Beautiful Eyes

Chapters

Guilty Conscious
Reservation
Invasive Advance
Change
Trip
Frightening Visage
Dangerous Work
Taking Action
Strike
Monochrome Guilt
Old Friends, New Scars
Passing the Time
Homecoming
Unexpected Guest
Breakfast At Sebastian's
Appointment with the Princess
Enhanced Techniques
A Fresh Face
Visitation

Guilty Conscious

Beautiful Eyes
By John Keith Bone

It’d been eight months… Eight months since I moved to Equestria… Two months in, I had to murder one of my best friends… Pinkie Pie… A week later I had to kill her again… A month after that I had to murder another… Rarity… I hadn’t slept in two days… Sporadic sleep had taken me over the last two months, but it’d been far from restful… Nightmares plagued me constantly… Even when I was awake, I saw them… The faces of the ponies I’d murdered… My friends… Mares that had the most wonderful of effects on my life… Mares that made me feel alive… But… All I saw staring back at me in the mirror was… A… Monster… A demon, cold and unfeeling… I was a monster… I had to be… How else could I just turn on them like that…? End their lives with such… Ease…?
The mirror cracked under the pressure with which I was pushing… It fit… I felt broken. I was broken. I couldn’t sleep… I stopped eating shortly after Jinx had left back for Terra… I hadn’t even stepped outside in two weeks…

“Just stop it.” I told myself aloud, leaning into the mirror as though bearing down on one smaller than me.

“Get over it, Sebastian. You did what you had to. They would have killed even more if you hadn’t stopped them. You’re lucky they chose you when they did…”

“But what if you’re wrong?” I asked my reflection, scowling at him.

“I’m not wrong. You did it too. You were there! You urged me on!”
His brow creased in irritation.

“YOU were the one who did it! You were the one with the knife!! YOU killed them! It was all YOU!!!”

“SHUT UP!!!!” I shouted and tore the mirror from the wall and threw it across the room. The wood frame shattered into splinters and joined the rest of the glass on the floor.

“Are you talking to… Yourself?” a voice asked from the doorway to my bedroom.
I startled violently and spun about, fists at the ready to see a very striking Cyan pegasus standing there, a concerned expression on her face.

“How did you-” I began, but the mare cut me off.

“The door was unlocked…”
Rainbow Dash stepped in tensely looking about the room.

“This place is a wreck… Where have you been, Sebastian…?”

“Oh, you know… Here…”
She quirked her brow at this.

“Nopony’s seen you for two weeks and you’ve just been here? All by yourself?”
The awkward nature of the moment began to set in. My cheeks flushed and I suddenly had a speech impediment… Still, I managed through and replied with a curt: “Yeah.”

“R-r-right…” Dash said, elongating the “R” nervously. “Um, listen, Sebastian, you really need to get out… You’ll drive yourself crazy in here…”
She was right. One look about the room was more than enough evidence of that. The books that were usualy so organized and well-kept were strewn about, lying in massive, unkempt piles, including the one from a few minutes ago, two mirrors were shattered, and my bedsheets were thrashed.

“You’re right… Do you have somewhere in mind?” I asked.
Rainbow’s face lit up at this. I could practically see her bouncing within her own mind. I didn’t even need to take off my bandage to see that…

“Well, what about a movie?”

“Name the time and place.”

“The Ponyville 9, two hours from now?”
I nodded.

“Speaking of which, what time is it?”
Dash threw a glance down at her wristwatch.

“Eight.”
I nodded in notation.

“Ten o’clock. Ponyville 9. I’ll be there.”
Dash disappeared out the door into the dark after throwing back a smirk…

“Did I just get asked out…?”

Reservation

The Ponyville 9 theater had a reputation for being very clean and tidy. The caretakers, clerks, and concession workers were all very kind and apparently “very good-looking”. I hadn’t been to a movie theater in almost a year, so it felt nice to open that heavy door. Dash walked in before I did and gave a wave to a mare behind the ticket counter. I understood then what people meant… She was beautiful!

“We have a reservation.” Rainbow informed the mare.

Reservation? In a movie theater…?

“Um…” Dash cut me off, “Don’t worry, Bunny Boy, you’ll see.”
The mare behind the counter simply nodded, as if she heard the statement on a daily basis. She crouched down behind the counter disappearing then reappearing with a slim black book which had a hard cover and thick seam.
“Name?” She asked Dash with a smile.
“Dashie.” Rainbow Dash replied.
I found it odd that she chose to use a nickname over her full name for a reservation, but the smile the ticket holder now had on her face shifted into a smirk as she ran a hoof down a page in her book, pausing to tap at what I assumed was our reservation listing.
“Ah, yes…Dashie. You have a reservation in the Chamber for two?” She asked with a hint of a suppressed chuckle.
Rainbow Dash nodded.
“Here you are then.”
The mare reached down and brought her right hoof back into view, holding in it a key. I found this to be quite perplexing. Who needs a key for a movie showing? I watched as the metal clanked upon being slid across the counter and rattled as Dash took it into her own hold.
“Have you been to the Chambers before?” The mare asked Dash, though she eyed me.
“No. First time actually…” There was a twinge in Rainbow Dash’s voice but I decided it was just nerves. This was obviously her first date in a good while.
“Well then,” the mare leaned over the counter a bit and pointed just over Dash’s left shoulder.
“There’s an elevator right down that hall. Take it, and hit the button with the red square around it. When you reach your floor you’ll come to another counter like this one. Sompony will be there to assist you. You need only to show him or her your key, and they will take you to your chamber.”
She ended her instructions with a smile, and gave me a once over accompanied by a wink. I shuddered slightly despite myself. The gesture seemed so unsettling in a way…as if she knew something that I didn’t.
“Thank you!” Dash sang, as she hooked her arm with mine and whirled the two of us about headed toward the elevator.
I looked over to her with curiosity welling within my mind. The behavior seemed strange even for Rainbow Dash. She was a rowdy mare with high-spirits, but something about her over-the-top perkiness had me on edge. Maybe she just wants to get me happy…Yeah that’s it, she’s trying to brighten my mood. I forced myself to smile, as the elevator doors slid open and the two of us stepped inside. As the doors shut behind us, Dash looked over the button display before finding the one with a red square right by the Emergency Call button. She pressed it and began humming to herself a tune I didn’t recognize.
“Oh..! Hey um, wouldn’t you like something from the concession?” The thought had just now reared into my mind.
“Oh no, no, no.” Dash shook her head. “We’ll have plenty to eat and drink once we reach our Chamber.”
I simply nodded once and stuttered my next question.
“Um..R-Rainbow, what’s a Chamber? I mean surely it’s not the same as the type I’m thinking of…”
At this she giggled.
“A Chamber is a type of moving showing. It’s a special private showing that are only made available here at Ponyville 9.” She replied.
“Oh, I see.”
I mentally sighed with relief and just as I did so, the elevator doors pulled apart and both Rainbow Dash and I were greeted by a long narrow corridor. Sure enough, a counter was placed at the far end with one attendant awaiting the arrival of patrons. We made our way over, and I spoke this time to the stallion who was clad in a white vest and bowtie. For a brief moment I imagined Alice wanting to toy with the accessory, then I quickly shook the image from my mind.
“Hello there, my good colt! We have a reservation.” I stated with enthusiasm.
He nodded once.
“Your key, monsieur?” He asked.
I hadn’t been expecting an accent, but I turned to face Rainbow Dash and extended my hand. She relinquished the key which I laid onto the counter and then watched as the Percheron took the key and made his way from behind the counter gate.
“Suivez-moi,” he stated, “Follow me.”
Rainbow Dash and I obliged, and followed the scrawny colt down another corridor. He began whispering to himself the door numbers which aligned either of the walls and counted them off one by one, occasionally checking the key to be sure he was searching for the right number, then he paused.
“Ah-ha! Here we are.” He noted.
Pushing the comb key into the lock he gave it a gentle turn to the right, and withdrew the key upon hearing a small ‘click’.
“Your Chamber.” He stated, as he stood off to the side holding open the door.
Rainbow Dash and I entered together; the both of us seemingly a bit timid. That was until Dash took in the contents of the room and squealed with delight. My eye simply widened at the sight I withheld before me. Truly this was just an average screening…
“Whoa…”
Inside was a cinematic “chamber” of sorts. The floor was inlaid and made up of drawings. It was 342 square meters in area, and was edged with a broad ornamental border. White Classical-style stucco moldings made up the decor. Mirrors hang, reflecting Dash on the east and west walls and picture frames were adorned with oak wreaths, bay-leaf garlands, palm fronds, and branches of oak and laurel. Acanthus scrolls were linked by garlands form a broad ornamental band which ran along the coving. Trophies of arms tied with a tasseled baldric embellished the corner piers. The delicate pearl-grey tint of the walls set off the white of the moldings and gave a noble beauty to the color scheme of the room. The ceiling was outlined by thin crystal lighting which I assumed would serve as theatrical lighting in the Chamber. In the middle of the chamber was a C shaped booth for two. This principal item of furniture, I noted, mirrored that of a great bed with a heavy wooden frame and springs made of interlaced ropes or strips of leather, overlaid with a feather cushion, quilts, fur coverlets, and pillows. Finally to the northern wall was the theater screen which stood 16 meters high and roughly 22 meters wide. I tried to keep my mouth from falling open, but my jaws inevitably went slack.
“OHMYGOSH!OHMYGOSH!OHMYGOSH!” I heard Dash screech as she plopped onto the silky smooth cushion of the booth.
I swallowed hard and startled a bit as the door behind me shut; the foreign colt leaving the two of us alone in our chamber. Making my way over to the booth, I slid in beside Rainbow Dash at her left. The screen before us both had me feeling inferior with its massive size. It was a bit overpowering.
“D-Dash…,” I stammered “how many bits did this reservation cost you..!?”
She waved a hoof dismissively.
“That’s irrelevant.” She stated.
I truly felt like I’d owe her for the night I was sure to have.
“Dash, I don’t know how I’m going to make all of this,” I gestured to the sanctum around us, “up to you…”
She only chuckled.
“Oh, there’ll be no need for that Sebastian…You’ll make it up to me in due time.”
Had I not been so in sync to the atmosphere around me I probably would have caught the tine of mischief in her voice, but as I said, I was too busy admiring the extremities.

Invasive Advance

Not too much later, the young colt who showed us to our chamber, re-entered the spacious room flanked by two mares. One of the mares was pushing a small cart upon which sat trays of desserts including a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar; the confections packed into small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of Tartar.
“Turkish Delight..!” I squeaked in a pitch that favored a field mouse over a rabbit.
The other mare carried two trays which she balanced expertly on both her arms. One was for me and the other for Rainbow Dash. Both trays were lifted upon reaching the table to reveal two porcelain bowls. Each bowl bearing a salad of mint leaves, shredded lemon peel, cracked black pepper, cantaloupe, thinly sliced fennel, blueberries, seedless red grapes, smoked salmon skin and honeydew melon. Alas the nice gentlecolt bared with him Dash and I’s main courses, sitting before us two silver platters.

