her eyes.

I deflated, the hope previously growing in my chest now fading away. It looked like I was still alone after all.

+You still could have told someone+ I scratched out.

“You don’t think I did?” Vinyl asked, raising an eyebrow. “Ponies back in those days were not the most accepting of new things. Anything that broke the norm was considered bad and immediately ostracized from society. I was laughed out of town three times.”

+You could have told Celestia+

“Oh, she knew,” Vinyl sighed, resting her head on a hoof. “She was the one who found him wandering around in the wilderness, after all.” WHAT?!

+Celestia found him!?+ I scribbled out, my hands trembling again.

“Yup.”

+But... but then… why…+ I had to pause and get my thoughts in order before scratching out, +But then, why was she so shocked to find out I was intelligent? If she had already met an intelligent human before, shouldn’t she have not been surprised?+

Vinyl stared at the paper, a sour look slowly crossing her face, followed by a look of loss. She swallowed thickly before replying.

“There are certain spells that can affect one’s memory. Change what you remember happened, and even erase entire memories completely,” she said softly. “Besides, some things… some things are better off forgotten.”

+What happened?+ I asked after some hesitation. She looked like she was in pain.

“That is none of your business!” Vinyl snapped suddenly. I jerked back, causing her to wince. “Sorry, but it’s none of your concern,” she said again in a softer tone. “What happened happened, and there is nothing that can change it now. However,” she continued, sitting up straighter in her chair. She glanced over at me, her expression becoming serious, “none of this is the reason I asked you to come here today. We’re not here because of me, we’re here because of you. I wanted to meet you face-to-face and judge your character for myself.”

I blinked in surprise before a look of confusion crossed my face. +Judge my character?+

“Yes, and in that regards, I actually have just one question for you,” she said. Leaning forward, her eyes narrowed as she stared intently at me. “How do you feel about Princess Twilight Sparkle?”

+What?+

“How do you feel about Twilight Sparkle?” she repeated, her expression unchanged. As she spoke, her eyes seemed to glow softly, her pupils becoming slitted. “Do you feel she treats you fairly? Do you feel unappreciated? Controlled? Do you feel like she doesn’t really care about you? Do you feel like she’s using you? Tell the truth.” The last sentence felt like an order, the words having some power behind them.

For some reason, with each new question, I could feel my anger growing. At the last question, I stood up, my hands clenched into fists. I glared down at Vinyl, breathing heavily. When she told me to tell the truth, I slowly raised a fist and shot her the bird.

She stared blankly at me for a few seconds before a large smirk spread across her muzzle. Her eyes returned to normal “That’s the reaction I was hoping to see.”

I continued to glare at her, my anger slowly turning to confusion. She wanted me to be angry? Why?

“Don’t like it when I insult Twilight, do ya?” she asked, the smirk growing.

I shook my head, growling softly.

“Eh, it shows how much she means to you,” she said with a shrug. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my long life, it’s that if you ever want to see someone’s true nature, just watch their reaction to somepony they love being insulted or threatened. It works every time.” She paused. “Most of the time.” Another pause. “Some of the time.” Pause. “Okay, I just like messin’ with ya.”

I gave her a bemused look before picking up the paper and pencil. +So, were you testing me or not?+

“I just had to see your reaction to the accusations,” she said. “I already knew you had a good heart, I just needed to see how you’d react.”

+I have a good heart?+

“Yes, you do,” she said, nodding her head twice. “I can smell it in your blood. There’s also the fact that you’re friends with a sanguinarian, despite the fact you know her true nature. Not many ponies can claim that. That makes you alright in my book.”

+So, what does that mean exactly?+

Vinyl chuckled, shaking her head. Her horn lit up, and she levitated her glasses back onto her face. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I like you. You seem like an interesting individual, and I’m hoping we might be able to hang out in the future.” She tilted her head to the side. “Friends?”

I stared at her for a moment, still confused, before I shrugged it off and a small smirk touched my lips. Placing the paper on my arm, I quickly scratched out my answer before crumpling the paper and tossing it over to her.

She caught it in her magic and smoothed out the note.

+Don’t insult my marefriend ever again, and I’ll consider it+

“I think I can do that,” she laughed. “Anyways, I better let you go and get back to said marefriend before she thinks I’m trying to use you to cool my heat. The last thing I need is an angry alicorn tearing down my club.” Lifting her headphones up, she moved to place them over her ears again, but paused. “Oh, yeah. One more thing.” Her horn lit up and she tossed something over to me.

I caught it deftly, an eyebrow raising as I looked at it. Holding it up, I looked between Vinyl and the eyepatch she had thrown at me, a bemused look on my face.

“Put that thing on, will ya?” she asked with a snicker. “Your eye weirds me out.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Twilight paced around the throne room, chewing nervously on her lip. Every few seconds, her eyes darted to the main throne room doors, only to quickly return to her hooves. Her wings twitched by her side, and she sighed softly, trying to calm her nerves.

Princess Celestia had approached her during breakfast and, in a clearly excited tone, had requested her presence in the throne room after Day Court had finished. Twilight had arrived just as the last of the nobles were filing out, but upon entering the throne room, she had found it empty: Celestia was nowhere to be found.

When she has asked a pair of nearby guards where Celestia had gone, they had replied that she had stepped out to grab something, and that she asked that Twilight stay in the throne room for the time being.

That had been nearly half-an-hour ago.

Still pacing, Twilight walked to the end of the dais and had just turned back around to head back in the opposite direction when the throne room doors creaked open. Her ear twitched, only to perk up when her friends entered.

Upon spotting Twilight, they made a beeline for her.

“Twilight, darling,” Rarity called as they drew near, “there you are!”

“Girls, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, blinking in surprise.

“One of the guards told us that Princess Celestia wanted to talk to us all, so here we are,” Rarity replied, batting her mane. “I must say, Twilight, it’s good to see you looking far better than you did a few days ago.”

“Eh… what do you mean?” Twilight asked.

This just caused Applejack to chuckle. “Come on, sugarcube. Ya were a wreck on the train ride here.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie chirped, bouncing happily. “You were a sad sack, but now you’re practically glowing!”

“Indeed, darling,” Rarity said with a nod. “The change is quite noticeable. You looked an absolute wreck, then you practically disappear on us for a few days, and now you look a hundred times better. I’m guessing you finally confessed to Max?” she asked, her smile turning into a knowing smirk. Upon seeing Twilight’s blush, she squealed happily, “Oh, I knew it! This is marvelous, darling! You must tell me all the details!”

“T-there’s not much to tell,” Twilight stammered, her blush deepening as she thought back to the moment she confessed, and the act that followed it. “I confessed, we talked, he accepted, and now we’re together. We went on a date last night too, dinner in the astronomy tower while watching the meteor shower.”

“There’s more to it than that!” Rainbow scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I know what I smelled at breakfast the other day. You two did more than just talk.”

Twilight’s cheeks felt like they were about to burst into flames as her blush threatened to spread to her neck.

“Sooo, was he any good?” Rainbow asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried—although it came out as more of a squeak.

“That is totally a ‘yes’,” Rainbow laughed.

