When the memory ended nopony spoke for a little while. It was kind of amusing to see their reactions while the memory was playing. Rarity had seem smitten by Quicken, until he tore open the shadow beasts back. Fluttershy hid her eyes the whole time. Twilight had acted antsy, probably wanted to write some notes or something. Applejack acted tough the whole way through, but at the end, she looked on the verge of tears. Rainbow was hovering lazily in the air up until the fighting started going on, then she kept cheering us on in her head, swinging her hooves like she herself were fighting, up until the memories thoughts started talking about my friends dying. She then just looked away, and didn't look back until the end. Celestia's expression was unreadable throughout the whole thing. When it ended, her expression changed into one that suggested thoughtfulness. Finally Applejack broke the silence.

"Well I'm sorry. I just... I'm not sure how ta' react when somepony's lost a friend." Applejack said.

"I'm sure she means to say ' I'm sorry for your loss.' and so do I." Twilight says. "I'm not sure what I'd do if all my friends went... um..."

"It's okay. You don't have to say it." I say "I know what you mean. I'm sorry that you all had to see that. I.."

"I'm not." the Princess cuts me off. "Don't get me wrong. I know that was hard for you, but you need to learn that sometimes, friends can't stay forever, so enjoy you're friendship." She turns to me. "Twilight will study you to see how losing a friend affects a pony, and seeing that you have opened up your walls to these six, you will also be studied on how a broken heart can be healed by the power of friendship."

"But..." I start, before she interrupts me again.

"Seeing as how someone is trying to attack my kingdom covertly, my apprentice will need a bodyguard, in case if someone tries to harm her again. I am recruiting you for this task. Understood?"

"Yes, but I try not to live in one place."

"Well from now on, Ponyville is your new permanent home." she says, putting emphasis on the word permanent.

"But I always have business all over Equestria."

"Well, if you have to leave," she says, and an old leather bound book with stacked arrows pointing opposite each other. " If you must leave, than Twilight will give you this. You will write in it, and the text you write will end up in an exact copy that is already at Twilight's library. If you become more than 25 meters away from it, it will teleport you to it, as long as the spot is safe to be brought to, like if it was in the air,, then it wouldn't teleport you until it hit the ground. If Twilight has checked it out to you, and you don't write in it for more than two days, it will teleport you back to Twilight's library, along with the book. It is also indestructible, despite it's appearance, so don't even try."

Rainbow Dash let out a low whistle. "You really thought of everything Princess. This colts gonna be stuck with us forever, and we aren't gonna let him off easy."

"Thank you, and yes. He will stay with you until I deem your studies complete Twilight." the princess said.

" Well you and us are going to get well acquainted," says Twilight, "because I have a lot to learn about friendship."

"Great..." I say, not meaning it one bit.

Back on the train, the girls were all talking excitedly, and glancing at me every now and then. From what I could hear they were planning something for me. At one point Pinkie said she was pulling out all the stops. Wanting to not be part of the conversation, I turned my attention to the journal. I'm not one to question the power of magical items, but it still seemed like it was impossible how all those enchantments could be on one item. It must have a had a very magical history.

My thoughts turned to something Celestia said: " If you become more than 25 meters away from it, it will teleport you to it." If this was true, then I could use it as a way to get around. All I had to do was throw it hard enough, and it would teleport me to where it landed. I would have to test that when I got back. Jeez, all that emotion was exhausting. I never felt as sad as that. Ugh, can't keep my eyes open. I'll just rest until we get back. Yeah, that'll be nice...

"Poor fella," says Applejack "Been through a hay more than we know. I wish we could make it up to him."

"I know, right? I mean, the guy walks into town, and all we do is throw a party for him that ends up to be an attempted kidnapping. That's not really much of a party to be honest." states Rainbow Dash, ever so casual.

"Well, what can we do for him?" Rarity says." It's not as if we can know exactly what he wants. We hardly know him, the poor colt."

"I could ask my animal friends to see what he does, but that might take awhile." whispers Fluttershy.

"I'm not sure what we can do girls. I would plan something, but that takes us back to the problem of we don't know what he likes. It's a good thing he has to write in that journal, huh?" I say. What I turn my head to see if he was paying any attention to us, but all he was doing was examining the journal. "You're good at cheering ponies up Pinkie. What do you think?"

Pinkie, usually happy and bouncy, turned so serious that it kind of scared me. "It will take every ounce of my party planning expertise, but I have an idea. I'm pulling all the stops on this one. Twilight, I need you to make a list for food, drinks, and materials for a 100 pony party. Oh, and can you deal with him, because if he hears us, then he might try to stop us before he knows what we are doing."

"Okay?" I say, pulling out a pen and paper from my bag.

"Rarity, I want decorations for a large party. The theme is "Secrets." If he doesn't want to be known, then we can make that into a game."

"Oh!" Rarity exclaims with apparent excitement. "Like how masquerade party hosts would play a guessing game to see who knew the most people well enough to name them."

"I can set up some rules," I say, already halfway through food supplies for the party."Anything specific you want me to do to deal with Fighter?"

"I don't know, whatever gets him to not listen in is okay."

Alright then Pinkie. I think. I guess he could use some rest. Sleep spell? Sure, lets go with that. I start calling up the spell in my head while the others continued.

"Rarity, since you know how these kinda parties went, you can design those costumes and masks."

"For 100 ponies?! I'll need to get started right away! I may even have to ask for some friends to come in and to help!"

"Do what you can, at your own pace. This party can wait. It just has to be perfect. He did save us after all. I want to thank him properly in the only way I know."

"Alright, well, I think it might take a week if nothing goes wrong, and if nothing bothers my little fashion team."

"Good to know. Applejack, you ask for a copy of Twilight's list when she's done, then you gather the stuff on the list for the party."

"Alrighty then. I'll make sure I get everythin' on the list." Applejack says. Fluttershy looks excited for a second, but after a bit she looks a bit disappointed.

"What can I do Pinkie?" she asks in a whisper as always.

"Oh! Well..." Pinkie says, losing her look of concentration. " umm...... Ooh, I know! You and your animal friends can make more fun decorations!" This made Fluttershy get an excited grin. "We'll get started tomorrow, and everypony try to stay away from Fighter. If your all as excited as I am, then you all might tell him. I want you to Pinkie Promise me you will."

"I seriously doubt we would te-" I start.

"PINKIE PROMISE ME NOW!!!!!" she screams, and Fluttershy cowers under her seat.

"Alright, alright!" I say. "Altogether now..."

In unison we recite "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Yay!!! Now, I must be left alone to plan everything. I will ignore all outside input until I have a perfect plan for this kind of party, so I bid you all goodnight." And with this she slumped into her chair, eyes distant, emotion unreadable. The rest of the trip continued in silence. I had put Fighter to sleep, so we had to lug him back into his house, though Applejack did the most of the carrying.

I said goodbye, and headed home. The list needed work, but between two 4 hour train rides and a long traumatic tale of our new friend, I just couldn't focus. I walked through the door, and immediately tripped over something. I look back and see a bowl lying on the floor. I'll guess I'll have to clean that in the morning. I head into bed and turn off the light. I am really tired because I thought I saw a snake thing fly past the window. Oh well, I'm probably just tired. It's not... like... *yawn* there's... anyone there... to tired... sleeping is happening noww...

Author's Note

So yea, that is a an ending of that. New character In the next chapter!