“Oh boy!” Rainbow Dash squealed.
On her plate was a sesame crusted Mahi Mahi with a soy shiso ginger butter sauce. I looked down at my own saucer to find a sun dried tomato pesto pasta. My nose quivered at the alluring scents and it wasn’t long before I could hear the chomping of jaws as I looked over to find Dash already engorging herself. I chuckled at this and took up my fork and spoon.
The mare with the desert cart kneeled and removed, from a shelf underneath the cart, an ice bucket with two bottles wedged inside: one a bottle of première champagne and the other a choice red wine.

“Oh I don’t really drink…” I announced to the mare who had already fixed my wine glass.

“Oh Sebastian,” Dash drawled “loosen up a bit. I brought you here to help take your mind off things remember?”
I took into consideration her words, but I still refrained from the alcoholic beverage and instead requested a glass of ice cold sparkling water. Rainbow on the other hand, happily whet her whistle to what was a bottle of ’75.

When the three of our hosts returned to collect our silverware, glasses, and used dishes the lights in the chamber began to dim. Rainbow Dash was cuddled into my side, and lay sprawled about her end of the booth. I had my arms around her, caressing her upper body as she rested her head in my lap. I absent-mindedly began stroking her mane after a while and she sighed with relaxation.

“You know Sebastian…I’m really glad you decided to go out with me this evening. Tonight has been great…”
I nodded.

“Indeed it has Dash…Thank you.”
I leaned over and softly pressed my lips to her temple, drawing her frame closer to mine. She mused to herself, mumbling an incoherent phrase or two and then suddenly sat up straight, and took a hold of my sleeve.

“Oh! Oh! It’s starting!” She let out in a harsh and excited whisper.
I smiled and my attention went from her to the screen in front of us as the lights set at there darkest.
The screen began to roll opening credits and some cheeky music played as a short listing of cast appeared alongside the names of the director and producers. Wait a minute…Did that just say a Clop-tastica Productions, production??? The film began with an epilogue of narration.
It was late Friday evening. Simon, a colt around the age of 19, lay on the couch in the sitting room watching television, positively bored. He was in a bad mood as his mother had informed him that he would have to scrap his plans for the night to accommodate the arrival of her friend, a mare named Cathy, who would be staying for a few days. His parents were out of town at the wedding of one of his father's colleagues and wouldn't be back until the following afternoon. His younger sister went with them, so Simon would be left alone with Cathy for the night.

“Psst, Dash…Is this going to be one of those stories where the friend turns out to be a psychopath because um..I don’t think I could watch a—“
“Shhh! Hush Seb!”

"Be nice to Cathy when she arrives!" was all Simon could think about; his mother's words ringing in his ear. At the age of 19, he still felt as if his mother treated him like a kid. "I wonder if she's still hot".... Simon didn't even have time to ponder this as he heard the doorbell ring. He jumped up, fixed himself up, and went to answer the door. He opened it to be greeted by a middle-aged woman with a beaming smile. "Hi!" Cathy exclaimed. "Hey, come on in". Reminding himself of his mother's edict, he behaved himself and played the good host. The pair made their way into the hall, where Cathy rested her suitcase. "God, it's been so long since I've been here", Cathy fondly said as she took in her surroundings. "And it's been so long since I've seen you Simon!", she continued. Simon threw his eyes skywards in agreement. "How old are you now?", Cathy inquired. "Eh, just turned 19". "My god the time flies doesn't it?" Simon was now frankly getting bored of the chit-chat. He led his guest into the kitchen. "Coffee?"

I stole a glance at Rainbow Dash. She was looking at me and not the screen. I averted my eyes in haste, as to avoid eye-contact. I felt a weird sensation building up inside of me. It was sort of the feeling I got whenever I was about to throw down a card in a game of Black Jack, and everyone at the table but me seemed to know I was going to lose.

The pair talked for a while. Simon knew he would have to make a bit of small talk when she arrived. After about a half an hour and a noticeable lull in the conversation, Cathy used the opportunity to gather her belongings and make her way upstairs. "I'm gonna grab a shower I think", she informed him. "Okay cool..", "Eh I'm putting on pizza in a while if you’re hungry", Simon offered. "Yeah sure, give me half an hour and I'll be down", Cathy said and gestured two thumbs up. "Okay cool", Simon responded as she made her way upstairs. He checked out her backside as she moved. Simon furrowed his brow in approval at the lady's rather large plot. It fit neatly into her tight denims. She was sexy. There was no denying it. She was older than Simon but kept herself in good shape. Her face was unwrinkled, her chest flat and her breasts were large. She would put most mares of her age to shame, not least his mother. Best of all, she was also divorced and single.

I looked over at Dash again. This time her attention was on the screen. I began eyeing her figure. Rainbow Dash had the body of a female athlete but she was by no means butched. Her chest wasn’t as large as say Apple Jack’s or FlutterShy’s, but what she lacked in breast size she certainly made up for in plot. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the tip of her cutie mark and suddenly that feeling inside me began to bubble into something of a craving.

After some time, Cathy came back downstairs and into the kitchen. "Hungry?" Simon asked. Cathy nodded her head, a glint in her eyes. The pair talked some more on the sofa in the sitting room after having some food. Simon was taken aback by how open Cathy was about her personal life. She informed him about the men she had been seeing over the years, and what Simon should avoid with mares. Simon was half listening to her, half eyeing her up. "I know I guess my tits are far more appealing than my stories". Simon was gazing at her breasts and barely heard what she said. After prizing his stare from her mammaries, he looked up at her looking shocked. "Huh... oh I'm sorry", "hah", "I wasn't you know...". Cathy looked at Simon scrutinizingly. "Men..." Cathy laughed as she threw her eyes skywards. Simon was mortified and couldn't say anything. Cathy fell silent momentarily. Still gazing at Simon she loosened two buttons from her low-cut shirt and pulled her bra up beyond her breasts. "Now", she said. "Is that better?" she enquired in a humorous tone. Simon froze and gulped. "Do you like them?" Cathy asked as she looked down, cupped her breasts in her hooves, and began to squeeze and jiggle them. Simon looked at her breasts, nervously laughing. "You can touch them if you want".
A brushing against my arm had me turning my gaze away from the screen once more to find Rainbow Dash leaning against my arm. She was kneeling on all fours on the booth and had my elbow caught between her bosom as eyed me with an unmistakable lust.

“Enjoying the film Sebastian?” She asked in a whisper.

“I..Um…”

It felt bizarre. Simon knew that she was laid back, but this was surreal. "No i'm fine", Simon uttered responding to Cathy's previous offer. "You sure hun?", Cathy gingerly motioned. "Look this might help". Cathy proceeded to fully unbutton her shirt and discarded it on the floor. Still eyeballing Simon, she then unclipped her bra, and carelessly dropped it onto Simon's lap. She was now naked from the waist up. Her breasts became noticeably firm and her nipples peaked. She closed her eyes, lent her head back and again fondled her breasts. "We're alone together tonight Simon - let's do something fun", Cathy moved closer towards him to kiss him. "You’re a fine young colt Simon", Cathy uttered before she kissed him, first on the cheek and then on the lips. Simon parted with words, and gave in.

“Y’know Sebastian….You and I can have some fun too tonight.”
Rainbow Dash crawled into my lap. I could feel my heart rate accelerate, but not out of excitement or anticipation.

“Dash I don’t thi—“

“Shh..” She lightly pressed her hoof to my lips. “You think too much.”

Faster than I could register without lifting my bandage, Dash had already began to strip herself of her own clothing.

“W-wait! Rainbow Dash I—“ I began scooting away from her and she only leaned in with each of my movements back.
I suddenly felt my pants becoming undone, and I made a move to stop Rainbow Dash’s invasive hooves but I clumsily missed at reaching to grab her wrists, and instead I jolted at the feel of her hold on my own manhood.

“Oh my Sebastian…You’re so big..!”
I tried for her wrists again and successfully yanked them away again, but not before she’d managed to rub me into a hard-on.

“Good Lord, Rainbow Dash! What in Equestria has gotten into you..!?”

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t enjoying it Sebastian.” Dash said with a smirk. “Just look at how hard you’ve already gotten…”

“That is a natural bodily function Dash! It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m hard for you!”
I didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t let her keep up this charade. I’d much rather something like this happen in a less immodest fashion.

Dash’s eyes held in them so many emotions all jumbled together. The most prominent being confusion, lust, and anger.

“Please Sebby…” She begged, grabbing a hold of my right arm and drawing me in close to her.

“NO!” I managed not to yell, but still spoke with authority and assertion.

I should have known that a competitive mare like Dash wouldn’t give up without a fight. As I began to rise from the booth she began to unclothe herself more. Her chest now bare and her lower half now unsheathed by any form of undergarment.

She made a move to pull me back into my seat and she succeeded. I came face-to-face (although it was more face-to-chest) with the horny, cyan Pegasus.

“Come on Sebastian. I’m just asking for this…Please? It’ll take your mind off of everything that’s been troubling you. All the murders, the loss of Rarity and Pinkie Pie. I can make it all go away.”
She cooed the words and for a millisecond I almost contemplated giving into the idea.

“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash,” I took another firm hold of her wrists, though this time I didn’t let her go and my fixed gaze on her intensified; my tone was hard and set. “No.”

It seemed that was it. The fire that burned in her irises just seconds before was beginning to die out. The lights in the chamber were beginning to brighten once more, as the credits to the porno began scrolling up the screen bottom-to-top.

“I see…” She muttered.
I didn’t want to feel like I’d let her down in some way, but the unsettling nerves were still bundled inside of me and as I released her wrists, then stood to button and re-zip my pants.

“I’m sorry, Dash, but this isn’t how I plan on losing my virginity… Even if it is to you…”
Dash sighed loudly, almost groaning in frustration.

“And why not?”

“Because I care about you, Dash. I respect you!”
Rainbow looked up at me then, hope gleaming in her soft eyes.

“If you care about me… Prove it…”
In all honesty, the prodding was beginning to make me angry, but I forced myself to swallow my frustration and maintain a calm visage.

“I am, Dash. I care enough about you to not allow you to do this. I’m not the right huy for you. Dash, I’m not even a stallion.”
Dash smirked at this.