“So, I take it you and Max worked out the little issue with you, ah… restraining him, darling?” Rarity asked over Rainbow’s laughter.

Twilight’s blush faded as she winced.

“Can… can we not talk about that,” she asked quietly. “I feel really bad about that, and still can’t believe how easily he forgave me for it.”

“Certainly, dear,” Rarity said, her expression softening, “but if I may ask, what possessed you to act like that in the first place? I know that some mares’ heats are bad, but that is so unlike you.”

“That’s because it wasn’t me,” Twilight sighed, glancing sideways. She paused, before continuing. “Well, it mostly wasn’t me. I had some chaos magic in me, affecting my mental state. That, combined with my heat, kinda… well…” Twilight trailed off, her ears splaying back.

“Chaos magic?” Rainbow yelped, eyes widening. “B-but… I thought the Princess turned Discord back to stone!” Beside her, Fluttershy whimpered, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“She did,” Twilight replied, giving Fluttershy a sympathetic look. “It didn’t come from Discord. It came from Max.”

“Max?” Rarity gasped, her eyes widening. Around her, the others were having similar reactions. “Are you saying that Max corrupted you with chaos magic!?”

“Not intentionally,” Twilight said quickly, shaking her head. “The latent chaos magic within him is leaking out, and since I’ve spent so much time with him, I’d absorbed enough for it to affect me.”

“The horrid stuff is leaking off of him?” Rarity asked, a look of concern crossing her face. “Darling, isn’t that dangerous for those around him, like you or his guards?”

“Yes, it is,” a voice spoke up from behind the throne. “Which is why we’re going to take care of it today.” Everyone turned as Princess Celestia entered through the side door located behind the throne dais. She smiled at them as she made her way around the raised platform.

“Princess, there you are,” Twilight said. “Where did you go off to—” She paused, blinking once before her eyes widened. “Wait, what do you mean we’re taking care of Max’s chaos magic today?”

“I think it’s been troubling the poor thing for much too long, don’t you?” Celestia asked, coming to stop in front of the group. “It’s about time we tried something to help him.” With that, her horn began to glow softly, and a familiar bejeweled box appeared in the air beside her.

“The Elements of Harmony?” Twilight muttered under her breath. Her look of confusion quickly turned to alarm. “You aren’t planning on using the Elements on Max, are you?!” Celestia opened her mouth to answer, but Twilight continued, “No, no, definitely not! It’s too dangerous!”

“My dear Twilight, the Elements are not weapons,” Celestia said softly, trying to calm Twilight’s nerves. The others were glancing between one another with looks of uncertainty on their faces.

At seeing their expressions, Celestia sighed. “The Elements won’t hurt him. I plan on using them to draw the chaos magic out of Max, just like you drew the Nightmare out of Luna. They will simply purge him.”

“Or turn him to stone!” Twilight countered, her ears splaying back. “Look what it did to Discord, and he’s full of chaos magic. I am not risking it!”

“Discord is chaos magic. There was nothing to purge,” Celestia explained calmly. “Max, on the other hoof, isn’t made of chaos magic, he’s just tainted by it. The Elements will remove the foreign magic from him. Besides,” she added, cocking her head to the side, “just like Discord, if they do turn Max to stone, which they won’t, we can just unpetrify him again.”

Chewing nervously on her lip, Twilight glanced back at her friends. Silence hung over the room for several seconds before Dash spoke up. “I say go for it!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing up and down. “The Elements are super-duper nice! They won’t harm Maxie, because they know that he’s nice too! Plus, I’ll be able to throw a “Hurray-You-Can-Talk” party once this is all over!”

“I must say, it would be nice to not have to wait for him to write everything down when talking to him,” Rarity mused, absentmindedly patting her mane.

Applejack just shrugged. “It don’t matter tah me. Personally, Ah think he seems tah be happy with things the way they are now, but if y’all think this will make him happier, Ah’m in.”

“What do you think, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, smiling down at the timid mare.

Fluttershy squeaked once before trying to hide behind her mane.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, her voice coming out in a murmur. “I don’t want to hurt him…”

“The Elements won’t hurt him, silly!” Pinkie giggled, bouncing around Fluttershy. “They’re the Elements of Harmony! They aren’t going to hurt anypony. They’re meant to help ponies!”

Twilight continued to chew on her lip for a few more seconds before sighing. “Okay, fine, let’s try the Elements, but just once. If it doesn’t work, we are not trying them again.”

“Fair enough,” Celestia said, giving Twilight a small smile. Her horn lit up and the box’s lid opened, revealing the tiara and five necklaces. They seemed to glow in the light of the setting sun streaming in through the throne room windows.

Pushing more magic down her horn, Celestia lifted the Elements out of the box and floated them over to their respective owners.

“Alright,” Rainbow cheered as her necklace wrapped around her neck. “Now all we need is the big guy! Where is he, anyways?”

“I’m not sure,” Celestia confessed. “I looked for him, but couldn’t find him. I instructed the guards to be on the lookout, and direct him towards the throne room should they find him.” She glanced over at Twilight. “I’m actually surprised he wasn’t with you.”

“He left the room this morning saying he had to meet somepony,” Twilight said as she placed her tiara carefully on her head. She paused, her horn glowing softly for a brief second before she continued, “He’s actually heading towards us right now.”

Celestia gave her a blank look. “A tracker spell?”

“Long story,” Twilight muttered, ears splaying back, “but it doesn’t matter. Here he is.”

As she finished speaking, the throne room doors creaked open.

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Max < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Just go through the doors,” the guard said, motioning towards the throne room doors with her wing. “The Princess is waiting for you.”

I had just arrived back at the palace from my rendezvous with Vinyl when I was swarmed by a squad of pegasi guards. Apparently Celestia had sent them to look for me nearly an hour ago, and none of them had known that I had left the palace grounds. With all of them squawking in my ear about my “irresponsible decision to wander without a personal guard to escort me”, I had managed to make out that Celestia wanted to meet me in the throne room. The flock of guards had slowly dwindled as I neared the throne room, until only one was left: a white mare with a red mane.

“You’re already late as it is,” she huffed, her eyes narrowing. “Best not make them wait any longer.”

I grunted once, giving her the bird before pushing the throne room doors open and slipping through them. The doors closed behind me with a soft, echoing ‘thud’, and I glanced around the large room. At the far end by the thrones, I spied Twilight, Celestia, as well as the other girls. They were all looking in my direction, except for Celestia, who was giving Twilight a bemused look. She said something to her that caused Twilight’s ears to fold against the back of her head.

“Hiya, Maxie!” Pinkie called, her voice echoing around the room. She waved at me, a large smile on her face.

I returned the wave before making my way towards the throne. As I drew near, I paused upon seeing what they were all wearing. Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity all had golden necklaces on, each one with a gem in the shape of their cutie mark. Twilight was wearing a weird crown that had a gem embedded in it, shaped like a six-pointed star.

The Elements of Harmony? I blinked in surprise before my brow furrowed in confusion. Having never seen them before, I could only guess that’s what they were based on what I had read about them, plus Twilight’s description. Why would they have them on? What’s going on?