“That rock in your trousers begs to differ.”
That was it…

“I’m going home, Rainbow. It’s been a wonderful evening, and I thank you very much for going to this much trouble. But I can’t stay here another minute… Good evening, Ma’am.”
As I turned, I could make put the shuffling of fabric sliding over fur. Before I was able to even touch the sterling doorknob, Dash grabbed my arm.

“Wait.” She pleaded.
I conceded for a moment, standing there with may hand wrapped firmly about the key to my freedom.

“Make it quick, Dash. Before I change my mind.”
Dash paused a moment, then began explaining.

“I’m leaving for Cloudesdale tomorrow… I wanted to do something really big before going… Then you jumped to mind. I never really got to repay you for saving me from Pinkie-”

“Pinkamena.” I corrected.

“Pinkamena…” Dash repeated. “But yeah, that’s why I did this… Besides… Just because you’re a rabbit, doesn’t mean a pony can’t be attracted to you.”
Her words were heavy on my frail heart, but I maintained my clutch on the doorknob.

“Why are you going to Cloudesdale?”
Dash sighed once again.

“I was offered a position in the rainbow facility.”

“I see… And you really want something to remember?”

“Yes…” Dash was practically begging…
I turned about swiftly, wrapping an arm about the mare’s waist. My gaze fixed upon her face, which had gone aglow from the beet red blush of anticipation. The distance between us was closed nigh instantaneously as I savagely began to lavish her lips, crushing them beneath my own. Dash’s own arm wrapped itself around me, bringing me impossibly close. My tongue soon forced its way between her ever-shifting folds and began making a map of her slick, warm cavern. The sound she let off as my taste began to seep in informed me that she hadn’t been kissed like this in a long time… She had quite a flavor on her as well, but I broke off before it could take a hold on me. As I pulled back, I was a bit embarrassed to see a small line of saliva connected us. I quickly swiped it off and made for the hallway, leaving the speechless mare far behind.

Change

For the life of me, I could not get my mind off Rainbow Dash! Two weeks had gone by since the day she left, and guilt had began driving into the back of my head like a silver nail… I had to see her… I had to go to Cloudesdale… But how? I couldn’t fly, and I had serious doubts that Cloudesdale airspace wasn’t exactly lax when it came to automated means of flight… I knew I had to gain a pair of wings somehow…

Alright… Think, Cooper, think… You’re a scientist, you can come up with something…
I sat, unmoving in the armchair set off to the left of my television set for several minutes, racking my brain for a method. The minutes soon rolled into hours… Nothing came… That is, until a loud rap against my front door startled me out of my thoughts. A quick glance out the window off to my right revealed the shroud of darkness that covered the sky… Not many of Ponyville’s residents went out after dark, save for the occasion of Nightmare Night… Who could possibly be calling on me at this time…?
A peak through the peep-hole in my door had me taken aback. Out in the dark stood an attractive lavender mare. My friend…

“Twilight Sparkle!” I cried upon opening the door. “Come in, you’ll catch your death out there like that!”
In the heavy rain that was falling, Twilight’s hair had frizzed up quite a bit, and she stuttered when she spoke… In truth, it was quite amusing…

“Th-Th-Thanks… S-Seb… D-d-d-d-do you ha-have a blanket I could use…?”
Moments later, I had the freezing young lady huddled beneath a thick comforter, sipping at hot cocoa.

“What in Equestria were you doing out there in that weather?” I asked, rubbing her arms from behind the couch.

“I j-just got c-caught…”
Twi’s hooves shook visibly, but she wasn’t hypothermic… She had probably been out only for about ten minutes…

“Sheesh… You work too hard, Twilight. Take it easy for a while, okay? Do you want anything else? Another blanket?”
Twi shook her head.

“Actually, I’d like to talk to you.” Her voice had stopped shaking and she wasn’t stuttering anymore… A good sign…

“Talk to me? What about? Is something wrong?”
For some reason, I found myself panicking, but as I rounded the couch to sit with my companion, her eyes erased any doubt. She was alright. Those dark orbs held within them a certain urgency, but still remained soft and conversational. She wanted to ask me something, but there was no need for me to freak out just yet…

“Rainbow Dash told me what happened that night.” Twilight began

Oh God. I’m in trouble, aren’t I?

“Oh… Yeah…” I replied, throwing a bashful glance at the floor as the memories played through my mind once again.
Truth be told, I had come to regret not submitting to Dash’s advances… In fact, that was probably why I couldn’t get my mind off of her…

“I’m curious, Sebastian. Why didn’t you go for it? Almost anypony would have given anything just to be in that situation.”
Twilight’s inquiry struck me as a bit odd. The phrasing of it made me ponder for a moment if she was jealous, but quickly perished the thought. Twilight wasn’t the jealous type anyhow…

“I’m not sure, Twilight. I actually regret not giving her what she wanted. I really want to see her. To apologize. Y’know, maybe even make it up to her…”
There was a long silence. It was thick and pensive… After a solid minute, Twilight stood.

“I can help you get to Cloudesdale.”
My ears twitched at their bases at this (as they can’t actually twitch, being so floppy and all).

“What do you mean?”
Her smile brought me a small measure of pleasure… It was so bright and knowing…

“Magic is my element, Sebastian.” She said, her smile dissolving into a smirk. “And I know a spell that can give you wings. Just stand up, and you’ll have them in a snap.”
Without a second thought, I jumped up and lifted my shirt over my head, discarding it haphazardly onto the floor. For a moment, Twilight blushed. I took a mental note of how adorable she looked when she did that… Her eyes began wandering my bare frame, studying the valentine-shaped burn on my chest.

“You still have that scar?” she asked.
She was kind of dazed judging by the distant edge in her voice. I could feel my ego inflate just the tiniest bit at her admiration, but I wasn’t patient enough at the moment for a show.

“Yeah. Kinda hard to get rid of a third degree burn.”

“Right… Oh!” Twi’s eyes widened in the realization that she was staring, and she shook her head, refocusing. “You ready?”
I nodded.
In the moments that followed, I could have sworn I saw the very face of God… The light that enveloped my body absolutely had to be divine. It was blinding and yet it didn’t hurt… It lifted me a solid foot into the air, and yet it didn’t tug… Once I came back to myself, I was acutely aware of a strange weight between my shoulder blades… I craned my head back to admire the work my friend had done.

“Huh. Check it out… I’ve got wings…” I commented in sheer awe.
They were… Beautiful! Eight feet from tip-to-tip, the raven black appendages were stretched outward, flexing in slow, laborious flaps.

“Twilight… They’re wonderful… Thank you so much! Is there anything I can do to repay you?”
My dark-coated companion shook her head with a knowing smile.

“Just go see her. Tomorrow.”

“I will. I swear.”

“Pinkie Pie swear?”
My smile waivered for a moment, recalling the nightmare behind that name, but I realized Twilight hadn’t meant any harm. Just an inside joke between friends… I crossed my heart, flapped my arms, then pretended to stick a pastry in my eye.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye…”

Trip

The flight to Cloudesdale had been strikingly easy, and laden with sublime bliss. Apparently, the spell Twilight cast had not only given me wings, but also the knowledge of how to use them effectively.
The city of Cloudesdale itself was quite a sight! It had a very Roman feel to it. In truth, I was rather surprised by that fact… I moved to Equestria, expecting a distinctive lack of influence from other countries, much less one so close to home. I found myself striding slower and slower as I made my way down the narrow thruways. My eye remained fixed upward on the massive pillars and various pegasi that sped about the upper atmosphere… A strange sense of forced happiness hung in there air, however. Looking at the faces of those I passed showed that, although smiles were there, they were empty…

“Hey, you heading to the cloudesium?” I heard a mare ask her friend.

“Yeah, the exams are today. Wouldn’t miss that for the world!” she replied.

Public exams, huh? What for…?
I spun about on my heel and approached the pair. They both looked at me, one setting her mug of coffee down, the other offering a smile.

“Pardon me, ladies, but I couldn’t help but over-hear something about exams. What kind of examinations are they?”
The one with the coffee, a pretty little thing with deep red eyes and long, feathered hair perked up.

“Flight exams, of course! Say, you’re new around here, aren't ya?”
I adjusted my bandage with a smile. Apparently, the mare’s name was Feather Heart. She had lived in Cloudesdale her whole life, and claimed a few months back to the friend that way with her, Anna Rayne, that she’d never leave. She had been single for several months now and was beginning to grow lonely. She majored in Liberal Arts at Cloudesdale University with a decent average… On all counts, a normal mare…
A quick glance off to my right and a tilt of my head, accompanied by the most innocent smile I could manage, I replied with a tone of the new kid back in high school.

“What gave me away?”
Feather laughed.

“Not many rabbits with wings out there, Mister…..?” she prompted.

“Cooper,” I replied. “Sebastian Cornelius Cooper.”
Feather seemed taken aback by something. She drew her head back and placed a hoof over her heart.

“Wow. That’s a long name!” she exclaimed.

“You can call me “Coop” if you’d like.” I retorted, taking note of the set of her hoof over her ample chest… She was calling attention to it…

A flirt, huh…?

“Alright, then, Coop. You wanna come with us?”
I feigned surprise at this, perking the bases of my ears much the same way a Bloodhound would.

“Really? Can I?” I asked in false excitement.
She nodded ecstatically in response.

“Oh! Um, could you give me some directions first?” I asked. I was there to see Dash, after all…

“Oh, sure. Where do you need to go?” asked the mare.

“The Rainbow Factory.” I replied simply.

A quick explanation later, Feather pointed off to a rather tall shape in the distance. From where I stood, it was hard to make out all the exact details of the structure, but what I could tell was that it stuck out a great deal from the rest of the skyline. It looked like a normal factory, from what I knew of them… And given what little I knew on Equestrian architecture, there was something ominous about it… The superstructure itself was made of normal cloud-concrete, while its spires and smoke-stacks were black storm clouds… Probably just warning the personnel themselves…
Twenty minutes later, I found myself between Feather and her friend. Each had a hold on either of my arms, and a deep, commanding voice was shouting instructions into a megaphone. On the way in, something very disturbing had caught my eye… Propaganda posters… The few I saw sported a single silhouette looking out over several hundred identical outlines. Said outlines were that of pegasi…

PRAISE THE FLOCK it read in massive block letters at the bottom.

A communist city-state, maybe? I thought to myself as Feather busied herself with stroking my hand. If I hadn’t been so engrossed in the mystery of that poster, I would have enjoyed the touch immensely, but now it just seemed to annoy me…

“What did that poster mean?” I finally asked aloud.
Feather looked over at me, seemingly perplexed by my pensive tone.

“What poster?”

“The one we saw plastered all over the walls on the way in here. “Praise the flock”? What does that even mean?”