As I reached the group, Twilight trotted forward. She nuzzled my side, humming happily, before asking, “So, how’d your meeting go?”

~It was… informative~ I signed hesitantly. Pointing at the crown on her head, I asked, ~Is that what I think it is, and why do you have them?~

“This is the Element of Magic, yes,” Twilight said, lifting a hoof and touching the gem on her crown. “As for why we have them, well…” She trailed off, nibbling her lip.

Celestia smiled and shook her head.

“We’re going to attempt to get your voice back,” she finished for Twilight.

~I thought you said there was nothing you could do to help?~ I asked, scrunching up my face.

“When we spoke last, yes, that was true,” she replied with a nod. “However, Luna has brought to my attention a means of which we might be able to rid you of all your latent chaos magic.”

~And what might that—~ I paused, staring blankly at Celestia for several seconds before my eyes widened and I inhaled sharply. ~Oh, fuck no!~

“What?” Celestia jerked back, startled. “What do you—”

~You are not going to use your Element cannon on me~ I signed, taking a step back. ~I’ve read about what they do to people they blast. Just look at Discord!~

“They aren’t going to turn you to stone,” Celestia huffed. “They didn’t turn Luna to stone, they purged the Nightmare from her. We’re going to do the same with you, only it’s going to be the chaos magic.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie chirped. “The Elements know you aren’t a bad pony, Maxie! They’re just gonna ignore you and go after all that bad magic inside you! Then you will be able to talk, and I can throw you a party!”

“Wouldn’t you like to be able to talk again?” Rarity added, cocking her head to the side.

I glared at her, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Since coming to Equestria nearly a year ago, I had come to terms with being mute. Sure, there were times it was an annoyance, or downright troublesome, but it had become a normality. It had become a part of my life in Equestria. Though, it would be nice to be able to communicate with my friends without having to use hoof-language or writing stuff down on paper all the time. I wouldn’t have to rely on other ponies to translate for me either.

If the Elements could truly give me my voice back…

I glanced down at Twilight, who was studying my face intently. ~What do you think?~

She blinked, an ear twitching. “What do you mean?”

~Do you think this is a good idea?~ I asked. ~Do you think it will work?~

“Why are you asking me?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

~Because I care about your opinion~ I signed. ~Plus, you have more experience with these things than I do~

Twilight’s ears folded against her head and she shifted nervously for hoof to hoof.

“Personally,” she muttered, “I don’t like it, but that’s just because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. The Elements have worked well in the past, and Luna is a prime example. They should just attack the chaos magic, and if… if they do turn you to stone, we can always reverse it almost immediately.”

I stared down at her for a few seconds before sighing. Shaking my head, I looked up at Celestia and nodded weakly. ~Alright, fine. We’ll give this a shot~

“You’re willing to give this a try?” she asked, ears perking up as a small smile spread across her muzzle.

~I don’t like it, but it isn’t the stupidest thing I’ve done~ I signed with a grunt.

“I promise, you won’t regret this,” Celestia said. Motioning with a hoof, she continued, “Now, if you would take a few steps back, we’ll get started.”

With my heart pounding and my stomach slowly creeping up my throat, I did as she asked and took several steps back. The girls all got into a line facing me, and I saw that only Fluttershy and Twilight held nervous looks; the rest looked confident, and Pinkie looked close to exploding.

“Are you ready?” Celestia asked.

~No~ I signed, eyeing the Element-wielding mares in front of me. ~Let’s do this before I lose my nerve~

“Whenever you’re ready,” Celestia said to Twilight before taking several steps back herself. She stood to the side, watching the whole thing closely.

Twilight took a deep breath before nodding. She closed her eyes, as did the others, a look of concentration crossing their faces. At first, nothing happened and we all just stood there in silence, but then the gems in the necklaces slowly began to glow. A faint crackle filled the air, and I could feel the hair on my arms standing on end.

The gems continued to glow brighter, and took on a different color for each pony: Rainbow’s started to glow red, Applejack’s orange, Fluttershy’s pink, Pinkie’s blue, and Rarity’s purple. The colored energy swirled around them, and all six of them were suddenly lifted off of their hooves and into the air. I could feel the thrum of energy surge through the room as all of them focused on the huge, radiating burst of energy gathering near their chests. It crackled like an electric storm as the energy billowed around their bodies. The air suddenly felt very heavy, and I had some difficulty breathing; it felt like there was a weight on my chest.

~This… this isn’t going to hurt, is it?~ I asked Celestia as I eyed the floating mares with some trepidation. It was probably a little too late to call it quits.

“It shouldn’t,” Celestia said, her voice soft. “Luna said it felt like slipping into a warm bath after a long day.”

I nodded, although her words didn’t make me feel any better. As the thrum of magic grew even stronger, I slowly covered my crotch with my hands and tensed up. A niggling feeling in the back of my mind reminded me of all the stupid stuff I used to do with my friends back on Earth. For some reason, this felt similar. Hopefully it didn’t end with a trip to the hospital.

The gem in Twilight’s crown suddenly flashed white. All of their eyes opened, all six pairs glowing brilliantly. There was a sudden surge of power, and the light from the gems shot towards Twilight, where they began to consolidate around the crown’s gem. A ball of rainbow colored energy slowly formed around them, whirling around like winds in a hurricane. Twilight’s wings flared wide, and she gasped once before there was a sudden explosion of color.

A rainbow beam exploded out of the center of the ball, barreling towards me like a freight train. I barely had enough time to cry out in alarm before it slammed into me with enough force to send me flying backwards. I heard Celestia shout something, but a sudden rushing noise filled my ears, blocking all outside sound. My world dissolved into a swirl of color as my body was consumed by the rainbow blast. The breath was knocked from my lungs, causing me to gasp for air. As I opened my mouth, I nearly gagged as the energy suddenly slid down my throat. An intense burning sensation flared through my neck, causing me to hack and cough. The sensation quickly spread up to my head, and for a split second it felt like I had the worst migraine of my life before the feeling faded to a dull throb.

And then it was over.

The rainbow aura faded as quickly as it had arrived, leaving me lying on the floor in a daze. With a groan, I pushed myself into a seated position, blinking my eyes to clear my vision of the dancing white and black spots. Squinting, I could just barely make out the blurred outline of the girls all drifting back to the floor as the light around the Elements died out. With another groan, I got to my feet. I thought Celestia said this wasn’t going to hurt.

“Ah, fuck me! That was unpleasant,” I croaked, holding my stomach as I fought back a wave of nausea. My head was spinning—as was the room. I felt like I had just gotten off a tilt-a-whirl ride set to maximum speed—

I froze, my eyes widening as my mind suddenly realized what had happened. I had just spoke. It had sounded coarse and gravelly, like I was trying to talk with a severe sore throat, but I had just spoke aloud!

“No fucking way,” I breathed, only to wince as my throat twinged in pain. The sound of fast approaching hoofsteps caused me to glance around. Twilight was hurrying towards me, a look of worry on her face. The others were close behind her, the concern clear in their eyes; Celestia even looked a little guilty.

I guess the Elements weren’t supposed to blast me that hard, I thought, rubbing my neck. Still, it doesn’t matter because I can talk again!

As Twilight reached me, I gave her a large smile before laughing weakly. “I guess you guys were right. The Elements worked after all. Although, they were a little rough in their treatment. What do you think?”

Twilight paused midstep, her eyes widening as she stared up at me. Her worried expression quickly morphed into one of alarm. The others all froze as well, their eyes widening and pupils constricting. Even Pinkie stopped bouncing.

“What?” I asked, giving them a confused look.

Her look of alarm growing, Twilight swallowed thickly before tentatively stepping towards me. She licked her lips before opening her mouth. Instead of words, however, a low nicker issued forth.

The smile fell from my face and I gave her a blank look. “What?”

Twilight nickered again, louder than before, followed by a snort.

“What?” I said again, this time glancing over at Celestia. She too had a look of alarm on her face, and as our eyes met, she whinnied loudly, her wings flaring. I looked back at Twilight, who looked close to having a panic attack. She snorted once before nickering loudly, the sound ending in a slight squeal as her ears splayed back.

I stared at her, wide-eyed, as alarm started to well up in my chest as well.

“WHAT?!”

Author's Note

'The Darkness Calls Me' full lyrics: HERE

Chapter 65: Princess Twilight Sparkle, part 1

Vines. There were vines everywhere. Sweet Apple Acres was choked beneath the deluge of vines that had exploded out from the Everfree, twisting and crawling across the land. Massive creepers sprouted from the ground, wrapping around trees and buildings, and covering fields in a tangled mess of thorny vegetation. They were still on the move too, inching along in a determined attempt to cover everything in a sea of thorns. There was very little of the farm left that remained bare, save for a few of the sturdier buildings. This included a particular barn in the middle of all the chaos, one that a certain human had visited earlier last fall—not that he nor the owner of the barn would ever admit to anyone.

The white walls of the barn were almost completely hidden from view beneath the choking black vines. The metal letters above the main door—once having read ‘SAA HBB’—were now torn from the siding and tossed to the ground where they lay scattered about in a chaotic mess of letters.

Trapped within the confines of the barn by the dark vines, a small fraction of the Sweet Apple Acres humans huddled together. Gazes locked fearfully on the windows, they could only watch as the creepers slowly crawled across the panes of glass. Several of the panes cracked, sending spider webs across the glass. The very walls of the barn seemed to creak and groan under the building pressure as the blanket of trailing plants covering the building continued to grow.

With each creak, the humans huddled closer together. They were comprised entirely of females. The younger ones—ones that had only just reached maturity—cowered behind their elders, who herded them into the center of the group.

The humans were not alone in the fragile prison, however. Alongside them, their caretakers huddled as well. Big McIntosh and Granny Smith had been forced to flee their home when it was overrun by the vines; the creepers seeped up from beneath the floorboards and through the plumbing. With half of their family missing, and unsure of what was going on, the pair bore witness as their livelihood was slowly consumed. Apple trees bent and buckled under the pressure; barns were toppled, fields were engulfed. Unable to flee due to the vines blocking the path to town, they took refuge with their humans.

A loud crack caused the occupants of the barn to jump, and with that a particularly large vine pushed its way through a window, sending glass and wood flying. It twisted and turned as it pushed its way further into the barn, as if searching for something. Only when it came within hoof’s reach did Big Mac make his move.

Wielding an old rusty woodcutter’s hatchet, the large stallion stepped forward and brought the axe’s head down upon the vine. Instead of cleaving the vine in two, however, the dull head simply smashed the vine, crippling it. The possessed creeper lashed out, quickly wrapping itself around the hatchet’s handle as well as Big Mac’s forelegs, who let out a startled cry as the vine proceeded to drag him across the ground. Several humans quickly leapt forward and began to wrestle with the vine, trying to free the trapped pony. Digging into it with their teeth and nails, they barely managed to tear the creeper to shreds.

The now-damaged vine thrashed about wildly, sending several humans tumbling to the ground. As soon as the humans were free, Granny Smith stepped forward. Wielding a makeshift flamethrower that ran on some old moonshine she kept in the cellar, she sent several controlled bursts of flame across the vine, quickly burning it to cinders.

The vines outside the barn reacted to the charred vine’s untimely demise, constricting the sides of the barn and the roof with renewed vigor. Several humans helped Big Mac back to his hooves before the group huddled together again.

A second window shattered, allowing another vine inside. It too was met by a burst of flame. For the next hour, the vines slowly slithered through holes and cracks in the barn’s structure, only to be met with fire. The beams and columns creaked and groaned but held firm against the assault.

The same could not be said for the inhabitants of the barn.

During a brief lull, Granny Smith checked on her moonshine levels. The jug was half-full, which meant that she could keep this up for a little more, but she would eventually run out. When that happened… well, some things were better left unconsidered.

As the vines continued to slowly consume their livelihood, the occupants of Sweet Apple Acres pressed together. The shepherds watched over their flock, while the flock watched over their shepherds...

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Twilight Sparkle < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh, this is bad. Bad bad bad bad bad,” Twilight muttered as she paced back and forth across the throne room. The splint on her leg clicked softly with each step, the pain from her injury temporarily forgotten in her distress.

Her friends watched her from the foot of the throne dais, and Celestia and Luna from their thrones. Celestia’s face held a look of weary humor; Luna’s, one of exasperation.

As Twilight moved close to the dais again, Luna sighed. “Be calm, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight paused.

“Be calm? Be calm?!” she squawked. “This is no time to be calm. Oh no, this is the perfect time to panic. I don’t know if you’ve noticed at all, but the Everfree Forest is just a teeny-tiny bit out of control! Or didn’t you see the vines?”

“We saw the vines, same as you,” Luna said, “but panicking will do us no good at the moment.”

Twilight’s eye twitched. “Ponyville is being overrun by the Everfree Forest, and you two—” she waved a hoof at Celestia and Luna “—are just sitting here, doing nothing!” She paused, before muttering a quick, “Princesses.”

“Astute as ever, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna snarked. “Yes, indeed. The Everfree is out of control. Your observation skills are outstanding.”

“Discord’s behind this. I know he is,” Twilight muttered, ignoring Luna and beginning to pace again. “I don’t know how he managed to escape from the Elements of Harmony again, but we just need to find him and—”

“This is not Discord’s doing,” Celestia interrupted. She was silent for a few seconds before adding, “—at least as far as I can tell. His magic signature faded when his body crumbled, so it is safe to say that he is either powerless at the moment, or dead.

“Though I shouldn’t be too hopeful about that,” she added under her breath.

“He could have enchanted the plants before we defeated him,” Twilight muttered. “There were several times that he was out of sight while chasing us. He could have easily teleported to the Everfree while we were—”

“Once again, I highly doubt that, my faithful student,” Celestia said. “What purpose would that serve? Why have a backup plan when he assumed that he was going to win here in Canterlot?”

“But—”

“Besides, the magic in the vines are ancient,” Celestia continued. “They are not a recent occurrence. They have been festering for a while, much like an infected wound. One that has gone unnoticed for far too long.”