“Oh,” Feather began. “A pegasus that’s raised in Cloudesdale should always look to serve the community. If they can’t, or refuse to, they aren’t fit to stay here. This exam helps us weed the ones that can’t do anything out.”
I looked to her, taken aback.

“What do you mean they can’t stay? What do you do with them?”

“We deport them.”
The tone of voice that Feather used to explain this to me was one of a friend discussing something amusing over coffee… It was so calm… So natural… It made me a bit sick, but I knew I couldn’t show it…

“Hm. That makes sense.” I stated matter-of-factly.
I was completely shocked! Appalled! How could anypony just sit there and smile when the fates of hundreds of lives would be decided just by some stupid test!? This whole town didn’t make any sense! How could they live with themselves!?

“Aurora Dawn!” called the proctor from below, startling me from my stupor.
A meek-looking mare, probably no older than seventeen stepped out onto the field.

“Clear. Fly. Fall. Complete.” the proctor ordered as he had several times before.
The yellow-coated mare took to the air immediately, but something was clearly wrong… Only a few moments passed before it happened… A loud crack sounded. She cried out, screaming endlessly until meeting the cold, unforgiving ground below. Nopony moved… Nopony did anything! They all remained perfectly straight-faced, unaffected by the sight of the poor mare limping her way to the left side of the field… I stood, but Feather grabbed me.

“Don’t.” she said. The look in her eyes was that of one with whom it was useless to argue…
My eye remained fixed on the injured pony for two more runs… Nopony even thought about helping her… They just looked at her in disgust… My blood had begun to boil, just as a brown colt by the name of Orion Solstice had foregone his run to help her, earning him an instant failure… I heard a few calls of descent from the audience. It sent me over the edge. To keep from striking the two mares at my sides, I pounded the arms of my chair as I stood.

“YOU PONIES ARE SICK!” I bellowed, making a mad dash for the nearest exit, but not before the two that had failed caught sight of me.

Frightening Visage

The flight to the factory was one made in angry haste. I was going to bring Rainbow home… She couldn’t possibly live in a place like this, right!? Unfortunately, as it turned out, I had to take a tour before I was even able to lay eye on a secretary. I was dragged through each of the weather departments: Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter while a monotone colt who clearly hated his job drawled out useless information on the place… When it was all over, I knew everything there was to know on making a snowflake perfectly unique... The tour had only served to make me even more angry, and even more so when the secretary I spoke to lied to me and told me that Dash wouldn’t be back for a solid two days from a business trip, even after I had persisted. My blood was still boiling when I got back to my hotel… I hated this place… It was oppressing its own citizens… Anger drove me from sleep, out of bed and back into the skies. It was true… Dash had always said flying was therapeutic… Still, when I laid eyes on that stupid factory, I couldn’t stay away. Dipping low, I made my way to the rim of one of the silos where I sat for a while to rest myself. It was about midnight, and all of Cloudesdale was dark. Not a speck of light rose up from the structures beneath me… The moonlight was the only thing that guided my way. I sat, legs drawn into my chest for several silent minutes before raising my head. Before me stood a small filly… One I had seen before… She had an unnaturally broad smile plastered over her face, eyes wide and glowing a sickly red. I startled to my feet, eye wide. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at… Scootaloo… The orange filly from that night all those months ago…

“Go to sleep.” she ordered calmly.
My vision suddenly became hazed, even for such low lighting conditions… The world suddenly began swimming around me, slowly fading to black

Dangerous Work

The ringing in my ears and pain in my shoulder informed me I had survived the fall. Upon reclaiming my awareness, the whirring of industrial cloud machines was all I could hear. A faint red glow from a few maintenance lights illuminated my way. I took the opportunity to survey myself. All limbs were accounted for, and a splotch of dark liquid slathered on my palm when I pulled it back from my face. Great… I was bleeding already… Somewhere amid the twists and turns of this oddly shaped tunnel, I heard hoof-fall. For some reason, I froze, a sudden anxiety gripping my chest. I held my breath and looked about me, noting that the ceiling above me was a grate. Through it, I saw a tall, slender pony around six feet tall, about a hundred-thirty pounds in a business suit. This struck me as a bit odd.

This is a work floor… What’s an executive-looking pony doing up here…?
He stopped suddenly and put two fingers to his ear, then cursed and spun on his heel, taking off in the opposite direction toward a set of stairs. Stairs! Perfect! That meant I was still in the factory itself. Without too much thought, I began pushing on the rusted metal above me. It gave without much of a fight and slid upward. As I climbed out into the hall, I took note of the fact that the grate wasn’t secured… Another oddity…

This place is full of issues, isn’t it…?
The stairs the businesspony had gone to only went up… Cautiously, I advanced every step, keeping my wings tucked tight against my back. The sound of my own foot-fall became unsettling… The way it echoed off the concrete walls… As I ascended, I began to realize how long this flight was, but wouldn’t allow myself to take to the air. I got the sudden feeling that if I got caught, something bad would happen. Something about this place… The Rainbow Factory… Something was wrong. I couldn’t place my finger on what it was, though… The lights began to dim as I neared the exit… It wasn’t long before pitch black enveloped me. Groping about blindly yielded a doorknob. Upon twisting it, I pushed the door open a crack and peered into the next room. From what I could tell, it was some kind of theatre room. Hushed whispers and confused banter filled my sharp ears. With a few glances to the sides, I deduced that what I was walking out onto a catwalk of some kind. The businesspony had disappeared… Hm… I crept as quietly as I could out from the threshold only to reel at what I saw.
Pegasi. Dozens of them… Most of them appeared young… One in particular caught my attention. The lithe yellow one with the green mane… The one from the flight exams… God, what was her name?

“Aurora…” I breathed after a moment.

But how? She failed her exam… She was deported, wasn’t she!?
A few of the young ponies took note of my presence and beckoned me to get down, saying something about suits but I couldn’t make it all out. For some reason, I obliged their requests and hopped over the rail, and shimmying my way down the pillar supporting the walk. Upon reaching the floor, the small, quiet throng consumed me, allowing me to meld into the group seamlessly. A few colts offered me nods, some a pat on the shoulder and others just threw me looks. Others still seemed a bit off… Their eyes were hollow, staring off beyond the walls that confined them to this theatre room… I stopped for a moment and knelt down beside one filly in such a state.

“Are you alright?” I asked the forlorn young lady.
She didn’t respond with words, but instead simply pointed to the front of the room. I followed her gestured with my eye and found an enormous… Thing… A machine of some kind. It looked relatively clean compared to the rest of the room… Stainless steel with clear acrylic pipes running from its base down into the floor. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the top of the strange machine was almost crimson from rust.

“What is that?”
The girl didn’t speak, but simply burst into tears, burying her face in her hooves. This was unexpected, but it told me that she wasn’t the one to talk to. I stood up for a moment, then knelt back down and wrapped my arms about poor filly’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered into her ear as apologetically as I could manage.
My words brought an end to her shudders, but her tears kept flowing. Through puffy, streaming eyes, she looked at me as though she was peering straight into my soul and spoke a single name.

“Lulu Luck…”
At this, several pegasi in the immediate area looked to her with surprised expressions on their faces.

“Did she just…?” A colt prompted.

“She did!” Another exclaimed.
A small group began to form around her. They all began stroking and petting her, mumbling assurances beneath their breath. I took this opportunity and slipped away from them, taking in the appearances of each before turning away. They all wore uniforms… The same uniform… No doubt they were all from the same flight school… Those were her friends…

“Hey.” A small voice beckoned from behind me.
With a crane of my head, I came face-to-face with Aurora. Her voice was thick and her eyes puffy. She’d been crying… A lot…

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Trying to figure out what’s going on… Can you tell me anything?”
Just as the wounded filly was about to speak, a loud, metallic thud sounded somewhere on the walk. Aurora grabbed hold of my collar and quickly dragged me to the center of the crowd, then dead-legged me without warning, forcing me to my knees.

“Hey, what the Hell-”
Aurora slapped a hoof over my mouth and hunkered down next to me, whispering almost inaudibly.

“Just stay quiet… And you won’t get picked…”
Several ponies dressed in the same style as the businesspony I encountered in the hallway below filed in behind a few wearing dark masks that concealed their faces and manes. The one at the very front wore a cape of a strange style. The lining on the collar was a brilliant gold, the bulk of was a dangerous crimson.

Taking Action

“Hello, all of you worthless, disgusting, non-fliers!” she declared.
My gaze locked on the mare. That voice was very commanding and laden with hate. Hate for the poor students she was addressing… Hate for ponies she’d never even met before… It made me angry just thinking about it, much less listening to it… Looking into the eyes of the speaker, I could read nothing without my left… The rosy orbs seemed to blaze as she began a short, maniacal tirade about how everyone in the room was useless before this moment. They all had a special purpose… They would be helping the factory produce rainbows.

Slaves? These students are to be made into slaves...? No… No, not if I can help it!
I went to stand up again, but Aurora yanked me back down before I was even able to get to my knees.

“What the Hell are you doing?” I hissed lowly.

“Shut up and stay down!” she ordered.
One look into her eyes told me that it was useless to argue. She didn’t want me to be made an example of… These drivers were serious… But that didn’t explain what the machine was for…
Suddenly, several ponies backpedaled over Aurora and I, breaking my line of thought as a light yellow filly was hoisted into the air, bound at the wrists and ankles by rusty, wrought iron chains. Two bars, one between her wrists, the other between her ankles held her firmly in place. Some ponies shouted, other cried, and some simply remained silent as a motorized whirring filled the air and the bars began to twist in opposite directions. It wasn’t long before the sickening sounds of breaking bones sounded, along with a blood-chilling shriek of pain. I stared, slack jawed and terrified as her broken form hung, suspended in the air high above the rest of us… The mare said something about the machine working better when the subject’s ribs were broken, but I didn’t care. The poor girl was then lowered into the top of the machine, where a grinding sound filled the air. She didn’t scream… She’d probably passed out… The sounds grew louder as each part of her was consumed… Silence pervaded for mere moments before I heard the audible snapping what few strands of self control I had left. That mare had to die. RIGHT NOW!!!
Disregarding the warnings she had given me, I snapped my wings out and threw the young filly off of my frame, into the arms of a group off to my right. With hardly any effort at all, I took to the air. That sensation could not possibly get old… No! Focus!! My eye locked on the woman in the mask, fist already cocked and ready to cave that Kevlar face in…

“Get him!” the maniac executive ordered.
In my right peripheral, I saw two black blurs speeding in at a speed that most others would call a record. They were business ponies… No… No, the business pony from the tunnel was a guard…! The two had what appeared to be stun guns in their hooves… Child’s play…
With a single, powerful beat of my wings, I pivoted at my waist and shot a palm out, catching one at the wrist, changing his direction to have him collide with his subordinate mid-flight. The thud was loud as they connected, and one seemed to take to the desired effect, plummeting to the unforgiving grate floor below. The other, the one I had tapped, however, had other plans. He made a blind grab for my shirt and held on tight. His weight was enough to bring down a solid twelve feet before I was able to take hold of his wrists again. With a mad jerk downward, his purchase on me was lost. At the rate we were falling, I knew we’d hit the ground in another second, so I simply shoved him off and began beating my wings again.