Twilight’s eye twitched again. “Then he planted them a long, long time ago!”

Celestia opened her mouth, only to close it and purse her lips. Glancing sideways at her sister, the pair shared a look of dawning realization before they returned their attention to Twilight.

“An interesting theory, I will admit,” Luna hummed, “and we see the merit behind it, but we don’t have any real proof at the present time. Nor does it really matter. The vines are here, regardless of who planted them. In any case, the solution is simple: we need to locate the source and eliminate it.”

“Which means going into the Everfree Forest,” Celestia added thoughtfully.

“So, let’s get the guards together and go take care of this,” Twilight said, stomping her hoof. “We’ll get several squads together and track down the source immediately! Problem solved!”

“If only it were so simple,” Luna harrumphed.

“Why isn’t it?” Twilight shot back. Her mane and tail were beginning to fray.

“Because of what horrors have been wrought here in Canterlot!” Luna said with irritation. “Given the current state of affairs within our city, we can’t just up and send guards out to solve this mess. Many of them are currently receiving medical care, and the ones that aren’t are either combing the castle for any remaining threats or out trying to calm the citizens currently massing outside our gates. We practically have a full blown riot on our hooves. Face it, Twilight Sparkle, whether you like it or not, we have no guards within the city to spare at the moment.”

“Unfortunately, my sister is right, Twilight,” Celestia said. “We have no guards to send.” Her ears splayed back. “I would have liked to send a few Battlemages, as this falls perfectly under their expertise. Given their current condition, however, that is definitely out of the question.”

Twilight’s tail thrashed back and forth as she glared up at the sisters. “So, what? What do we do then? Just let Ponyville crumble beneath the vines? Leave the ponies that live there to their own devices? Turn a blind eye?” She stomped her hoof. “That is not acceptable!”

“Still thy tongue, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna snarled. What little warmth that was left in her voice was now gone. Her presence grew larger and menacing; her shadow creeping up the wall behind her. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. “Do not dare to presume to speak as such to us. You think that you are the only one here that cares for those down in Ponyville? Nay. There are those there that I deem precious to me as well. Is it not that some of your friends have family there as well?” She gestured to the mares currently huddled at the bottom of the dais. “Strange, I haven’t heard them panicking, yet they seemed to have greater reason to do so.”

Twilight’s ears splayed back as Luna finished talking, an ashamed blush spreading across her face. Her tail tucked between her legs as she turned to face her friends. “Sorry, girls. I… I got so caught up in everything that I forgot.” She winced before hanging her head. “I shouldn’t have panicked. You guys are suffering too.”

“That’s alright, sugarcube,” Applejack said, although the smile she gave Twilight was strained slightly. “Ah’m… Ah’m sure Granny and Big Mac are handlin’ the farm just fine by themselves. They can look after Applebloom as well.”

Twilight bit her lip. “That may be, but still…”

“You are under a great deal of stress, darling,” Rarity said, a weak smile on her face as well. “It’s understandable, given what we’ve been through in the last few hours. No need to blame yourself.”

“That still doesn’t excuse my behavior though,” Twilight murmured. “I should have realized that I wasn’t the only one worried about Ponyville. You all have been living there longer than I have.”

“Everything’s going to be fine!” Pinkie chirped, nodding her head. “We just need to figure out how to get rid of those big ol’ nasty vines.”

Twilight frowned. “But there are no guards to spare. We have nopony to send.”

“You didn’t let me finish, my faithful student,” Celestia said. There was a small twinkle in her eye and a faint smile on her lips. “While it is indeed true that we have no guards to send, that does not mean that we aren’t going to be sending ponies to help Ponyville. Far from it, in fact. We’ll be sending the best ponies we currently have available.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. She perked up, only for her expression to turn to confusion a few seconds later. “Wait, if they aren’t guards, then who are you sending?”

Wordlessly, the smile still present on her face, Celestia lifted a hoof and pointed down at the mares at the foot of the dais. The five mares. Her friends, the other Element Bearers.

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as understanding washed over her.

“Wait, you’re sending us?!” she yelped.

“Of course,” Celestia said.

“It makes sense, does it not?” Luna added. “If these vines are indeed the work of Discord and his chaos magic, then who better than the Elements of Harmony to take care of them?” She glanced sideways at her sister, sharing a knowing look again before she returned her attention back to Twilight. “Unfortunately, this is something that you six will need to handle by yourselves. Neither I nor my sister will be able to accompany you. We must tend to matters here in Canterlot.”

“You want us to go into the Everfree?” Twilight asked, her eyes wide.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so anxious for the guards to do this instead of yourself? If I recall correctly, you've been in the Everfree many times before. Only now do you hesitate. Why?”

Twilight bit her lip.

“I… I don’t want…” she began softly, only to pause and take a breath. Her eyes darted up towards the ceiling, or more specifically, what was beyond it. “I don’t want to leave Max.”

Luna’s eyes widened before her gaze softened. “Ah, I see. You needn’t worry about him. He’s in good hooves.”

“I know, I know,” Twilight groaned. “It’s just, after everything that’s happened I can’t help but worry. It seems like every time we get separated, something bad happens to him.”

Celestia frowned. “That seems a little—”

“The pit fight, the manticores, the infected human, the Gala, Hearth’s Warming Eve, Winter Wrap Up, and now this!” Twilight ranted. “Whenever he goes off by himself, he ends up hurt. He’s already hurt at the moment… I don’t think I can handle seeing him hurt again right now.”

“She’s got a point,” Applejack muttered to Rainbow, who nodded her head in agreement.

Luna and Celestia exchanged looks.

“I can assure you, Twilight, nothing bad is going to happen,” Celestia murmured gently. “Discord’s been defeated, the Terran humans are under watch, and we have control over Canterlot again. Luna and I are present within the halls. Our healers will look after him while you’re gone. He’ll be right as rain by the time you return.”

“I know, but—”

“There are guards around him as well, even if some of them may be injured,” Luna added. “His own guards are there as well; I highly doubt that Avera will allow anything threatening to come anywhere near Max. Even your father is there, watching him.”

“I know!” Twilight shouted. “I know, okay? I know it’s not logical. I know that he seems safe at the moment, but I... I just have an uneasy feeling about it. I can’t explain it.”

Luna rolled her eyes and let out a small huff. She opened her mouth again, only for another voice to cut her off. “Can’t explain it, huh? If that’s the case, I’ll watch the knucklehead for ya.” Heads turned in the direction of the throne room’s doors and the white unicorn currently making her way towards the dais. Dark violet glasses covered her eyes and seemed to flash in the torchlight.

“Lady Scratch?” Luna asked, cocking her head to the side slightly. “This is a surprise, albeit a welcome one. I thought you’d be at home with your marefriend.”

“Well,” Vinyl said as she sashayed her way across the room, “I was in the neighborhood, grabbing a quick bite to eat—” Luna’s eyes narrowed “—when I decided to drop by and see what all the commotion was about.” She stopped in front of Twilight and eyed her from behind the tinted glasses. “S’up, Twi?”

“Vinyl.” Twilight nodded. She eyed her curiously. “Not that it isn’t nice to see you, but what are you doing here?”

“Like I said, I was in the neighborhood. Anyway, I couldn’t help but overhear your predicament. I’d be willing to keep an eye on Max for you while you’re gone, if you’d like.”

“That would actually work in your favor, Twilight,” Celestia said with a smile.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “How so?”

Celestia motioned towards Vinyl with a hoof. “Lady Scratch here is an ex-Captain of the Lunar Guard.” When Twilight glanced at Vinyl, she nodded in confirmation.

“It’s true,” she said, a smug smile on her face. “I quit to pursue my career in witchcraft and wubbery.”

“Is that satisfactory, Twilight?” Luna asked.

Nibbling on her lower lip, Twilight stared at Vinyl, studying her closely. Vinyl just stood there, her body relaxed and a small smile on her face.

“You’ll watch after him?” Twilight eventually asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

“Yup!” Vinyl nodded.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You promise?”

Reaching up, Vinyl lowered her glasses and peered over the top of them. She gave Twilight a hard look, her red eyes flashing brightly for a brief moment before she covered them again. When she spoke, her voice seemed to echo around the room. “I promise that nothing and no one will touch him without my permission.”

A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine as all the torches in the room suddenly dimmed and flickered, almost as if an unfelt wind blew through the room.

“Ooooh,” Pinkie cooed, her eyes wide. “That was a good one! Even better than mine.”

Twilight gave Vinyl one last look before sighing. “Alright. I guess that’s good enough for me.” She turned and glanced over at her friends. “You girls up for another adventure?”

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow whooped, leaping into the air and doing a flip. “Just like old times!”

“A-boo-yah!” Pinkie chirped, jumping up as well.

A faint smile on her lips, Twilight looked up at Celestia. “Princess, do you have a plan for getting us to Ponyville?” She paused before lifting up her splinted leg. “Preferably a way that isn’t too strenuous.”

“Well, it’s safe to say that the train is not an option,” Celestia hummed, causing Luna to facehoof and grumble something under her breath. “That being said, there are a couple of chariots that are currently available, though there are no guards to fly it. If only we had a pair of strong, able-bodied pegasi...” Her gaze slowly drifted over to Rainbow, who perked up.

“Yeah! Fluttershy and I can do it!” she chirped. “We’ll get everypony there in ten seconds flat! Right, Fluttershy?”

“Eep!” Upon being called up, Fluttershy let out a startled yelp before quickly hiding behind her mane. After a few seconds she reemerged and gave a shaky nod and a timid smile.

“It’s settled then,” Luna said with a nod. “You six will go to Ponyville and, once there, find the source of the vines.”

“Once you have located the source,” Celestia continued, “it should be simple enough to figure out how to banish the vines. If all goes well, it should be clear to you how to proceed.”

“We just use the Elements on ‘em, right?” Applejack asked, cocking her head to the side.

Saying nothing, Celestia just gave her a knowing smile before turning to one of the guards positioned at the base of the throne dais. “Kindly escort the Elements to the chariots.” The guard saluted before motioning for Twilight and the others to follow him. They did so, Twilight limping along in the rear, the splint on her hind leg still clicking softly on the marble floor.

“Welp, I better head up to the infirmary,” Vinyl sighed, though a small smile touched her lips. “Catch ya later, Luna.” Strutting off, she bobbed her head along to music that only she could hear.

As the throne room door closed behind her, Luna glanced at Celestia. “Do you think that—?”

“Yes,” Celestia answered.

“And they will—?”

“Most likely.”

“...”

“...”

“...and the tree?”

“We shall see, Luna. We shall see.”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > Ponyville < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“W-wha… what the buck was that?!” wheezed Spitfire, gasping for breath. Her Wonderbolts uniform was torn and muddied from being forcibly dragged to the ground not moments ago.

Her assailant now laid motionless on the ground—save for a few occasional twitches—having been taken care of by her teammates. The thing looked like a weird cross between a spider and a flower. It had attacked Spitfire out of nowhere while she and her squad had been doing reconnaissance over the edge of the Everfree Forest, trying to figure out what was causing the sudden appearance of the vines. Latching onto her face, it had immediately blasted her with a spray of some kind of gas. Just that one short burst was enough to make Spitfire woozy. It had only been the quick thinking of one of her teammates, who had ripped the spider-flower thing off of the vine it was attached to, that had prevented Spitfire from passing out.

Retching loudly, Spitfire gagged as a gritty taste filled her mouth; it felt as if she had a mouthful of sand.

“What the buck is that thing?” she growled, glaring at the twitching plant.

“Don’t know, Spits,” one of the Wonderbolts, Fleetfoot, answered. She eyed the plant cautiously, her brow furrowed. “Whatever it is, it was on you faster than Soarin’s on pie. Didn’t even see it coming.”

Another Wonderbolt, High Winds, approached Spitfire, pushing up her goggles to reveal concerned green eyes. She had a small pair of saddlebags across her flanks, marked with a red cross. Reaching up, she gingerly grabbed a hold of Spitfire’s face. “Here, let me see.”

“Bucking thing got in my mouth,” Spitfire groused.

“Some minor scratches,” High Winds said after a few seconds of examination. “Doesn’t look like anything major though. You should be fine.”

“It’s in my bucking mouth,” Spitfire said again before spitting. The glob of saliva that fell from her mouth was tinted black and seemed to cling to her lips.

High Winds blinked. “I take that back. That can’t be good.”

“Hey, uh… Spits?” called a male pegasus with light blue coat and dark blue mane.

“What, Soarin?” growled Spitfire, black spit still dripping from her lips.

“There’s more of ‘em,” Soarin said, pointing a hoof towards the Everfree. There, just within the tree line, several more of the spider-plants could be seen slithering about. They seemed reluctant to emerge from the safety of the crooked trees, though.

“Hope nopony else has run afoul of them,” Fleetfoot said.

“Sound off!” Spitfire ordered, glaring at the shifting plants in the treeline. “Misty Fly?”

“Here!”

“Fleetfoot?”

“Here.”

“High Winds?”

“Here.”

“Surprise?”

“Still kicking.”

“Lightning Streak?”

“Yo!”

“Fire Streak, Blaze, Soarin?” Three more sounds of confirmation and Spitfire sighed in relief. Nopony else had been snagged by one of those damned things. “Fire Streak, Blaze. Figure out what that is,” she ordered, pointing at the downed plant that had attacked her. “I want to know what’s going on with this forest, and I want to know about it five minutes ago. Got it?”

“On it, Spits!” the two pegasi answered before descending upon the plant.

“Here,” High Winds said, handing Spitfire a bottle of water. “Clean out your mouth. No telling what that stuff is. Better safe than sorry.”

Grabbing the bottle of water, Spitfire glanced around at the rest of her squad. “Scout the area, but don’t stray far. As soon as we figure out what that… thing was, we’re on the move again.” The pegasi saluted before speeding off in all directions.

“You doing okay?” High Winds asked as Spitfire tore into the bottle and began to chug the water, only to spray it onto the grass. The liquid was tinged black, little specks floating about.