“THIS IS WHERE YOU DIE, BITCH!!!!” I politely informed the masked mare as I hovered at her eye level upon reaching it.
The rosy eyes of the masked enigma had a certain glint in them that I had equated to insanity… It was a glint I was too familiar with… A glint I hated… With all my being and more, I hated that look…

“Now,” I breathed, having regained a level of composure and attempting to stay rational for just a moment longer. “Any more suits for me to ruin?”
I had already announced my presence and from the pained shrieks rising up from below me, it was clear the two guards were being slaughtered by the mass… There was no erasing my mark now… This was where my recklessness had landed me and where I needed to make my stand.
The mare didn’t reply but simply stomped a hoof. The doors to the catwalk flew open as what appeared to be a small army of suited guards filed in, armed with little more than handguns. A few quick glances revealed that the weapons were Ruger .9 mm semiautomatics. Small… Accurate… Good magazine size… There was no way I could take on this many guys by myself, regardless of how scantily armed they were… The Suits were at the ready, their weapons trained on me, when an idea struck me.

“Students!”
The tumultuous roars of the ravenous group came to a halt in an instant.

“Clear… Fly… Fall… Complete…”
That did it. Every filly and colt that could fly took to the air in a nanosecond, bolting for the nearest Suit. The sound of fierce battle cries and gunfire filled the air at that moment.
Madness. Sheer. Bloody. Madness.
That’s what unfolded behind me as I fluttered over the rail and touched my feet to the grate, the tap of my boots sounding rather ominous in my own ears. I was Justice. The Avenging Angel. I was Death. For this pony, at least… She could feel the fury emitting from my body, I was sure of it, for she took a hesitant step away from me.

“Not so confident without your little pawns, are you?” I asked, removing the gauze from my face to reveal the crimson eye beneath it.
Through her mask, I could see her eyes widen at this.
Assuming a crude stance, I addressed her one last time.

“You’d better fight back if you wanna last for long… You may be a mare, but I’m not gonna hold back on account of that…”

Why should I…? I’ve already killed two…
With that I made my move, rushing forward to meet her head-on, thrusting a straight left toward her throat. The strike was evaded with a quick side-step and countered by a similar strike. Blocking this with my wrist was easy enough, but I hadn’t been expecting the sudden knee to the gut that knocked to wind clean out of my lungs. She backed off for only a moment to allow me to recover. The look in her eyes spoke of a smile beneath that swath of Kevlar on her face. The whore was toying with me!
Once my posture was straight again, I threw a wing forward, obscuring her eyes for a blind-side maneuver that brought my fist straight into the right side of her ribs. The muffled whoosh told me she was stunned. Perfect! Pivoting on my heel as fast as I could manage, I introduced her jugular to my elbow in a downward strike. Her already off-kilter frame tumbled onto the grate at my feet. The pathetic sounds of hacking that slithered forth from her throat brought me a small measure of satisfaction… Hopefully I’d communicated just how serious I was... Still, I wasn’t done yet… I cocked my leg back and let it fly forward with all my might. Her shuddering frame left the floor for a moment as she choked out an unintelligible phrase. A sizable stream of crimson trickled from under her mask, streaming down her neck… Beautiful…

“Well… Looks like you would have been a good match for me, Bunny Boy…” she said upon righting herself.

Wait… Did she just call me…?
What I saw next made my blood freeze in my veins… As the Kevlar face before me peeled back, I had surely entered a nightmare… A beautiful face of Cyan… Rosy eyes… But something was wrong… I knew that face…

“No…”

Strike

What the Hell just happened!?

I found myself on my side. My vision was swimming and my head was pounding.
Falling…
I was falling…
After a brief shake of my head, I realized I was staring up at a shrinking factory. I was falling to my death! I had to do something!
My wings snapped out at that moment, slowing my fall enough to allow me to right myself and take off. A sudden wave of pain-induced nausea struck me then, bringing forth a small register of vomit. Not much, but it was enough to force me to focus on my head. I was bleeding rather profusely from my brow and nose. With this much blood, I was mildly impressed with myself that I hadn’t completely blacked out. Racing upward, I found my way back to a hole in the factory wall, staring into the face of a bloodied, furious mare. Subconsciously, I glanced at the hole itself. She’d put me through four feet of solid concrete…

“That was uncalled for.” I said, feigning courage.
In truth, I was beyond terrified. In my life-in all the life-or-death struggles I’d been through- even with the Professor, no single strike had ever done that kind of damage… Still, I’d come this far. I couldn’t stop now…

“You just gonna stand there or can we finish this?”
Dash only smirked. With a motion I couldn’t quite comprehend, she disappeared, a small cloud of dust standing in her stead. The next moment, I found myself reeling through the sky, my ribs singing the incomprehensible pain. No doubt, a few were cracked… Broken, more likely than not…

“Bad idea, Bunny Boy!”
Another strike to my back sent me arching, but before I could cry out, a hoof clenched my neck. I found myself staring into those hate-filled eyes again.

“I’ve been flying my whole life! I’m the best! Nopony is better than me!” she scolded.
Her memories were on her days in flight school… All the names… The bullying… She was furious at my arrogance…

Perfect…

“What’s the matter, Rainbow Crash?” I choked out.“Think you have something to prove? You don’t… You can’t… You’re just a useless drop-out! You shouldn’t be here! You should have been ground up with the rest of your failure classmates!”
Her pupils dilated in fury and her grip tightened on my neck.

“What did you just call me…?”
I forced a smirk.

“Can’t hear me, Filly-Fooler? I said you’re a failure!!”
At the rate she was squeezing, my windpipe was going to fail and moment. I needed to make her let go!

“My wings… Grk! My wings are…… Stronger…Than yours… It’s so obvious…”
I could feel my wind return to me as she screamed a few swears. In the moment that followed, I realized insulting her wings was a huge mistake. I felt my left snap at the joint. I screamed, but the pain that shot through me wasn’t enough to blind me. I made a mad grab at her right Primaries. The grab was sucessful. I was pulling her down with me.

Gotcha!
We were at five thousand feet… Falling at nine point eight meters per second… At this speed, I only had about eighteen seconds to act!
Yanking her down, I returned the broken wing she had given me. It was met with a cry and a sharp strike to my jaw. It was dislocated. Holding on to the collar of her shirt, I returned the strike. I had a plan, initially, but it seemed pointless… We were simply wailing on one another… Our faces were caked in blood, both swearing at one another, and hurling insults.
Six seconds...

“This is where it ends, Rainbow Crash!” I declared, making my decisive move.
I looped my ankle about hers and made a circle with it. This spun her around, exposing her back to me. She was thrashing when my forearm wrapped itself around her neck, but I held on with an iron grip. In an attempt to throw me off, she shifted her center of gravity forward, bringing her face downward toward the rapidly approaching Earth. The realization hit me at the one second mark, but I didn’t have time to process it before we met the roof of that home…

Monochrome Guilt

A small voice called to me.
Young.
Alive.
Gleeful.

“Hi there, Sebastian!”
My eyes snapped open with a mild startle.
The Everfree Forrest.

“You okay, Sebby?”
I looked around.
Trees of black leaves and grey bark.
A monochrome world.

“I’m fine. Who are you?”
She laughed.

“Aw c’mon, Seb! You can’t possibly have forgotten so quickly!
Forgotten…?

“What are you talking about?”

“You really don’t remember?”

“No! I don’t even know what’s going on!”
An amber light shined in the distance. With the world being so dark and gloomy, it was impossible to miss.
I walked toward it.
The next clearing had a structure in it.
One I knew.
One I dreaded.
Sugar Cube Corner was ablaze once again right before my eyes.

“Remember me now?”
A familiar figure rose from the orange tongues of light lapping up toward the sky.
She was small… Head set awkwardly…

“You…”
With a loud, morose, angry cry the world suddenly burst into color as a twisted cyan face flashed before my eyes.
I froze.

“You killed her!” the flaming figure exclaimed. “Murderer!”
Murderer…
Murder...
I was a killer…

Old Friends, New Scars

“Mister Cooper?”
My eye drifted open to a familiar face. Snowy white… Pink mane… Blue, worry-filled eyes…

“Nurse Redheart?”
The mare smiled, seemingly relieved at something.

“Welcome back. You’ve been gone a long time,” she explained, scribbling something on her clipboard.
My first question was the most obvious… And the most burning…

“Where’s Rainbow Dash?”
The nurse stopped and looked to me, sorrow filling her already-gloomy eyes.

“She’s dead.Broken neck, among other injuries.”
I sighed at this and attempted to sit up, only to groan and lie back down.

“My ribs…”
With my eye closed, I only heard the mare chuckle.

“Five cracked. Five broken. You also separated vertebrae in three places on your spine, as well as shattered each of your limbs at your wrists, elbows, ankles, and knees. We had to set your jaw back in place too. You’re lucky to be alive.” She sounded solemn all of a sudden. “Why do you always put yourself in danger like that?”
I opened my eye again to look at her.

“It’s a matter of principle. I can take the punishment.”
Nurse Red Heart seemed to realize something at this.

“How far did you fall?”

“Five thousand feet.”
After the look of shock was shaken from her face, she nodded.

“Looks like you’re tougher than we thought…”
I nodded.

“So, how long do I have to lie here, eating out of a tube?”
This seemed to amuse her, bringing a smile to her face.

“About two months, with the way your body heals. But you won’t be eating out of a tube. I’ll be the one taking care of you. That means feeding you too…”
A soft blush, probably out of embarrassment lit up her features as she explained.

“Well then, looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.” I stated with a smile.
It struck me then that my wings had gone. Twilight said they’d last three days…

“Nurse,” I said, causing her to look up once again. “You said I’d been gone a long time… How long have I been out?”
Her retort caught me off guard.

“Five days.”
My jaw fell slack. Five days… I’d been in a coma for almost a week!

“You’re joking, right!?”
She shook her head, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

“And,” she began before I could speak again. “You can stop calling me ‘Nurse’. Call me Martha.”
A welcome shift of subject to dull my shock…

Martha Redheart…

“I take it you weren’t born here in Equestria?”

“Nope. I was actually born in south Portland.” She smiled once again.

“Portland, Maine?”
A nod.
I smiled myself. She was standing over me with a look I hadn’t seen in a long time… Content… Her eyes held a look of a woman who had just seen a friend after a long time… “Friend”… Hm…

“Martha?”

“Yes, Mister Cooper?”

“We’re… Friends… Right?”
She couldn’t hold back a small chuckle.

“I’d say so. After all, we see too much of each other not to be. Besides, you’ll be living here for a while.”

“I see… Then… Call me Sebastian.”
She nodded once again, her smile widening.

Passing the Time

The months passed with relative peace. I got few visitors and the ones that came usually consisted of Twilight and the remaining gang. However,it wasn’t uncommon for me to cry myself to sleep… I was scared of sleep… Scared of my own subconscious… But at least I was on a regular sleep schedule. This fact brought me a level of ease of mind after the horrific images that danced behind my eye-lids played out.Cards and get-well greetings were sent in from several of the local residents. The small words of encouragement brought me a few good smiles, a few joyful tears, and one mild case of indigestion. That was the card I got rid of almost immediately… Some mares and their body damage fantasies…

Homecoming

Home at last!
A week before being discharged, FlutterShy had informed me about the “small cleaning job” she had done. “Small” was modest… My home, which had been a complete wreck before leaving for Cloudesdale almost three months ago, was pristine! The three of my dear friends that remained were waiting. A small banner hung in the doorway to the kitchen. Party decorations had been set up too… But nopony looked too enthusiastic… I couldn’t blame them…

“I’m sorry.”
That was all I could say. The three faces looked to me, dragged down by sadness but they each nodded…
Rainbow Dash was dead… And it was my fault…

“Sebastian?” Applejack called forlornly.

“Yes?”

“Hah’d she look?”
That was a question I hadn’t been expecting…

“I didn’t see her… I blacked out…”

“No, ah mean… Before…”
The young farmer was trying desperately to stay strong… It was obvious that she was coming apart at the seams…

“Applejack… The mare I fought… You didn’t know her… It was somepony else… That wasn’t Rainbow…”
She let out a small, choked cough and buried her face in her hooves. She wasn’t about to let any of us see her be so weak…

“A.J., you don’t have to try and grit your teeth through this. You can cry. You deserve it...”
She said something unintelligible, but continued to hide herself…

“You’ve been strong enough…” Shy said.
The tiny voice seemed to pierce right through the blonde mare’s frail armor. Applejack began bawling.
I stood there, in the threshold of my kitchen and watched the poor woman unravel. What else could I do? I had taken so much from her… First her dearest little sister… Now her best friend…

Monster… a young voice echoed in my head.
I winced a bit. It hurt…

Look at what you’ve done! To your own friends, too! You’re so despicable…
Another wince… I was getting a bit light-headed…

You just gonna stand there!? MOVE IT!
My frame jerked forward, forcing me to enter the melancholy scene. The voice was right, though… I had to do something. The only thing that came to mind, however was to hold her… So I did. She took to it better than I thought she would. Instead of punching me in the face as soon as I was in range, she instead threw herself into my chest, once more obscuring her weeping visage. I stood there for a solid seven minutes, unmoving, only speaking to tell her she’d be alright and to emphasize how sorry I was. Twilight and Shy joined us in our embrace. Each of us stood in the warmth of the other… But it was so cold… There were only four of us now… Three had fallen at my hand…

“I’m so sorry…”
The three mares about me were all bawling now… But I had no place in grief… I was the one that did this…

“This is my fault…”
Applejack shoved me back for a second, then let a hoof cock backward. The slap was hard enough to make me snap my head to the side, a look of total shock plastered on my face.

“Don’t say that!” she demanded.
When I found my orientation again, her face was set in a manner I had never seen before. I knew the look of determination in her eyes, but I had never seen her so… Alight…

“This ain’t yer fault! No-one here is tah blame! Got it!?”
I only nodded. That seemed to calm her. She let her hoof drop to her side.

“S-Sorry…”
Twilight interjected.

“Maybe we should all just go home and get some sleep. Seb? You can manage, right?”
I nodded again.

“I’ll be alright.”
It was a lie… I was destroying the people I had come to love… Again…
Still, I had to push onward. My life here in Equestria was far from over… Besides… I had to drop by Lyra and Bon-Bon’s place to discuss the bill for the damage done to their home…

Unexpected Guest

Two hours after my friends had left, I was just getting out of the shower. It felt really nice to be back at home. I had fixed myself dinner, watched a few minutes of a nature documentary, then decided to get the feeling of two-month-old grime out of my coat. The doorbell rang. With a quick glance at my clock, revealing the time at just passed eleven, I couldn’t place who would be up at this hour. Nopony came to mind. Maybe I was just hearing things again… Still, I decided to see what it was. When I opened the door, I realized that staying clad in only my leather pants and a towel resting on my head was a terrible idea. Aurora seemed mortified. She stared at me for a few moments, then tore her gaze away.

“Um… Hello again.” She said, focusing very intently on the shrubbery to her left.
I felt my face heat up in absolute embarrassment, but I couldn’t look away. It would have been rude…

“Miss Aurora,” I greeted a bit forcedly. “What brings you here at this hour?”
The red-faced pegasus shoved a rather large rectangle of poster board at me.

“I brought this for you. I didn’t want to leave it at the hospital; figured they’d lose it. It’s from everypony at the factory. We all sorta felt inclined to write something.” She explained quickly, keeping her eyes away from partly exposed frame.

“Uh… Th-Thanks…”

Why was I stammering…?
I carefully reached out and took the board, making to use it as a shield.

“Guess I came at a bad time?” she asked, finally content with my cover and looking me in the eye.

“No, not really. I just got out of the shower. Kinda hard climbing in and out on just one leg, though.”
We watched one another for a moment, her eyes seeming to linger on the board over my chest. The silence was thick and uncomfortable. The fur on the back of my neck began to stand up and a wave of heat washed over me. I was blushing…

Relax. She’s just a mare…

“That burn…” she breathed.
I cocked my head at this, allowing my left ear to dangle before my face. I really didn’t want to acknowledge it… But she persisted, drawing a valentine on her own chest to indicate the lines of my own scar.

“How did you get it?”
I let out a deep sigh and stepped to the side, gesturing for her to come in with the board.

“The kitchen’s right back there. Let me go put a shirt on and I’ll explain…”
She nodded and slipped in slowly, as though it was a trap, but after satisfying herself with a few glances around, the tension in her shoulders left her.

“Nice place.” She commented.

“Thanks. It was cleaned recently.”
After a thirty-minute explanation of all the events over the last eleven months, Aurora stared at me in a mixture of shock, fear, and sadness.

“You really survived through all of that?”
I nodded solemnly.

“How?” she asked, making to place her hoof over my hand on the tabletop.
I smirked and threw a glance at our hands.

“That’s a whole different story. One best not told.”
The young mare only leaned forward in her chair.

“Alright, then. Answer me this: what did you do before you retired?”
The fact that we were back in territory that wouldn’t spark any kind of question as to what I did before the subject at hand put me at ease. It was strange, opening up as much as I did…

“I was a butler in the Ravensdale household.”

“A butler?” she asked, surprised.
I nodded.

“Yeah. I know, it’s a bit strange for a guy of my age to have such vast wealth and so little working experience. Suffice it to say that my time as a butler gave me a bit more experience with “undesirables” than would be expected. I was well-prepared to face this last year.”
Aurora’s eyes were locked on mine, growing more and more curious with each passing second. I couldn’t quite place what it was about the way she looked at me, but I felt inclined to be closer to her and found myself edging closer as I spoke.

“Lady Alice was a good girl. But being the daughter of such a man as Herald H. Ravensdale, she was the target of many assassination attempts and tries at capture. As her butler, it was my job to keep her safe. I had to be ready for anything. A strike at any moment,” I couldn’t stop myself… My fingers had interlaced with hers and my frame was drawing ever closer to hers… “I was… Capable… But I was still just a child… These men… The enemies that attempted on her… They were cut down… By my hand,” She had begun to tilt her head… We were so close… “I became… A monster…”
A monster…
With that thought, my mind snapped back to its usual sharpness, and I broke right, merely brushing cheeks with the kindly pegasus.

“I’m sorry…” My words were hushed as the memories as of late flooded my mind. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her… Still, I felt a certain softness caress my cheek for a moment.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You aren’t a monster. You just do what you have to…”
My face went alight once more, my hand involuntarily drifting up to touch the cheek that had been kissed. My eye snapped back to her face to see her features aglow with a similar red. She had just kissed me… Well, my cheek, but still… More impressively, after hearing what could do… After all that… The gruesome details… Everything… She didn’t think me scary at all… Her voice broke my stupor after a silent thirty seconds.

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah. I have to talk to Ms. Lyra and Ms. Bon-Bon about the bill to repair their roof and living room. Lotta damage, lemme tell ya.” I replied slowly.

“Well, I’ve actually been sent here by Princess Celestia. She has requested your presence at Canterlot castle tomorrow afternoon.”
I tilted my head at this.

“What does she want with me?”
Aurora only shrugged, a speculative visage settling on her face. The young mare remained silent for several minutes, then shrugged once more.

“I don’t know. Perhaps just to see if you’re alright?”
A strikingly loud thunderclap sounded then, causing us both to startle. Well, I startled. I thought Aruora was about to fly through the roof, she jumped so high…

“You okay?” I asked.
Aurora was practically hyperventilating, but she managed a nod.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m still a bit shaken from the whole thing… They… Took him…”

Him…?
It was my turn to edge forward…

“Who’s “Him”?”
The features of my attractive houseguest began to contort into a grimace at the memories that played through her mind. Once the look passed, she assumed a frown. My heart strained at the sight… Aurora was a very attractive mare… Shining yellow coat… Long, luscious, deep green hair… Soft eyes… A frown like that didn’t belong on such a face… As quick as I could blink, my palm came to rest on her right cheek. She seemed surprised at first, but nuzzled in a bit after a moment, her eyes misting over. After a couple deep breaths, she began to explain.

“His name was Orion… Orion Solstice… During my exam, I fell… That got me an instant fail… As I was trying to get off the field, he was called at one point or another and… He… He…”
Her tears began to flow, and she couldn’t go on. It only took a few seconds of chewing on her lower lip before she simply broke down. As she bowed forward, bawling openly just as Applejack had, I assumed my position. With my arms wrapped about her, she buried her face into my shirt. I continued for her.

“He went down to get you, failing himself… He sacrificed a seemly good, conventional Cloudesdale lifestyle, just to help you… Once you were sent to the factory… He protected you… Kept you close… Then… Just like the pink mare that day… He was picked…”
As the words rolled off my tongue, she pressed her face further into my chest, her wails becoming louder. She still nodded however…

“It hurt… Just like everything else in that place… They took your rock away from you… They robbed you of the only light left in your life at that point.”
Another nod.

“That left you alone… Fending for yourself… With a wounded wing… Then I showed up… Just a bit too late to save the one that kept you sane… The one you…” I hesitated, then forced it out. “The one you loved…”
Yet another nod…
They took away everything this girl had… Even worse, they didn’t care… how long had they been doing this…? And worse yet… How the Hell did they get away with it…?

“Celestia’sgonna have a lot of explaining to do.” I mumbled into Aurora’s hair

Breakfast At Sebastian's

My eye drifted open to the sight of my television reeling out the opening sequence to some early-morning cartoon. It was one I knew well. A classic Disney work called “Darkwing Duck”. A strange sight in this day and age… Darkwing Duck hadn’t been aired on public television in almost three-hundred years…

Daring duck of mystery, Champion of the Right. Swoops out of the shadows, Darkwing owns the night. Somewhere some villain schemes, but his number’s up!
I was warmer than usual… A glance to my right revealed why. Aurora had fallen asleep on my shoulder… My heart skipped a beat in a split-second of panic, but thankfully my body had seized up, so I couldn’t move to disturb her. I didn’t remember asking her to stay the night… Or sitting down to watch TV… Still… She was still sound in her dream world… Reaching over to my left, I took a throw-pillow from the chair next to us and fitted it between her head and my shoulder, then eased her head onto the arm of the couch as I slipped out from under where she would come to rest.

I should get to work on breakfast… I thought as I quietly made my way into the kitchen.
Aurora groaned a bit after I got the eggs started, but she didn’t say anything. Probably just now coming to… I merely smiled to myself and continued pushing the small pool of canary yellow egg about in the pan until it split into nice, fluffy bits… Another five minutes passed before I set to work on the bacon…

“Huh?” I heard Aurora groan once again from the living room.
A few shuffles sounded as well as an ‘oof’ when she fell off the couch.

“You alright, Lady Aurora?” I called, flipping the sizzling cuts of meat in the pan.
For a moment, I froze, then shook my head. I had called her “Lady”… I supposed I really missed being a butler… In truth, it felt good –no, wonderful- to be cooking for someone other than myself again.

“Y-Yeah…Smells good.” She assured me, entering the kitchen.
Her eyes were still glazed over, half asleep, mane disheveled and sticking up in several places. She yawned a big yawn and raised a hoof above her head. After shaking her head and smoothing her mane, she wiped the residual tears. My heart melted at the sight… I missed taking care of someone…

“Good morning.” I greeted with a cheerful nod.

“Mornin’.” She returned, eyeing the pans on the oven and countertops, as well as plates and cups set out next to them. She seemed confused.

“What?” I asked. “Never had someone make you breakfast before?”
She shook her head. I brought my palms to my cheeks and gasped in mock horror.

“You mean… Never? Never ever? Never ever, ever, EVER never?”
Aurora chuckled and shook her head, then tilted her head and pointed to my casted leg.

“You’re not using your crutch. Doesn’t that hurt?”
I looked down and shrugged. In truth, I hadn’t even noticed that I didn’t grab the thing. My leg felt just as strong as usual… No pain, nothing.

“Nope. Guess I’m gonna take it off today.”

“Shouldn’t a doctor do that?”
I shrugged in response and took up a cut of bacon on my spatula, setting it on a novelty Scooby-Doo plate. Aurora chuckled at the sight of the familiar brown pup and his oddly shaped snout, oblong smile and beady eyes.

“A lover of cartoons, are we?” she asked.
I nodded.

“Oh yeah. It’s sort of a hobby.”
Aurora’s smile was a knowing one, with a hint of mischief.

“What’s that playing in there?” she asked, gesturing to the television.

“That’s Darkwing Duck. It’s odd, though… The show was discontinued and taken off the air in 2001… Right around the time Codename: Kids Next Door took off.”

“A hobby, huh? More like an obsession.”
I chuckled at this. She could read me like a book. A skill few people have…

“Yeah, ya got me there. It’s kind of strange to hear an eighteen-year-old state that he’s obsessed with classic animation aimed at an audience much younger than him, though.”
The mare only laughed, throwing her head back in her amusement.

“No, it’s not! It’s actually kinda cool. Most guys just rant on and on about how cartoons are so immature when they could stand to learn a thing or two from them!”

“I agree! Finally, someone else who gets it!!”
After a few more minutes of discussion, we settled back into the couch to enjoy a small marathon of old favorites and a good breakfast. After Darkwing Duck came a few classic Looney Toons, then Tom and Jerry, GI Joe, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Swat Cats, Gargoyles, and a movie known as The Last Unicorn. One particular series on a small list that I had compiled during the movie caught Aurora’s attention.

“The Sword in the Stone?” she asked.

“Ah, good eye. It’s the tale of King Arthur starting from when was simply a squire from some schmuck knight. Then he meets a peculiar wizard named-”

“Merlin?” Aurora interjected.

“Yeah. You know the story?”
She smiled.

“Who doesn’t? You have it here?”
A quick search of my closet produced the small DVC disk. Aurora was bouncing in her seat like an excited six-year-old about to receive a birthday present.

“Put it in! Put it in!” she ordered.
A knock sounded at the door then. I stopped for a moment, throwing a glance at it, then hit the “close” button on the player. Two pairs of eyes greeted me. One pair, a soft canary yellow, the other a gentle shade of sea blue.Lyra and Bon-Bon.

“Good morning, Mister Cooper.” Lyra greeted.
The pair eyed my disheveled visage for several moments before giggling.

“Just woke up?” Bon-Bon asked.
I returned the laugh and nodded.

“Yeah. I take it the two of you are here about the roof?”
They both shook their heads in unison, then Lyra offered a brief explanation that they were insured.

“Then what brings you to my humble abode so early?” I asked, head tilted to the left.
Bon-Bon beamed.

“We just wanted to see that you were okay! We heard Applejack say you were home last night at The Trough.”
The mention of Ponyville’s only bar struck me. Applejack had gone to The Trough…? Why? As far as I knew, A.J. wasn’t a drinker… Then again, she’s lost both her sister and best friend inside of a year… Loss like that can dent even the toughest of spirits…

“I see. Well, we still have some eggs, would you two care for breakfast?”
Two faces lit up at this, and Bon-Bon nodded.
The next hour was filled with introductions, idle chat, and a few amusing stories. It’d been too long since I had company… The sheer contentment that settled over me only reinforced the feeling I had gotten earlier… I missed taking care of people.

Maybe retiring was a mistake…

Appointment with the Princess

“Sebastian?” Aurora called, waving a hoof in front of my face.

“Yeah?”

“Oh, there you are. Thought we lost you for a second. Ready to go?”
I nodded, unsure of what she was talking about for a moment, then remembered why she had come last night. We were on the way to Canterlot. To meet with the princess… Questions began flooding my mind as quickly as I’d made the realization. A two hour cab-ride later, we arrived at the door of Canterlot Castle. The castle itself was a very striking structure. Tall, commanding, and precariously perched, it was a structure not easily missed. The white marble walls, golden spires and interesting architecture echoed Russia’s Kremlin Palace. I stood there, awe-struck by the beauty of it until a gruff voice broke me from my stupor.

“Business?” the guard, a buff, white-coated pegasus seemingly dressed for battle, demanded.
Aurora answered him.

“We’re here for an appointment with Princess Celestia. I’m Aurora Dawn and this is Sebastian Cooper. We’re the ones called here about the Rainbow Factory scandal.”
His eyes were set in a very self-important manner as he inspected each of our faces. It was the look of a man who took his job far too seriously. After several seconds, he huffed and stepped to the side, allowing us passage into a massive hallway. The inside of the castle was just as impressive, if not more so, than the outside. Pristine white floors, as pure as virgin snow, were covered by an endless lavender carpet. The walls were lined with a countless number of paintings depicting scenes of victory, war, woe, joy, famine, and prosperity. Even the windows were stained with various scenes of a similar nature. One particular window caught my attention. It told a story I knew well… Twilight, Rainbow, A.J., Shy, Rarity, and Pinkie all stood in a “V” formation, firing a strange beam at a creature made of many different parts of various creatures.

The Return of Harmony, I thought. The day my friends sealed an ancient evil… Discord… Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony…

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a voice asked from my right.
I glanced at it to see a face I could never possibly do justice to in a mere description. The set of her eyes was a pensive one. Those deep-set, rose-colored eyes were off in another realm… A realm of enlightenment… I dared not to adjust my bandage and look into her mind. Those striking orbs lingered on me for several moments before she spoke again.

“It’s been quite some time since we last met, Mister Cooper.”
It took me a few moments before I could collect enough of my thoughts to speak again. Merely gazing upon the Sun Princess had a sort of thought-scattering effect on me…

“Indeed, it has, Princess.” I replied, having to consciously force myself to look away.
The silence that fell between us was a thick one. One that spoke quite loudly. I had questions, she knew I did, but she was waiting for me to ask them… It took me a few moments to gather the right words.

“Princess, if I may, why am I here? What is distressing you so much that you had to call on me; a no-name subject?”
The age-old monarch took a long time in answering.

“I wished for you to observe justice. You were in that factory –you know what happened there. You did what you had to, but I feel it would be good to have you here for the execution.”
I looked at her again, an incredulous quirk curving my brow.

“Who’s getting executed?”
Princess Celestia fixed her gaze on me. There was something… Different… I couldn’t tell exactly what had changed, but even in the few months that had passed since we spoke at Sugar Cube Corner, Princess Celestia’s eyes had shifted. I recalled that the first time we met, those orbs held a distinctively knowing glow. Now, as she looked over my frame, that glow had been replaced. She was speculative and seemed to be examining every detail about me… Memorizing me…

“He is called Doctor Atmosphere. We apprehended him shortly after the escape two months back. He… Ran that factory… He knows he’ll die, so he won’t talk. We’ve tried everything…”
My mind instantly snapped into motion. I could get the information she wanted, whatever it was, but I needed to make it seem like I was confused…

“Well, uh, what do you guys want to know?”

“That factory has been kidnapping class failures from Cloudesdale for four years, and yet we couldn’t even find it. We want to know how he does it…”
That answered the question of how all of this was going on under her nose…

It’s not invisible… Hm…

“Has he breathed a word?”
Celestia shook her head.

“I’m surmising that you’ve already exhausted all of your best interrogators?”
A nod.

“Enhanced techniques?”
A head-shake.

“We don’t do that here in Equestria.”