“Fine,” she sighed.

High Winds cocked an eyebrow. “You sure?” She glanced down at the tainted water. “That looks nasty.”

“I’m fine,” Spitfire snapped, only to bite her lip. “Well… no. No, I’m not.” Her gaze drifted towards Canterlot. Black smoke could be seen wafting up from the palace, though it did look to be in better condition than it had been earlier, now that the islands of land floating around the airspace were gone. The sky also wasn’t blood red anymore.

“They seem to have things under control,” High Winds said, glancing up at Canterlot as well. “They can take care of themselves, Spits. We need to focus on Ponyville right now. These vines aren’t going to take care of themselves. Ponies are counting on us.”

“I know, I know,” Spitfire grumbled before spitting in the grass again. She stared up at Canterlot for a few more seconds before suddenly turning and shouting over her shoulder. “Learn anything yet?”

“Not yet,” Fire Streak shouted back. “It just appears to be an ordinary plant! I can’t even figure out what magic is controlling it.”

“The same magic as timberwolves?” High Winds offered.

Fire Streak shook his head. “Nope. Completely different.”

“Ordinary plant, my flank,” Spitfire huffed. “If that thing’s a normal plant, then I’m a parasprite.” Bringing the water bottle to her lips, she swished the water around her mouth before spitting it out again. This time, there was less black in it than before. “I’d bet my ridiculous salary that they’re magical in origin.”

“I’m not taking that bet,” High Winds muttered. “Around Ponyville? What isn’t?”

Spitfire just smirked, only for her ears to perk a second later. A shout came from further down the tree line: Fleetfoot was returning with other ponies in tow. As they drew nearer, Spitfire blinked in surprise.

“A zebra?” she said, scrunching up her muzzle. It was indeed a zebra with Fleetfoot, the mare decked out in golden rings and a torn cloak. She was pulling a loaded cart full of various personal effects. Also with her were three fillies: an earth pony with a large bow, a small pegasus, and light gray unicorn. “Where’d you even find them, Fleetfoot?”

“They were coming out of the forest. Over there,” Fleetfoot said with a point of a hoof. “It looks like it used to be a path before the vines took over.” The other Wonderbolts were beginning to return, huddling around the zebra to hear her story.

“From my home, I have had to flee,” the zebra said, breathing heavily. “The forest has grown too wild, even for me!” Spitfire noticed that the earth pony and unicorn were huddling behind the zebra. They nodded their heads in agreement. The pegasus however was staring at her, a disturbing look of awe on her face.

“The Everfree has cast me out,” the zebra continued. “I can't go back, I have no doubt. And now, I think, it wants your home to shrink!” She motioned toward Ponyville, which was getting harder to see beneath the sea of vines.

“Wait. You live in the Everfree?” High Winds asked, eyebrows raising. When the zebra nodded, she perked up. “Really? Then do you have any idea why all of this is happening?”

The zebra sighed. “I’m afraid it’s a mystery to me as well, for what is happening, I cannot tell.”

“Damn,” High Winds muttered, her ears splaying back.

Fleetfoot nudged her with a hoof before giving the zebra a small smile. “Well, at least you got out in time. You could have gotten trapped by the vines if you weren’t careful.”

The zebra opened her mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by a shout.

“Hey, Captain,” Fire Streak called out slowly, trepidation clear in his voice. “You’re… you’re gonna want to see this.” The group turned to look at the two pegasi who were examining the spider-plant. Fire Streak was holding up a small test tube, an uneasy look on his face. The liquid within was glowing bright red.

“No…” High Winds gasped.

“Chemical test confirms it,” Fire Streak said, giving the vial a small shake. “This thing is packed with Black Vine Virus spores.”

Spitfire and High Winds glanced at each other in alarm before they both looked down at the blackened water Spitfire spat from her mouth moments ago.

“Buck me running,” Spitfire growled before reaching quickly into her saddlebags and pulling out a vial of her own. Giving it a good shake, she used her teeth to pull the cork stopper out of the top. Spitting the cork into the grass, she lifted the vial to her lips and spat. The minute her saliva touched the liquid within, it began to glow red as well, although not as strongly as Fire Streak’s vial was glowing.

“Well, that’s not good,” High Winds muttered as Spitfire began to rub at her tongue with a hoof, “although it does explains things.”

“It was in my mouth!” Spitfire whined.

“Wait, hold on,” Fleetfoot said uneasily. As she glanced around at the sea of vines, her ears splayed back. “Are you telling me that all these vines contain the spores?”

“No, not the rope-like vines,” Blaze said with a shake of his head. “Just these things.” He gave the dead spider-plant thing a good kick, unintentionally causing a puff of spores to be released. Backpedaling quickly to avoid the cloud, he continued. “They have special pouches in them that contain the spores. It looks like we finally have a source for the Virus.”

“Yay,” said Spitfire sarcastically. “Perfect timing for these things to appear. Just what we needed: more stuff added onto our plate. Ugh!” Rubbing her temples with her hooves, she glanced around. “Does anypony know where the nearest large source of humans is?”

“Ooh! Ooh!” the earth pony filly said, waving her hoof as she stepped out from behind the zebra. “Ah know this one! Ah know this one! That’d be Sweet Apple Acres, mah family’s farm.”

“Of course it’d be a farm,” Spitfire muttered. “Alright, we should probably head over there and make sure that none of these things are there, infecting the humans. The last thing we need is an infected human outbreak along with all these motherbucking vines.”

“I thought we were trying to figure how to stop the vines,” Lightning Streak said.

“At the moment I’m more concerned about infected humans,” Spitfire answered.

Lightning Streak scrunched up his nose. “The spore-carriers don’t appear to be leaving the forest. I don’t think we need to worry about them infecting humans in town. Just any that wander too close to the forest.”

“If there’s any chance of an infected human outbreak, we need to prevent it,” High Winds huffed.

“The faster we stop the vines, the faster the threat is eliminated.”

“And if we can’t find a way to stop them? What then?”

“Stop it, you two,” Surprise shouted. She motioned towards the zebra and the fillies. “You’re scaring the foals!”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Fleetfoot hummed. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced over the zebra and two fillies who were hiding behind her legs, watching the pegasi bicker. “Weren’t there four of you? Where’s the unicorn?”

The two fillies blinked before their eyes widened and the glanced around.

“Hey, yeah!” the earth filly yelped. “Where’s Sweetie Belle?!”

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

Racing under and around the tangled conglomeration of vines, Sweetie Belle raced through the streets of Ponyville. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she ducked, weaved and leapt over obstacles. Her head was on a constant swivel as she tried to minimize the impact of the blind spot her sightless eye caused.

As she ran, she passed by many ponies that were in various states of distress. Some were running from the vines, others were huddled under carts and behind barrels, while even more had already been captured by the blackened creepers and were now calling for help. Her ears folded back against her head as she tried to block out their cries.

Reaching the edge of the marketplace, she took a hard turn only to almost collapse when her back right leg—the one with the limp—nearly buckled underneath her. Barely keeping her balance, she raced through the abandoned stalls as quickly as her little legs would allow her. The world around her was a blur as she ran faster than she had ever run in her life.