“In an official capacity, you mean.”
This seemed to strike the Princess. Her face told me she hadn’t thought of an off-the-record encounter…

“I can get you what you want, but I’ll need a few favors…”

Enhanced Techniques

The interrogation room was set up in a style I was familiar with. A single table, one chair, a closed-circuit camera overlooking the dull scene from the upper right-hand corner, just above the door. I had requested it be turned off, and the subject taken to the bathroom in order to give me time enough to get into position. When he came back, the red-coated schmuck seemed to smile to himself. The lights cut out, leaving only the lamp above him to light the table in front of him. He didn’t seem nervous as he looked about, but the closing of the heavy door merited a turn of his head.

“What the Hell is this?” he demanded.
I remained silent, knowing very well that he couldn’t see me from within his little orb of fluorescent illumination. I allowed my feet to come down on the tile floor heavily, a classic horror film technique to give an observer the sensation of a threatening mystery.

“What? Too scared to show a lowly engineer your face?”
I did not respond and simply walked a full circle, just outside of his field of vision.

“Say something!”

Perfect. He’s already nervous. Now to really scare him.
I tossed a knife (generously provided by the princess) onto the table. It impaled itself just between his hooves.

“You see that?” I asked. “That’s a twelve inch RavensdaleBuckrake. One of the most effective skinning knives on the market today. Are you familiar with it?”
The stallion examined the piece of cutlery very intently, plucking it out of its little crevice.

“Can’t say I am.”

“Oh, but you are. You own one, Doctor Atmosphere. You keep it under your pillow at home.”
The red-coated sociopath looked up, a mild look of shock fleeting across his features.

“So you searched my house, big deal. What, you think you’re gonna scare me just because you know a thing or two?”

“Trust me, Doc. You should be afraid of me.”
I placed a hand on his shoulder then and yanked him about, planting a solid left hook to his muzzle. He let out a surprised yelp, then tumbled to the floor where he gripped his snout and began cursing rather loudly. I wasn’t about to let up… Taking a rough hold of the nape of his neck, I jerked him back up to his knees so his eyes were just level with the table’s edge which I promptly introduced him to at full force. His muzzle split across the bridge and began registering that wonderful crimson forth. After a moment’s respite, he climbed back into his chair and grimaced for a long while.

“Just what the Hell are you tryin’a do, ya freak!?” he demanded lispingly.
With a quick arcing of my arm, I took hold of a fistful of his mane and yanked it down so as to allow the blood in his nose to trickle down the back of his throat.

“I have a few questions for you, Doc, and trust me… I’ll know if you’re lying. So give me some answers, and I’ll make it all stop…”

“So you’re another interrogator, huh?” he spit in the direction of my voice, but came just short.

“Lights!” I called, throwing a glance at the one-way mirror.
Said lights flickered back to life after a few moments, and I finally allowed him to look upon me. He seemed a bit underwhelmed. I supposed it made sense… Who would really feel threatened by a five-foot three, hundred-twenty pound rabbit with a bandage on his face? Atmosphere laughed aloud and wiped his nose, flicking some of the blood onto my shirt. Bad idea…
With another swipe across his face, another burst of red painted the wall on the other side of the room. I was angry…

“Now,” I said from behind gritted teeth. “Here’s how this is gonna work. I’m gonna ask you a question. If you don’t answer or lie to me,” I paused to reach into my pocket and flash the wire-strippers therein at him, clipping the air to demonstrate. “I’ll take a finger… In the unlikely event that you run out of fingers, I’ll start taking toes… Once your toes are gone, you’ll be emasculated… Are we clear?”
As Atmosphere’s face turned back to me, it was clear he wasn’t taking me seriously. He held the hilt of the Buckrake tightly in his hand… He wanted to use it… And was about to…

“Fuck you.” He said calmly.
His swipe was rather sloppy… Quite disappointing. It came in way too wide and to my right; my non-blind spot. A complete rookie without even a day of training in his life would have been able to stop it… I merely tilted my head back, allowing the blade to glide passed my muzzle, and took hold of his wrist, twisting it far beyond a safe point of articulation, forcing him to let it go. My left hand met the hilt before it could slip out of reach, and I spun the poor stallion about. The small dance resulted in his palm being turned upright upon the tabletop, inviting the edge of the skinning knife right into the center. In a flurry of curses, he began to try and lift his impaled appendage. That was an even worse idea than taking the initial swipe… The blade held firm in it’s place, slicing the idiots palm open, leaving a gash a solid two inches long. Once he stopped moving, wising up to his poor decision, I removed the tool with a good tug.
As I cleaned the bloodied blade on his lab coat, I address him again.

“You ready to take me seriously now?”

“You can’t do this!” He half-screamed.

“Oh, can’t I? I don’t even exist. They don’t know I’m here…” I lied.

“Now, you know the questions I’m going to ask, don’t you?”
The engineer fixed those fiery eyes on me as I adjusted my bandage so as to slip into his mind.

“I want to know how you’ve managed to get away with all this murder for the last four years… How that little factory of yours is able to just disappear…”

“It’s not able to disappear…”
I didn’t even have to read him to see how rehearsed that was… The lie prompted me to take a hold of his good wrist.

“You wanna try that one again?”

“You don’t have the balls…”

Stubborn little cuss, isn’t he…?

“Look at your other hand, prick.”
Atmosphere gave me a twisted smile.

“Please… You’re just trying to scare me… It’s not gonna work, kid…”
The crunch that the bone and tendons gave off, under any other circumstances, would have made me sick, but the expression of confusion and horror that plastered itself upon the face of the stallion before me was just too damn funny. I chuckled under my breath as I dangled the little digit before his eyes.
The shock probably dulled his senses for several seconds before he screamed. Long… And loud… It felt pretty good to watch someone like him in so much pain… He was tasting what he had been dealing out for years…

“How’d you do it?” I asked again, retaking his wrist to threaten another digit.

“It’s mobile!” He sobbed out like a small child.

“How is that achieved?”
My fingers were closing around the stripper’s handles slowly but surely… He answered quickly, knowing what would happen if he didn’t.

“There are propulsion bays beneath the superstructure! The operate on antigravity, so they’re dead silent!!”

“Keep going…”

“They can be aimed, so we can propel the structure wherever we need it to go!”
The poor fool was practically defecating himself out of fear of losing another finger… His mind was alight with the question of whether or not I’d actually do it… I did, tossing yet another digit off to the side. Upon his screams subsiding, I stood.

“Now was that so hard?” I asked, a tone of a father scolding a small child entering my voice.

“You’re fucking crazy!”
That struck a chord in me… A REALLY bad chord to strike. I spun around and clobbered the side of his face, sending him skidding across the room, just beneath the mirror.

“I’m not crazy… I’m pissed beyond all reason… You’re the crazy one here…”
My job was done here… But I wasn’t done with him… After a couple of kicks to his back, I jerked him back up and planted a few well-placed knees to his solar plexus, and a couple kidney punches, followed up by a dynamite right hook that probably dislocated his jaw. My forehead then met his snout with a hollow thud. The fool’s ears were ringing, ribs cracked, spine throbbing, and face singing. His hands were in even worse shape. Two fingers missing and a huge cut of palm missing… I was finally done… Well, almost. For good measure, I took hold of his collar jerked him toward me, favoring the right side. He spun about, and saw his own reflection. When I pushed, he didn’t even have time to scream before his face shattered the acrylic glass.

“He’s all yours.” I calmly informed a very shocked Princess Celestia who stood on the other side, mouth agape.

A Fresh Face

A new wave of fury washed over me at the strange face before me. The adrenaline ignited my muscles and sent me bolting forward. I took hold of the mare’s shirt once more and lashed out. The strike connected with her nose, sending a fresh eruption of crimson over the wall.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY RAINBOW DASH!!!?” I demanded the being wearing that Cyan face.
The mare only spit at me.
Another strike connected with her cheek.

“You just don’t get it, do you!?” she asked, a cruel smile plastering itself on her bloodied face.

“Where is she…? Where’s Rainbow Dash!?”

“I am Rainbow Dash!”

“LIAR!!!”
But she looked just like her… Even her voice was a perfect match…. But her eyes were hollow. Void of any sanity, reason, love, compassion… Nothing but pure, black hatred…. This wasn’t Dash… I couldn’t be… My eye was telling me otherwise, though… All her memories matched the real Dash… Even the frustration at that theatre three weeks ago… I had to believe her….

“My God…”
I was officially in shock. My body stopped moving once again as I stared into the eyes of the mare I had traveled all this way to see… I’d ruined her. Blood caked her face and neck. Blood I had put there… I had harmed my friend…

“Rainbow…” I choked down my tears and took a step forward. “I’m so sorry…”
The world around me faded to black, leaving only the cyan beauty I had destroyed. My friend… Ruined by my hand…
Rainbow took a step forward and let out a cry.

Visitation

Two days passed before I saw that schmuck’s face again. For one reason or another, Atmosphere’s execution had been made a public affair to be carried out in Ponyville Cemetery. There was a sizable gathering to watch. The gallows were erected earlier that morning… I was there to see it… However, the execution was not what brought me to the dreary place. Sure, I hated Atmosphere and wanted nothing less to befall him than death, but my mind had turned to those that had already fallen. I stood before Pinkamena’s headstone, admiring the large number of flowers that had been laid there. Roses, orchids, tulips, daisies, and even a few sunflowers were set up, decorating the stone. The vibrant colors brought a very out-of-place feeling of comfort in a place like this… I stayed silent for several minutes, allowing my mind to wander back to that day in Sugar Cube Corner. The residual fear that lingered heavily in my mind began painting my face with darkness. A passer-by stopped and asked me if I was alright. I merely nodded, never breaking my gaze with the grey stone.

“You were a good friend, Pinkie… I’m sorry about what happened… But you left me no choice.”
To the right of Pinkie’s stone was Rarity.

“You… You were…”
Words failed me for the first time in many years. The incident with Rarity should have never occurred… I began racking my brain for answers, but nothing came. Why did Rarity go mad? She had no reason to… Then again, neither did Pinkamena…
At last, Dash came. The dirt was heavily tracked and just like Pinkamena’s, done up with several rolls and bushels of various flora.

“You…. I don’t even know what to say to you… You were my friend. Just like the other two… But you were special to me… Given enough time, I’m sure I could have fallen for you. I would say I’m sorry, but you… Left me no choice… Just like them…”
I could feel myself choking up. It hurt… I was staring three of my best friends in the face, but they couldn’t see me… And it was all my fault…

“Requiem in pace…” I prayed aloud in Latin, dropping my lone wolfbane into the floral mix.
It struck me how thick my words came out. In my own ears it sounded as though I was choking on molasses. A pathetic sound.Yet… I couldn’t stop myself… I missed them… Their smiles… Their laughter… Their companionship… Gone…

If you’re going to cry, now’s the time to do it. Nopony’s looking… I thought.
As the dead man fell, honest tears escaped me for the first time…