But in her opinion, it still wasn’t fast enough. Not fast enough to escape what was coming. Not fast enough to run from what the pegasi had said the vines had contained.

Not fast enough to run from it.

Her little chest heaved as she took in great gulps of air. Her sides burned, pain racing up and down her body, especially her flank and face. It wasn’t from running though. In fact, the pain wasn’t even real. It existed in her mind—only as a memory—but that was enough for her. It was more than enough for her.

A memory of the most terrifying day of her life.

The creature loomed over her, as its sick, glowing eyes glared down upon her through the gloom. Black tendril-like protrusions covered the human’s face, climbing up its forehead before disappearing into the tangled mess that used to be her hair.

She tried to get away, but the thing just clamped down on her back leg harder. Its cracked fingernails dug cruelly into her flank, drawing blood. It dragged her across the ground, pulling her closer and closer. She screamed, scrambling to get away, but it was no use. The thing was too strong. She could hear her friends in the distance, shouting and crying for her to run. Every so often a small stone would impact the thing’s chest as one of them tried to distract it, but it paid them no mind.

Far off in town, the bells were clanging loudly.

It reached out its other hand—a large bite mark clear on the lower arm—and grabbed Sweetie by the back of the neck. Lifting her bodily into the air, Sweetie screamed as all her weight fell on her mane and right back leg. Something in her leg popped, sending blinding pain racing up the now-limp limb.

Ignoring her screams, the infected human lifted her closer to its face. Its mouth fell open, a wheezing gasp escaping its cracked lips, accompanied by a cloud of black mist. Cracked teeth glinted in the gloom, a black, dry tongue waggling back and forth as the human leaned down and sunk its teeth into the flesh of her flank.

Sweetie shrieked as the teeth tore into her leg. Her entire body jerked, causing the part of her mane that the human was holding to be ripped from her scalp. She fell forward, now dangling in the air by her back leg. Blood poured down her leg and body, cascading like a crimson waterfall.

The human thrashed about, grabbing blindly at its prey that was trying to escape. It scratched and tore at her sides until its free hand finally grabbed her face.

Sweetie screamed again as one of the fingers dug into her right eye. A few seconds passed before blood began to flow from the ruined socket. The pain and terror grew too much for her, and Sweetie felt herself beginning to lose consciousness. The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was a streak of gray and blonde fur descending from the heavens like a thunderbolt. She was unceremoniously flung from the infected human’s grasp as the newcomer impacted it from above, and she knew no more.

Since that day, just the memory alone of the infected human was enough to send Sweetie Belle into a panic. The sight of humans—infected or not—would send her running and crying. It hadn’t been until she had met Max that she slowly started to get over her anthropophobia. She could actually go to Applebloom’s farm again without having a panic attack. She didn’t have to take the long way home to avoid the pound and guard station. She didn’t have to run and find Rarity whenever she encountered somepony walking their human.

She finally had her life back, but according to those loud pegasi in their weird jumpsuits, it might be taken away from her again.

“N-no.” Tears still streaming down her cheeks, Sweetie’s eyes narrowed. “No.” The phantom pain in her sides began to fade, pushed back by the fiery determination welling up within her. “No!” Lowering her head, the tiny unicorn put on an extra burst of speed. “Not again! Not anymore! No! No! No!”

As Sweetie skidded around another corner, her destination came into view. Making a beeline for the building, she all but threw herself at the door which flew open with a loud ‘bang’. It hit the inside wall and ricocheted back, but Sweetie didn’t care; she was already racing up the winding staircase, taking the steps two at a time. Around and around she went, her pace never slowing until she finally reached the top. Puffing like a forge bellow, she staggered slightly before throwing herself forward onto the rope.

With a strangled cry, she pulled with all her might.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

High above her within the bell tower, the warning bells boomed out their message, the sound echoing out across the countryside for all to hear. Over fen and field, over glen and glade, over hill and brook; the message rang out.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

As the bells tolled, below Sweetie Belle added her voice to the chorus: a constant sobbing chant of “No more. No more. No more.” Though her legs burned and her muscles screamed, she continued to pull upon the rope with vim and vigor.

She would not let her life fall apart again.

She would not let somepony else suffer as she had suffered.

She would warn them all, no matter what.

And so, with tears in her eyes and a fire in her heart, Sweetie Belle continued to heave on the rope.

Far above, the bells continued to toll.

F’TAANG DOOOONG DOOOOOOOOONG CLANG

~ ~ ~ ~ > > < < ~ ~ ~ ~

“What does that filly think she’s doing?” Fleetfoot asked. Staring at the bell tower in the distance, she scrunched up her face. Her ear flicked in time with the tolling bells. “That’s not going to accomplish anything but cause more panic.”

“No… no,” Spitfire said, her eyes lighting up. “No, that filly has the right idea! Fire Streak! Blaze!” Both ponies saluted as she turned to look at them. “Fly as fast as you can to Oakvale and get their bells ringing as well. I don’t care if the vines are there are not, they need to be prepared. Lightning Streak, Soarin—” The two pegasi stiffened as she pointed at them “—you two take Dodge City and do the same. The more ponies we can warn, the better. Got it?” All four nodded in unison. “Then what the buck are you still doing here? Get moving!”

Four blurs of color exploded into the air: two headed west towards Whitetail Woods, while the other two shot off south over the Everfree Forest.

“Uh, Spits. Care to explain?” Fleetfoot asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“What do those bells signal?” Spitfire asked, pointing a hoof at the bell tower. “What do they warn of?”

Fleetfoot cocked her head to the side. “Infected humans, but I don’t see how—”

“When those bells toll, what do most ponies do with their humans?” Spitfire asked, interrupting her.

Fleetfoot gave her a blank stare, but beside her, Surprise’s eyes lit up.

“Oh!” she gasped. “They secure them! Lock them up, get them out of the open and away from potential infection!”

“Precisely,” Spitfire said, “and the less humans out and about, the lower the chances of infected humans popping up. It might not be a perfect solution, but hopefully it buys us enough time to deal with these things.” She kicked one of the vines, causing it to twitch.

“What’s the plan then?” Misty Fly asked.

Spitfire stared off into the distance for a brief moment—her eyes narrowing—before she turned to High Winds. “Take the zebra and fillies into town and find a safe place for them to take shelter. Once that’s done, see what you can do around town to help out, got it?”

High Winds nodded before motion for the trio to follow her. As the zebra and her cart—now with two fillies sitting atop the stuff—trundled off towards town, Fleetfoot asked, “And what are we doing?”

“Simple,” Spitfire said as she set her gaze on the Everfree. Reaching up, she pulled her goggles down over her eyes. “We’re gonna follow these vines to their source.”

Author's Note

Welp, here we are. 6000 likes. Hard to believe it. More people have liked this story than live in my hometown. Who could have believed when it was first posted that this story would turn out like this? How many of you are still here since the very beginning? How many have we lost and how many have we gained?

...

Oh well! :pinkiehappy: Back to writing. We are nearing the end of the story, after all! :yay: